City Council Regular Meeting - March 18, 2025
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City Council Regular Meeting - March 18, 2025
The Olathe City Council held its regular meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at 7:00 PM in the Downtown Library Flex Box Theater, a temporary location due to ongoing City Hall renovations. The meeting included proclamations, a K-State Olathe annual report, consent agenda items, public hearings, and new business. Notable discussions included a modification to the Woodland Road Corridor Plan for a housing development and concerns about the Johnson County Transit Plan. The meeting adjourned at 9:07 PM.
Special Business
- Seven Days Proclamation: Mayor Bacon read a proclamation declaring Olathe a Seven Days supportive city, encouraging residents to celebrate kindness from March 31 to April 8. David Stubblefield, a Seven Days Foundation board member, accepted and spoke.
- K-State Olathe Annual Report: Dean Ben Wolf presented the school's achievements, including new programs (undergraduate pre-production and personal financial planning), enrollment growth (31 students after one year in the new program), and a shift toward industry-sponsored research. Discussion covered the AAFCO ingredient review process and funding from producers.
Consent Agenda
- All items approved except Item M, which was pulled for separate discussion.
- Item M: Change Order No. 2 to the agreement with Titan Built LLC for Facility Improvements and Renovations Project (PN 6-C-038-24), including $650,000 for a new children's play area at the community center that doubles the existing space. Approved unanimously (6-0).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Gregory Betzen, an Olathe resident owning adjacent property, spoke against the modification to the Woodland Road Corridor Plan transitional lot policy. He argued the developer could achieve feasibility with fewer changes and emphasized the importance of preserving the 15,000-square-foot minimum lot size. He noted that 39 emails opposed the modification while 7 supported it (as stated by staff).
- Travis Schram (Grata Development, developer) spoke in favor of the modification, stating the 29-lot plan was necessary for financial viability and to stabilize the Red Hawk Run HOA by adding more lots.
Discussion Items
- Annexation (Ordinance 25-08): Request to annex ~7.93 acres northwest of W. 143rd Street and S. Lakeshore Drive for future single-family development. Approved unanimously (6-0).
- Red Hawk Run V Final Plat and Transitional Lot Policy Modification: Request to modify the Woodland Road Corridor Plan's transitional lot minimum size to allow 29 lots (instead of 25) on ~10.86 acres. Staff supported the modification due to the narrow site constraints, tree preservation, and enhanced landscaping (50 additional trees and increased setbacks). Councilmember Vakas expressed ethical concerns about deviating from the plan without financial verification and voted no. Councilmember Vogt noted safety and screening benefits. Motion passed 5-1 (Vakas opposed).
Key Outcomes
- Ordinance 25-08 (Annexation): Approved 6-0.
- Red Hawk Run V: Modification and final plat approved 5-1 (Councilmember Vakas dissenting).
- Johnson County Transit Plan: Councilmember Vakas proposed sending a letter to the County Commission opposing a proposed service area reduction that would eliminate Olathe from microtransit. Councilmember Vogt requested more information first. City Manager Michael Wilkes indicated staff could invite county commissioners for a future presentation.
- Executive Session: Held for 20 minutes to discuss personnel matters regarding the City Auditor position. Council authorized staff to proceed with strategies discussed.
New City Council Business
- Councilmembers acknowledged the fire department and first responders for their work during red flag wildfire conditions.
- Mayor Bacon announced a field house survey (open until March 28) and a Women's History Month presentation at Mahaffie Heritage Center on March 20.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Olatha City Council for Tuesday, March 18th, 2025. The first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Could you please stand with me? So as you can see, this is our first day in this uh new temporary uh home for our council meetings and also the planning commission meetings will be here held here through mid-May while the work is being done on the chamber uh or the code or our council chambers at City Hall. It may take us a moment to get used to this and work out all the kinks. I did want to thank the staff for good setting all this up, and I do hear a little bit of a feedback. I don't know if that's from me. Maybe I should back this off a little bit. Can everyone hear me okay? So it sounds like uh so anyway, bear with us a little bit as we work out case, and uh we're glad you all found us. So uh with that we'll start with our special business um item A is presentation of the Seven Days Proclamation. Each year the Seven Days Foundation brings our community together with one main goal, and that's to spread kindness. And find a shared vision meeting a strong community. So joining us today to accept the seven days proclamation, seven days foundation hold members, David Summer. Okay, it's kind of get down to this helpful community. So I'll read the proclamation. Wow, this is really hot. Okay. The proclamation reads, whereas the city of Oletha is dedicated to bringing citizens together to build a community of compassion and goodwill. And whereas we are proud to support the Seven Days Foundation and share their goal of overcoming our conflict by focusing on acts of kindness and friendship. And whereas Olafa's rich cultural diversity enhances our lives and strengthens our city, and we commend Seven Days Initiative on its efforts to encourage activities that foster peace and harmony. And whereas we look forward to the opportunity to meet new neighbors, explore new cultures, and give back to our community each year during this celebration. Now therefore, I jumped the mayor of the city of Olaf to hear by proclaim Olafa to be a seven-day supportive city and encourage all Olafians to spend March 31th through April 8th with their families and neighbors celebrating our differences and focusing on making our community a better place. But through education, dialogue and action, we have turned pain uh into purpose. Your dedication to policies, and partnerships that uplift kindness and understanding makes a real difference in our communities. I've been an educator for 27 years, uh part of that uh as a high school principal. Uh there's gonna be a special place to meet in heaven, I'm sure. Uh I just I just want to encourage everyone here uh to get into your school, have conversations and dialogue with your teachers. Uh they are amazing people. We have young people in our schools every single day doing amazing work, and you can be sh rest you can rest assured uh that our future, the future of our communities is an absolutely great hand. So thank you very much. We'll now move to item B under Special Business, which is a presentation of the case state of the annual report. One of the one of the city lawyers' twenty four goals is helping our residents reach their whole potential. For many, that means higher education. Today, Dean Ben Wolf is with us to give us an update on the school's achievements and activities. Uh, thank you everyone for this evening. Um, it's always a pleasure coming from the council to talk about the great things happening at Kansas State University here. So uh one of the big things about our campus is that we are part of the Kansas State University, but our mission and focus is Johnson County only. So I'm excited to be here. So thank you, Dr. Wolf. That was outstanding, exciting um information. Um we may have, I see a problem though. We might have to have bi-annual reports. There's so much credit report for it. So uh Council Member Watch. Please, thanks. Thanks very much, Dr. Wolf.
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