Remarks by Jim Howell
146 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 6
- Play at 1:50:14
“Thank you, sir. Commissioner Howell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions. I see on slide 18 it says a maximum of one ADU may be allowed on the same single-family dwelling unit or duplex. Please clarify, you can have a duplex by right on a single-family property? No, sir.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:50:46
“I do understand that. I want to make sure this is not ambiguous and can be misinterpreted. Maybe it's fine, but okay. I think that's fine. You may have already stated this. I'm not sure that if you did, I apologize for not hearing it, but is there a minimum lot size to have at ADU?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:51:26
“And two adjacent properties that wanted to share a lagoon, do we allow that?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:51:34
“But in this case, they could share a lagoon. An ADU and a main home could share a lagoon.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:51:43
“And if there was a municipal sanitary sewer line, would they be allowed to have two taps on that sewer line? No.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:52:06
“But they potentially could have two taps or one. One of those would require a variance or something?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:52:30
“Okay, so we look at probably one electric meter, one water meter?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:52:39
“Okay. And this being one parcel, we would have one tax bill for the entire property with two structures on it. Is that right? Yes, sir. I believe that's correct. And down the road, if they decided they wanted to sell the accessory structure, could they sell that to someone else? How would that happen?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:53:19
“So for them to sell this, they would have to meet all the requirements of separating utilities and everything else would have to be.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:53:34
“So the two homes could be the same size, um, the the first one we call that the main the main residents And the second one we envision, that would be the ADU. I'm curious why that matters. If someone built a larger home subsequently, why can't the larger home be the main home and the older structure be the ADU?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:54:22
“So if the smaller structure was out in front and they weren't five acres, that would be a problem?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:54:37
“So beyond the setbacks, is there any other reason why we have these classifications of main residence versus accessory?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 1:55:11
“I think that we should go forward. I do support this. I think there's going to be some learning on our part on some issues that might crop up from this whole thing. We might need to come back and do some cleanup on this at some point in the future. But I think it's a way for us to get started. So I don't think this is the perfect document. I don't think it's going to do everything we need it to do. But I think we can get started and we'll learn. And we'll probably need to make some adjustments at some point. I did say earlier in the staff meeting earlier when this was presented that I do…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:02:08
“Commissioner Howe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple questions here. You said that the annual land lease value, I guess, is $22,600 per year? That's correct, Commissioner Howe. And that's a 50% reduction of what they would normally charge?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:02:42
“So one of my questions is where does that revenue actually go? I know it goes to the airport authority, but ultimately where does it go and how is that money utilized in the future?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:03:01
“Does it end up in the Wichita, the general, the Wichita budget? Do they have access to this money at some point?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:03:24
“Is the 50% reduction, again, that was a discretionary decision of the airport authority, airport advisory board. Who had the authority to make that decision?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:03:38
“Jesse Romo is the one who gave authorization to me for that. Okay. So is that a discretionary? Do they have to charge something? Is the range zero to full price is what I'm wondering? I believe that's correct, yes. I think he has some discretion, though not total discretion, the way he was describing it to me. Well, knowing that we still have a cost on this hangar, I wish that, and then again, to the point, this is primarily to the benefit of Wichita. I wish that they would have brought that down to zero as their, if you will, support for the hangar. We're going to be putting property taxes…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:06:22
“Not really. I guess I'd just say I'm looking at the what-ifs. What if we end up with a hangar that KHP decided they didn't want this hangar for something? They want to do something different. We end up with a multimillion-dollar hangar on airport authority land. What do we do? I'd like to know what my options are at that point.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:07:00
“Well, again, we don't have a contract with the state, so we don't know for sure what they will do going forward. We don't know. There's no way to...”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:07:27
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:08:11
“I continue to have concerns about this. I'll be voting no on this today. That's probably not a surprise to anybody. I still think there's issues that are potentially going to cause some second guessing on whether this is the right direction for the state to go. We're now creating obligations for us that I'm not sure we're ready for. And I think there's, again, in terms of negotiation, the fact is it's going to cost us, I think our general consensus is it's going to cost central county taxpayers roughly $80,000 a year to do the state a favor without a contract for the state of Kansas, and…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:18:32
“Commissioner Howe, did you have an additional question? I do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to clarify, this letter of intent is not binding. It is simply just an indication to our council on what to work on. You just said that. That's correct. The lease we do sign with the airport authority, that will be binding? That's correct, Commissioner Howe. Okay. So then ultimately there's going to be a lease agreement. You just mentioned a lease agreement with KHP. Is that binding?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:20:56
“I didn't know that that's a comment that they had made. I wonder if the legislature would be supportive of that type of fiscal plan. I don't know that they would be. But anyway, if they did, again, I understand that they're not willing to sign a lease agreement without some type of wiggle room to get out of it if they should choose to do so. My question is, why are we going to sign a binding agreement that doesn't have the same wiggle room? If they backed out, why can't we also find a way to... I guess, have the same right to not continue this and possibly sell the land or whatever without…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:23:02
“To clarify, I'm not suggesting we would default on our debt. I'm suggesting we have the right to sell the property and recoup whatever monies are available for the sale as we continue to pay off that debt. I see. Whenever that happens. So I'm not suggesting there's any defaulting of the debt. I'm simply saying I don't want to own a hangar forever because of a 50-year lease that we can't sell the building that we constructed forever, even though the state's not committed to the same level that we're being committed to. And just one final comment. Again, I know I'm beating a dead horse on this…”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026