Council - Regular Meeting

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Sure, we're on. Can everybody hear me? All right, Ed, you can hear me back there. Very good. We're going to call this meeting to order. Call the role, please. Council member Fitzgerald, here. Council member Alvarez, here. Council member Clark, here. Council member Selenus is out tonight. Council member Click, here. Council member Saper here. Council member Bailey here. Council member Mcgrron here.

And tonight we have a special treat. We have troop 354 I believe here to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. If you could come up to the podium, please. Everybody can stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance 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.

Thank you, Troop 354. Okay. Uh, do we have a motion on approval of the agenda? Second. All in favor? Yes. Opposed? Motion passes. All right. Ceremonial matters. We have some friends here. They have to get out of here to get to their own council meeting. Uh, so we're going to make this quick, but this is the Northland Workforce Development Center. Uh, we have made a $25,000 commitment. So, we have a giant check. So, we're going to bring them up here to take a picture. So, if the council could get together,

you want to get in front of the dis. Where do you want them at? If you guys can get right there, I'll stage you. One, two, three. Taking 40.

How much do you need? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate. Now y'all get out of here. Y'all get out. You here? Yes. Uh 6:30. So yeah, moving. All right, that was fun. Uh moving on to item six, comments from the public. If you are a member of the public wishing to speak, please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record and please limit your comment to five minutes. Thank you so much.

Hey, good evening. I am Ken Hanik with Vermore Bank. My well, we're at Armor and Burlington. My address is 3,300 North Mohawk. And I say that because I live in River Forest on the wrong side. I will continue to pay my 1% earnings tax from North Kansas City Services should you ever want to annex us. I'm just throwing it out there. Okay. Um, excited to be here. I am a graduate of North Kansas City High School and excited to work in Northtown for the first time in my life. I've been here been working north of the river a while but six years at Vermore Bank. And part of what makes us different and we're thrilled to be part of the community is we moved in here in 2013. So in 2012 Bank pulled Premier Bank out. Um we had a building ready to go. We moved in in 2013 and over the last 12 years we now hold the second most deposits in North Kansas City. So we've had some some really good success. We're the only bank down here whose CEO is in North Kansas City. Um actually I should say Northtown because I am from here after all. Um but part of what makes us different also is growth is part of what happens, right? Um, but we're now the only bank that has we're the only bank down here now that really chose to come to Northtown to do business. The others with all the acquisitions are part of a branch network in Northtown was just kind of a part of the puzzle, but we made a very conscious decision in 2013 to come down to Northtown and I'm thrilled. You know, it's turned out really well for us. We um we are also one of the acquiring banks. So, we did recently buy Klay County Savings Bank, uh, which now gives us a nice branch network up and down I35 in in Carney, at North Brighton, in Liberty, and also here. Um, Northtown has been great to us and we're thrilled to be part of it. And part of what has made it great is if you look at

Northtown, Northtown has changed through the years. Northtown. It used to be big industrial city, which it still is, but it also used to be that it went to sleep at about 5:30 at night, which it no longer does. We're similar to that in that we're very much part of the community, but what we do is absolutely changed. Um, our role is still about going down and doing commercial business. We are an aggressive commercial lender to help the the things down here elsewhere in the Northland. But really, it's more of helping customers when they have issues. It's no longer about can you manage the line and what have you. Banking has changed. We've changed with it. Like I say, we are absolutely thrilled to to be a part of it, to be part, you know, part of part of Northtown. And you obviously welcome anyone to come by. We are lucky. I will say this, there is not a bad bank in Northtown. Um, there really isn't. We're fortunate to do that. Again, I really like what we do because um, we're very much of Northtown. I'm personally thrilled to be here and couple of things. I enjoyed seeing the check just before. I'm on the North Lane Caps board. So, the whole idea of of workforce development is close to my heart. I'm also not workforce development, but honored to be the chair of the Klay County Children's Fund. So, I've been doing that eight or nine years since its inception. But anyway, I will let everybody get on with the business. I just want you to know how thrilled Vermore Bank is to be a part of Northtown, how good Northtown has been to us, and hopefully we've been good to Vermore Bank, too. And we are we are here purposefully. So, good luck. Thanks, guys.

Thank you so much. And thank you for the work you're doing with CAPS and the the Children's Fund. That's important stuff. Appreciate you. Further public comments? Going once. Seeing none, we will move along to the consent agenda. Do we have a motion on the consent agenda? So move. Second. All in favor? Yes. Opposed? Motion passes. Regular agenda item 10.

Public hearing. Northgate tax increment financing. believe this is going to be Kim. And Kim has been given a strict 10-minute limit on this one. So, here we go. You mean 100 minutes. Good evening, Mayor and Council. In your packet, you received kind of a longer form report. Um, this is the five-year tax increment financing annual report. Uh, it is statutoily required. So, there are certain things that I need to hit on. I will try to be as quick as possible.

I went right into it. I I scooted right over opening the public hearing. So, we need to uh we need a motion to open the public hearing. Motion to open the hearing. Second. All in favor? Yes. Any opposed? Public hearing is now open. Staff report.

So, we'll start off with state statute. Um so this is the state statute kind of requiring that every five years that we hold a public session to give an update on the tax increment financing plan. So this actually began in 1995. It actually began when the city underwent a master plan development um update which the city is about to embark on next year. Um some of the things that they did was they saw that there was uh some changes in the demographics. They actually did a blockbyb block building survey and they came up with a couple of priorities. So, one of the priorities was a demand for new residential housing to increase home ownership, um redevelop the multifamily housing, and Mike Smith was actually the champion of this particular project. Uh what was identified was the Northgate Village. Some of the things that made this an attractive redevelopment area was the fact that this was under one single ownership. I don't know why they didn't build one more or one less, but they went with 666 units. It was 56 acres. Um, this was post-war housing. It was very functional for its first 30 years. Um, but by the time you got into the 90s, it was deteriorating. Um several of the units actually were later closed and not found safe for human habitat. Um so the city kind of really started to look at this area as an area that could be redeveloped and this is what it looked like in 1996. The city went through kind of a a very interesting assessment process. They looked at minor revitalization versus a a true overhaul. and they went through an analysis process to see what would the city's cost be and what would the amount of livable usable stock and what would the rent look like. So, they actually went with the major

development. Um they stood up the tiff plan or the tiff um committee. The city didn't have a tax increment financing committee and in 1999 they came together with a plan. They designated a master developer and they went with this particular proposal. They did a call for proposals. There were several that were rejected. Um but this is the one that they went with. So this was the financial split. So the city was in charge of getting the land and raising the land and the private developer would put their investments in and sell it to private ownership. This was the overall project cost a little over $82 million. So again, the city was charged with acquiring and preparing the site, which is actually one of the reasons why this is a very unique tax increment financing plan because the city bore the expense of acquiring the land. The tax increment financing actually benefits the city to repay the debt that the city took out from its gaming fund. So it's very interesting. Um the city was the master developer and that is why the tax increment financing flows back into the city to re kind of plenish what was borrowed against its gaming fund. The developer was Hunt Midwest. Um the and like I said it was very interesting that we had kind of conveyed the land to there. The original project timeline was eight years. So in 2020, the city approved all of the plans. In 2023, and again, we're high glossing over, there is a much larger timeline in the report. Um, in 2023, the city had acquired the land. There was several lawsuits that kind of resulted

in finally acquiring that land. Um, Ruby Tuesdays was approved. demolition and infrastructure work happened in 2024 to 2027. Uh, Northgate V 2004 2004. There you go. Yeah. Sorry, I'm trying to move fast. See, if I was going my 45minute route be fine.

Um, in 2004 to 2007, uh, the city was activating the TIFF parcels and construction was going well. And then 2008 happened. Everybody kind of understands what had happened then. the bottom dropped out in the housing market and this project stalled out for quite some time. Um the city was kind of backed into a corner either activate the remaining tiff parcels or forego them and have to start over again. So even though the city had really no prospect of several of these homes being constructed, um the city made the decision to activate it and hope to find a development partner. This is kind of where it was. Um, this was how those particular parcels were activated. You'll see a lot of them were activated in 2009. And again, that was kind of where the economy had stalled out. In 2010, the city hosted its first public hearing um, and the first extension that was granted for the master development agreement. Again, everybody kind of understood where the economy was and the fact that houses were not selling. Um, this was the sixth year of the TIFF activation and you can kind of see what was built and what was stalled out. Uh, in 2011, the third amendment happened. Uh, it actually took out the requirement for a grocery store, which was a requirement for the original development. Um, in 2012 and 2013, the gardens apartments were very popular. In fact, it was one of the amenities that the city didn't really have an understanding of how much senior housing was needed in this community and it actually amended it to allow for more. Um, in 2014, another extension. 2015, another amendment to

allow another gardens apartment. In 2018, the master development agreement expired. Um, and in 2019, the city council uh executed some termination agreements. They were called windup agreements. And what that was was to try to finish what could be finished and then to bring back into city ownership the undeveloped parcels. So, this is kind of what 2020 looked like. The yellow are city-owned property. The blue were privatelyowned property that were not developed yet. we um as part of those windup agreements kind of put a hard stop on when those houses or units were to be constructed. And again, this is 16 years of tiff activation. Um in 2020, the city did put out an RFP and entered into an agreement with Star Development for what you now see is the 23rd and Swift Apartments. We updated the covenants and restrictions. I know some of you were on council when that happened or or kind of paying attention. They were very very restrictive and the feedback the city was getting was that they were too restrictive for development. Um so and that is when we issued the RFP for the commercial property that lines up Burlington. In 2021, we entered into an agreement with Box Development for Bloomman KC and City View Apartments Lot 2B were completed. Um, in 2022, 23rd and Swift began construction and in 23 Bloomk began construction and kind of this brings us up to today. 23rd and Swift apartments are completed. Phase one of NKC is at 70% and as reported about a month or so ago, we actually have received a letter that Hunt Midwest has completed all residential construction. Some items kind of coming up in the near future is we do anticipate in 2026 amending the

TIFF plan for hopefully the very last time. um as well as the completion of phase one in 2020 of Bloom ENKC. In 2027, we anticipate phase two of Bloom ENKC being complete and this would actually complete all of Northgate Village. So, we are working with Bloom ENKC to have kind of a ceremony because that is going to be quite the epic thing as you now see that this project began in 1995. So, and in 2028, the TIFF plan begins to sunset, and in 2033, the TIFF actually retires. So, kind of wrapping up, um, if you look at Northgate Village, even though it did take an elongated timeline, it is still considered a major success in the eyes of TIFF increment financing and what can be done. It did replace a deteriorating mid-century apartment complex that had long presented health and safety challenges. There are actually some people here on staff that were around when those apartments were up and uh responded to calls from that area. Uh it also met another major goal and that was added 245 units available for homeownership possibilities here in North Kansas City. Uh it did transform North Kansas City. A lot of people who are actually at the das kind of live in or around that area and it really did redefine what housing in North Kansas City could look like when it is retired. Uh it will also meet its other goal and that is really giving a shot in the arm to our taxing jurisic our taxing jurisdiction friends because those homes when they come back onto the

tax role will be much higher assessed than what was there previous. So again, it's very unclear at this time and we really won't know until we redo our tiff calculations if the city will be made financially whole after this t after this tiff has run out. One of the things that we are wondering at the staff level is what the implications of Senate Bill 190 will be on the city's projected revenue threads till the end of 2032. our partner Columbia Capital will be helping us kind of understand that when we rewrite the TIFF plan for its third and hopefully last time. Um, however, but you got to think about the holistic goals of the city. And again, Northgate Village really did achieve a lot of those goals set out in 1995 and 1996 when it was envisioned. This is kind of what it looks like now. And that is it for my presentation which for me I think was amazingly fast.

Crushed it. Thank you. Yeah. Hey. All right. Very good. Uh that's that is a great summary. It's wild to see the progress and the vision that was set forth and what the wall looked like back in '95. Wood slats. Pretty cool. Um and to clarify, uh SB90 is the senior tax relief piece that we're not certain what that full impact will be. Um any questions from those at the dis. Okay. Uh so we have public comments for as part of the public hearing. Do we have any public comments? George, anything? No. Hey, very good. All right. Uh do we have a motion to close the public hearing?

So move. Second. All in favor? Yes. Opposed? I have to call roll. Call the role. Council member Fitzgerald, yes. Council member Alvarez, yes. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Click, yes. Council member Saber, yes. Council member Bailey, yes. Council member Mcgrron, yes.

Very good. Uh, thank you again, Kim. that that was a great presentation and this has been such a uh Amy and I came on what 2019 with with this and have 2020ish uh and have been just working on it ever since. But to think it goes back all the way to the the late 1900s um is is wild to think about. All right, moving on to item 11. NKC composting ad hoc committee update. Good evening.

I'm Diane Barrow and I'm here with Bart German and Joanna Keel to update you on the compost uh committee ad hoc group. Uh we appreciate the support we've had from this group and from the city and we just wanted to let you know what we've done since the last time we were here. Um we an important part of what we've done is we took a survey of the interest of the residents in composting. Uh they were able to reply on social media in um the water bills. there was information on how to reply and then we had paper copies available in two spots in the city and we had 105 respondents um and 85 expressed an interest in drop off services. As you can see, there were there was also interest in at home composting, which we will address later, and uh pickup services, which is where they are on their own to purchase their uh compost services that come to their house and get their food scraps. And then, um the drop off is what we're going to drill down on first. Um we get we got some really important information from this. One thing we found out is that of the people who responded 58 pe 58 households would be new to composting which obviously you get a bigger bang for for your buck when you have a lot of new people composting. Um the people who responded uh were amazingly pretty evenly spread although more uh heavily weighted towards one two and three which was important for us to know in terms of where we would put any community drop off bins. Uh we wanted to ask a question about smartphone access

because there's some talk now uh about how building infrastructure that keeps people out who can't or don't use smartphones is not a good long-term strategy. So we just you know we're not focused entirely on that but we want to consider that in our solutions. And so we had 10% of the people who would not be comfortable using a cell phone with the solution. So we have to keep that in mind. Not surprisingly, most of the respondents were from single family homes, but um in composting, it's important to put uh drop off services with the highest density. So, what we learned from this is we're a little bit skewed toward the western side of our city. So, that's kind of where we wanted to focus for drop off services. We are going to propose that we put a drop off bin at or near Save a Lot to take advantage of that western access and the high density housing in that region. We also have at uh near the YMCA the Ripple glass recycling. So that seems like a really logical place that people can just take all their glass to be recycled and uh compost as well. And we're going we have ideas to see if we can find other opportunities for compost or for recycling with that spot too. Our next steps with the drop off bins is a formal proposal from Kansas City can compost. Um we hope to include people from public works. Well, we need to include people from public works um in that proposal

and at that time they will be outlining more clearly their cost and um service agreements. Their entire goal is to make sure that city employees are not spending a lot of time on this and they've learned a lot from their pilot which has been very successful in Prairie Village. So, um, unfortunately for us as a result of that, the costs have gone up pretty si significantly since we've been here. Um, but we're working on ways to pay for that and I'm sure we'll be talking about that at a later date. We've done other things uh not just about drop off services. We had we were lucky enough with the Parks and Rec Group to be able to host a home compost workshop. The Mid America Regional Council had um two folks, Katie White and Stan Slaughter that are uh doing home composting in a number of different mark regions. and they came and we had over 30 people come out to learn about home composting which we were thrilled with the attendance. Um we've also been reaching out to try to encourage people to be interested in this. Um we hope to really hit it hard in the spring too because that's when our drop off services will start. But we wanted to make sure that we were supporting home compro posters and people who wanted home services because they can start those right away. Um, so we use social media to promote home composting workshops here and at Antioch Urban Growers and uh we promoted the um compost collective KC for home pickup services. And we have a YouTube channel

now where we had our first video where Bart uh built a home composter. You can go out and look at it. I think you'll really like it. And um we plan more content like that to just support people as the word is spread and as people have questions, we will reach out more and support people in their efforts. We also applied for and received a grant from the Mid America Regional Council and Kim will be helping us with that. She has and will be helping us. So, some of the expenses that we anticipate like helping maybe some block captains set up so that they can be advisers to their neighbors who are starting to compost. Uh we may need some signage, some educational materials. Uh and we may just be able to provide supplies for people to make their composting experience easier. Uh we hope in the future to work with property managers, tenant groups, uh possibly HOAs to encourage and facilitate homecoming and um we've already distributed information to residents to sign up for curbside, but we'll continue to keep that out in front of people because people will evolve to this at different times. So,

excellent. Do you have any questions? What questions do we have from the council? Council member Grown. So, just so that I can refresh my memory, did we I think we um we set up as a council to give uh money for the bins, right? And were those like $1,000 a month or did that cost go up because of the Prairie Village pilot? The cost went up because the bins are manufactured in the UK. there's tariff impacts

and um I think the the people power required from Casey can compost is more than anticipated. So I think as a council then we gave did we give 2,000 a month for a year? 12 was it 12,000,000 I believe. So, is that going to only going to cover one bin or Well, or will the the grant that you're applying for cover the I'm trying to figure out how we're paying for two bins,

right? We have um I I have a question out to the Mid America Regional Council who gave us the grant if we can use that some of that money for the $2,400 startup fee. Okay. And then um the cost of the bins themselves went from 300 a month to 450. So pretty significant. We had some extra funds at $1,000 a month built in for possible extra pickups. I mean that's really gone now. Okay.

So and then um and did we I as a council I'll just try to remember. Did we say we were going to do this as like a pilot for a year and determine how much the usage is and all and the app I think is what helps us measure the success of that? Yes. Okay, great. Excellent. And I kind of know the answers to this, but I don't think people who are watching have are are aware because we talked about it back in August. So, right, just trying to refresh everyone's memory on where we were with that. All right. Thank you. I appreciate you bringing those up, Council Member Fitzgerald. I'm just trying to make sure I'm understanding the pricing structure that's being discussed. Is that three to 300 to 450 a bin? Is that for each of the drop off bins? Yes. Okay. Yes. Smart bins.

There are other options. I mean, we could go with one of the smart bins that's 450. We could choose a lesser priced bin. I think what people like about the bins that we've chosen is they will only open with a smartphone. And so it's easy to measure your progress. And there's been some concern about people putting things in the bin that aren't allowed. So I haven't had any experience obviously with that, but it is a concern that you hear. So we want it to be successful. So we went with the thing that seemed most secure for for neighborhoods and the people around it. But if we have to stay within that budget, we'll have to make other choices.

And one more quick question. So if they're smart bins, do they need power? No. Okay. That we they're self-powered or battery? I believe they're battery powered. Okay. No, I think I think they're they don't need a power. Okay. Excellent. Yes. Thanks. Further questions on that? Thank you very much for the presentation. Um have you uh so the two bin locations the one is uh city own lot that's we can give the proof for have you spoken with Save a lot yet or approach them? No we haven't we that's our next step to actually get our details nailed down and make sure that

public works and the city budget is where it needs to be. Logistically both of those locations make a ton of sense. I I think you've mapped that out. Um if you need assistance or something like that to speak with Save a Lot or or find a lot nearby that let us know. Okay. Thank you councer. Thank you. I really appreciate the educational part that you're doing because uh like recycling there lot of confusion as to what can and can't be recycled. Same way what can and cannot be put in composting. Yes. And that seems to me to be a very critical part and I'm glad you're pursuing that. Yes, absolutely. Aggressively.

Thank you. Thank you for that. And we're hoping that we can all become resources for each other. We're all starting this together. So, um actually we have a lot of people in our community who already are experts on it. So, we'll be tapping into their knowledge, too. But yes, education is the key. Love it. And uh Bart, thanks for making the video. Very good. YouTube star already. Anything else from the council? Thank you so much for the update. Thank you. All right. Item 12, discussion of grant opportunity for the 10th Avenue Railway Crossing.

Mike. All right, mayor, members of the council. Thank you. Um, just a a little bit of background on this. Uh, we have Jim Townson here with Wilson & Company. Um this is um in reference to 10th Avenue as you're headed east in between uh Gentry and Howell where it crosses seven sets of uh railroad tracks uh and then turns what northeast to go to Bedford. This came up during the safe streets for all uh public u meeting over at the YMCA. Was that a couple months ago? Shu. Um so so that's you know being um administered through SHU and and community development. But they had this big aerial um where you could put stickers or you know uh questions on it about things that are known in the city. Uh and one of the questions was you know with seven tracks there's a lot of rail rail that goes through there. It was just kind of a pie in the sky. Would it be possible to get over that? Well, lo and behold, Wilson and Company, um, they're doing the safe streets for all, but they also work with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and and there's actually a program federally and and through Burlington. So, we met uh discussed it um but but Jim offered to come tonight and talk about the program. Um, the first part is a feasibility study just to see is it possible. um Burlington uh Northern has offered to pay for the grant application if the if the grants applied for and awarded then there's a 20% local local uh share of which I think Burlington will pay 10% of or half of that 20%.

Half of our of the local share so 100k versus 100k. Uh is does Norfolk Southern also cross there? We're we're getting the contact information for Norfolk Southern. Beautiful. And I think Jim could um speak to you know other instances possibly. Sure. No commitments yet, but but I'll with that I'll turn it over to Mr. Townsen.

All right. Thank you, Mark. So over the past two years, I've been working with BNSF with their grants program. We represent them in 13 states, including Missouri. So we're we're doing work across the US working with communities helping them really develop relationships with their community partners to identify opportunities that are win-win for the community and them. You know they they are trying to operate a a safe operation and also communities are trying to have safer communities, quieter communities and so on. So, um, over the past handful of years with the the, um, bipartisan infrastructure bill, they or law, it developed a number of grant programs that could fund grade separation studies, so on, uh, particularly related to rail crossings. And, uh, so BNSF took that to heart and develop this program to to help for us to help them identify these opportunities and engage the communities that want to be engaged with. So just really quick, the public infrastructure team, um French Thompson, he is the engineering director for BNSF. So all the public projects go through French and his team. This grant program is also part of his team. So the the engineering aspect, the study aspect of

everything that happens with the grant program is also coordinated with all of their public projects managers that the communities interact with for every interaction with the railroad. So any crossing, any improvement so on. Um so Cara Rockamp you I don't know if you've interacted with her much. She's the BNSF public projects manager for Missouri and she is your contact. Uh Jeremy Wagner, he is the public infrastructure and investments lead for the southern half of the US. He's who I work with directly and um we've been basically working in most of those states in the orange together. Um so before Bill the the program that was available for this type of infrastructure funding was about a fifth or maybe 20% of what's available now. So right now we have about um 28 billion annually in different programs. The primary programs though are are the uh rail crossing illumination programs and the Christy program uh consolidated rail infrastructure safety improvements. So the focus areas for BNSF, of course, the the grade crossings. That's the primary location where the public interacts with the railroad. When the more that could be done to separate the public from the railroad, the safer everybody is and the fewer incidents that there are. Um they've they've given us a lot of data that relates to their their system above

and beyond what what the Federal Railroad Administration has uh related to their interactions at the crossings and um maintenance activity and so on. And 10th Avenue is one that has a much higher level of maintenance activity because it's on a curve and there's a ton of truck traffic. And so that then causes a lot more activity for for them and for NS to get out there and and try to keep that the crossing active. Um so we have uh a a lot of effort in in the upfront part of of establishing relationships, identifying opportunities. Um many times, you know, the communities haven't engaged the railroads in their planning activities because they didn't know how. And so, you know, they just kind of left the railroad alone thinking that was the better approach. Well, now we're trying to engage the communities to not leave the railroad alone and really engage them in in the community aspect of their planning. So with the grant activities, we're we're doing a lot not only to set up the grant, develop the grant, but at the award also help make sure you have what you need for grant obligation. Um that there's some effort in that. And you know, not all communities are set up to facilitate that that effort seamlessly. Uh Mike mentioned the safe streets for all

program. That's another aspect of a of the of a grant program that that you know a lot of communities didn't think about the railroad aspect and crossings when they were doing their studies. They got enough money to do the roads but not really dig into a lot of the crossing activities as well. uh the orange lines the the thick orange lines on the map those are BNSF's intermoal corridors and as you can see a lot goes through Kansas City um there's a lot of activity that from throughout the ports all the ports of the US that come through Kansas City and you know that makes the the activity on those those thick orange lines those are their most important lines and so So they they want to see greater focus from me and and my team on those orange lines. So 10th Avenue, uh you have you have a a lot of industrial development on the east side of the tracks that have very limited access to town. They have the one crossing and the at 10th Avenue to get into into town. there's also an interchange. So the you know it's it's a it's a very um it's almost a giant culde-sac. And so, you know, what we were talking about um with Mike and his team and and with BNSF is this is a great opportunity to one assess 10th Avenue as the crossing. Should that be the location? And you know, maybe it could be another centralized location or something um on a different alignment or um

potentially, you know, great just north of 10th. You can you could tie in without a ton of impact to the existing uh buildings um and businesses and so on that are in the area. So, you know, this was a quick a really quick idea just to say, hey, there is something that could be done out there to to explore. And, you know, this is just one of several um ideas that that would hopefully advance through an alternatives analysis phase and and be able to figure out what is a preferred way forward. So, what um what we're talking about is in the spring um the rail crossing elimination grant should be released by FRA. Uh it's typically a two to three month turnaround. We we like to get ahead of when the the notice of opportunity comes out and u you know really start working with you to hone the message. Make sure make sure we're not missing anything that you want in the grant. The city is the applicant. Um BNSF is a participant. They're not in the lead. We will lead the grant. We have a contract with ENSF. When they say go, they we go. Um we we think this is a million-doll study. 800,000 federal, 200,000 is the match. The the match is split 50/50 between the city and BNSF. There might be a third party NS. We um we just haven't been able to to verify or

validate that. So, at the high end, it'd be a $100,000 match from the city. It could be that NS doesn't want to participate. Um, now it could be that, you know, it could be that North Fork Southern um as as the the North Fork Southern is a uh they're a player in the grant world. So, you know, the the federal grants are not new to them. So, we don't anticipate them to say, "H, we don't we don't want to deal with this, but we just haven't had the discussion with them yet. We wanted to have this discussion with you all to make sure you're you're interested." So, at the high end of the of of the responsibility of the city, it'd be a h 100,000. And I'm thinking that's 2027. the, you know, if if the grant goes in in like late spring, early summer, it usually takes three or four months for selection. Then it takes another six or eight months for obligation. And so there's there's a lot of process that goes into that. Um then the expectation from BNSF is that this continues on for preliminary engineering and environmental clearance and then it continues on for construction and they're a participant in that as well both on the grant application side and for the the match as well. The other thing is there are other partners like MDOT that we can also start tapping to see if if they're interested in playing. I know right now MDOT is tapped out. They've um they have

a lot of other priorities in the state um that they've been working on and but you know it takes it just takes early conversations to get them engaged to get something programmed a few years out. Um this is just an example project where you know the the study for the PE NEPA for this project where it was a a Chrissy funded grant um you know the the funding is generally in that 80% range. It used to be that you if you put a little more towards it, you might score better. That's gone away. But what what we found with Clovis is Clovis has become a true partner with BNSF and they they work pretty seamlessly to advance their ideas together, try to find where each other can can find that win-win opportunity to advance together. Um, I found if you treat them treat BNSF as a partner, they do really try to work with you to to do what everybody wants to do in their best interest. Uh, contact information for the team. Critica. Um, Jeremy reports to Critica. Cara is your local project man projects manager and then Mike and I are running the program.

All right, thank you very much. Um, couple questions for me. Um, so I appreciate the presentation and the opportunity to address this. This is something that I'm sure impacts the PO Industrial District businesses that that one crossing pinch point kind of puts them out on an island. Um, where did you say I I heard this came out of the safe streets for all? What was the genesis of this ask? Is it coming from BNSF or is it coming from the city? How did it land here? It was me. Okay. I I was looking at the aerial and saying and just thinking of things they were asking, you know, and there were uh curbs or or uh even even down to the uh oh god 88 ramps y

that I've experienced, you know, over on iron or whatever. But it was like, well, hey, there's this. And that's how it all all came up. Sure. That that uh the planner then I think reached out to uh people within Wilson. We got contacted and said, "Would you like to meet?" Sure. Uh second piece, uh said seven tracks cross there. Is that what I heard? How many of those are BNSF tracks? Three or four. Three or four. And the other three are Norfolk. Um you mentioned maintenance cost to the railroads. a lot of truck traffic beats up those tracks. Do you have any dollar value on what the maintenance looks like annually for either railroad? All I know is that it's worth it to them to do this.

Okay. Um and and so I I think it's a it's a good thing to look at. Um I think you said you think it's a million- dollar study. Do we How firm are we on that estimate that it's going to be a million dollars to study it 20% local share shakes out to 100k each? Um, is that pretty sure or I'm I'm I'm confident. Okay. Um, I'll take that. And then I would put it back to I think and we would have to talk about it as a council. Yes.

Would be supportive of uh doing the study, but I would really like to see Norfolk Southern engaged and paying their portion as well as a beneficiary. So like they would be seeing if this ends up being done uh a lot less maintenance on the track. BNSF also which I appreciate them coming to the table and offering to be a community partner. Um but I would like to see Norfolk Southern certainly being part of the process. Then the last piece I would ask is uh say we study it, we get the green light, we found a design that works, who pays for the build? Is that city? Is that Well, it's a continued partnership for so

Okay. it we we would BNSF would have us do a another grant and for preliminary engineering NEPA and then another grant for final design and construction. Okay. Um, what I would be cautious of greenlighting is saying, "Okay, let's let's get a million dollars in for a study, but what the backend might cost. Is it going to be a $10 million project? It's going be a $20 million project if we start building a bridge over tracks and knowing where that funding is going to come from before we greenlight the study, if that makes any sense." Sure.

So, we don't find out, yeah, this is this is great. we make it a whole lot safer, but it's going to cost the city more money than we have to to even put toward it. So, at the low end, I would say it's probably 25 to 30 million for that option that I was I had on that on that one slide. Okay. And if there's some other option, let's say it it starts to impact uh the power transmission lines or it's a much larger structure or it can go up from there of course. So the what I would call the yellow snake option that you have drawn in there is uh that would be the 25 million

25 to 30. 25 to 30 assuming no confounding circumstances which as we all know there will be some um when you have partnerships like the one you cited there what is the typical split look like um does BNSF put up a chunk and there's grants and what does it end up looking like to the city so the the the grant the federal grants are always covering 80% okay

and so the 20% comes from other they're matching funds from whoever ever DNSF has been partnering on all aspects of the match from from the planning through construction and it depends on you know the the number of participants and you know it could be that MDOT chips in some it could be that NS chips in some and you know at At most it's a 5050 split. Okay.

I you know I I I would think we could get MDOT interested in it because there's an interchange right connection here to the interstate. Yeah. Um their budget I've learned recently their budget process is many many years long to get something into their hopper and to get it funded. Um so if we're looking to study and then maybe get it implemented in 2027 2028 um we would need to start that process mod about a year ago or so.

No this the study would start in 27. Okay. The construction I'm guessing is probably eight years down the road if you're getting grants for all aspects of the project. Okay. So, we got a little ways. We have a ways. All right. Questions from the council. Council member Saper. uh considering the topography there flat and uh it would it would h it would really have to be I would think a pedestrian automobile crossing. It would probably have to be quite long.

Yeah. Yeah. And uh that cost it would be very would be very high for that uh pedestrian vehicular crossing. Um again is there another option for realigning streets that might be less costly in terms of building a bridge for cars and pedestrians? Oh, be part of possibly. And that's that's and that would be part of the study, I assume, because you'd want to keep the railroad at grade level. That's right. Yeah, you have to. Yeah, absolutely.

As a former locomotive engineer, I would I would you would have to keep it that way. Uhhuh. Council member Mcgrron.

Okay. So, um, Mike, I appreciate you thinking about this from a perspective of somebody who's trying to get around that area. Um, I don't see a lot of foot traffic over there. I'm down there a lot. Um, I do see a lot of car traffic going into the area. Um, so I've got a couple of questions about that. One is are the businesses other than the railroad who is having to deal with the damage that the cars are doing to their tracks, are any other businesses complaining about access that the trains are blocking from the people from getting to those businesses? Because if right now it sounds like we have train tracks that have cars running over them all the time and it would be really nice if that wasn't happening and if the city could pay for or at least partially fund a bridge that cars could then go over and the train tracks wouldn't get as damaged in Burlington Northern and Northfor Southern wouldn't have to repair their tracks as much. That's what I'm hearing. Um, I'm hearing that uh you're asking us for $100,000 potentially low-end probably to do a study to tell us what are the options. Then maybe a 30,000 or $30 million project to build something. Uh, if the city pays 10% of that, that's $6 million to do I'm sorry, that's $3 million. Uh, but it's not going to be $30 million. It's going to be more than that because as council member Saper said, it's a very long expanse. Here's what I would like. I would like for Burlington Northern and um North Southern to fund their own study, come to us, tell us here is what we think would be good, and then we can decide whether or not we think it's a good idea to spend millions of dollars improving that situation. I think right now I'm not comfortable spending $100,000

on a study that's going to tell us it's going to cost too much for us to be involved to fix it. That's where I'm at. Any other thoughts from the council? Council member Click. Uh just similarly, my question kind of the whole time was I'm curious what the businesses who are impacted the most would say is really I'd be interested to hear that perspective before spending before even talking more about spending the hundred,000. Council member Alvarez.

Yeah, I'm just curious. Maybe I don't quite understand the reasoning for this. Is this um to benefit the railroad for their tracks or what's the advantage for the city to have this the bridge built? You would have an unimpeded connection between the industrial area and the town. Okay? You wouldn't be have a blocked crossing when the trains are seven tracks are crossing that crossing. So you wouldn't you wouldn't be there would be no blockage. No no no wait time or no no horns, no nothing.

Okay. Okay. Council member Bailey. Couple questions. Um, one I would assume if we did traffic over it, it would need to be able to handle semi- loads, which right,

not just ve vehicular, but um, semi I've been blocked by this many times, so I get it. I've got caught there. It's It's not fun. And you can sit there and wait quite a while before it shows up. Generally, I give up and go around on 35, which is unfortunate. My biggest question is actually for Fire Chief Williams is if you had guaranteed access down there, does that change staffing and equipment needs, if you knew because right now you you've essentially almost doubled your level of equipment to have a second firehouse down there just because if there is traffic there, you can't get through. Correct.

Uh I wouldn't say that that's the main reason why that station is down there. Okay. But it would uh it would create better access for not only I mean I think Chief Freeman would agree too that it would create better access as far as emergency response. Okay. So there there might be some equipment that maybe you wouldn't need to double up on. You could share not completely remove what we have down there by any stretch of the imagination but there could be some synergies. Uh yeah possibly. I mean, I I wouldn't say for sure right now without studying it or looking at it.

Okay. Council Fitzgerald, um this cost um if we were to move forward with $100,000 wouldn't be something we would have directly budgeted for obviously not knowing about this before tonight. But what I guess kind of where would this funding come from? Where in our budget? Uh the first first thought is gaming. I mean, the first thing we do is look at what we budgeted for in capital, where we're at on it, if there's anything we think that, you know, isn't going as quick as as thought. But the the other part is just coming back with um the request, a budget amendment. Either I'd say gaming or transportation, one of the two.

Yeah, I know. I hear the concerns about the large long-term costs. It's, you know, I get it at the same time for, you know, starting the process for relatively low cost of 100 grand and just seeing what it looks like and seeing what federal funding is available doesn't seem like the worst decision to me personally. You maybe no guarantee of ever going past that, but at least see what's out there. Yep. Council member Bailey.

Yeah, let's go. I I would be in favor of getting uh Norfolk Southern on the the phone and seeing whether they recognize the value of unimpeded traffic through there as well. And then if all three of us can go to the dance and said just the two that might be I would like to hear that through a budgetary amendment and see where we go from there. Um one more question out of me. Uh have we had any safety or injury related incidents at that crossing? Yes, we have. Can you speak on that or volume? It might have been on one of the small prints. It was. There we go. Uh, one incident,

one blockages. So, that's that's not an like a safety situation. That's just blockages. Okay. Nothing in the past 10 years. Reported blockages.

Okay. Okay. Thinking from a safety I know it came up because of safe streets for all. So, safety perspective. This is more of a maintenance on the tracks access and potential blockages of the tracks impeding access to the P. Makes sense. Have we explored other entry points to the P? I know we have 35 that you can come off the the ramp. There's also railroad avenue on the far side that doesn't look like it crosses all the way in. Um, but that might be part of the study as well as other potential access points. I'm I'm not sure on that. Uh, I think next steps would be to to engage with Norfolk Southern and I don't know if that's your role or Mike would do that. Who would be in charge of reaching out to the other player in the

BNSF is reaching out to them. Okay. So, that's that's ongoing. Um, I think that would be the next thing as a council we would need to hear about to to kind of start moving forward. You said February is when the process opens. It should open in early spring. Okay. And then May is the day we would like to get started if the if you all would like to move forward with the grant, we would like to get started on it before then. Okay. Because it does take some time. Sure. Um All right. So, uh, Council Member Clark, sorry, I may have miss misheard you, but did you say that um it would prevent horn honking?

Okay, that's where I perked up because almost every one of my neighbors is like, "What's up with these trains and the horns honking?" I'm curious because I don't know enough about railroad life. Um, you guys don't use the horn to communicate with each other. You use it to communicate to people crossing humans and cars. That's right, guys. I mean, it's it's worth 30 million right there. I mean, I'm just saying look,

had I known this whole time because sometimes it feels a little passive aggressive. I'm going to be honest. like who's crossing because somebody is really laying into that horn at like 3:00 a.m. sometimes where I want to personally go down and see what the heck's happening. But knowing that it's a human or a car, that's what you guys are that's the horn is yelling at. So public, this is what it is. It's not um it feels personal. It does sometimes. Um but that's good to know. I'm I'm all for this guys. I'm I'm on the wagon. We pass the collection plate in W 4 and we'll get the 100 grand tomorrow. I believe so.

Awesome. Um, all right. Uh, so next steps would be to find out from Norfolk Southern if they're looking to participate and then we can make a an informed decision after that. Awesome. Perfect. Anything else you need from us? No. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. All right. Item 13. Consideration of an ordinance approving a community transportation contract with guest. Bill number 7955, ordinance number 9752.

Do we need any further explainer on this one? I I think we've we've talked it into the ground. This is the contract for the Northland ride share style program with guest. Um this would open up access to the five Northland cities. Um the the price is $7,500 a month or 90,000 for the year and the cost to the riders would be $3 per person per ride. and we have gotten good reviews from every other participating community thus far. Got to start somewhere. First reading. There you go. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes.

Council member Fitzgerald, just a general question, but um have we I wasn't here last week. I I tried to catch up on some of that, but have we had discussions with guest on advertising or getting the word out that how do you get a hold of them instead of the flex bus for people using that service? Sure. they uh and they would mirror what they've done in the other cities. The big ribbon cutting, press releases, that kind of stuff. Um and then potentially wrapping vehicles, I I understand is a a thing they're looking to do. Go ahead.

One of the things the communications team has talked about is a postcard. So after kind of all the transit options are finalized for next year for 2026, uh the communications team will put together a postcard that will be mailed citywide to kind of let them know about all their public transit options for 2026 and newsletter and water bills and carrier pigeons. Every way we can get this out. But yeah, we we'll be spreading the word. Um any other question? Oh, so we we got a first reading second. We did in favor. Anyone opposed? Motion passes.

An ordinance adopting and approving a community transportation service contract by and between the city of North Kansas City, Missouri and Guest Missouri Holdings LLC for public transportation services within the city of North Kansas City, Missouri. I move that bill number 7955 be placed on second and final reading and passes ordinance number 9752. Second. Call the role. Council member Fitzgerald, yes. Council member Alvarez, yes. Council member Clark, yes. Council member Click, yes. Council member Saper, yes. Council member Bailey, yes. Council member Mcgone, yes.

An ordinance adopting and approving a community transportation service contract by and between the city of North Kansas City, Missouri, and Guest Missouri Holdings LLC for public transportation services within the city of North Kansas City, Missouri. Excellent. Item 14, consideration of an ordinance approving a temporary license agreement with Armor District LLC. Bill number 7953, ordinance number 9750.

And this one is something that we basically renew annually. Uh this used to be with NT realy is now with Armor District LLC. This is for the parking lot off of Clay between Clay and Swift off of Armor and uh bounded by 18th, affectionately known as the Paul and Jacks adjacent parking lot. Um it's 500 bucks a month. We installed some lever arms to for access and we got a very preferential rate for that rent and Armor District has honored that. So this is the proposal to renew that temporary license agreement. Do we have a motion? First reading. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Any opposed? Motion passes.

An ordinance adopting and approving a non-exclusive temporary license agreement buy and between the city of North Kansas City, Missouri as Lency and Armor District LLC as licenser for the temporary use of a certain parking lot owned by licenser. I move that bill number 7953 be placed on second and final reading and pass as ordinance number 9750. Second. Call the role. Council member Fitzgerald. Yes. Council member Alvarez. Yes. Council member Clark. Yes. Council member Click. Yes. Council member Saper. Yes. Council member Bailey. Yes. Council member Gro.

Yes. An ordinance adopting and approving a non-exclusive temporary license agreement by and between the city of North Kansas City, Missouri as Lency and Armor District LLC as licenser for the temporary use of a certain parking lot owned by licenser. All right, let's pay the bills. Item 15, consideration of an ordinance approving accounts due and payable by the city through November 28th, 2025. Bill number 7956, ordinance number 9753. Weird question, but where is ordinance number 9751?

Well, 9750 was out of order because we were going to put it on the last agenda and we pulled it. So 975 was on the last agenda. Okay. I was like, I messed up. Goodness. First reading. Second. All in favor? Yes. Any opposed? Motion passes. An ordinance authorizing payment for certain accounts due and payable by the city through November 28th, 2025. I move that bill number 7956 be placed on second and final reading and passes ordinance number 9753. Call the role. Second. Second. Sure. Council member Fitzgerald.

Yes. Council member Alvarez. Yes. Council member Clark. Yes. Council member Click. Yes. Council member Saper. Yes. Council member Bailey. Yes. Council member Mcgrron. Yes. An ordinance authorizing payment for certain accounts to impay by the city through November 28th, 2025. Staff comments. All right. Um, not a whole lot tonight. Um, Crystal, Kim, and Dan, I have comments for you unless anyone has questions before that. Go ahead.

Okay. First of all, I want to remind everybody that you should be receiving that the notice from the Missouri Ethics Commission for your personal financial disclosure statements. They're due by sometime in January, by the end of January. So, um, watch for those in your because they'll email them to you. I don't get them, so I won't be able to tell you. Is that not what we signed recently?

No, I was just that far behind. Okay, cool. Cool. And then also at the next meeting, I'd like to bring forth to the council some changes I'd like to see made on the charges we charge for sunshine requests. We're getting a lot more sunshine requests than we've gotten in the past and they're pretty big, so they take a lot of time. Um, and we haven't we haven't updated that. I don't remember when it was last. It's not since I've been here, and I've been here 13 years. So, I I think that we need to make some changes. There's been some changes with the state on how we can charge. And so I'd like to bring that forth if that's okay with you guys. What What's the current charge?

Um, okay. I wasn't going to say this, but candidate filing starts December 9th at 8:00 a.m. and goes through December 30th at 5:00 pm. That's December 9th. It starts. Yeah. I was going I'm going to remind people. However, we will be gone. We do have half a day Christmas Eve and then we're off Christmas Day and the day after. So I'll be here till noon on Christmas Eve for signups. Okay. Other staff comments.

Just real quick, sorry, Dan. Um, at your next city council meeting, you will be hosting the graduating class of the citizens academy. So, the fall cohort will be graduating. So, uh, they are looking forward to meeting everybody and going through their ceremony. Excellent. And I just wanted to thank all of you that showed up for the awards ceremony at uh over at the fire station. Uh we truly appreciate you when you come out and show that support. So, thank you for being there.

Very good. I was surprised at how international our fire department is. We got we got friends from all over the planet. Very good. Any other staff comments? Anthony, anything? All right. Very good. Uh council member comments starting with council member Fitzgerald. wasn't quite prepared to go first home. Thank you to the uh well the workforce development program. It's exciting to see that they left their big check, but I assume we transferred the money to them. So,

um, and an item that's been on the city strategic plan that I don't think has been progressing, but there's somewhat of a, uh, time, uh, you know, a deadline approaching is the infrastructure audit of the city's fiber network. Um, the renewal with that is coming up before we know it. And I know that um getting that study, moving to know what assets the city has in the ground and what state they're in before we go into negotiations on that has been sitting out there. So I'd like to see some progress on that. Get a you know task order out or whatever the next step is. I'm just one of eight votes up here. But that that'd be my my stance on it. Try to move that forward quickly. Maybe even the next meeting or two if possible.

Yep. Very good. Council member Alvarez. Um, just want to thank group 354 for their uh pledge of allegiance and being here tonight. So, thank you for doing that. Um, and actually I think that's all I have. Council member Clark.

Way to go. Troop 354. Thanks to Kim for signing a meeting that was a little over an hour. Not too bad. Not too shabby. There have been some three-hour ones she could have punished you with. Great job. Uh, parks update. Feel the warmth. made it to our open North KC park fences today. So, not River Forest Park, but hats, scarves, and gloves are available for anyone who may need them. Um, Mayor's Christmas tree lighting is this Friday, December 5th at 6:00 p.m. in its new location at Dag Park, just right out there. Uh, Santa, the misses, their elves, everybody's going to be in attendance. Cocoa and cookies will be served. Goodie bags for the first 200 kids. That's it. the first 200. All right, Council Member Click,

get there early. Um, Troop 354, thanks for coming and sitting through everything. I hope you learned some stuff and it was kind of interesting. Um, and Ken from Barmore Bank, thanks uh for being part of North Kansas City. Uh, we appreciate you being here. Uh, happy holidays. That's all. Council member Saver. Uh, since I will not be at the next council meeting to congratulate the graduating class, I want to do it early. What number class is this? Putting you on the spot right now. I want to say it's either five or six.

They've all been terrific and getting better all the time. And I encourage everyone out there who has the time to in take part and harass as many city departments as you want in the process and again happy holidays to all. Council member Bailey.

Uh thank you Ken for coming out. I know I use Vimmore Bank so it was it was great to get to see you. Um thank you for the composting committee for coming out. It's one of the things that I will honestly say brings me some amount of joy to see uh us moving forward as a a city municipality looking at adding services like that. Uh and lastly, congratulations to Peggy Staver for her appointment. Dr. Mcronone, I think everybody said everything I want to say except thank you to our wonderful uh public works department who got our city streets clean fast as usual. Uh we love all of you and we love North King City. There we go.

Excellent. That brings it around to me. I'm going to echo just a few things. A reminder on the election if you'd like to run. Basically, those of you who are still watching, um 129, sign up, bring five bucks. Still five bucks. Does it have to be in cash?

$5 cash. We will turn you away if you don't have the cash. Uh and that runs through Christmas Eve at noon. Is that what I heard? No, the 30th. Okay. But till noon on Christmas Eve. Very good. Uh the mayor's tree lighting, uh Amy already mentioned this, but it will be at Dag Park. Um not at the corner of Armor and Swift as it has been for the past few years. We are moving that. So if you show up down there, you might be confused. Uh so come out 6 p.m. on Friday. Public works crushing it with the snow removal. Thank you so much to uh everyone who is involved with that. I just I'm always blown away by how quickly that stuff disappears in North Kansas City and not elsewhere. Um you can tell where the boundaries are. If you're confused where North Kansas City stops, look for the snow. Um let's see. Composting committee, thank you for the presentation. It's amazing to see what uh motivated residents can get get going. I appreciate the expertise and the just motivation to get things moving. Uh, and then I meant to run this by a council before announcing it, but I am going to be hosting a town hall meeting later this month. Uh, it will be on the 18th. Location to be determined. So, if you're watching and you want to attend, go ahead and put that on your calendar. The uh yeah, just pencil in the 18th. We'll we'll hone in the details. That is all from me. Moving on to item 19. Consideration of a request to hold in recess into an executive session as requested by the city administrator to be held on this date pursuant to Missouri revised statute section 610.02112 contractual matter and 610.0212 0212 real estate matters contractual matter real estate matter real estate matter

do we have a motion so move second call the role council member Fitzgerald yes council member Alvarez yes council member Clark yes council member click yes council member Saper yes council member Bailey here yes council member Mcgrron yes perfect Uh, at this time the live stream and channel 2 will shut off. There will be no further votes or business this evening. Thank you for tuning in.