So quiet.

Good evening.

Welcome to our first Alatha City Council meeting for 2026.

This is a special evening as we swear in our new and re-elected council members at large, Councilmember Jeff Creighton.

Ward four, Councilmember Kevin Denult, and Ward 3, Councilmember Dr.

Lead Felter.

To start off this year in this new city council, I would like to invite Pastor Troy Snyder to provide our invitation.

Troy.

Pastor Snyder.

It is more than a privilege, Lord, to live here, Father, to work here and certainly, Lord, to raise children in a city, Lord, that is so beautifully led and is thriving so well.

We know that we have our challenges ahead of us as we always do, but we also hold with those challenges, Lord, the anticipation, Lord, of what's next.

And the wonderful work, Lord of our chamber and our council, Father, that it brings new life into this great community in a way, Lord, that is very hopeful and sustaining.

And Father God, we're grateful.

Just like, Lord, we are grateful for our first responders, our incredible fire department, the Alatha Police Department, Father, our Johnson County Dispatchers, Med Act, and our Sheriff's Department, Lord.

Continue, Lord, to keep them safe, Father, keep them close to you as they work hard, Lord, to not only protect us, Father, but to keep us safe and to help us, Lord, be able to live, Lord, in a way, Lord, we don't have to worry, because we know that there are people, Lord, constantly at work or ready to rush in where we shy away, Lord, from danger.

Yes, tonight, Father, that you would also keep a special hand, Lord, on our council as they lead us uh into 2026.

Um, under the guidance, Lord, of our mayor, John Bacon, Lord, this incredible city council, uh, the amazing work of our chamber, and of course, the incredible work, Lord, of our city employees and our uh amazing Olatha District School system.

I pray, Father, you would continue to pour into our educators, our families, Lord, and certainly our children as well.

As we slip into 2026, Lord, with all the um anticipation and the hope uh that comes, Lord, from a new year and start making new starts, Father.

We ask, Lord, that we would be able to move confidently, Lord, into our steps that you have prepared for us in ways, Lord, that are creative and hopeful, Father.

Help us, Lord, to lean in to look for places, Lord, where we too can lend a hand and we work hard, Lord, to volunteer to help and support those, Lord, who are working so diligently around us as we also look into um what is coming, Lord, in our world, our and certainly, Lord, in our nation, Lord, continue, Lord, to pour your blessings out.

You offer your protection to your Father, and Lord God, we know that our hope, Lord, is no longer not just in a city or in a nation, Father, or in our world, any more than our children, Father.

Our hope is in you.

And we place our trust and our hope there, dear Father, as we move forward with confidence and with joy.

Pray these things, Lord, in your name.

And everybody said amen.

Tonight, we are honored to have members of the Olatha Police Department on our guard here to present the colors.

So in a moment, we'll stand and then following the present presentation of the colors, we'll have the national anthem sung by Lindsay Peterson, a student at American Nazarene University, and then we'll say the Pledge of Allegiance.

So with that, would you stand for the presentation of the colors?

Right.

Right.

Mark time.

Left turn.

Mark.

Pretty sad.

Oh say can you see nothing?

What's so proud?

The twilight's last claiming.

Whose broad stripes and right stars through the fight.

Or the parts we're so mean.

And the rockets right the boss.

That our flag was still there.

Oh say does the starled way.

And the I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands under God.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Order arms.

Flag detail.

Host.

One.

Two.

Ready.

Ford.

March.

Live.

Live right.

All right, let's thank the honor guard and Lindsay for that.

And Pastor Schneider.

Thank you.

Before we install our new council members, the current City Council has a couple of items that we need to approve.

So with that, there's an item A, consideration of approval of City Council minutes of the December twelfth, twenty twenty five meeting and resolution twenty-six-one zero zero one.

Um is there a motion to approve those two items?

Uh mayor, I move to approve item six A.

Those are our council minutes from uh twelve December.

Second.

We have a motion and second with the city clerk, please call a roll.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Schoonover?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacchus.

Yes.

Miss Essex?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Five zero.

And item B.

I have a motion on item B.

Yes, Mayor.

Item six B.

This is a consideration of resolution twenty six-101 establishing the uh terms for the incoming council members.

I move to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and a second with the city clerk.

Please call the roll.

Mr.

Schoonover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter.

Yes.

Mr.

Faucus.

Yes.

Miss Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Motion passes five zero.

Okay.

Now we're ready to install our new city council members.

So at this time I'd like to invite Councilmember Felter.

If she would like to join Council Members elect Creighton and Denull to the front row and prepare to be sworn in.

And I would just say to the council members that are getting sworn in.

If you'd like to introduce you the friends or family members that are here with you tonight, that would be helpful.

So with that, I'll ask our city clerk, Brenda Swearing to introduce the municipal court judge.

Thank you.

Um I'd like to invite Judge Katie McElhaney to please come forward to begin our swearing in ceremony.

Jeff Creighton.

If you would like to come to the center, um invite your family and friends if you would have them come with you, that'd be fine too.

I'm happy to have with me my niece Riley Parker, Baby and Parker, nephew, why Parker.

I Jeffrey Creighton.

I've got Creighton.

Do solemnly swear.

You solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And faithfully discharge.

And faithfully discharge.

The duties of at-large council member.

The duties of at-large council members.

So congratulations.

Thank you, guys.

Okay, come on back.

And I'm not a bit nervous about it.

All right.

Great.

I'd like to invite um Dr.

Lieta Felter, please come forward, or Ward Three Council member.

Hi.

I have my mom and dad, Dave and Linda McClung, my husband, Jib Felter, and my oldest, Abby Kavalchick with me.

Thank you guys for being here.

And this is my grandmother's Bible.

Oh, that's a wonderful.

Do you want a family member to hold that?

Sure.

You just place your left hand on the Bible and then raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I Leah Felter.

I Leonta Falter.

Do solemnly swear.

Do you solemnly swear?

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And faithfully discharge.

And face faithfully discharge.

The duties of Ward Three Council Member.

The duties of Ward Three Council Member.

So help me out.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thanks, guys.

I'd like to invite Kevin Denult, Ward 4, Councilmember, and your family to come forward.

All right.

Joining me will be my wife, Corey.

Kids Allo and Genevieve.

Welcome.

If you would please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

Aye, Kevin Denull.

I Kevin Dinall.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And faithfully discharge.

And faithfully discharge.

The duties of Ward 4 Council Member.

The duties of Ward Four Council Member.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

We will now move to item B, uh election of Mayor Pro Tim.

I would like to make a motion to elect Dean Bacchus as Mayor Pro Tem for the next two years.

Second.

I have a second.

Would the city clerk please call a roll?

Are you okay with that, Dean?

Dr.

Felter.

Dr.

Felter?

I couldn't hear.

Yes.

Mr.

Vacas.

Maybe I should subst uh abstain, but also yes.

Ms.

Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton?

Yes.

Mr.

Dinal?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon?

Yes.

Mr.

Scoonover.

Yes.

Motion passes seven zero.

Congratulations.

You're gonna go take a note.

You're gonna have to go take a note.

You would raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I, Dean Backus.

I Dean Baucus.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And the Constitution of the State of Kansas.

And faithfully discharged.

And faithfully discharged.

The duties of Mayor Pro Tem.

The duties of Mayor Proteum.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thanks.

So could I get a picture with Katie?

This will make it official.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks.

At this time, I'd like to give an opportunity for the newly elected and uh councilmember Felter if they would like to make a few comments.

So Councilmember Felter, if you want to go first.

Thank you, Mayor Bacon.

It's an honor to serve with this council, and I look forward to working together to make Olatha even better.

And it's a great place to live, work, play, retire, all the things to hike Lowe's Hill, to uh raise a family, to go to school.

So it's an amazing place.

And it's such an honor to represent Ward 3 and the greater community with all of you.

So thank you.

Jeff uh Councilmember Creighton.

I just take a like to take a moment to uh thank everyone in the city who uh were gracious enough to uh allow me this opportunity.

It's uh an exciting time in Olatha, and I look forward to being a part of it.

And the one thing that I I know we're not all going to agree on anything or on everything.

Okay, well.

I'm just preparing myself.

We may not agree on everything, but I will tell you that I'm gonna do everything in my power to serve you with integrity.

And then I want to a special thank you again to my nieces and nephew for joining me because it's not about what we do here tonight in the in right this minute.

It's about the future, and that's what they represent.

And so I thank them for being here.

Councilmember Denult.

All right.

Well, I actually prepared something, but I'm probably not going to stick very well to it.

Um thing I wanted to do is thank my family.

Um they've kind of been sticking with me through everything through through uh running uh uh for this and uh the harder longer hours types days and stuff.

So thank you very much.

I want to thank uh everyone on city staff.

You guys have been wonderful in in uh the warm welcome uh bringing me in to City Hall and getting to know everybody.

Uh one thing I will say, I I remember the conversations that I've been having with so many of the residents in Olatha to get to hear all the new ideas, different perspectives uh has been really exciting.

I've always used the word thrilling.

It's kind of the thing that's driven me uh to want to serve more and more.

So I think that's the thing I look forward to most in serving is just the conversations with uh everyone here on council, uh, everyone throughout Olatha, everyone in City Hall, uh that's what I look forward to most.

So uh thank you, everyone.

Let's keep having conversations and and getting to know each other.

Very good.

So I want to congratulate all the new members and the returning uh Councilmember Felter.

We look forward to getting to know the new council members and uh working together on a lot of exciting things that are happening in Olatha.

Olathe is on a great trajectory already, and we want to continue that, and I'm eager to see the impact that you'll have with fresh ideas and uh new energy.

So, with that, thank you for stepping up to serve our community.

Before we move on to special business, I I want to take a note.

So everybody knows that Olatha was in the news last month that the and that has to do with the Chiefs.

And in case you missed it, um, I don't know where you were because it was pretty big news.

So we're working on a training facility here in Olatha for the Chiefs.

There are still a lot of significant amount of details that need to be worked out, so it's we're not at liberty to discuss a lot of the details at this point, but we're going to be working through those uh the next couple of weeks and months.

So matter of fact, next at our meeting on the 20th of January, we will have an executive session and staff will be introducing some of the details to uh the council in during that meeting.

So um, but as soon as we can provide this public with details, um we will do so.

And um we will have action obviously on the Starbond district, we will need to make action on that particular item within 60 days of the announcement, which was January or December 22nd.

So uh in our letter half of February, we'll make an announcement or we'll have action items on the Starbond district.

Um I know everyone's excited to hear more details about it, and we are too.

So we'll make sure that the public is informed as soon as we can let you know things and get your input too, as far as our discussion and decision making process.

So there's a lot more to come.

We're all excited about the Chiefs thing in the metropolitan area and being a part of our community.

So with that, uh City Manager Michael Wilkes, did you want to add anything to that?

I don't know that I have anything to add.

You know, like you said, we're excited about it.

It's very transformative.

You've said that uh several times in the press.

Um we do we are working with the state, uh, the Department of Commerce and the Chiefs to continue to put together the deal, and we plan on bringing those uh deal points to the council in the executive session, just like you said.

There does have to be a public hearing.

Uh it won't be advertised, but we'll have plenty of opportunity through social media to make sure everybody knows uh when that meeting is going to be in February for when the council will actually be taking the action to create uh the subdistrict that uh for the butt headquarters and uh and the training facility.

So all right.

Very good.

Exciting stuff.

We're glad to be part of that.

We'll now move on to special business.

Uh next week the city's uh Olatha Human Relations Commission and Library are participating with the Olatha School District to host the Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

essay contest and contest celebration event.

We wouldn't be able to do this without the support of the event sponsor, which is Garmin.

So joining us today to accept the proclamation is Olatha Human Relations Commissioner and Garmin employee, Shaquille Heather.

So Shaquille, are you here?

Yes.

Join me up here from the front, please.

Yeah, let's do it right here.

So I'll read the proclamation and then I'll give Shaquille an opportunity to say a few words.

So whereas 56 years after his death, the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

continue to inspire our nation in a steadfast pursuit of a better future for all.

And whereas Dr.

King's fight for freedom and equality are reflected within the City of Olatha's commitment to a high quality of life for all residents, as laid out in the Olatha 2040 future ready strategic plan.

And whereas the theme of the 2026 Reverend Dark Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

contest is love.

Reminding participants that, as Dr.

King said, love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

And whereas the City of Olatha is proud to join our community partners in celebrating Dr.

King's life, including the Olatha Human Relations Commission, Olatha Public Schools, Garmin, and the NAACP.

Now, therefore, I John Bacon, mayor of the City of Olatha, do her by proclaim January 19th, 2026, Dr.

Martin Luther King Day Junior Day.

In Olatha, encouraging all residents to join us in our annual Reverend Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

contest celebration on Saturday, January 17th at 10 a.m.

at Olatha Northwest High School.

Furthermore, we urge each Olathian to rededicate oneself to upholding equal rights and justice for all.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Kill.

Safety Council.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Appreciate it.

The goal of the Oletha Human Relations Commission and Gomes annual MLK contest is to increase positive awareness, foster greater understanding, and celebrate the diverse group which makes our community.

This year we are celebrating 25th and we're Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

contest.

This year's theme is love, just like Mir Baker mentioned.

Although Martha Luther King Jr.

day will be a day off for Gammin Associates, most associates see it as a day on for the community.

There are no there's so many worthy organization to support.

Garmin associates across the United States set up through through service and monetary donations.

Together with the government match, we donated $711,000 during last year's celebrations.

We invite you to come and celebrate visual arts written and multimedia work of Oletha Middle and High School students on Saturday, January 17th in Oletha Northwest High School at 10 a.m.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

So thank you, Shaquille, for being here and the entire Human Relations Commission team for your work on the event and to Garmin for their sponsorship.

And I know it will be another success.

I know they they read a lot of essays to uh whittle down the winner, so I know they've been working hard.

We'll now move to consent agenda.

The items listed below are considered to be routine by the city council, may be approved in one motion.

These may include items that have been reviewed by the City Council in a prior planning session.

There will be no separate discussion unless the council member requests that an item be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately.

Councilmember, are there any such items tonight?

Councilmember Scoonover.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I'd like to discuss items E and I, please.

Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um item Q.

Q.

Q.

Any others?

A motion to approve the consent agenda would be an I move to with the exceptions of E, I and Q.

Exactly.

I move to uh approve the consent agenda less items E, I, and Q.

Second.

We have a motion and a second with the City Clerk please call the roll.

Ms.

Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton?

Yes.

Mr.

Denult?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Skinner.

Mr.

Skinover?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacchus.

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

Okay.

We'll now move to item E, consideration of resolution number 26-1003 for the assignment and assumption of lease agreements and related bond documents from BPG Olatha 1 LLC to GPCC Investors LLC in an amendment to resolution number 21-1067, Councilmember Schoonover.

Thank you, Mayor.

I know as part of this amending resolution 21 1067 through resolution number 26 1003.

I just wanted to thank staff.

I I did have some discussions with them just to make sure that we were being clear uh that existing uh uh buildings that were purchased under or excuse me that have already been issued bonds are not eligible for the the increase that we voted on late last year.

I I did also want to say to to use this as an opportunity, I think to highlight um in our IRB policy that we just uh uh passed again last year.

Uh as I read that policy, uh these bonds are in no way a sure thing that developers uh can count on.

Uh that when we uh issue these bonds, they are designed to be for projects that enhance uh Olatha economically and bring good, well-paying jobs uh to our our city.

And so I would hope uh moving forward that we uh really redouble our efforts to make sure that we're applying this policy uh uh appropriately for those type of of uh buildings and I'll be eager when we receive this um application again to make sure that um uh that this project is it will be presented to us for future buildings really does meet that and bring uh some true economic development to Olatha.

So I just wanted to highlight that for developers out there if you're listening, please read the policy.

Uh so that's that's all I have on this.

Any other questions or comments of staff on item E.

Seeing that a motion be in order.

A move to approve uh consent agenda item 9E.

Second.

We have a motion and second with the city clerk please call the roll.

Mr.

Creighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Denult?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon?

Yes.

Mr.

Schoonover?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Vaucus?

Yes.

Ms.

Essex, yes.

Motion passed.

7-0.

Item I as consideration resolution number 26-1006, which is SU 25-0005, requesting approval of a special use permit for motor vehicle sales, golf and utility carts for McCoy Custom Carts on approximately 1.3 acres located at 1992 West 161st Street.

Planning Commission recommended approval 5 to 0.

Councilmember Schoonover.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I I've got no problem with item I um as it's been presented.

I did want to raise the or use this as an opportunity.

Uh last year we did discuss the definition of golf cart and utility vehicles and all of those type of fun things as they exist in our code and some of the the confusing aspects of those.

And I believe we left that as as a resolution was would would come forward to to change that code.

And I just wanted to ask on the status of of that, certainly if we're going to have more people in Olatha selling these items that we uh we're working on a draft internally uh discussing among various departments and I hope to bring it to you for formal consideration this spring.

Great.

Thank you.

Any other questions on item I or discussion?

A motion be in order.

Move to approve item nine I.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Would the city clerk please call a roll?

Mr.

Donald.

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon?

Yes.

Mr.

Schoonover?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Vaucus?

Yes.

Ms.

Essex?

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton.

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

Item Q is consideration of an agreement with Johnson County for funding the construction of the Quivera Road 143rd to 151st improvement project PN3-C-011-24.

Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is an important project in Ward 3.

And Nate, would you give us an update on it and tell us what this item that we are voting on is?

Absolutely.

I would be happy to.

So Nate Baldwin, City Engineer.

So this is an improvement of Quivera Road between 143rd and 151st.

And that's the last stretch of unimproved uh road on Quivera from the Johnson County, Wyandotte County line all the way down to, I believe it's 179th Street.

So very excited to do this.

It's going to be a two-lane divided roadway with curb and gutter, bike lanes, sidewalks, which is missing out there, street lights, everything.

So we are ready to bid it.

All we are doing is waiting for approval from KDOT.

We do anticipate starting late March, early April on this.

Great.

And what we're actually voting on tonight is the cars, the Johnson County Cars funding.

So the county is partnering with us in the funding of this project, correct?

That's correct.

We're very excited.

Not only do we have the funding from the county, but we also do have federal funding on this.

So on this project, we're leveraging almost $7 million outside funding to get this project done.

So I'm very proud of staff for being able to go out and find those grant dollars.

We're grateful as well.

Thank you for this.

How's how's everything going with property acquisition and we are done, ready to go?

Awesome.

Okay.

Well, we're excited.

Thank you.

I just wanted to get an update and highlight that this is on the consent agenda.

Thanks, Snake.

Any other questions or comments on item Q?

A motion be in order.

Move to approve item nine Q.

We have a motion and item Q second.

Item Q.

Yes.

I'd just be clear.

Second.

Okay.

We have a motion, second with the city clerk.

Please call a roll.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Mr.

Skinover?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Vaucus?

Yes.

Ms.

Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton?

Yes.

Mr.

Denult?

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

We'll now move to new business item A is consideration of ordinance number 26-01, approving an engineer survey and authorizing the acquisition of land for the I-35 and Santa Fe Interchange reconstruction, Santa Fe Corridor, Ridge View to Merlin Improvement Projects.

City Project Numbers 3-C-025-18.

This ordinance would approve the survey of the final 27 tracts of land involving permanent road right-away, temporary construction easements, and permanent easements necessary for the project that have not already been approved.

So is there a need for a presentation from staff on this item?

Seeing none, a motion be in order.

Move to approve ordinance 26-01.

Second.

We have a motion and second.

Would the city clerk please call a roll?

Mr.

Skinover.

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

Yes.

Mr.

Vaucus?

Yes.

Ms.

Essex.

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton.

Yes.

Mr.

Denult?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Motion passes 70.

We'll now move to item B, consideration of ordinance number 26-02, which is RZ25-0014, requesting approval of a zoning amendment to ordinance 03-113 with a preliminary site development plan for 151st in Merlin mixed use, located southeast of West 151st Street and South Merlin Road.

Planning Commission recommended approval 5 to 0.

This project includes residential and rent retail units as well as a possible drive-thru.

Senior planner Jessica Schuler joins us with a presentation.

Welcome, Jessica.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Jessica Schuler, Senior Planner.

As introduced, tonight's request is for a zoning amendment and preliminary site development plan for the 151st in Merlin mixed use development.

This site is located southeast of 151st in Merlin.

It's directly east of the existing Heritage Square Commercial Center.

The property is currently zoned CP2, Plan General Business District, with C2 and CP3 districts to the west and the southwest.

Directly to the east are the R1 single family neighborhoods of Brone Village and Stonehurst.

The request before the council this evening is for a zoning amendment rather than for a rezoning.

A zoning amendment simply opens the existing ordinance that's on the property while retaining the existing zoning district and the land uses that are permitted within it.

So additional stipulations were included at that time.

Specific to the architecture, those stipulations require elements such as colonnades, red tile roofs, and other design features that would make the new building match the 2003 version of Heritage Square.

However, most of those elements don't exist today.

Sutherlands came through with an update as well as the inline tenant facades that were also updated.

Additionally, the previous traffic stipulations are either being completed with this project, were made with the previous outparcel developments here, or have a change since the city has updated its traffic management plan.

The preliminary development plan proposed this evening is for um two structures on lot one, um, a multi-tenant retail building with a drive-through lane that fronts Merlin.

There are 331 parking stalls proposed with the development as required by the parking analysis provided by the applicant.

Additionally, the applicant is working with the neighboring property owner to establish shared access for any additional overflow parking as needed.

To zoom in a little bit more here on the mixed-use building, residential amenities are located internal to the building, and two outdoor dining opportunities are provided on either end of the retail area.

The building transitions from four stories on the north, east, and west to three stories on the south.

The primary residential entrance is on the east side of the building.

There will also be access on the west side as well.

The outpersal retail building here is 8,400 square feet.

Again, the drive-through enters from the east and wraps the building.

There is a low three-foot screen wall proposed adjacent to the road.

And there's an existing street stub just to the east, which will become full access with this development, and a new right turn lane would be installed here as well.

So there are two existing entrances to this larger development along 151st.

And back in 2003, there was actually a substantial amount of more retail proposed on this property, 60,000 square feet, which is significantly more than what's being proposed today.

So this development will actually generate less traffic than if this were entirely developed with commercial uses.

Landscape buffers, very important to this project as we transition from a mix of uses to single-family residential to the south.

There is an existing tree line, which will be preserved with this project.

Following the neighborhood meeting, the applicants did hear a strong desire for a fence to be constructed.

And so a six-foot decorative fence with the appearance of a stone wall is proposed on the south and the east.

That's the red dashed line that you see here.

And again, the image at the bottom of the screen.

And then on the east side, there's also a five-foot berm here with robust landscaping proposed as well.

The applicants did provide some line of sight drawings to help us understand what these buffers look like and how it transitions to the neighboring properties.

The top section here is from the east.

Again, this building is meeting all UDO requirements and no waivers are being requested.

A neighborhood meeting was held on November 12th with just over 20 residents in attendance.

The primary topics of discussion included those that are listed here.

Staff did receive two letters of correspondence that were included in the meeting packet.

At the public hearing, we did have four members of the public speak, and the primary concerns were in regards to traffic, just a reduction in privacy for the adjacent property owners, and stormwater as well.

This zoning amendment and preliminary plan do align with several policies of the Planoletha comprehensive plan, which does encourage higher density housing near our commercial services, with creating walkable centers of activity.

It encourages residential development that is near our areas of employment, and also buildings that are well designed with very quality architecture and materials.

The planning commission did recommend approval of this application on the zoning amendment and preliminary plan by a vote of five to zero.

But they also highlighted the fact that this proposed use and the proposed building heights are already permitted in this zoning district at this property.

Following the public hearing the protest petitions were filed.

We received 16 petitions.

That overall petition area was deemed valid as it includes just over 20 percent of that land area within 200 feet of the project.

Because of that valid petition, um an affirmative vote of six council members would be necessary to approve the application this evening.

Um with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

The applicant does not have a presentation, but is available for questions as well.

Thank you, Jessica.

Um we have some questions.

Councilmember Vacus.

Did you no, you didn't.

Okay, sorry.

I got a blinking light.

I don't know who's but Oh.

So I don't have a name by here, but Councilmember Creighton.

You're number two, so I'll remember that.

All right.

Ms.

Schugler.

And I appreciate you talking about the um uh the traffic uh survey and the fact that this is a uh being more residential, we're gonna be seeing a reduction in traffic.

Nonetheless, I'm concerned because it is residential.

It's gonna be peaking at the same time that area is already uh highly congested.

So the 8 a.m.

hours, the 5 p.m.

hours.

Um could you or a member of staff talk about what uh some of the options are to help control traffic flow at those times if we see some issues?

Um can we adjust time are we able to adjust timing at lights to the east and to the west?

Um also is there a chance for talk about the access through the commercial to get over to Merlin, if you would place.

Absolutely.

Nate Ballman is here to help me out with the traffic questions this evening, so we'll give it to Nate.

Good evening, Nate Baldwin, City Engineer.

So, yeah, our uh staff constantly monitors uh all signalized intersections to make adjustments to those signal timings as needed.

So we will continue to monitor that.

Uh if you look at this, the the increase in traffic with this development at 151st Merlin's gonna be 3.4 percent in the AM and um less than 2 percent in the PM.

So it is it's really an insignificant amount of tra increased traffic compared to what we're seeing through that uh intersection today.

And if we do find that it happens to peak up a little bit more than that uh with our fiber optic or in the like, are we able to control those time times uh on the light?

We we absolutely do, and we work to uh coordinate our um like our terror roadways, so the signals, the timing on the signals work together.

Um we we again we constantly adjust those, we look at those so those signal timings will be adjusted in real time as needed, uh however the traffic presents itself.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Okay.

Councilmember Essex.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Um I just want to clarify, I appreciate going over the entire project.

Um of course I have traffic concerns too, because I go in and out of there all the time.

But a no vote tonight.

What we're voting on right now is an amendment.

So back in 2003 is when this was approved to be zoned.

That was done long before any of us, well, well, Mayor Bacon was probably here.

Um we're not gonna vote does not mean that the apartment complex won't happen.

A no vote means that it just won't match unless we update design elements and whether there's a right or left-turn lane.

So the apartment complex is already been set.

So our vote has nothing to do with that.

Am I correct?

Correct.

The zoning amendment does not affect land use.

The mixed-use development is permitted in the CP2 district.

Um, if the amendment were not approved, they would have to, you know, either figure out a way to somehow design the architecture in a way to meet that, um, but really kind of cleaning up this ordinance is a benefit to any future development here because it is dated and again procedurally not how we um write our ordinances today with our modern UDO, et cetera.

Okay, so they just have to bring back the red roof that does not match anymore.

Right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Scoonover.

Uh thank you, Councilmember Essex.

That's very helpful to me for clarification.

What I I still have concerns about I first of all, I think this is a lovely project.

I think it's it's well needed in this area.

Um, and I I support the development.

I am having concerns about the overall traffic impact, though.

So that I understand is is what we see on the screen here, that I guess that farthest east full access, will that now be signalized?

Or are people going to be trying to turn left at an uncontrolled left turn onto 151st Street at two different full access?

Yeah, there are no new signals associated with this project.

None of the intersections with the current or proposed volumes warrant a signal at those access points.

Okay.

I could see that being a problem trying to access 151st, particularly during during peak times.

The other thing I'll ask is what what about Merlin in this area?

It's it's it's it it's one lane each way, right?

At that point, uh at the intersection to go into the site, it's two two in each direction with the southbound left turn into the development.

Okay, but it it but then it it goes down to one lane.

South of there, correct.

Okay.

And what's our long-term plan?

Do we have that in our CIP to there is no plans in the current CIP to widen Merlin?

Okay.

South of the Mr.

I could see that being a problem too if if we're adding, I mean, have did we look at that at all as part of this to see are we going to need to add Merlin to the CID to widen that as w when we add this uh additional traffic over here?

Yeah, they they they split the traffic coming out of there, and the amount of traffic that's impacting Merlin south of there does not warrant it going to a four-lane roadway.

Okay.

Um, I bet a lot of those residents in that area would probably say that it needs to be more than one lane each way already.

Right.

So if we're adding apartments and commercial, um I could see that exacerbating that.

Now it it that opinion is probably not going to do anything for tonight's vote because as as Robin mentioned, this is largely just to update the UDO.

But I I think now we we certainly should start looking at from a CIP standpoint.

What do we need to do to Merlin in that area, not only in that area, but quite frankly, a lot a lot of our roads down in that area to to update for some of this increased traffic.

Yeah, and our traffic staff looks at all of our Tiro roadways constantly on a yearly basis, looks at traffic volumes, uh crash histories, um, and tries to make those determinants every year.

So um we look at what we're gonna propose in the CIP on a yearly basis based on the data that we've gotten from the past three to four years.

Um again, volumes and crash histories.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sure.

Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor.

So this is my ward.

I've had conversations with multiple people regarding this matter, and I can make a fair and objective decision based on all the information on this record.

I'd like to ask a c a couple of questions about the infrastructure and traffic.

I know that you you said, Nate, an increase of 3.4 percent traffic in the morning and how much in the afternoon?

Uh less than 2 percent.

Less than 2 percent.

And that's for the entire interchange of 151st in Merlin.

That that's what I'm giving you the information on.

Okay.

And I mean that's a that's a nightmare to drive 151st, especially in the morning trying to go to Olay, the South, for example.

If Harlan Parker were still here, I would tease him about he has the theory he he gets that pep talk of you could turn right to go left instead of making a left-hand turn, like the the uh points that you were talking about, Matt, how hard it would be to come out of um on 151st Street without a light.

Um if you were gonna make a left there.

It's just a high volume area.

You know, you've got Garmin just uh west of there and uh um you know my ward, I've I've heard from a lot of folks about it's mainly infrastructure and traffic in the density here.

I know it's uh it's been zoned and this is tidying that up, but yeah, again we point out as shown up here, you it's almost a 20 percent reduction in traffic volumes uh with this development versus what was proposed uh in 2003.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you for that info.

Um real quick.

Um, about a mile east of here at 151st in South Alden Street, there's a signal coming out of that shopping center that was put in at some point.

Now, what triggered that signal, the need for that signal?

That predates me.

I I couldn't tell you the history of that signal.

Um typically signals are gonna be warranted on um various traffic volumes and crash histories.

So you know what what required us to put that in there, I'd have to go back and look at that and get back with you on that.

But it it could be a similar situation here if if it's warranted and it's needed, it's something that we'd have to add at a future.

At some point, and those are the things we continue to monitor as staff, um, all those intersections.

So obviously we did it down a mile east of this particular source.

So if if for some reason in the future it is warranted, that is something we would look to do.

But um based on the projections that we have in the existing traffic volumes, we do not see a signal warranted at uh the full access sturgeon road to the east of the site.

Okay, thank you.

I don't see any other questions or comments at this point.

Thank you, Jessica.

Good presentation.

Um I hear a motion on this item.

I I move to approve item 10B, that's ordinance 26-0202 RZ25-0014.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Do we need to amend add the amendment language for ordinance 03113 or not?

We got it.

Oh, it's good.

We have a motion and second with the city clerk please call the roll.

Mr.

Fawkes.

Yes.

Ms.

Essex?

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton?

Yes.

Mr.

Dinalp?

Yes.

Mr.

Bacon?

Yes.

Mr.

Skever?

Yes.

Dr.

Felter?

No.

Motion passes.

6-1.

We'll now move to item C.

Item C is consideration of RZ25-0009 requesting approval of a rezoning from the NC neighborhood center district to the R3 residential low density multifamily district for Lone Elm Townhomes located northeast of West 119th Street and South Lone Elm Road.

Planning Commission recommends denial 5 to 0.

This proposed development includes 71 units of 10 townhome buildings.

Senior planner Nathan Jury joins us for a presentation.

Welcome, Nathan.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Nathan Jurry, senior planner.

Before you tonight is a request to approve the rezoning and a preliminary plan for the Lone Elm Town Home Development.

Property is 7.7 acres.

It's located northeast of 119th and Lone Elm Road, southwest of the retreat at Foxfield Village there.

Back in 2005, this site was zoned to the NC or neighborhood commercial zoning district.

And a preliminary plan for a mixed-use development was actually approved back then with first floor commercial and second floor residences, as shown in the bottom left here in screen.

The applicant is requesting to down zone to the R3 low density multifamily district to allow for residential town home development.

Staff does recommend denial of this downzoning for failure to meet several zoning criteria, as I'll describe uh throughout this presentation.

The plan Olatha future land use map does designate this site as a mixed density residential neighborhood.

Um Plan Olatha also calls for uh community commercial center uh just on the west side of Lone here.

Um while the mixed density residential neighborhood are largely residential in nature, uh plan Olatha also states that true mixed use development is encouraged and other limited commercial and service uses may also be permitted in the mixed density residential neighborhood.

Um so the NC district and the mixed use development previously approved on this site does align with this future land use um pattern that is encouraged directly with uh Plan Olatha's designation on the future land use map here.

Uh the NC district, I will mention, is a retired district, um, so we don't have it anymore as repealed back in 2014 and replaced with other zoning districts.

Um but its intent still remains and the NC district still applies to this property.

Uh the NC district, the intent of it is to allow for small-scale neighborhood commercial uses with accessory residential in a pedestrian-oriented development, um, such as the true mixed use um encouraged by Plan Aletha.

Uh staff's recommendation is to deny this request and retain that NC district uh because this aligns with the future land use map.

Additionally, uh retaining commercial zoning on the site aligns with several comp plan policies, including supporting mixed-use neighborhoods, uh maintaining appropriate balance of jobs and housing, as well as encouraging complete neighborhoods uh that provide shops nearby residences.

The applicant did provide a concept plan at this time and understands that if approved a full preliminary development plan is required prior to development.

Their concept plan does include 10 townhome buildings with a total of 71 units at a density of nine, roughly nine units an acre.

This plan extends the existing public streets of Deer Run and 118th Street Terrace through this property connecting those existing streets.

Staff does uh recommend denial for this uh proposal uh failure for failure to meet several golden criteria, um two of which I do want to highlight here tonight.

Uh conformance of the comp plan or with a comp plan, I should say, and uh suitability of the property for development.

For conformance of uh the proposal with a comp plan.

Uh I did mention the mixed use in the complete neighborhoods, but uh one thing I do want to focus on is policy ES 2.1 in the plan aletha, um, which is the balance of jobs and housing.

Um typically um it is policy um and comp plan policy to use zoning as a tool to ensure that there is an adequate supply of residential and commercial land um throughout uh the area.

Um so I I will say that this is one of very few commercial commercially zoned properties in this area in Northwest Aletha specifically.

Um there are a very few options that exist today um in this area.

Um so uh this is a fact that some of the residents in their comment letters have pointed out specifically.

Um, regarding suitability of the site.

Um back in 2005, the property was determined to be suitable for commercial development and specifically for a mixed-use development, and today uh the suitability of this property for commercial development is increasing.

Um the 119th Street extension project, which is well underway will be uh will impact travel patterns significantly and development patterns as well along this corridor.

Once complete, 119th uh will be just one of a handful of streets that connects a highway to uh I-35 with access to both.

And um regional patterns will change.

Um commercial growth is also expected.

Uh the applicant submitted letters in your packet that contend the property is not suitable for commercial development.

However, 119th Street Bridge has never existed until um soon, I'll say.

And zoning away from commercial before the impact of this extension is fully realized is not appropriate.

Uh back in September, uh the applicant did hold their neighborhood meeting, 40 residents were in attendance, and staff also received 41 or 41 letters from uh residents as well prior to the planning commission meeting.

Um in December, planning commission meeting was held.

Uh four residents spoke in opposition, and they recommended denial at that uh time.

Um through all of that public feedback, um, I'll summarize the main points uh I guess from uh the 40 res the neighborhood meeting and the correspondence um throughout.

Um so in general, residents were opposed to this development to rezoning to the R3.

Um the main reasons are the concern of the density of the R3 district, as well as the building size of the townhomes that were proposed, um, as well as the uh increase in traffic and parking through the neighborhood that they're connecting to.

Um the and additionally, I'll say that there was a concern about the lack of amenities on the proposed plan, but it would it is a concept plan so that will be vetted if approved at a later date.

Um with that, um there were some concerns about property values and others did express a desire to retain commercial zoning at this location as well.

Uh so in summary, uh staff does recommend denial of the requested downzoning as it is inconsistent with several goals and policies of the comprehensive plan and fails to meet several golden criteria.

Um with that, I will stand for any questions.

Uh the applicant Kurt Holland with Pulsanelli is also here, has a brief presentation uh ready for you as well.

Thank you, Nathan.

I think we do have a few questions.

Council member Creighton.

Mr.

Jury, um some things don't change from my time on Planning Commission.

Going to talk traffic again.

First of all, in listening to the uh video of the Planning Commission meeting and then it appears that all of the traffic would go through the neighborhoods.

If this re if this is denied and it retains the commercial zoning, are we still just going to be dumping commercial traffic into the neighborhood or with the completion of 119th Street?

Are we going to allow access to 119th or lone elm?

I'm just concerned, are we trading one problem for another if we're not going to have access for commercial development to 119th or lone elm?

And then you also mentioned, and this is on page three of the Planning Commission report, significant increase in traffic volume.

Do we have some numbers of what that would translate to roughly how many more cars a day?

Yes.

So back in 2005, the original commercial development that was approved was approved with write-in, write-out access points at 119th Street, as well as Lone Elm.

So there were write-in, write-out access approved for that commercial development back then.

Regarding your second question, Nate Baldwin is here to answer some of your traffic number questions as well.

Could you could you go ahead though?

And real quick, under the NC, would there still be connection to the neighborhood also?

Or is it all the same?

Yes, yes.

The NC district did connect through with a road there.

And I believe there is a building on that side, and then there's a few buildings on the other side as well.

Nate Baldwin City Engineers.

So Councilmember Creighton, to answer your question.

Back in 2021, as we're looking for justification for the 119th Street Extension Project, we did a traffic study in the area.

At that time, there were 6,000 vehicles per day on 119th Street here in the vicinity of this.

We anticipate when 119th Street Bridge is open that the vehicles per day will increase to 9,000.

And then by 2045, we anticipate that increasing to 13,000.

So we really view this that 119th Street Extension Project is an economic development project that you it's going to be a connection between K-7 and I-35 with an interchange at I-35.

So we really are going to see uh increase in traffic through here.

And we anticipate a lot more development along that 119th Street corridor.

Can you repeat those numbers, please?

Sure.

6,000 2021 vehicles per day, 9,000 this fall when that bridge opens, and then 13,000 vehicles per day by 2045.

And again, these are projections.

We don't know what's going to develop out there, how people are going to use habits, but uh or you know, driving patterns, but that is what we were projecting in 2021 with the study.

Thank you.

Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Nate, will you stay right there?

And um thank you, Nathan, for the presentation.

So, Nate, uh 2045, the projection is 13,000.

Vehicles per day, yeah.

Um I think almost any commercial site needs about 17,000 to be viable.

Do you know that number?

I can't speak to that, no.

Okay.

Um maybe maybe our applicant will know that.

But that's a low car count.

I know it's increased, but um let me ask about this.

The character of what they're wanting to develop here, would it be similar to the surrounding neighborhoods?

In regard to the town home development.

Um it is a little bit more dense than the existing neighborhood.

Um so the retreat at Foxfield Village is about five units an acre, and they're proposing it about nine units an acre.

Um the uh they're both town home developments, though, so it's very similar in that regard.

I mean, and we're talking about affordable or attainable housing.

And that's density.

I mean, if you get to the bottom line.

So do you know if there's the ability to buy in as a neighborhood to the amenities that exist in the surrounding neighborhoods?

I don't know if that that subject's been broached with the HYA, but that would be an HOA discussion with the developer that would need to happen.

Okay.

All right.

Perhaps maybe um the applicant's presentation might answer that.

I don't I don't know.

But thank you very much.

Councilmember Schoonover.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just just to clarify, do you run the these streets uh in 118th terrace?

Those are city streets, right?

Correct.

Above public public streets.

Those are public streets.

Okay.

You know, I'm I'm struggling with the denial on this one because I think I think we hear a lot from our residents and and all over that really one of the biggest issues facing us is the lack of affordable housing.

And we've talked about as a council the need to find the missing middle.

And here we've got a project that I think brings a type of housing option that I think some people are going to find affordable and attainable, as Dr.

Filter mentioned.

And to me, I'm I'm having a hard time figuring out why we should deny building additional housing, bringing people in to live in Olatha, getting the property tax associated with this house, these houses, um, in favor of a speculative commercial development that may or may not happen.

I mean, you know, it's been rezoned that way for 20 years and it's still sitting vacant.

And I understand we've got 119th, you know, that that coming up that may or may not be a game, game changer.

But it's it's still pretty close to K-7 and 119th as it exists.

And so people could always find this, even without that interchange.

So that's what I'm struggling with on this.

If if we don't do this, what other type of projects do we have in the city that are going to bring this type of missing middle housing to us?

And like throughout the city.

Um I mean, is there anything else in the works that's going to bring you know this type of very needed housing into the city?

There's a few developments that are ongoing, townhome developments.

Um at the commons off 119th and uh near Whole Foods over there.

Um they're scattered throughout the throughout the city.

There's townhome developments that are occurring elsewhere.

Um this is a different location.

It's at the hard corner of two arterial roads, and um that's usually where commercial um is best suited along to a hard arterial roads.

But it's these have always been arterial roads, and we don't have commercial there right now.

So I mean, we need rooftops to support commercial, and this is bringing rooftops in.

So I I mean, I'm like I said, I'm having a hard time thinking of why we should deny this.

That's not that's not for you.

That's just more me and my comments.

So Councilmember Bacchus.

Thank you, Mayor.

Nate, a couple of questions if I could.

So remind us, when will the 119th Street bridge be completed?

We anticipate this October.

Okay.

So later this year it will be open.

So we talk about the east-west increase in traffic.

Have we given thought to the north-south increase in traffic with the lone elm interchange at K-10?

So we have actually we have improvements under design right now for lone elm from Harold to 119th Street.

So just south of this property, we uh are planning for construction next year, 2027 on that stretch of roadway.

Good.

And so we would expect increased traffic north-south also.

Correct.

We haven't built into this at this stage.

Uh yes, correct.

Okay.

Good.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks.

Nathan.

So help me envision what what does acceptable commercial look like?

Is a coffee shop on this corner acceptable commercial?

So yeah, the NC district allows for small-scale neighborhood commercial, um, which I mean, like yeah, like a offices, um coffee shop similar to that.

Uh there's other locations in uh Alatha that have been developed in the NC district.

Um so Arbor Creek is NC district.

Um that's a little bit larger than the site, that's about 10 acres.

Sure.

Um, whereas this is just shy of eight.

Uh 127th and Flum at where pizza shop is over there is another location.

Um there's there's other developments um of similar size or a little bit larger, a little smaller in the case of 127th to have like offices, some retail commercial, but um uh that could be developed at this location as well.

But I want to come uh thank you.

I want to come back to the idea of what is an acceptable level of commercial.

Certainly I don't want to lose the idea of having some sort of commercial facility on 119th, because there's nothing there right now.

It's been needed for a long time, and we know that we're gonna have increased traffic counts.

As we look just a little bit north, uh, you know, the new Dillon's Marketplace, super grocery store.

I mean, there's just a lot of development happening at Lone Elmman College.

So there will be things up there, but nothing down here at 19th Street, 119th Street.

So I think it's unrealistic to think that we're gonna have a whole uh retail center there of some kind.

It's going to be very limited.

If this project came back with a coffee shop and maybe a pad for one other building, would that be an acceptable level of commercial?

Um they they could develop it to um whatever is allowed in the NC districts.

But yeah.

They could develop it, yeah, with those uses.

So what I don't want to do is somehow have an unrealistic expectation of the amount of commercial that we want to see happen here.

Just an understanding that we want commercial that would serve the neighborhood.

And certainly whether you call it a coffee shop or a sandwich bar, whatever it is, something like that would be entirely appropriate, Darren.

I hate to give that up.

I think that's what I hear you saying, too.

Okay, good.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Denult.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think I want to echo what Councilmember Schoonover was saying.

Whenever we see, whenever I see uh development that has higher density, more affordable, uh I want to pay attention to that.

Those don't always come up.

Um and I think we could use more of that.

Um I am I'm having a hard time knowing that this is zoned for commercial, and I would like to see I talked to a lot of residents uh in the area who say they would love to see commercial there.

I know looking at my neighborhood, I have kids, and I'm like, hey, get out of the house, and I want to see them go do something and go someplace, and usually it's a Walgreens, which isn't great.

I'd love to see the neighbors here have someplace they can send their kids.

Uh and and for many other reasons.

So I'm really really torn uh on this one.

I think uh one question I had was is there anything else nearby that could be commercial?

I don't know that I looked particularly uh far from this.

Yeah, so just across the street, C2, um uh uh on the west side of Lone Elm and then up towards uh the the future Dillens area um that Councilmember Accus mentioned.

Uh it's about a mile north and maybe a quarter mile west on college.

Um but uh that area has a few pad sites that can still develop out for commercial okay.

Uh I think the last question I would have is probably for Nate is the hundred nineteenth Street.

That's two lanes with the center turn.

So in this section, it's uh two lanes, and then we improve the lone elm interchange uh to have left turn lanes, and it's got a signalize, and then uh northbound and southbound have right turn lanes as well.

And if I missed it, I apologize.

Was there a plan to widen that already thought of and when would that be?

Yeah, so great question.

So we do have long-term plans to widen 119th Street.

If you actually drive down it, you can see that on the north side there's a lot of open green space.

It was built as what we call a half arterial.

Now, we don't have plans in the next five year CIP uh to widen that.

Um, but eventually we will widen uh 119th Street out to four lanes uh with a median in the middle.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, sure.

Councilmember Essex.

Thank you, Mayor.

Oh, I'm not on.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um just a couple quick questions.

So I'm looking at this map, and the C2 in pink is gonna stay commercial.

So that's the opportunity there for commercials there.

So across the street, we're feeling like we need to keep that commercial as well.

Is is that a typical setup where it has to be across I mean, I just wonder how big of a commercial area.

And and of course, I also want to talk about um Councilman Denott was saying the nearest grocery store.

I know that um I've I've also talked to people in this area, and it's just nice to have that neighborhood community where you've got I'm gonna walk to Walmart or I'm gonna walk to Walgreens or whatever ends up being there.

And I know there's a senior center really close, and I know they won't drive five miles, ten miles to a grocery store.

I mean um it's nice.

I I'm struggling with this too.

I'm just trying to understand.

Um it's nice to have that community center for everyone, and and ideally we would have that in every neighborhood, you know, a grocery store close by in a Walmart or whatever they need.

Um so but this whole pink area, C2, that's all gonna be staying commercial, correct?

Yes, that that's about I think around 20, 25 acres of commercial on that location.

So remind me again the difference between NC and C2.

Uh so uh NC is a little bit smaller scale um commercial, uh so it's neighborhood commercial, whereas the C2 allows um a bit more intense um commercial, um larger stores, um and they both allow retail and office uh restaurants, but uh C2 lends itself to uh larger footprint uh buildings, a little less pedestrian-oriented.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Nathan.

So um I uh we we got a lot of letters.

I think probably 50 or so in our packet from individuals that wanted to weigh in on this particular um request.

Mayor members of the council Curtis Holland with the Pulsanelli law firm uh appreciate you hearing our application tonight um before I get started I do want to introduce our team uh John Lambert who is the owner of the property is sitting to my right uh next to him is Bucky Brooks with uh Copacon Brooks well known real estate firm in the community also have Aaron Messmer oh M3 the proposed buyer of the project also with block real estate you know them very well we have Tim Homburg with NSPJ architects they are the architects for the project and then finally with the MEKC engineering we have Brian Hill and Braden Taylor all excellent folks who work in this space know this business very well know what works and doesn't and know what doesn't work and to a person no one here believes that this is a retail site on our side as as the counsel's already pointed out and is mentioned by staff this has been zoned for over 20 years to NC District no interest in retail in the entire 20 years that it's been here.

The only interest that we have had recently was from a church.

Church came in here and decided based after a meeting with the staff uh with res with regard to the street that's going to go through the project too many restrictions with respect to the city would like to see some or staff would like to see some uh some retail use on the property didn't mix well with the church the church left that was our only real potential for selling this property so in 20 years the landowner uh who by the way developed those Foxfield village townhomes next door um has seen no interest in it and has held on to this property for so long so we really think it's a kind of holding this property hostage for some dream of retail uh to show up at this uh this seven acre corner this little small piece of property is really not a good idea in our opinion so I do have a short presentation before I get to it I do want to answer a couple of questions they someone asked about how much uh traffic do you need to really support retail?

Well we have some traffic counts those are retail corners in open in Olatha 119th and string line 53,000 cars go through that intersection.

119th on black bob 41,000 cars a day go through that intersection.

119th in renter 24,000 cars 135th in K7 48,000 cars a day that's the kind of traffic that you need to drive retail.

What staff's talking about 6,000 today maybe 9,000 in a couple years when it's done still waiting for it to be done.

And then potentially in 2045 is that what I heard thir you say 13,000?

Correct nowhere near enough traffic to uh support retail in this area.

So with that said I do want to answer those quick questions.

Again we respectfully we work with staff a lot we we love staff generally agree with on the many things.

We just happen to have a serious disagreement here tonight on whether this is a good valid retail site or whether it should be used for town homes.

We've got the property on the screen you know where it is northeast corner.

Foxfield village town homes are right next to it all around there on the north south and southwest sides are residential.

There's uh I think I've got a zoning map here I think staff showed this to you we've got RP3, RP3, RP1 surrounding this site.

So it would be very consistent to put more residences here.

Someone uh correctly pointed out residences drive uh commercial the success of commercial you need those rooftops to uh provide uh customers for these retailers and this is what we're trying to provide in this case is more rooftops at this small little corner that's been held out for 20 years for some retail development I know Mr.

Lambert if he had uh magic ball uh and he knew in hindsight what would what where he was today uh he probably would have built townhomes there back in 2005 when he got the rest of this zone and everybody here would have approved it because it fits right in with what was there and what that proposal was so again we think the townhomes are super appropriate at this intersection I'm gonna talk about this in a minute we don't have a retail shortage or an opportunity for retail there's a C2 property uh right across the street to the west as you see on the screen.

So again, we think the townhomes are super appropriate at this intersection.

I'm going to talk about this in a minute.

We don't have a retail shortage or an opportunity for retail.

There's a C2 property uh right across the street to the west, as you see on the screen.

What we have in this town is a housing shortage.

It's well known.

Uh we did a county study on housing deficiency.

There are I I read six or seven articles recently in the Johnson County Post about people who can't find homes.

Um, not just in Olatha in Johnson County, but here in Olatha.

Uh we don't have a retail problem in Olatha, and we'll talk about that in a minute.

We have a housing shortage problem.

We're trying to fix part of it with 71 town homes.

So anyway, this is the location, that's the existing zoning, uh, right in close to it.

Um I do want to mention back to this Z N C zoning, and I go to the site plan.

This is the 2005 site plan, which you saw earlier.

The NC zoning district, neighborhood commercial zoning district, is no longer part of your code, as the staff mentioned.

This site plan that you're staring at right here on the screen uh is no longer valid.

It expired more than 10 years ago, probably 15 years ago, that site plan expired.

So for staff to say, oh, just build that plan, use that NC district, you're all good to go.

We don't agree with that.

It's a non-conforming zoning district.

It has a uh you can't really develop, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't suggest or recommend to my client that you develop, you could take a non-conforming zoning district and go develop it.

I don't think banks would like that.

Um I just don't think that's a good idea to try to maintain an NC district.

If you're gonna do retail here, which we don't think works, you would rezone this as something that is part of your zoning code, like a C1 or like a C2.

Um frankly, C2 gives you more flexibility.

This property is just kind of too small to really do uh any retail of significance to make a dent in what the city thinks and what we've heard to say is a sort of a desert of retail in this area.

We're gonna talk about that in a minute.

I did want to point out a couple things on this plan.

Um the access points that the staff mentioned right here.

This one doesn't, this is this one what's different, what's interesting about it is it typically you'd want the driveways to line up with drives across the street.

This is the driveway across the street, it wouldn't line up with that driveway.

Um the other thing about this location, and it's the same with this location.

We have significant utilities on both 119th Street and Lone Elm Road, and in particular, overhead power lines.

And it just so happens that right where these access points are, right here, is a power pole.

And another one at this access point location, a giant power pole.

And uh and then in addition, uh that's a significant cost to relocate power poles.

Uh uh and in addition, you've got right-hand turn lanes that the staff talked about.

We would need them here, and we would need them here for this access drive.

Again, another couple hundred thousand dollars in upfront costs.

You're gonna have, and by the way, and I'm gonna show you in a minute another plan.

This area here is is probably best suited for a detention basin.

That's where the drainage goes.

This is really where the detention basin goes, which is gonna interfere with your ability to put an access drive at this location.

I'm just telling you, you're gonna stick probably almost three-quarters of a million dollars in this ground before you can do anything with it.

And um, in addition to the right-in, right-out restriction, which anybody in retail knows is a killer.

It it significantly impedes access and convenience.

And so uh there isn't gonna be a bunch of retailers lining up to go develop this site even after you put 119th Street in.

So I know I only got a few more minutes, and if you'll just give me a couple minutes, I want to get through some of this.

Um someone asked the question are these streets dear run in 118th Street public roads?

Yes, they are.

They are public roads.

So we would have the right to use them.

And I think from a if you develop this for town homes instead of retail, you can easily come in off a public street here and then zip over here.

This this uh extension that staff pointed out is also part of that retail or that retail plan.

You know, it has to go in, staff has already told us.

To the north, you would access the uh site from this location.

Again, public roads coming in.

You wouldn't have to mess with these access roads here.

You wouldn't have to mess with these power point or power poles right in this location.

You wouldn't have this really excessive upfront cost to develop this for townhomes.

So I wanted to make that point to you.

This is the concept plan.

I tell you, we went with a concept plan.

Give me a few more minutes, please, Mayor.

Okay.

And you can give the neighbors all the time they want.

I don't care.

But I think you need to hear some of this.

This is the concept plan.

We talked to the staff about doing this.

The biggest issue on this project, this location is land use.

It's not the plan really.

The plan will come together.

The city has ordinances that tell you where you can put buildings, what the setback looks like, what the landscaping needs to be, all of that.

But this is a concept plan.

To put in or to submit it what would normally be a preliminary development plan, you're all very familiar with that term.

Those are almost fully engineered drawings.

It would cost tens of thousands of dollars to my client to put together a full PDP package and submit it for you, submit it to you for consideration without the assurance of having any approval.

And the biggest issue being land use.

So we've got a concept plan here.

It has a density of about nine units per acre, so 70 one townhomes here.

That's half of what the density is allowed in R3.

So this isn't a very dense project.

It's a little denser than the townhomes next door, but not significantly.

We're going to have plenty of open space on this property.

The um I'll skip through this, but these are the ten, these are just concept drawings of what those buildings would look like.

The inspiration for these buildings is the townhomes at the clearing at Anderson Point, down at 127th in Indian Creek Parkway, Indian Creek Parkway and Black Bob Road really is where that is.

The location of it is right here in the blue outline.

That's where uh those townhomes are, and that's where the sort of the inspiration for what these buildings will look like.

By the way, the townhomes immediately to the north, and let me stop back up.

This is all single family right here.

We put townhomes next to single family, didn't have a problem.

But now all of a sudden we have a problem with townhomes next to townhomes.

We don't get it.

Curtis, could you wrap up?

Yeah.

Okay.

This is okay.

So then I want to get to this map and I'll close.

Hold on, these promised to wrap up.

This I just want to show you.

We don't have a desert of uh, you know, no commercial here.

It it may not all be developed now, but but I want to point out, as was mentioned earlier, C2 right across the street.

For for the uh just within minutes of this corner, you've got 119th in K-7 with a large CP2 zoning right there.

At Lone Elm and College, you have a retail center right there at a hundred and or college in K7, all of this is retail.

By the way, BP, you can put retail in BP, and that's where this Dillons is going to be, right here.

They'll be within a half a mile of a grocery store when Dillon's goes in there.

Curtis.

When this we are done.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate your time.

But stay close because we have some questions for you, okay, in a little bit.

I've got a couple.

Yeah, but we're I'm gonna let the neighborhood folks speak and and uh we'll bring you back to the next slide.

Yeah, we'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

Okay.

Um we'd really love your support and approval for this tonight.

And if uh if all the votes aren't there, we'd appreciate a remand of the planning commission so we can keep talking about this and seeing what we can do there.

Thank you.

All right, thanks.

City clerk, do you have the names of the individuals from the neighborhood that would like to address the council?

Would you please invite them up?

Sure.

Um, our first speaker is Arthur Reinhardt please go to the podium.

Um state your name for the record, please.

Welcome.

Yes, I'm Dr.

Arthur Ryan Hart, and I live at 1177 South American in the retreated Foxville Village.

And what it was not mentioned tonight is the affordable housing, yes, to buy in.

But nobody's mentioned it unless it's changed since the Planning Commission, they're all rental units.

The 71 units are all rental.

So and I I think you find that if you have rental property, some of the people take good care of it, some don't.

There are no amenities mentioned, and so they're gonna be over trying to get into our the pool that our we pay for our trail.

There's only going to be one way in there, 118th terrace and deer run.

Okay.

Then it's gonna increase the traffic on Marion, which is the street I live on.

That street is a private street.

We have to pay to take care of it and keep it working.

So it's gonna we'll if you have all these cars coming in, there's only one way in from each way, you only got one way.

You're gonna have all these city uh school buses with kids.

So it's gonna it's gonna be awful.

Um I just think only rental units.

I agree we need affordable housing, but I don't think that that that's the answer to it.

And the Planning Commission, we voted five to nothing against it.

And so I I don't know what all of a sudden something has changed.

I don't know.

I would like people to I still keep reiterating, they are all rental units, and we're gonna have a lot of traffic in the neighborhood.

Our property values are gonna go down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Thomas Bart.

Please go to the podium, state your name and address for the record.

Uh good evening, Consul and Mayor.

Uh Mayor, thank you for allowing us to speak in this matter.

Uh Mr.

Ranhart brought up the fact that the rental properties.

One of the major problems we're going to have with rental properties is we have substantial amenities.

Could you put up that other uh map for us that shows the uh neighborhoods and uh their project on my presentation, wasn't it?

Okay, that's a good one.

Yeah, that'll work.

Okay.

Foxfield consists of five neighborhoods.

We have a master in there that takes care of the five neighborhoods.

We have to pay five hundred dollars a resident, and there's almost 300 residents in there each year to pay for these amenities.

We have a swimming pool, we have miles of uh trails, we have playground equipment, we have volleyball courts, and right now we have a hard time managing those situations to keep the other neighborhoods from coming in.

Now, if you put 71 rental units in that site, I can imagine all the people running through my backyard.

I'm 31 feet from this location where this is gonna be.

There's gonna be no way that we can monitor those amenities to keep those things, which we pay monthly and yearly for.

Um this is a concept plan.

It's been shown to us three times now.

Not once have these people come to us and said as a neighborhood to our HOAs, could we sit down with you and figure out what would work best for this project?

Not once that we had any input into this whatsoever.

We'd like to sit down with them and we'd like to talk over what would be best used for this province.

We understand the gentleman's issue with owning this property for a long time.

He's got a financial situation there.

We'd like to help him with that.

If you would sit down with us and we we'd like to talk about maybe office condos and coffee shops and things like that that would work into the neighborhood that would not create the large traffic volume that we're gonna have.

With those two streets that they're showing now, uh the new intersection has gone into Lone Elm and 119th, there's a traffic signal now.

In the morning when school is in session, there are traffic backed up all the way to the next intersection.

So, what are these people gonna do?

They're gonna come out of that one entrance, they're gonna sneak around onto Marion Street, which is a private street that we have to pay for and maintain.

Next year we're gonna spend $50,000 on that one street just maintaining it with the additional traffic that's gonna come on those streets.

Uh who knows what our expenses are gonna be going forward with that.

I, you know, we've got a problem here.

If we would all sit down and work out the problem with the developer and the seller and all the involved, we could come up with a plan that I think would be a great use for this site.

The traffic, you know, just to sum up, we concur with the Planning Commission when they made their decision.

We concur with the planning staff.

There's issues here beyond what just uh meets the eye.

And again, we want to be good neighbors.

We want to help.

We want to work with everybody.

But no one's ever asked us to do that.

And we'd be glad to sit down.

I'm on the HOA board, and I know that at the last HOA meeting, it was unanimous that we did not want to see this because basically density.

If you look at our density in the retreat area of Foxfield, our density is twice as large as theirs.

To put a rental community in this corner with the five ridge field neighborhoods destroys the neighborhood.

This is a wonderful Olatha neighborhood.

It's been there for a long time, and it's it's gorgeous.

Everybody wants to live there.

But if you throw 71 rental units in it, the property values mine are going to go down so fast it's unbelievable.

And I know that the Johnson County accessory doesn't lower property values very quickly.

So we're going to have to live with this for some time.

And just there's things that can be done to make this good for everybody.

And I just asked the council to think about this.

I understand affordable housing, but no one in their presentation mentioned the fact that these are going to be rental units.

And that that changes the whole concept whatsoever.

So thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Mayor Baker for uh Bacon for allowing us to speak.

It was important to us to do that.

I have a quick question.

Um there was an opportunity for you to sign a protest petition that yet no one did.

Do you know why that is?

Or we're not attorneys.

We don't know all the insides and outs of the planning ordinances and whatever goes on.

We would have been happy to do it.

But between we received official notices from Poisonelli on the Planning Commission with certified letters.

We had no idea this was coming up before us unless one until one of our residents read the agenda and alerted us to the fact that this was being brought up.

We had no idea this was being brought up.

So we had 10 days to scramble and try to put together uh a presentation.

And we would have liked to have a little better time to work on the situation.

That's why I say all they have to do is sit down with us, we'll be glad to work with them, we'll be glad to come to a decision that would be good for everybody.

And that that's uh that's our only concern.

And I'm sorry, we didn't have the the willpower or the attorney power to come up with a position.

If we would have had time, we would have sure worked on it.

All right.

Councilmember Felter has a question, sir.

Thank you for being here to share your side of the equation.

Um, your pool, do you issue to your residents that pay HOA dues like a pool pass or how do they access your guarded, it's gated, and we have a pool pass.

But for some reason or other, the neighborhoods that are around it, they have a way of talking this child to that child and they share the pass back and forth, and we're trying to police the situation as best we can.

It's difficult.

And now with 71 rental units, that's probably over a hundred, hundred and twenty residents, and they're gonna walk right across my back door, I'll guarantee you, and they're gonna go to that swimming pool or our several miles of our walking trails, they're gonna use our other amenities, the playground equipment, the volleyball courts, which they're expensive, we have to maintain them.

And it's hard to police them as it is now, and it's gonna get worse.

So, you know, this is a great neighborhood, and to put rental neighborhoods just smash it in right now after all this time and change the character of this neighborhood completely by ninety-nine percent of all the units that are in Foxfield are homeowner-owned.

Now all of a sudden we're gonna jam a rental unit into it.

It doesn't make sense to destroy a neighborhood by putting rental units in one that's predominantly residential and has ownership by homeowners.

So uh we we you know just appreciate your help on this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I've got a question for Curtis if you want to come back up.

So talk about amenities on this particular development.

No pool, no uh.

How how do you address that in the real market today?

It's probably easier to.

Let me get back to there we go.

Okay.

Great questions.

First of all, to your point, amenities.

So I want to just point you very quickly.

This is the townhomes that we mentioned earlier, the clearing at Anderson Point.

There are no amenities there.

Pinecrest townhomes.

There are no amenities there.

Okay.

I'll let Aaron speak to that.

But I guess to the to your point, we this is a concept plan.

We haven't fully developed it with amenities yet, so give us a chance to do that.

And we'll see.

I did want to address a comment that the gentleman just mentioned.

I have reached out to to this group.

I've had we've had a couple of meetings with the with the folks.

Okay.

You presented the plan three times.

We got that, sir.

We have two.

We've had two neighborhood meetings.

One a few years ago when we tried to present this earlier and was told by staff just wait because we're going to put this 119th Street extension in and everything, your world's going to change.

And that was a three or four years ago.

We we met with the residents then and we met with them recently here, just last fall.

And then I've also had conversations on the phone or reached out to them to see if we could potentially join their HOA.

We would be happy to sit down with them and we would like to potentially join their HOA so we could solve all these issues.

Having said that, discussions about HOA aren't really the jurisdiction of the council and aren't relevant to a land use decision.

We can talk about it and we're happy to.

We're not we're not inflexible folks.

We'd like to visit with them and potentially join their HOA.

You know, if we uh i if they don't want us to join, which is what they told us earlier, then we're on our own.

These are owner-occupied rentals.

So it hasn't been 100% decided whether these are rental or owner-occupied.

They could potentially be for sale.

You heard the gentleman here ten times say for rent, for rent, for rent, for rent, for rent.

This is if I could have townhomes if they're owner-occupied.

It's not okay to have townhomes if they're for rent.

I would remind the the council again that whether they're for rent or for sale is not a relevant consideration for a land use case, not in a rezoning case.

It is not.

Having said that, we haven't fully decided whether they're going to be for sale or for rent.

It's entirely possible that they'll be for sale, owner-occupied.

Okay.

We've got a couple of the questions.

And then just on the maintenance, even if they are for rent.

And these properties here, both of these properties that I they're on the screen here, the uh townhomes at uh you know Anderson Point and the other one, Pinecrest, those are for rental properties.

Well maintained.

They have an association that takes care of them.

That's what that's what blocks used to doing and does very well.

They maintain these sites.

Frankly, a lot of rentals, especially if they're well maintained, like we would have here, are in better condition than some of the owner-occupied homes.

Um we don't think that's really a big issue.

And we think we can work through that.

And again, we'd like to sit down and talk with them about joining their HOA.

Councilmember Schoonover.

Question.

Thank you.

Um, I'm I'm not sure I have of question of anyone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm I'm a little confused on the concern about it being a rental versus an owner-occupied.

I mean, to me, that doesn't really matter here.

I think if we get people that that live in Olatha either as tenants or as homeowners, that is a good thing at the end of the day, because uh they're gonna spend tax dollars in Olatha and they're gonna contribute to our community.

So I I think that there's this when we have these discussions a lot of times, and I understand that there's concerns about various things, but I think I think sometimes renters get demonized in these discussions, and I really think that it's quite frankly unwarranted because uh there's a lot of times that people might choose to rent, or quite frankly, that their station in life doesn't allow them to buy a home.

It's obviously getting significantly more expensive to do.

So in my mind, the idea that these could be rentals or owner-occupied doesn't matter at all for purposes of of our discussion.

What I see is um a development that is likely to help improve uh uh and acknowledged housing shortage in Olatha.

Now I do think the residents have raised valid concerns and the neighbors have raised valid concerns about traffic and impacts in the area.

And I would certainly encourage the city if we approve this.

I mean, Nate, you just talked about with our previous development that we are always watching for those traffic patterns.

And I would encourage us to keep a close eye on this.

But from my standpoint, the discussion of are these rentals or are these owner occupied, I think it's neither here or there for this.

I agree with you because just for the points that you made, but also to make the point that they may start out as renters, but they're going to be residents of Olatha.

And they may buy homes in Olatha and stay in this community.

And that's what we want.

We want to encourage residents to be here and to maintain, you know, remain as a lathe residents, don't we?

We want to provide housing for residents.

And so that's what we have here.

And then just one last point, but you just made it about traffic.

If you think this is going to create a lot of traffic, it'll be double or triple if it's retail.

If you put retail on this site, you'll have everybody knows you have way more traffic that's generated by retail development than you do with townhomes.

And so the the concern about traffic is we don't think that that's really an issue here.

There's going to be more traffic because of the 119th Street extension.

And also because we've heard from the staff that they may widen 119th Street.

They may widen Lone Elm Road, right?

It's going to generate more traffic.

So there's going to be more traffic in the neighborhood.

It's not going to be caused by this development.

Councilmember Essex has a question of someone.

Yes.

Stay right there.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

I know that rental versus purchasing homes to some people doesn't matter much.

But I mean, there is a difference.

You're either renting and you're transient and you're coming in and out, or you're purchasing and you are investing in the community and settling down.

I mean, there is a difference.

Not that one's demonized over another.

As far as rental facilities, I know we have a lot of apartments coming in, a lot of rental projects coming in.

When I hear attainable and affordable, just curious, though, as far as affordability, what's the price point on these?

What is the rent going to be?

Do you have any idea what you would sell them for if you did?

I'd ask if Aaron Mesmer, would you like to address that particular issue?

Aaron, please give us your name and address for the record.

Sure thing.

Aaron Messmer, Block Real Estate Services, 4622 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri.

Mayor, members of the council, thank you for your time today.

As far as the rental rates go for a new town home, you're probably talking about $2,400 a month, maybe $2,800 a month, depends on the size.

And it may vary between a one-car versus a two-car.

If you look at the projects that we constructed.

So Curtis has referenced Pinecrest and the clearing at 128 several times.

Pinecrest is a project that we bought that was existing.

And we spent millions of dollars renovating and upgrading.

It does have a pool.

I want to correct the record on that.

So we do have a pool there.

We don't have a fitness center or a clubhouse or anything.

The clearing at 128, all of those townhomes have uh two-car garage.

And so when we come in and build something new, I want to build something that's going to meet the market where it is today.

And so what we do is we put in solid surface, you know, solid stone countertops, uh, we put in the latest appliances, uh, we put in two-car garages, which is what this plan reflects, right, Tim.

And so uh what we want to do is make sure that we're serving the market where it is.

And so we know that most people prefer that.

Um that's going to skew those rents to that upper end of that spectrum.

So maybe 25, 200 for the rental rates.

Is that good?

Okay.

I I would um I I don't know if that would be affordable, but but I understand you're doing market value.

Yeah, I think that the affordability comes in when you don't have to spend if you buy a town home for let's say 400,000, right?

A new town home, right?

That's going to be the same size, uh, just cost per square foot, you might have to come up with a 50,000, 60, 100,000 down payment.

Um and what this does is allow somebody to be in this neighborhood, raise their family there without necessarily having to come up with that initial down payment.

And I think that's an affordability hurdle that in addition to the um you know the monthly payment that you might have on your your mortgage, your PI, that kind of thing is different.

And then the other thing to keep in mind is that that rental rate includes all of the money that you would spend as a homeowner going to Home Depot.

And I don't know about you, but my my monthly maintenance costs, what I spend for um, you know, just taking care of the house is five, six hundred bucks a month.

And so when you think about that, it's also a lock and leave kind of lifestyle for that renter, where even if you're if your uh PI payment is $200 and your rent is $200, well that's really not true because your guy that's paying the P and I at $200 is paying another $600 in home depot every month, uh whereas the renter is not and is not faced with that barrier to entry with the deposit.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks, Aaron.

Um I have a question of staff, and I'm not sure maybe Nathan.

This would be a question for you.

Um I forgot my question.

Sorry.

One of those I can come back up if you want.

Pardon?

I can come back up here.

So Allah I've got I've got another question here, maybe I'll think of it in a minute.

Uh Councilmember Vaucis.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Nathan.

So the um the C2 zoning to the west, those parcels.

Um is assisted living, senior living, does that fit in the C2 category?

Nathan Drew, senior planner.

Um so assisted living is allowed in commercial zoning districts.

Um assisted living is similar, like a hotel and treated in that regard where where it's allowed.

Sure.

So the the Creststone Senior Living Complex to the west is the kind of thing that we could see in these other C2 parcels?

So on I I will say Creststone Senior Living was um partially assisted but largely independent, which independent living is a residential use.

Sure.

Um since it's not more uh more medical in terms of what they're providing, medical assistance that they're providing.

Um independent uh is a residential use, so that would not be allowed in commercial zoning unless it's like a mixed use development like you saw earlier tonight.

And what I'm asking here in a roundabout way, it's it's probably unrealistic given the proximity of this location to College Boulevard, to expect any large scale commercial in these C2 parcels is going to be something else eventually.

The C2 district uh just to the um west of Lone, I think that's approved for about sixty thousand square foot um or ninety thousand square foot of commercial, uh which I mean is a pretty large amount of commercial.

Um but it's not a a very large site, I guess, in essence, in terms of other thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, did we have other residents who wanted to speak?

No.

I'd like to make one follow-up comment if I think.

Um Nathan, you have the floor and excuse me.

And Councilmember O'Akis.

Are you finished?

You know, I I have a few more comments, but I think I've got a I've thought of my question, Nathan.

So R3 versus RP3.

So this is an RP, they want R3 zoning here.

Um why not RP3?

Is do we still have that?

And I would um going back to NC zoning, I don't know if it was a failed experiment or not, but the idea initially was that you would have neighborhood centers in the middle of an intersection and possibly a thousand or fifteen hundred homes that surrounded it, so it was all walkable.

Um a lot of developers didn't want to that didn't want to partake in that experiment, so they demanded that this zoning be on the corner.

Well, then they wanted access, and we had uh Arbor Creek as an example of that where we had ultimately we had to allow additional access.

This the center struggled for some time.

So on this particular uh application, I think it's makes sense.

Um I know there's probably reasons why you don't want to uh introduce a new neighborhood into an existing HOA.

And so there's probably some um good arguments why you would want to keep it as a commercial center.

But I think it would struggle under uh the old NC zoning, and that's probably why we eventually got rid of it.

But um talk about RP3 versus R3.

Yeah, so we did repeal all of the RP and CP districts, plan districts are what they all were.

Um part of that was the plan we we had planned districts because that got us additional requirements, um a specific plan was approved with architectural design, with uh site design that was exceeding current UDO requirements at the time.

Um we've updated the UDO.

We now have architecture requirements where we didn't previously.

But with R3, you give the applicant additional latitude that may not have been provided in an RP3.

Is that possible?

What latitude is?

Well, as far as it uh more density or or um Yeah, so yes, the the the base zoning district for R3 allows, I believe, 12 units an acre.

Um and then they they are allowed to the to go to uh higher density if there's additional um improvements made that are above and beyond um whether it's better site design, better architecture, um better uh more amenities or something that in essence allows a higher quality development, they're allowed a higher amount of density.

Okay.

Um Councilmember Shelter.

Thank you.

I'm gonna get back to my screen.

I'm just making comments, Nathan.

So um I mean with this property, it's it's been available for 20 years, and you guys know I have one a commercial to be built up because it's uh valuated at twice.

Uh well, our it's uh uh commercial properties pay double the property tax.

So it helps fund our schools and our 20 percent of our budget.

Um this has sat vacant uh for all that time.

If it were such a uh peach of a commercial property, even with the car counts going up in all the way to 2045 being 13,000, that's not adequate enough in my mind's eye.

I I don't know that any developer will avail themselves of that opportunity.

So to me it's a bird in hand moment.

I'm I'm just reading things I just jotted down while I was listening.

Um to me, the character of this, although a little more dense than the surrounding neighborhoods, um, we don't have the exact plans.

Uh my desire would be that it would be comparable to the surrounding homes.

And um I'm hearing from you, Aaron and Kurt, that that would be the end product.

You haven't sketched it out due to the cost because you want to get the zoning done.

And um I I personally support this.

Uh I love the concept of walkability, but we are not Florida.

And so we have harsh winters.

Now this winter is different.

Um harsh summers and people in Kansas get in their cars and they drive to a lot of places.

So I I I don't see uh coffee shop.

We also like variability in where we go for coffee and where we go to have um Danishes.

And so a little corner shot with 13,000 being the traffic count.

I I don't see it being sustainable.

Um I also think there's a property owner's right issue here that somewhat is being held hostage by an unreasonable expectation or a pipe dream that this is a commercial destination.

I do think that there is uh a potential for across the street to the West being I I don't think it will be a big commercial project.

I think it will probably be um retirement living of some sort.

Um and I think this addresses our housing shortage.

So if we're talking about keeping our mill levy low, that we develop property and when people bring a development that's viable and um I so I would encourage you to work with the neighbors to come up with a project that is palatable to them.

I mean if they have private streets they're maintaining, and wear and tear will occur on those, work with them and don't add cost to them.

And then neighbors figure out a system to keep your pools secure.

That's on you.

And um, yeah, I I'm I'm supporting this tonight.

Councilmember Denoll.

Um I think this question will be for staff.

It's uh it's a traffic one is a traffic question.

Um hundred and nineteenth and lone.

And this spot.

Would you say it's comparable to I think it's Arbor Creek, 159th and Merlin?

Correct.

In terms of having on one corner the similar uh zoning.

So I may defer to to Nathan on that.

That that are you talking about the volume of traffic or the layout?

Right.

Where I'm going is I'm looking to compare it to something we already have and then the traffic that we have.

For example, at 159th uh in Merlin.

159th over 25,000 cars a day.

25,000 a day.

Okay.

So I was going to say it is slightly higher at 159th and Merlin.

Yeah.

And we do expect remind me of the numbers that you were projecting for traffic in that intersection.

Sure.

So when 119th Street extension opens later this year, we anticipate approximately 9,000 vehicles per day, and then we see that growing to 13,000 vehicles per day in 20 years.

Now, that depends on how things develop, how traffic patterns use.

It could be more than that.

It could be right at that number.

We just don't know other projections.

Okay.

And then are you or you can you speak to the difficulty in putting entrances and exits if it were built up?

Yeah, I I can try to speak to that.

So I think we saw there, you know, there's some infrastructure in the way.

We face those challenges all the time.

You know, we move power poles to get out of the way.

Access points could change.

Again, that was a development uh proposal that's about 20 years old.

Someone can come in with a different development and move those entrances slightly.

So I don't see that as real hurdle to a development in the corner.

Okay.

I think my comment that I want to make is I it seems like it's awkward to build it as something commercial.

It seems like it's awkward to build it as what I'm seeing for the housing based on some of the concerns that I'm hearing.

Uh I feel like I'm wanting wanting more.

So I think that's really the sentiment that I want to share at the moment.

Um it seems like there are two almost answers, and I'm not quite sure which one beats it.

I would probably say when you give up land to a different zone, you don't get it back.

And so uh it's it's a really tough, tough one.

I I tend to want to say I want to hold it for a little longer as as the commercial um because I'd like to see something more.

So that's all.

Thank you.

Any other comments or uh quick.

Councilmember Vacus.

Quickly, I uh appreciate uh our new council member Denalt's comments, because that's exactly where I'm at.

If I were voting it up or down, I'd vote down on the rezoning requests.

But you know, we've got a great development team who brings a lot to the table.

And I don't want to see this personally I don't want to see it go away.

I think there's room for more conversation.

If you're ready for for a motion, mayor, I'd throw something out there and we can see what go if it goes.

Sure.

I think we're ready.

So I you know, I would like to recommend that we we remand this back to planning staff for more discussion.

Uh you know, we've got I don't think the issue of rental is necessarily a concern.

But we do have other concerns about the development of this corner.

And you know, quite frankly, a concern is the preservation of some small amount of retail.

But I think we've got a development team that wants to move forward, we're just looking for the right path.

I think we have adjacent homeowners who are are certainly prepared to have a greater conversation and the ability to pass this back to planning staff and let this percolate a little bit longer and then come back to us with something different.

Uh some adjustments might be of value.

So with that in mind, I I'd make a motion to remand this.

This uh Can I get clarity?

He's making a motion.

Okay, good.

To make the motion that uh our consideration of RZ 25- uh triple nine be remanded back to uh planning staff for additional work uh and to come back to us in a future time to be determined.

So I guess hold on.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second on that motion?

I'll second it.

We have a motion and second discussion.

No, Councilmember Schoonover.

Okay, I guess I I'm just curious what additional work it is.

We're that's a great comment.

We're we're we're talking about because right now we're just it just feels like we're punting it back and saying try again.

But but the we're not giving them any direction to actually do something different.

I mean, we have a developer who's put a plan together.

I'm fine remanding it, but I think if we're gonna remand it, we owe it to them to say, here's what we're looking for and what we want to come out of this the next time.

Um I'm just not hearing that from really anything at this point.

So what what additional work are you looking to have, John?

Sure, what I would offer is in in keeping with planning staff's recommendation, in keeping with the decision made by the planning commission, that we're simply not ready to go forward to approve the loss of commercial at this corner.

And so pushing this back to planning staff or rework with the applicant in additional coordination with the neighborhood is to, amongst other things, look for a methodology to find some limited amount of commercial, to have better coordination with the adjacent neighborhoods, to look for an agreement of what this should look like, and then see if this can come back to us with those kinds of adjustments.

Well, I think okay.

I would like to hear from the developer if they think that that's appropriate.

But I just uh uh I mean I like I'd I'd like for their thought on that, because it just still feels like we're not giving them a great deal of direction.

But if if if you guys think that you've got direction from that and are are able to proceed with that, then I'm fine to support it.

Councilman, I appreciate the conversation that we're having here, and I appreciate the opportunity to participate in that.

Um I can tell you that um we would be glad to join the association.

Um I want to extend that to the neighbors.

We're we know that there's the possibility that our folks would want to use those amenities.

We're happy to pay for those.

Um so I want to extend that.

Whether they accept that or not is up to them.

Um but we're happy for our town homes to pay the same HOA dues that your town homes do.

Um so from that standpoint, we're we're more than happy to coordinate that.

Um with regards to the density concerns, happy to look at where um we feel like we're a little tight on that, and whether that's 71 units needs to be 65 units or 60 units to create a few more green spaces.

Uh I can't speak for the land seller, that may require some mutual cooperation here between us, but um if it's uh you know a 10 percent difference in the unit count or less, I'm sure that's something that we can work through.

Um as it relates to retail, it costs the same amount of money to build a Starbucks at 119th in Black Bob that it does at 119th in Lone Elm.

Um there's no difference in construction costs, and in fact, to try to wedge um commercial into what is otherwise a uh residential project that is not driving other retail traffic.

I mean, there's a reason that all your pad sites want to be next to a grocery store.

The grocery store drives a ton of traffic.

So all of your your retailers are going to want to be up near the Dillons there at 190 at college.

Um the the idea that you have a neighborhood clubhouse or a neighborhood coffee shop, um there's a great neighborhood coffee shop that I've met Margeville at a hundred times at college and lone elm as well.

Um that's the coffee shop, right?

Because it's built as part of a larger project, you get no economies of scale when you build a small building.

And so to do um a standalone freestanding small building is actually more expensive than to do a larger shopping center.

Right.

It might be $350 a foot to do a big shopping center, it's $650 a foot to do a standalone Starbucks because they just built one in 115th in Outlook.

And 115 Outlook is a retail corridor because it has the traffic counts to support that.

So I would tell you that we would be certainly happy to work with the neighborhood on uh policing cooperation, whatever those things might need to be.

Um as far as amenities go, 71 units doesn't support the amenities that 144 units does at Pinecrest, which has a small pool, um the clearing at 128 has 318 units because it's 48 townhomes and 270 apartments.

So that supports a full set of amenities that includes the fitness center, the clubhouse and the pool and things like that.

So 65 units, if we reduce the density slightly is not gonna support a pool.

It's not gonna support a clubhouse, not gonna support those other amenities.

Um and and frankly, uh there's just no appetite for retail.

If we carve a piece out for that, it'll just sit there again because it's just as expensive with with no traffic count and now no other co-retailers to drive that traffic.

So that would be my thoughts and my position on that.

Um but we're certainly happy to um go back to planning commissions, who would come up with um have conversations with the neighborhood about what other things we might be able to do to work with them and see if there's a path forward there.

Yeah, and real realistically, at the end of the day, we just can't find any logic to insisting on commercial, so be it.

But I think you'll come back to us with a better project that will just work better collectively.

Happy to do that.

You know, as we talk about remanding this, we're not um you know, it'd be great to have it come back in 30 days, quite frankly, but I don't think we want to put you on a time limit.

We want to give you the time to work with planning staff to come up with the next best solution.

So, Mayor, we we have a we have a motion and a second.

We've got a little bit more discussion.

Um Councilmember Creighton.

Mr.

Holland made some very uh good arguments as to why this commercial is not gonna work there.

But I still am struggling with giving up commercial.

Um I echo Mr.

Sconover's concerns about remanding without enough information.

And so if that it sounds like that may be the way this is going to go.

If that is the case, may I say that uh when you have those discussions, think what we've just uh approved earlier this evening, where now I realize it's an apartment, but there's some retail below.

Take a look at what the possibilities are there.

Uh uh under construction at 127th of Merlin right now, uh apartments with uh retail.

So we've got some mixed use there.

If we're going to remand it, um I agree, Mr.

Sconover, we need to make sure that we're clear to the planning commission, because I've sat on the planning commission without adequate uh direction.

And so that would be something else that I would add is let's look at the possibility of some mixed use.

Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I I don't know that uh the council is hearing what they're saying.

They're saying that commercial doesn't fit here.

So even if we remand it, it it is basically killing that project.

So I just want to make that clear.

Okay.

And and I would encourage you guys to consider we need five votes to pass this, and it makes sense to make this residential.

The motion on the table is to remand this to back to planning commission with the um direction that was uh explained by councilmember Vaucis, and then we have a second with that.

I'm gonna ask the city clerk to please call the roll.

Oh no, sorry.

Mr.

Bacon.

Yes.

Kim do you want to address the council before we vote on this?

The motion that I wrote down and heard was remand to staff, and then the it was just brought up remand a planning commission.

Could we get clarity?

Staff.

Yeah, we can keep it with staff, keep working with the applicant, the neighborhood, and come back directly to council.

Yeah.

We can.

We can do either at the desire of the council, but I just want clarity on the motion that was made.

All right, that's a good clarity because I was thinking going back to Planning Commission on this.

So it's just to staff.

Just to staff.

And you're good at that second.

Okay.

Yeah.

And Kim, do you want to uh then you're the one that needs to explain what you're hearing that you're going to be looking at when this comes back to staff?

Great.

Yeah.

So I understood.

Remand back to staff, work between the applicant team, um, applicant team work with the neighborhood is one aspect of it.

Um look at there are a couple of things stated.

Um look at preservation of some type of commercial was a piece of it.

Um come back with adjustments.

Um we could look at density with something brought up.

If we could get a little more clarity on what we're looking at, um, but I think I understand generally.

Okay.

Very good.

So we have a we've started the vote.

I voted yes.

Do you want to continue on, City Clerk?

Started off, Mr.

Bacon.

I have you as a yes.

Yes.

Mr.

Schoonover.

With the understanding that council is not mandating that commercial be part of the project, but that we're going back and just asking staff to work with the developer to look at that.

My vote is yes.

The motion was to include looking at some commercial as a potential that's part of it.

Oh, then I'm no.

Okay.

Dr.

Felter.

No.

Mr.

Vacus?

Yes.

Ms.

Essex?

Yes.

Mr.

Creighton?

Yes.

Mr.

Dinal.

Yes.

Motion passes 5-2.

Thank you all for being here.

And we'll see this at a future council meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you for listening.

We'll now move to general issues and concerns of citizens.

We have one individual that is signed up to speak.

So would the city clerk please invite them up and explain to them the rules on addressing the council, please?

The council has extended this privilege to allow people who live and work in Olatha to address concerns to the City Council.

Speakers must only address the council.

Council members are not required to respond.

Please treat others with kindness and respect.

The council has allocated up to three minutes per speaker.

Tonight we have just one speaker.

And so Charlotte O'Hara, please go to the podium, state your name and address for the record.

Charlotte O'Hara, 15712 Windsor Street.

So I just want to make that clear that I am invested in Olatha.

I have two commercial buildings out on uh South Keeler Street.

And what I want to talk to you tonight, and I appreciate all of the conversation you had about this um seven acres.

But what you're about to uh enter into the um with the Chiefs training center and headquarters and this new concept of star bond financing.

This is enormous.

And I and I know I know you, I know you folks.

You know me.

I've been around many, many years, and I am a businesswoman.

But these tax incentives they're they're problematic.

When you give someone public money, you are you are inherently increasing taxes on the rest of the tax base.

It's just it's just what it is.

And these these um facility is gonna have 950 million dollars of star bonds.

And if if you go forward with committing the city sales tax, the increases in the city sales tax, you're gonna have a hole that you're gonna have to backfill.

That that probably is gonna come from property taxes.

And then you have another issue is that the uh quarter cent public safety sales tax is going to be expiring.

It did not make it on to the March uh ballot because it was unlawful.

And so you have you have you t you have a percentage of that sales tax that's coming to you.

You have a lot of moving parts.

And I don't want you to be blinded by star power.

I want you to to please, please be judicial in your decision making.

There's a lot of blowback on this Chiefs financing package.

Uh KPI, Dave Trabert, um Michael um Michael, gosh, I'm sorry.

It's getting late.

Um there's economists that are coming out and saying that these numbers just don't work.

This is a big big deal.

It's gonna be 30 years.

This is going to impact Olatha for 30 years.

There's gonna be CIDs, TIDs, I mean, there's gonna be so many moving parts.

Please pray about it.

Please be judicious in your decision making, and please understand that businesses that have been in Olatha for 45 years, they can't afford increased taxes.

We just can't.

So thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.

You're my friends.

I just want to make sure that we're going forward in the proper way.

Thank you.

No one else signed up to speak, so that is it.

Okay.

We'll now move to uh planning session report items.

There are five reports.

I'm just going to go through the report numbers here.

If you have questions of staff on any of these, stop me.

Uh report one, annexation agreement.

Number two, street preservation program.

Report three, private street pro uh cooperation that we have.

Questions on that one?

Yeah, can I council member schooner on the private street?

Thank you.

And I'm item three, report three.

Thank you.

And and as as Nate walks up, thank you so much.

Nate, this is not the one I asked you about uh before the meeting started, but this is the this is the private street uh preservation program.

And and I understand it that these are our privately owned streets.

Are these um areas, and I know Dr.

Felter has brought up the the issues of donut hole annexations and and you know some of these areas within the city that uh uh aren't part of our city or does this have to do with that at all?

Are these areas that are not technically within the city's jurisdiction or within the city's limits because they they haven't yet annexed in?

Yep.

So Nate Baldon City Engineer, no, everything, uh all of the participating um neighborhoods are within the city of Olatha.

Now, some of these were developed within the city of Limit limits with private streets, others were developed in the county and then annexed into the city and had private streets at the time, but um you have to be in the city of Olatha to participate in this program.

Others were developed in the county and then annexed into the city and had private streets at the time, but you have to be in the City of Olatha to participate in this program.

Okay.

And I understand.

Thank you very much.

I understand we also get uh it's a cost-sharing uh issue with with these with these private streets, and they're obligated.

The HOAs, I believe, are obligated to pay us 25 or 75 percent.

I can't I can't I can't remember what the percentage is.

Do we actually collect that from them?

Yeah, we actually do.

So um we we actually before we start the projects, we estimate the cost of it, and they give us a deposit.

Yeah.

So we we're not trying to collect on the back end, we have the deposit.

What usually happens is the bids come in better than what the estimate is, so we actually give them a refund at the end of the project.

You guys have thought of everything.

All right.

Thanks, Olive.

Thank you.

Councilmember Creighton.

As long as you're up there, Mr.

Boldwood.

Um, what I was just hearing was talking about uh residential streets and HOAs, but we do have a number of private uh commercial streets in a few uh I can think of crossroads was an area south of uh 135th or Santa Fe.

Uh and that was a mess for a lot of years or some off of Arapahoe.

Is this only available to residential areas or if we still got some commercial streets that are uh Yeah, I think that's correct.

It is only available for residential properties.

Okay, thank you.

Uh I'll continue on report number four uh street reconstruction program.

Uh report number five.

Annual capital improvement plan projects.

With that, we'll move to additional items.

I'll start on my left.

Councilmember this evening.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Councilmember Scott.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just welcome to our new members.

Uh Mr.

Creighton and Mr.

Demo.

It is wonderful to have you here.

Looking forward to uh uh working with you all for uh really improving our city moving forward.

Mayor Bacon, you obviously mentioned the Chiefs earlier, and this is a very exciting um project for us, certainly looking forward.

I know there's a lot of moving parts um on this one, and there's still a lot of questions that are out there.

Learning, looking forward to learning more and and seeing and and hopefully well welcoming the Chiefs uh headquarters and training facility to Olatha.

If we we can do it and we do it right, I think it will be a wonderful transformation transformational project for us.

So thank you very much for your hard work um on that to to Michael Wilkes and Tim McKee as well.

I know you guys have been working very hard on that, so thank you all very much.

Councilmember Essex.

Yes, I agree, it's a very exciting announcement.

And we have yet to know the details, so we're we're waiting with anticipation.

Um also wanted to welcome our new members.

Um glad to have you guys here, and congratulations to our new mayor pro Tem.

And we are are thrilled to start this new year.

I'm thrilled, I'll speak for myself, um, with this new council.

So looking forward to it.

Councilmember Felter.

Thank you, Mayor.

Welcome, Kevin and Jeff.

We're glad to have you.

And you're gonna love serving your um community in this way.

Um local service, in my opinion, is the most impactful.

You're gonna be able to feel the difference that you're making right away.

And you're gonna love it.

So welcome.

And if you ever need anything, this is a great team to work with.

So just reach out and we've got a great staff as well.

So the future is bright, and then happy new year to all the folks who live here in Olatha or work here in Olatha, wishing you a wonderful 2026.

And how about the weather?

Amazing.

Ordered specially for you.

Happy New Year.

Councilmember Vacus.

Um, thank you, Mayor.

You know, I'd offer congratulations too to our new counselors on our far left and far right, but also to uh council member Felter, who ran unopposed.

And I think that's an indicator of how how well she is received by her ward, so congratulations.

You know, I I would tell you that uh as I consider who I'm serving with, uh, first of all, Mayor, thanks for your your vote of confidence for uh recommending me to be Mayor Pro Tem and to all my fellow council members for voting on my my behalf.

Uh work hard not to not to let you down.

You know, I I think that uh I appreciate the last public speaker's cautionary note, and I think we're being very cautious as we do our due diligence on the projects coming up for the Chiefs here in Olatha.

But I would offer, quite frankly, with that project and everything that else is going on in Olatha.

I think we have the potential of entering a golden decade here in the City of Olatha.

2026 is the first year of a golden decade.

And as I look at the quality of the city staff that we've sworn in this evening, this is uh the quality of the city council that we've sworn in this uh this evening in combination with our city staff, we have ability to handle this well.

I think it's just gonna be a great ride.

I'd uh mention to everybody hold on to your seats because there's a lot coming up this year, and we're going to enjoy the time together.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Denol.

Uh yeah, I just want to say thank you again for the for the warm welcome as well as uh to use the staff.

You've been amazing.

Um apologies if I didn't formally address everyone correctly.

I trying to think about what we're working on more than more than that.

Um anyway, yeah, I am really looking forward to uh to working with all of you, uh building us up as a team and and doing some great things.

I I agree with Councilmember Vaucis.

We've got I think there's a really good set of years uh ahead of us.

So I'm really excited to work on that with you.

Uh and then last, I just want to say thanks to everyone who's served on council before us.

It's you know, latha's been here a hundred and some years, 160 some, I want to say.

Yeah.

It's a lot of people to serve and a lot of staff who worked on Olathe.

Uh like I've said before, and everyone here has said Olatha's great.

We're gonna keep it that way, we're gonna make it better.

So thank you.

City Manager Michael Oaks.

Anything further?

Yeah, just uh staff's congratulations to all the folks that got uh newly elected and uh look forward to working with you in the new year.

Very good.

I've got a couple of things.

I and there's gonna be hopefully grace for me too as I you know try to figure out this uh system here with and get some names tags on here so I'm not guessing at things.

But uh yeah, we'll that will uh we'll perfect that.

A couple of things.

So um we're excited to reveal the draft of our Elevate Olatha comprehensive plan at some upcoming public meetings here in um January.

So um we want to thank the staff that's worked hard and put a lot of time into this conference plan as well as the volunteers on the committee and the residents who have given us a lot of input.

Um so the open houses or the public meetings are January 13th, 530 to 7 at the community center, January 21st, 530 to 7 at Woodland Spring Middle School, and January 27th, 9 to 11 at K-State Olatha.

And you'll find out more information about uh opportunities to see this draft of the comprehensive plan at Olatha KS.gov forward slash elevate Olathe.

Next week, Tuesday, uh January 13th, we are hosting a reception to honor outgoing City Manager Michael Wilkes and also City Councilwoman uh Marge Vote.

Uh the event will be from three to five at the Flexbox space in our downtown library.

So make sure you put that on your calendar.

Um I guess we'll roast Michael Wilkes at that event.

And uh once again, I'd like to thank welcome the new council members here tonight.

Um look forward to working with you.

Um the seating arrangement that we have right now will could possibly change.

This is temporary.

So typically what we'll do is um Mayor Pro 10 is usually close, and then we'll go by seniority and give you an opportunity to pick the spaces that are available after these two, which would uh I think uh seniority is to Councilmember Felter, and then uh we'll we'll figure it out and get in touch with you as far as where you would like to sit.

And the other thing that we want to talk about too is committee assignments.

So Dean and I will get together and we'll look at the openings that we have on committee assignments and we'll talk to individuals as far as going forward and get that assigned.

So with that, um I want to thank everybody for being here tonight and those watching online and hope you have a great new year.

It's a good start, like the weather is perfect.

Probably won't last very long though.

Um thanks for joining us and have a good evening.

We are adjourned.