City Council - Regular Meeting

So, how do we got to go to her office? Um, take the elevator. They're both open. Yeah,

Joe and Joe's future. Yeah.

Okay. They're at and they're connected with the Johnson County and they're the ones that have all the hammers and all the Well, they're going to uniformity or something.

Yeah. And then they're gonna want to

Okay. [clears throat] Well, and I talked to Mike about it. They didn't want to do it before, you know, wanted to wait till after and probably not want to do it because weather conditions coming up or storm spotting. that probably when it comes.

So I kind of Yeah. I threw your name in the pot. Okay. No, that's fine. Well, we have a new [clears throat] fresh until you're really [snorts]

gap between the tornado. area.

Joe, how goes it? How goes it? It's cold. What? It was like 60°. What happened? He did. I mean, it was I would say Martin Luther King weekend's always this weekend. every

you knock on some wood cuz that means we're going to I know that for sure. Mhm. Yeah. I was just thinking about your crazy snow. Uh, it's a little different. It's because of what happened. So, it's basically about

your heart. Sorry to hear that. I did something with him. I am. I bet you his phone rings all the time this week. Oh my god, that poor guy. Chris, he's everybody's computers. Joe, can I grab I got to sort through. Thank you. [laughter] I'm doing fine. Everybody's doing fine. We're happy campers. Good.

Don't like the cold weather, but you're going to not miss that after next weekend. [laughter] your head, right? I'll see you tomorrow. Yeah, that's going to be the coldest day of the year. beauty. [laughter]

Yeah. I went down to Florida a few times where I've had to buy coats. real.

Yeah. I went down there one time. My wife said, "We're going to Florida for your birthday." So, we went down there and we froze to death, December 12th. We were down there buying coats. Went to Florida to buy coats.

That's nice. [laughter] Yeah.

It's a new experience for sir. That's that's your Oh, there you go. That's your last. It's 7 o'clock. I'd like to call the December or December January 15th, Dodto City Council meeting to order. We'll start with roll call, please. Lane here. Sabo here. Bradley here. Patterson here. Mcmar here. All present. Let me get that fixed here. Sorry about that.

There we go. Fixed. Sorry about that. What we just did. [laughter] Um, all right. I invite you all to please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Our first item tonight is our consent agenda. Tonight agenda, we have approve the minutes from the December council meeting approved. A ordinance number 1011 approve

resolution 2089 waving GAP approve donation request from the Daughters of the American Revolution quote with Sergeant Drilling for well eight rehab. Item F approved contract with whether or not I would ask that this meeting be or this item be removed from the consent agenda. Item G, approve 2026 park and recreation mowing contract. Item H, approve 2026 street mowing contract and item I approve amendment to water rights agreements our redevelopment. So uh just to repeat I would like item F removed from the consent agenda. Is there any other item anyone would wish [snorts] to remove for further discussion? Can I have a motion to remove item F from the consent agenda? I

motion that we remove item F from the consent agenda. Second. All right. Well, we'll take a vote on that. All in favor say I. I. I. I. All right. Now, we need a motion to approve the consent agenda as modified. I move we approve the consent agenda as modified. Second. All right. We have a motion to second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Patterson, yes. Mcmaran, yes. Lane, yes. Bradley, yes. Sabo, yes. Motion carries.

All right. Item F we'll take up at our next council meeting. We get a little more information on some other potential vendors for that item. Item two is called to public. Members of the public are welcome to use this time to comment about any matter relating to city business not listed on tonight's agenda. The comments that are discussed under call to public may or may not be acted on by the council during this meeting. There's a 4-minute time limit. Please uh stand um and u be uh invited to the podium. State your name, address when you get there. Anyone under call the public. Come on up.

All right. Okay. Ready? Yep.

All right. Hi everybody. Uh my name is Britney Smith. I'm the daughter of Michelle Smith who lives at 8725 Kil Creek Road here in Dotto, Kansas. Um, we were recently approached by a developer for Grata Development, Travis Scram, who is offering a couple of thousand in exchange for a sanitary sewer easement for the Grata Limestone Development. The developer's path for this easement is the most direct route from the Grota development, but it bisects our property in half. As the land owners, this proposed plan is detrimentally impactful to the value of our property. The path would require the removal of an entire corridor of large mature trees, and it crosses the Miller Creek, which directly connects to the Kansas River at least twice upon its route. We have a great deal of concern regarding the ecological harm that this path would cause both during and post construction. We also have a great deal of concern regarding the destruction of archaeological sites along this proposed route which are common in the in the watershed of Miller Creek. The location of this proposed sewer mane would decrease our property's current usability and increase the cost of maintenance on the land. It's implied in the agreement that we would be responsible for maintaining the land to the specifications of the city and the agreement prohibits our ability to build anything within the easement. Finally, our in order to connect our house to this proposed utility, we would need to trench hundreds of feet of sewer line and decommission our current septic system. All of which would be so cost prohibitive that we would not be able to afford to utilize this utility in its proposed placement. I understand GRDA's need for a sewer system and that services its development. However, the proposed plan seems to be only beneficial for Groda and any benefit to other community members is accidental at best. Our neighbors to the south have a newly installed septic system and like us, our neighbors to the north would require hundreds of feet of sewer line to be

trenched to utilize the system. Just these three land owners composed of over 40% of the requested land area for this construction. That means over 40% of this proposed sewer system would be functionally unusable to a single Dodto city resident. We believe that the burden of this system that is designed for the benefit of a single user Groda should fall on that user. If there are additional costs to a different non-impactful route, the developer should bear those costs instead of passing them along to the general public. We have approached the developer Travis about the possibility of negotiating on placement of the line to consider alternative routes such as utilizing the already existing city easement along Kill Creek Road, using the east edge of our property or going through land further to our east that was purchased for the future development of Arbor Ridge. While we would still not likely while we would still not be able to utilize this sewer system in any of these alternative routes, the alternative paths may um provide additional support for community members further along Kill Creek Road to connect to the sewer system or they would allow a more direct route and better sewer service to the planned developments to our east like an Arbor Ridge. Travis has been unwilling to discuss these options with us because they would cost him more. Additionally, we feel that he is using the city council as a hammer by telling us that quote, "The city has agreed to assist us with easement acquisition up to and including imminent domain." Essentially stating that we either agree to his terms or he will use you, the city, to force the arrangement on us. I'm leaving you with you this statement along with maps of his proposed sewer alignments and our highlighted alternative suggested routes. I would implore the city council members to review the proposed sewer plan and discuss with GRA to seek alternative routes. And I also ask you to protect the long-term community

members by dismissing this threat of imminent domain or condemnation while there are surely alternatives that are less impactful to community members. We are willing to work with the development the developers for the betterment of the community but not under threat of land seizure and not at the highest impact and the lowest benefit to us. Thank you. Thank you, Britney. If you guys want these, I'll take

anyone else under call to public. Mike, come on up.

Hi. Uh, I'm Mike Caldwell. I live at 8412 Corass and uh like to give you a few things. I want to talk about that coreless trail. I think this goes to you, Brandon. This is a petition not to do it. And uh we can start on this side like in school. Take one. Pass it around please. you know, the uh petition, you know, we we picked a day and we just walked up and down Corless and uh we came up with 40 signatures of people who don't don't want it. And you know, 40 people, what what does that that that mean? Well, if you look at the the pie chart, what I tried to do to kind of make some sense out of that, the number is if you look at the Johnson County property tax uh website, uh you can count 48 properties that have coreless frontage. and through our petition and the addresses on on the petition. Oh, and by the way, there are some addresses that aren't on core list, but they have coreless frontage and these were adults, you know, voting age people. Uh some So, uh ju just to clarify that um the pie chart is pretty self-explanatory. Out of the 48 properties, 26 properties don't want to trail. one didn't want to sign the petition cuz they wanted a little sidewalk like in Prairie Village. Um, three three properties are thinking about it and 18 we couldn't contact. Some of those are vacant land with absentee absentee property owners. Uh, the Roman Catholic Church owns a big chunk at the end of uh, Corus. I wasn't going to try to track them down. Um the most interesting thing that came

out of this whole exercise was just talking with people on the street. Uh there's some switched on people who live on on Corless and uh a lot of good ideas. I'm not going to go through all these bullet points, but this is just what people brought up as objections to doing this. And you know, it wasn't just I don't want it in my yard. I don't want to mess up the yard. uh it it went further than that. And kind of as an aside, I'm not going to go into it here, but this conversation also led to what they thought of was happening in the city in general. And just to summarize that, and I'm happy to talk to anybody about it offline, there's not a lot of happy campers on Corless on what's going on in the city. But probably the uh the first bullet point was I found that very disturbing cuz you know as soon as we started talking about it people would go what trail I don't know anything about it and uh how can they do this without talking to me and that just set off a whole line of conversation and I say over 50% it was probably closer to 75. We didn't really capture that until after the fact but a lot of people didn't know anything about it. Uh, a lot of folks walk the road, they don't think traffic's all all that heavy. Uh, and with little common sense, paying attention, walking on the correct side of the road, it's it's not an issue. $6 million seems very excessive for something that's not really critical infrastructure. um coreless road itself needs some work uh you know fixing the paving work, some drainage issues, maybe some speed enforcement and along with that a few few people said well just put in some speed bumps which uh seems like a

popular answer. Um, a few folks bought up instead of build, you know, we can always build trails. We can build trails 50 years from from now, but there's only so much green space and once it's gone, it's gone. So, in their their minds, we should be buying that up while we still can instead of building a trail like like this u or we're going to end up like Overland Park with apartments and houses and retail centers everywhere. won't have any green space. Um the easement situation along Cless, I don't know if you all have looked at the the property maps very closely on that, but some places it's really wide on the west side and non-existent on the east side and you just work your way up the road and it seems to go back and forth. There's property owners on the east side about halfway up the hill who claims that their property goes under the road and they actually own on the other side. So I I don't know how easements would work on that. And lastly, people weren't confident that the job would be done transparently, properly, and within budget. So with all that being said, our goal, we'd like to see this thing taken out of the CIP. uh just take the line item out, put the money somewhere and just cuz nobody on the street wants it except for you know one one person who we found. Um, and you know, if for some reason you you don't want to do that or you can't take it out or we'd like to a few people from Corers would like to sit down and talk to somebody and understand why this thing is so important and strategic and convince us how important it is. All right. Well, thanks for your time.

All right. Thank you, Mike. Anyone else under call to public? All right, we'll go on. We do not have any old business, so we will go to item 4A. Consider change order and contingency balance for city hall renovation project.

Thank you, mayor. Um as as the memo states um previously we've come to the council and asked for the contingency that was approved initially to be increased um for a total project cost uh up to the $4.5 million number. Um we just continue to take three steps forward and two steps back on things. It seems uh most of it is driven by the age of the structure. um 108ish years old and um lots of changes, revisions, and and sometimes lack of maintenance, sometimes maintenance that wasn't correct that's damaged historical finishes. Um the change order that's associated with this is one of those. The stairwells um have been painted Lord only knows how many times over the last hundred years. Um the exterior walls due to the type of construction of this building are designed to basically absorb moisture and then uh disperse that moisture, sweat it out. There is no weather resistive barrier as if you would think of on your current home. Um this is very common in historical buildings. that has led to the paint on the lower half of the wall um due to one of the painting types that was used over the years largely bubbling and flaking off. As that has been cleaned off, the contractor has done everything they can to get the paint um scraped, removed without damaging that original um brick pattern plaster. Um the number of layers of paint still present in certain areas as you can see in exhibit B um really provides a really poor finished surface. Um, one of those, that white wall there, that was a an attempt to use a high

build primer um to kind of soften those edges to hope that that would be the most economical um and you know time uh saving measure to get a a suitable finished surface. Uh that did not provide much relief at all just due to the sheer number of layers of paint. Um we worked with the architect um engineers and the contractor with their subcontractors to try to come up with a good solution to give these walls a a suitable finish. Um these stairwells as you're walking up them, you're going to see them front and center every time anybody ever comes to city hall goes up these stairwells. We tried, like I said, the highbuild primer. We tried a uh drywall skim coat uh with a replicated brick joint in it. It [snorts] really didn't hold up well at all. Um and finally, the the most suitable solution, I think one of those pictures shows it in the corner, Mike. I think it's that last one. We did a a plaster skim coat in that top right corner where it's uniformly colored. Um and they were able to tool the brick joint back into it to match the original finish of city hall. Um that that process did come with an additional additional cost just due to the additional amount of work. That change order amount as you can see is $6,839.80. Which brings us to the next issue where our previously approved contingency budget um or balance. We have a remaining amount of $4,32712. So we don't actually have enough contingency currently to even cover this change order. Um and we haven't started phase two of this project yet at all. That will be starting Monday. Um which is the first

floor. Due to the first floor being previously finished and the scope of work being much less, we do anticipate a lower amount of hidden gremlins, we've been calling them, in the building. Um, so you'll see I did the did the calculation there. Uh, the previously approved contingency [clears throat] amount, I worked with the contractor to get a a value, how much of their cost was associated with phase one versus phase two. um previously approved contingency at its fully exhausted amount uh comes to 16.7% of the value of phase 1 construction which is largely second floor and garden level. Um we're requesting an additional $100,000 in contingency funds. This would come out of the uh CIP as outlined previously by Mike. Um that comes out to 14.1% so a 2.6% reduction. Um the contractor feels comfortable with this. We feel comfortable as staff that that lowering amount will allow us to continue the project. Um in speaking with the contractor, you know, without a a contingency budget, every change order would have to be voted on in open session by the the uh city council. the time uh delays due to every two weeks meetings um would significantly delay the project because a good majority of our change orders previously are under the uh $10,000 threshold to allow for staff approval. And several of them are even under the $2,000 mark where it's just I mean you'll notice the number of 66 a good majority of those 66 change orders are in the $2 to $4,000 range. Um and if we were to have to bring all of those back before council, it would

significantly delay the project. And the contractor has indicated that if that were the case, um they would have to start looking at um additional, you know, downtime fees, mobilization fees due to work being started, stopped because the scope of work on this floor is so condensed. They really are hoping to get contractors here, get them going. Um I'm trying not to portray this as a a blank check. I mean, it would still be well within the purchasing policy. we would still bring all change orders back for council approval. Um we are just asking for an additional contingency balance to keep the project on its new schedule because the project is already um has already slipped from the initial schedule due to these change orders. A lot of the structural repairs that were associated with the the exterior of the building on the second floor really set us back um some time. We actually moved to the second floor this week. If you were unaware, a a lot of city staff has vacated this floor. A lot of the offices are empty. The contractor is planning to start demo Monday um on this floor to get that project going with an anticipated completion date sometime in March or early April. So with that, I will stand for any questions.

Questions? Cameron? Go ahead. Um, did they mention scaff projects where they've had weeping walls or anything where they put a vapor barrier and a air barrier in between there and stand off and then put um um the type of material which keeps that moisture out from coming through and scaffisting wall. Did they anticipate anything that as a contingency on this besides just trying different paints and different projects like that?

No, because in order to do that, um the weather resistant barrier would have to go behind the brick facade on the outside. Um the way this building's constructed, there's a brick facade and then an air gap between the brick and the wall and then it's a clay block wall uh that's mortar filled. the weather resistant barrier would have to go between those two um as opposed on the inside wall. We have some a lot of studies, the architect produced a lot of studies as to what can happen on these types of mass construction walls with a weather resistant barrier on the inside and essentially the moisture gets into the wall and instead of being able to breathe and evaporate out, it holds within the wall, deteriorates the block and actually can cause major structural issues. um with the with the uh structure of the building. There's been a lot of studies done by architects in in cities that are much much older than Kansas City, metro, Dodto area um on buildings. They've been building they were building buildings this way for hundreds of years. I mean on the east coast and so there's been a lot of studies because we did look at that. We did look at you know a a [snorts] barrier on the inside to prevent that from ever happening again. um the amount of moisture that actually is transpired through the wall that causes the paint to bubble. Um when the building is conditioned, the amount of that moisture is very very slim to where the chance of this happening and bubbling paint or this plaster skim coat now that the area is fully conditioned um heated and cooled is very very minimal. um when the space is left unconditioned um as most of us have experienced with our vehicles that sit inside and outside, you get you get condensation, you get frost when you get hot versus cold, things of that nature. Um so now that the space is conditioned, a lot of those studies support not putting a vapor barrier on the inside due to structural concerns.

[snorts] I got a question. Can you go to the last picture in the presentation? Yep. Well, they actually on those scaped off walls, they actually put vents in there too that the heating and cooling can go through that wall and uh that prevents all that other stuff from happening. But if your engineers already looked into that, I I know they've done it out on the east coast and they've done it in [cough] down toward the Gulf area and it protected their facade on the inside. But yeah, so our our our construction type the the [snorts] block is largely mortar filled. Um so there wouldn't be channels to put vents and run air through there. Well, this is on the inside.

Okay. It's the vents are actually so that the air can go in the vape uh in behind the water resistant stuff and have a vapor barrier in there and mix with that air in there. So the whatever is coming through still dissipates if stuff does come through. Okay. But if your engineers already looked at it, then okay, I'm satisfied with that. I'm sorry, Zach. What did you Yeah. So, [clears throat] I I don't know what you call a chair rail or whatever that's called up there. Y the the surface above it, what is that? The surface above it is a it's a plaster um

that does not have the brick tooling joint. Um, I will say that when we had our asbestous and lead environmental report done, they found leadbased paint below the chair rail but not above. So, we know that different um surface treatments have been applied over the years below that chair rail versus above. Whether the leadbased paint is what held the moisture and caused it to pop or not is way outside of my my qualifications. Is it is that what it'll look like when they're done with the plaster on it from this huge order above? Yeah. Will the bottom part look like the above part or similar to it? Uh, as far as consistency wise, yes, it does have a brick tool joint in it,

but other than that, yes, the texture will look uh consistent with what's above. So, just to clarify, so if the contingency is approved, then if there was a order below 10,000, then Mike could go ahead and approve that, you would then later notify council, but it wouldn't hold up the project. Is that what's

Yeah, that that's the primary thing is due to scheduling, you know. So, another $6,000 change order, for example, um Mike would review it. um we would discuss it, Mike could approve it and then uh keep the project going within 24hour window versus sometimes these change orders, for instance, this one happened to get submitted to me the Tuesday before the last council meeting. So, it's been sitting on my desk for two and a half weeks now before it can get before council and just due to the timing. Um, so it's it's purely a scheduling thing. Patrick, you are correct. Yeah,

just for clar, we're even with with these change orders, we're still below what we originally budgeted for our project. Yeah. So, the project was originally budgeted at 5 million. Um throughout the bidding process, um the construction bids all came in under architects estimates. Even with the increased contingency, like I said, we're at 4.5 million. um trying to stay as far under that 5 million number as humanly possible. Um but yes, we are still significantly under that total CIP number of 5 million as previously budgeted.

Any other questions from council?

Um Cameron, I I have one for you. So, uh way before your time, but obviously we've made changes to this building over 20 years ago. Have have we researched what we did with architecture firms then? I I mean we have similar stairwells that we've already worked on. Exterior walls with the windows here. Um yes, we have the original construction drawings. Um most of these exterior walls, you'll notice have been uh furred out and have drywall finished. So, we're unaware of what the plaster condition is behind these walls. As the stairwells relate currently with the exterior walls and stairwells, due to the way the building has additions on either end, the lower level stairwells actually don't have a true exterior wall. Um, because there is conditioned space on the other side with the the maintenance wing and the community center wing. This is the first stairwell exterior wall. We did notice whenever we were upstairs before the exterior walls were furred out on the second floor. Part of the reason those those exterior walls were furred out um was due to the extensive repair that would be necessary on the plaster walls up there because they were in in sometimes worse condition with plaster actually falling off. Um as well as the paint paint substrates like what we're talking about here in these stairwells.

Okay. I kind of had some of the same concerns as as Danny. So, thank you. Yep. All right. There are no more questions. Are we ready for a motion? I move to approve the city administrator to sign change order 66 in the amount of 6,839 cents and add an additional $100,000 to the project contingency budget. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? [clears throat] Roll call, please. Lane, no.

Sadd, yes. Bradley, yes. Patterson. Yes. Mcmaran, yes. Motion carries. All right. Item B, consider amendment number one to storm water improvements agreement for 89th Street east of Kil Creek Road.

Yep. Thank you. So, back in May, we approved uh an agreement with Johnson County to fund u a preliminary engineering study for 89th Street. Um if you've been out there 89th Street east of Kil Creek um drops down pretty quickly into a valley with the undersized culvert during a heavy rains not only just a street flood but the potential for the two homes on the south side um can flood too. So this project was identified some years ago when the county started doing wershed studies uh when they went to a watershed model. Um so it was identified by the county as a as a potential project and um so in April of last year we entered to engineering agreement with Milbourne Engineering to do a preliminary study on it and originally I think their their cost was around $32,800 to do the study. As we got into the study and trying to meet the county's requirements for the cemental for approval, there was a lot of additional engineering and work uh out of scope that uh Milbour Engineering had to do. Uh the county was agreeable to increase the cap from the $32,800 to $50,000 or $56,500. Um to cover that additional expense, uh the county will reimburse the city 75% of that cost. So, our total cost uh for the project would be uh $14,125. The additional amount of with Milbourne Engineering is just a little over well, it's almost $6,000, $5,925. Uh so, this agreement with the county modifies the original cost to $56,500 to being re to reimburse the city, 75% of that cost. And so, tonight, I'd be asking for uh [cough] council approval uh for this amendment. questions for Joe on this item.

So, I can tell you part of the design on this included um a larger triple cell box uh and then modifications to 89th Street to design it to um our uh collector standard to 36t wide street u that meets ASTO as far as sag. So it' be a safer roadway, a wider roadway, and then storm serve to convey the water underneath the road and to capture water on the street. So it' be built to our our city standard for about 8 or 900 ft.

Is that study complete now, did you say, or is it nearly complete and waiting? No, they they've completed the study. The county's accepted. Um, so now it's just a matter of programming uh that project into their capital program.

Any questions?

We have a motion to approve the amended agreement with Johnson County and authorize the mayor to sign I make the motion to approve the agreement authoriz. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Sabo, yes. Lane, yes. Bradley, yes. Patterson, yes. Macaran, yes. Motion carries.

All right. Item C, consider ordinance number 2684 reszoning property at the southwest corner of Energy Way and Lexington Avenue from RUR to M1. All right. Thank you, Mayor and Council. What you have before you is a resoning request. It was interesting. I looked at that. So 2002 is when the council approved the annexation and we pretty well had our foot on the gas ever since then. Um, this is actually the second request for prezoning out at Astra or Sunflower. The first one was about the same size and now that there's water, sewer, road networks have been improved, the applicant is asking for an additional 1100 acres to be reszoned to M1 Light Industrial. So, in the meantime, it has been zoned RUR, which is county's designation. and it had kept that designation as it entered the city of Dotto. But now the uh applicant is ready for developing this tract or marketing these this track. They would like to get it reszoned to M1 which has been our plan for for quite some time. So you can see on the zoning map some of the uh properties you can see the Panasonic's M1. Still, there's a great deal of RUR county zoning around this, but there's also a mix of M1, C2, and also residential developments nearby. Uh, just going through the compatibility factors, character of the neighborhood. Um, I actually had in the staff reports transitioning to an employment center. It is an employment center now. Um, it will be certainly growing into a greater employment center, but it certainly is one now. So, this project's been high-profile since the Panasonic announcement. Roads, water, sewer, everything's improved. And once again, this tract is ready to be reszoned and

marketed and started to be developed. Also, the applicant did submit a great deal of information. It's in your packet about the cleanup efforts. So, this property has also been cleared for uh the standards that the Army has for for cleaning up these tracks. compatibility of the proposed zoning. It's been noted that the proposed zoning were recover of site plans, developments, traffic studies, all sorts of things. So, don't want to just sort of gloss over a lot of these things, but all the processes that we have applied to the Panasonic plant and also the other developments still apply to all this and those will be strictly adhered to as we move forward. uh the length of time the properties remain vacant as zoned you know it's been under cleanup for quite some time and once again as I mentioned it's been cleared for development extend what there's a need in this type of zoning we've been looking at this actually the city's been I haven't been looking at for that long except for about the last 10 years it's been part of Don's comprehensive plan for over 20 years as this cleanup process and moving forward and sort of dreaming what could be out here. So once again that we are now once rubber's hitting the road and as I had mentioned earlier we are moving full forward with this type of development and now that the we talk about adequacy of retire required utilities got the sewer lines in water lines are in roads have been improved there's all sorts of uh reasons why this application is now being brought before the city council planning commission did hold a public hearing on this didn't have any comments and actually staff hasn't received any comments on this proposal either. So with that uh we talk look at all the the standard things environmental

impacts. It's really not a whole lot different than what um we did with the first resoning. As you can imagine, there's been this property has been studied environmentally, not just for our resonings and redevelopment issues, but with the with the cleanup and and all the things that surround the redevelopment of a former ammunition plant. And then ultimately, the economic impact is certainly going to be very significant to the city of Dodto. There are some single family and multifamily developments but they are on the north side of like I guess energy way and once again we talk about buffering site planning all those things come in to our consideration as projects are proposed for these areas and and certainly u the neighbors that we have dealt with have been generally pretty understanding straightforward and listen to our our processes and felt fairly comfortable as we've approved and transitioned from the farmer former plant to a development a thriving development employment center. With that, the planning commission did hold a public hearing on this. Didn't receive any comments. Also, city staff recommended to the planning commission approval of this and the planning commission is has recommended approval to the city council. I did want to point out and Patrick asked me to put this uh approval or or motions in the staff report just if there's something you wanted to add to that you can just easily say for the reasons in the staff report we recommend approval or if you choose to deny you have to also say those specific reasons as well. So, I'll let Patrick follow up on any of those issues as far as the the exact verbiage for motions, but uh that's what we'd

like to have stated one way or the other. But once again, staff and planning commission recommend approval of the resoning.

Okay, questions from council. I guess I just offer this was a very [snorts] uh highly impacted property by the operation of the former ammunition plant now certified clean. So I think it's appropriate that it would move on to its next use. Is there any provisions that on adding to this in the future that we add green spaces in in as a request in these areas?

Well, the so I think the overall plan for you know as you know the Sunflower ammunition plant the the green spaces are that two 2500 acres that was uh de or is in the process of being deed to the Johnson County parks the lot you know primarily the unimpacted property. So um I mean much of what we are de proposing that would be developed in this light industrial u manner is what was formerly used fully utilized for the ammunition plant and probably um less suitable for green space or or other uses. It's most suited for uh light industrial uses that it are proposed. So um every plan will have landscaping required in certain elements but uh creation of u there lot coverage requirements as well you so you can't exceed so green space would be limited to to lawns or something similar to those lines not restoration of uh native I'm not sure what you're that's what you're well looking for uh

I mean it's all all going to be developed in accordance with our zoning regulations which has requirements relative to you know storm water detention uh uh lot coverage u parking the like you know lighting um I guess I would concur council member Lane with what the mayor said if you look at the Panasonic building there's a fairly significant ribbon all the that wraps around that building which will be landscaping. In fact, they're going to bring a revised site plan to the planning commission. And we've had Mike and Joe and I've had several meetings with them about this. So, there's still it's not just a you know concrete jungle out there. There's still a fairly significant amount of landscaping and and open space areas that will be part of any development. questions on [snorts] this side, comments. Um, ready for a motion. a motion that we approve the item uh for the reasons stated uh in the recommendations.

Second. So, we have a motion to approve um the item ordinance 2684 uh based on the reasons stated in the report uh and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Mcmaran, yes. Patterson, yes. Mayor Walker, yes. Bradley, yes. Sabo, yes. Lane,

yes. Motion carries. All right. Item D, receive initial presentation for a travel center development at 100 and Evening Star Road.

Uh, yes, council. We've received an incentive application for this property for a a travel center. Um the request is for a CID which is an extra sales tax on retail activity on the property [snorts] 1.5% the request is for 21 and a half years um which is the statutory maximum uh that can be had there. You'll remember with incentive requests, the first thing that happens when we get the application is the applicant comes and introduces a project to you and you have an informal discussion, offer any feedback you want to offer to that uh to the applicant and to staff and then we come back at a later date u with uh a a an action on the the appropriate action depending on the uh the incentive that's requested. So, uh, tonight is that initial presentation and Dave Anderson is here to give that.

Hi, very happy new year everybody. Um, [clears throat] excuse me. I am representing the applicant. I am not an owner of the property. Musa Sabati is a gentleman that owns a number of sea stores. He uh I first met him about five years ago when I worked with KBS. We built the truck stop in Edertton for him off of Homestead Road if anybody's familiar with that area. He has since sold the sea store part of it. He still maintains ownership of the there's a truck repair place and a truck wash that he still owns, but that's how I met him. And uh this application, as Mike has said, uh I just wanted to point out a couple of things that may have some interest. We we can't [clears throat] ask for a tax abatement. We asked and Patrick said no. [laughter] It's not it doesn't follow the Kansas statutes that a retail organization receive a tax abatement. Part of your policy did however have the CD and to be totally fair the the policy states it is 10 years for the CI. We're asking for the 21 and a half which is the state statute. If you're familiar with the C, it's a community improvement district. We tax ourselves. Um, then the receipt of that one and a half cents, as Mike said, you know, goes through the treasur, goes to the city, comes to the developer, and then they help pay for additional work. This uh so that's one that's the the setup. on page three if you're interested and you may have heard skuttlebud. Um about 5,000 ft of this is the sea store and it contains um some amenities for truckers like a lounge and a shower and things like that. Um it's it's all open to the public, but he has

uh entertained and has a franchise for A&W that would take a position in the end of the store on the north end outside of the sea store. It's a separate part has a drive-thru if you look on the plan. And it's really no secret. We're we are talking with our local Goodsense to have the sandwich shop. You'll notice that on page three. That's what it says. So, um, that'd be kind of a nice addition. We hope I think when I introduced Musa to this corner, uh, it was on purpose because it's a great corner. If you watch 10 highway comes pretty close to 103 at that point and really we'd be the only community that that's between Lawrence and I'm not even certain where the next truck stop kind of place is. So we could we're going to get a lot of traffic coming in and and the benefit it would be sales tax and obviously the property tax. Um so yeah the on page four or six uh the C is the primary uh benefit for us to to make this project go. We're asking that the excise tax that we pay would be applied to the new road that's being built there. And Patrick, we have sales tracks on material exemption. Can that still be worked into it?

Yes. Okay. We're also asking for that. Um I mentioned here land cost and development are high and land acquisition was high. Um and it's a very competitive business. The uh parcel, if you go to the last page, I think that's what I want to show next. Um on the far uh western side, you see a little dash line. That's actually a creek. So, it's going to Yeah, it's sort of hyphenated. Goes all over the place. Oh, that's Oh, here. Yeah. Oh, I'm not sure what you guys are looking at that. [snorts]

So, the the grading costs are pretty substantial to try to shove this thing in there and not get into the um flood plane and other areas. Also, that has also a drainage easement that we had to sign because we're improving, he's part of the improvement with Guyer on the Evening Star Road, and that makes it uh impervious material and so the creek's going to flow a lot faster. [clears throat] So, we have a little issue there, but that this C would help us uh cover those costs. He thinks uh we think we can start by summer. Um depending on if you're not opposed to the request, he could is start issuing those contracts to finish the civil engineering and the architecture and probably take a year. And if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them if I can. Okay, questions for Mr. Anderson.

Then I guess we would do a development agreement if the council has no opposite to it. Yeah, that' be the next Yeah, the process is process just to give the council an opportunity to ask questions. There's really no formal approval here. But then it would move to if we're not hearing any objections, then we would put the necessary documents and ordinances together for your future consideration.

I might mention too, Brad's here, but we're zone, this is zoned properly, so we wouldn't have to ask for reszoning. Um, but we will have to come back for a site plan and all the requirements for a building permit. Okay, go ahead.

Mr. Anderson, um when when could you expect to have some sort of uh perform from Mr. Sabati? Um what studies have been done to look at the amount of traffic that we expect? I'm kind of looking at this diagram. I see spaces for many uh maybe 20 trucks um with the development of Sunflower uh Flint um and just general traffic that we have on 10 now. Is is there area to expand this lot?

I uh I I I appreciate that question. I've told Moose this is too small. I think um the creek if if you I don't know if it shows if you can draw that up a little bit Mike but I mean we are we're like tucked in this corner. So we have looked at building a uh the creek covering in a in a culvert a box culvert kind of come from Edertton Road heading northwest and then we would be able to cross that with traffic and maybe provide additional parking over there. Um, I don't know. We maybe be able to move the scales and then expand more pumps on there. Um, but I I understand what you're saying, Councilman. I I think this this could be a much bigger site. Um, and I'll share that with Musa to answer your first question. Um, he has through the fuel companies, they do a market study and they're pretty extensive. I haven't seen it, but um I could get that information and share it with you, I think.

Well, you'll have to. Yeah, we'll do a competitive analysis [laughter] on the on the incentives. We will then. Yeah. [clears throat] And um u in some of that vein in discussions with the count of the staff, Jeff White has already been brought on board and Moose has submitted all the financial information and whatever Jeff's asked, he's he has now.

Yeah. So, a couple things that our financial advisor does. Uh, first thing he does is look at the applicant's financial viability, whether he has the the wherewithal to do the project. That's first the first step. And then the second one is this costbenefit analysis. And that's when he he looks at the market study and the and the profits and the rate of return and make sure that uh the rate of return with the incentive wouldn't be um out of line with the industry standard for a rate of return on a similar type development. So that's part of that.

I think I'm just going to make a comment, but I think it's going to be 100% to the benefit of the city because there is no retail sales tax and we're getting only the tax that in we increase if you allow us to increase upon ourselves. So you'll get all your money and and property tax. There's nothing other than allowing us to use the in my opinion to use the excise tax for the road instead of putting it into your CIP. That's the only thing the city's tax building materials as well. Yeah, you're losing there. [laughter] That's true. That is true. But but yeah, that'd be I'm I'm great. If we have to show it to you, I think you're going to see some pretty crazy numbers

u coming to the city. I have a question for you. So [clears throat] being as I also think it's probably a little small uh given potential for future development once uh if it's approved and it's determined that we need more service and another competitor say wants to build over it [cough] if [clears throat] he's undersized and he can't expand. Do you foresee any opposition from your client to Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know he will some, but I guess what I'm getting to is it it's kind of small. Yeah. And if he can't support what's needed, you can't really

I know you can't argue it, Councilman. I I think I think you're right. The one thing that we found down in Edward [snorts] Edertton is uh they they the city incentivized through a tiff and then they attracted another travel center right across the street which MUSA had a lot of capacity. you know, a lot of that's all that homestead is is trucks going [snorts] to the inner modal. So, he uh it it really weighed down. Quick trip came uh I don't know what that is about 3 miles to the east at Gardener Road or whatever that's called now. And that he saw a drop in his traffic. So, having too many too close, that's the key is the close. Um you know, I I we looked hard. He we actually I say we I helped him make a proposal on Edertton Road where the it'd be on the northwest corner of Edertton and 95th where there's a house there now, but that lot's too small too. So he owns all 38 of this. So the so your point is well taken and we could expand and I'll tell him I think what we could do is perhaps show you what we have done for say phase two which would be to the south and I I I agree with both of those comments. I told him I said I just think it's too small with what's going on and what could go on.

And Dave is is Guyer building south of Yeah. And they're building the the road. Are they building it to accommodate? Yes. What you've just presented on,

right? Yes, they are. We talked to the city um on, you know, all the dimensions of the road, the ride of way. There's an Evergy product project coming up that road, too. Um and there's ements across there. Uh I guess I'm going to say the traffic analysis was done by Guyer's uh engineer Schlegel. And so, yeah, everything's been engineered. Now, I will tell you, I'm working with both of those guys to try to put something in between them that's more of an industrial warehousing type base, which only adds more trucks. And there's the other other good thing I think for the community. you have these intersections and you know um there was a comment from a development that's one of these intersections on on 10 highway and you know what goes in an intersection on a highway some type of travel center or a sea store and the other ones well you know Kill Creek Edertton's kind of a that's a real difficult site there's a lot of rock you've saw all that neighbors aren't too happy we're out in the middle of nowhere And we're really close to the to the highway. I mean, you're right there at 10 highway. So, this is really a good site.

Just a personal request. Can you do Chick-fil-A instead of A&W? [laughter] I'll [snorts] ask. I think he's got it tied up. Um, I have a quick question. I couldn't tell on the map and I can't think. as far as residents in that area, where are where where are they located and communication and all that? Yeah, councilwoman. Uh so the Musa owns those two that you have there. That is part of what we bought. You can actually see the Geer site down one more right there. Right there. Yeah. And then [clears throat] the the the closest neighbor is over to the west there, Mike. No, we own that property. You own this. Okay. Yeah, that one.

Okay. And then then there's two other houses and both of those all three of those people came when um uh GW Weld and myself came for the annexation and we've spoken to them. There are other neighbors. If you go all the way down Edgerton and then turn, there's one and then there's half a dozen or so along there. Yeah. Right.

It's as sparsely populated I think as you can get. and not nobody's happy. I suppose you'd say that in as things expand out, but certainly not the people we bought it from said they want to get out [laughter] and we were their exit strategy. Yeah. All right. But if you have any other questions, just holler and then Yeah, Mike. We can get that council member to say to the market study. Okay. Thank you, Dave.

All right. No executive session, so we will go to advisory reports. City administrator. Um, nothing this evening, Mayor. It does other than it does seem like we've narrowed a couple of dates for the data center tour. So, I did send out calendar invites for that. So, the the priority date, I'm gonna get this wrong if I don't look it up here. Uh would be February 23rd. So, yes, February 23rd with a backup on the 16th. So, check your inboxes for those two calendar kind of save reminders there. Okay. And that was it. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, city. Nothing for me. All right, Brad. Anything for the group? No comments tonight, mayor. Thank you. Joe, nothing for tonight. [snorts] Okay, Brandon.

I'm sorry. I did have one. Um I u sent out an email to council members. Um we are looking for members for the community center master plan. Um the steering committee group. Um we've kind of locked in staff. Um we have representations from the park board and the school district, but we're looking for um council members and then if you have any suggestions on the on the uh plan for the steering committee, we have two uh slots that are open for the public. Um so this could be if you know anybody in the community that might be interested, um I will take names and then what I will do is I will blast out an email tomorrow and see um if anyone's interested. I know Council Member Bradley had mentioned he was interested in serving on the on the steering committee, but I wanted to make sure that um everyone on the board had an opportunity to express their interest.

Okay. So, if you're interested, respond to Brandon. Anything else? Go ahead. Okay. Council comments. We'll start with Danny. Nothing tonight, Mayor. Thank you, Victoria. Nothing. Zach,

you know, I wanted to talk about what you and I talked about mayor with the uh potential for upcoming uh town halls for the community. Um essentially when I talked to the mayor about it, my proposal was that uh you know, when we have our city council meetings, it's um we're limited on time. We got a lot of city business to take care of and it's you know, four minutes isn't a whole lot of time for people to express themselves or talk. Although I do appreciate when our citizens come up and tell us what they want us to hear, I think they need more time. I think we need more time for people to talk. So my proposal was that we have a town hall where there's no city business conducted. So we wouldn't need a quorum and we wouldn't need staff support because I know you guys just love coming to these in your time off. Anyway, uh the point is it would be a time for citizens to come talk to us. It would be loosely um agended uh really more like guided discussion topics. We'll talk about a few things and most of the time would be for the citizens to express themselves and and ask questions and be more interactive than we have the uh opportunity to be at city council meetings. Uh and and the mayor put together a a really nice uh written out plan more than my rambling here. And I appreciate that, sir. And I'd like to uh propose that we review yours if we can. Okay.

And go with it. All right. I uh Can you pull that up, Mike? I think I emailed you a copy.

Yep. Do that. So, uh I was um based on our conversations, um I I put together just a framework that um at once a month we would we would hold a I called them a town hall in the senior center um reserve maybe 10 or 15 minutes at the start uh where um the council the governing body members that are there would share items that we're currently working on and topics of of discussion, but the remainder of the time then would be uh um just uh open conversation from those that show up and and choose to share back with us. So um I'd highlighted uh a number of days through uh throughout the rest of the year. Uh so yeah so just just to hold an hold an event where where people can come and share um u and then but it's just a a time to listen um as as Zach said um that it's not for decision making or debating or uh but u not a counly not a council meeting just just a time to hear from the from the residents. So, um we would we would need to declare meetings for for the dates uh in the event that we would have more than um two council members present. Um but we would just say that those are just u um similar to what we have work sessions or whatever. No no votes, no decisions and and uh no minutes need to be recorded. Um, but we just need to notice up that those could be city council meetings. Um, and um, as Zach said, um, not not relying on

C, uh, staff to help us put these on, but just maybe we'll have Jay's guys set some chairs up on Friday and then they can take them down on Monday or something. That's that's the level of assistance that just just time for coffee and conversations or if you don't like coffee, bring your other what other beverage that you might choose. But, um, just come and share. No alcohol. It is not a common consumption area, right? It's not a common consump. Yeah, I got to be careful in my word choice. Um, so I think that covers the highlights of what I presented. And as nice as the senior center is, we have that really nice new conference room and we could uh yeah, nice to use.

Um, only thought with the senior center is it a little uh closer to the edge, right? easier easier to access. And um the other thought that uh based on attendance that you know we are about to have new space available down in the garden level as we call it uh a community room. Um so remodeling the what was the arts council room and a and a new community room and that is immediately adjacent to the ADA ramp and and an outside door on the front side. So uh depending on interest and attendance that I think could also be a great room to to host it in, but obviously it's not available yet, so we can't promote it as that. But um

yeah, there's a great space upstairs that that uh we could uh take advantage of. So are these the dates once a month?

Yes. So the green the green dates uh what I've highlighted, the blues are the council meetings that I pulled out. Um and then the greens are the dates for the meetings. And I didn't I didn't include any um in November because I think that last weekend I think that falls on the Thanksgiving holiday and then and then December is like the Christmas uh weekend and probably not the best time. But um if there's another if there's a need, you know, that's the other thing. I've got these laid out as as monthly, but if if if we determine that, you know, a more frequent uh meeting schedule would would be beneficial, we can certainly [clears throat] adapt as we, you know, as we get this, but let's uh get something started so that we have a something to work on going forward and then if we need to add more meetings, we can certainly do that. Um and then if it's beneficial to rotate these as well, they don't all have to be here. I mean, uh, you know, I'm sure the Baptist church would love to host it in the, you know, in the in their fellowship hall or the Methodist church or, you know, move it around the community a little bit as well. I mean, another idea. So,

after seeing the new fire station, that's our press conference room there. Exactly. And it would be a that would be a great opportunity then to show off the new fire station, have the meeting, and

Great great thought, Zach. Yeah. I wonder just um thinking about this because I wonder if we could maybe agree that there would never be a quorum at these events because unfortunately under coma if you notice a meeting and that date comes and you don't have a quorum there you can't conduct any business at all. I mean you can't even have discussions among the council members of that the

well there has to be some mechanism that we can all meet with the public. I don't you know I don't know what whether we notice it as a meeting or not. I mean that that's the the point. I mean for crying out loud if you can't if you can't hold the town hall and and not know you know six months in advance who's going to be there um there's something wrong with our state laws.

Yeah. I mean I agree. It's just I just want to make sure that we're because yeah the elements of a meeting are you have a quorum there's city business discussed not acted on just it's a discussion city items discussed um you have a quorum and that that constitutes a meeting that is subject to coma so if we made it such that council members alternated attending these but there was never a quorum I think you could do exactly what you're talking about because then it would never be a meeting. It would just be an informal information gathering.

Do all council members have to be present for work work sessions or can it just be two or can there be five? For works, it's same thing with a work session. You can't if you don't have a quorum, you can't do anything. All right. So, it's the same a work session is the same as a council meeting pretty much. Yeah. It's just you're you're indicating in advance that's a work session. We're not going to be taking action on anything, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a meet. So,

okay. It's just, and I know it's antiquate, but the theory behind it is, hey, if you're going to have a quorum assembled and you're talking about city business, the public's entitled to be noticed that you're having that meeting, right? And then if you, let's say that date comes and you don't have a quorum, you can't do anything. You can't Well, nothing's done anyway. That's what I I guess I don't get. All right. So it there was no official meeting then but there's nothing to prevent people from having a discussion with whoever shows up. I mean I don't it's just the quorum thing but we can study it. I just wanted to

Can you remind us what how many is a quorum? Does it include the mayor? Does it just Yeah. Three council members would be Yeah. Yeah. But two council members and the mayor is not Yeah. I just didn't want to have to make it like we got to schedule something, you know, it's I want to make it as flexible so that when people are available to come and if you can't come then that's okay too, right? So if you have a quorum there we can have the open discussion and if we don't have a quorum it's not a meeting anyway. Correct. Right. Yeah. But the problem is just saying well we're going to schedule these but there may be a meeting or there may be not. I mean, if you're Well, that's any council meeting.

Yeah. Yeah. But the problem is it has to if you don't have a quorum, you have to disband and you can't sit there and discuss city business. That's the problem. Well, you can't discuss city business anytime. I guess I don't I mean, you can't discuss any you can't take any action, but there can be no actionable. But, um,

yeah, that's the unfortunate part. As the statute says, you can't even discuss. It's not you can't act on things. It's you can't discuss city business. And the theory being that that item that you're talking about may come up on a later agenda at some point. So, but I just I'm not saying we can't. I just want to raise that so we can study it some more and make sure we're all in adherence to coma. Okay.

And you know maybe scheduling purposes maybe all you council you know can't meet. So maybe it is something that would be easy to alternate like you know the next one coming up it'll be just two council members and you guys decide who that's going to be. the next one alternate to two others and just run it that way instead of inviting all council members there. That's where it becomes a problem. Well, that said, you said you'll study it some more.

We'll take it up at the uh February 5th. I mean, we still have time to notice up for a meeting in February and figure out, you know, what we're going to do. Great idea. I just want to make sure we're Oh, we got to follow the damn law. Yeah, that's always a case, isn't it? All right, Zach. Anything else? I don't like it.

No. Uh, I I appreciate you looking into it and um if legislative action needs to be taken, I guess that we can approach legis. So, anything else for the group tonight, Zach? You good? Joe, nothing this evening.

All right. uh every year u have uh typically often bought a table at the greater Kansas City um mayor's prayer breakfast. Uh it's in Kansas City at the um conventions at Bartle Hall. Uh the grand ballroom. Um Brandon, did you get the email on I'm trying. It's like February. Yeah, I didn't. [clears throat] I certainly happy to coordinate that, but I

um I just want to if there's if there's interest among the council in in continuing that and attending that, I need to get you the date before you might have any idea whether or not Sorry, Patrick put me off my game a little bit. Sorry. [laughter] Um, it's like February 19th. There we go. Thank you, Mike. February 19th. So, um, it is that is a Wednesday. Is that a Tuesday?

Thursday. It's usually a th It's [laughter] usually a Thursday. Is it all right?

Thursday. Thursday, February 19th. So, um [clears throat] I guess let let me know um by our next meeting if you have interest so that we can get a table reserved. Um the last couple I've had a little trouble filling the spots in to be honest. Um I've got, you know, several pastors in town that attend. the mayor the mayor sits away from the table. So I'm not sitting at the table with with the group I'm with the the group of other mayors. So um it's a group of eight to to gather and it's a challenging time at first thing in the morning on a on a Thursday for a lot of people to to make. So um if you would let me know I'll get an email out or have Brandon ask Brandon to get an email out on that before our next meeting. I think that's all I had. So, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn.

I move we adjourn. Second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. All right, we're adjourned. Thank you.