Tuesday’s Great Bend City Council meeting took place in a nearly completed meeting room at Events Center to accommodate the anticipated crowd concerned about a rezoning request for a Housing Opportunities Inc. development in the southwest part of town. This was a good call as the room was packed.

It marked the first meeting open to the public in some time. Recent meetings have been closed and available via live streaming. 

As for the rezoning, the council voted to send the matter back to the city’s Planning Commission for further study, particularly in regards to how it would effect drainage. “It seems like we are jumping the gun a little bit,” said Councilwoman Jolene Biggs.

“We want to be good neighbors,” said HOI Executive Director Vicky Dayton, noting the delay won’t be a problem. “We are sensitive to the concerns.”

This is a $4 million 12-unit HOI development adjacent to the current Cherry Village senior apartments in southwest Great Bend. Located at Parrish Court in the Cherry Village Addition (in the southwest corner of town), the new facility would target those 55 and older and would be income qualified. 

The project included constructing Parrish Road within the development that would serve the new structures, as a cul-de-sac. As of now, the only access will be off of Eisenhower on the south side.

HOI requested rezoning from multi-family residential to planned unit development. These are similar, except a PUD allows for homes to be closer together and for smaller lots, making it better for projects like Quail Cove.

The issue had been on the Oct. 19 council agenda. But, HOI requested delaying action due to the concerns.

Discussion 

Housing Opportunities Inc. has an option to purchase real estate from Pamela Lewis, who has joined in the request to rezone the property, City Attorney Bob Suelter said. 

The Planning Commission held a public hearing Sept. 28. The meeting was attended by about 20 people and complaints were raised about the rezoning for several reasons, including drainage, loss of property value for neighboring properties, an increase of taxes on neighboring properties, and the placement of the type of housing in the neighborhood. 

“After considerable discussion, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to adopt the findings of fact prepared by the staff and recommend that the council approve the rezoning,” Suelter said.

The day after the hearing, city staff requested HOI provide the city with a drainage study for the property, he said. This was to determine the effect of the drainage on the downstream properties bordering the drainage ditch on the west side of this property. 

Staff asked the study be submitted to the city’s contract engineer (Professional Engineering Consultants of Wichita) for review. As of Monday, this had not been completed.

However, HOI as well as Josh Golka of Professional Engineering Consultants said this should be ready soon. “We are working with HOI. I do think they are working in the right direction,” Golka said.

The new plan calls for three retention ponds to be built on the west edge of the site. These would catch run-off surface water.

“One of our biggest concerns is the drainage,” said Craig Pangburn, an area resident. He was glad to see the ponds, but wants to see the finalized proposal.

“It’s not a problem for us for it to go back to the Planning Commission,” Dayton said. “I think it needs to go back.”

Despite those remarks from Dayton, some in the audience remained unsatisfied.

“The people who are here tonight have some very legitimate concerns,” said Jane Smith, who lives near the proposed development. She called the Planning Committee meeting a farce and asked about the enforcement of possible restrictive covenants that may limit uses for the site.

“We don’t want another amber meadows situation,” she said. She was referring to the flooding that occurred in that neighborhood in 2019.