The Great Bend City Council Monday night approved the first step in designating the Fairways at StoneRidge as a Rural Housing Opportunity District. The action was taken at the request of Rick Ball, who owns the lots in question and is developing them.
This move involves submitting the application to the Kansas Department of Commerce designate which has the final say in the matter, City Administrator Howard Partington said.
“This is the start of a long process,” Partington said. If the KDOC gives its blessing, then there will be a public hearing and notification of taxing entities that would be impacted.
An RHID is a Kansas Department of Commerce program designed to aid developers in building new housing by assisting in the financing through tax credits that are returned to the developer until the project is completed. RHIDs are available for any small- to medium-sized city or county in Kansas.
In other economic development news, the council also OKed designating a Community Improvement District for the new Holiday Inn Express following a petition from project developers GBK Ventures LLC.
City Clerk Amit Patel said CIDs are allowed through the Kansas Community Improvement District Act.
Under the act, cities can establish CIDs for improvement projects within the bounds of the district. These are funded by a CID tax (sales tax) levied by the entity requesting the CID and would be returned to the entity.
In this case, only the hotel would be covered and it would charge a 2 percent tax to its customers to help offset the cost project, Pate said. No other businesses would be impacted by the tax.
By state statute, such districts can only be in place for 22 years, which is what was requested for this CID. The funds from the district will be collected by the Kansas Department of Revenue which will turn them over to the city so it can disburse them to company. The city is entitled to an administrative of up to 5 percent of the CID money raised.
This is not a done deal as of yet, Patel said. A public hearing has been set for May 18 in conjunction with the council meeting which starts at 7:30 p.m.