In other business, the council:
• Approved a taxicab license for B&B Enterprises LLC. City Clerk Amit Patel said the Hays company has a cab in Hays and is going to start running one cab in Great Bend.
• Approved a rezoning request from Gary and Sara Pletcher for the rezoning of the property at 1715 Patton Road from C-1 (Commercial) to R-2 (2 Family). No one appeared at the planning commission meeting to oppose the rezoning, City Attorney Bob Suelter said. Sara Pletcher operates a beauty shop in the front of the building but the couple wants to be able to live in the back portion.
Also, should they close the shop, they may consider operating the property as a duplex.
• Approved abatements at 1010 Frey, owned by Mark and Ruby Alloway, for accumulation of refuse, and 2312 Eighth, owned bu Don Short, for a motor vehicle nuisance.
• Heard a monthly report from Community Coordinator Christina Hayes. She extolled the success of the Party in the Park and how it drew city personnel and the community together.
• Heard an update on city departmental activities from City Administrator Howard Partington.
The Great Bend City Council Monday night approved a resolution requesting Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George establish a Rural Housing Incentive District in the city. Also, the council OKed the Housing Needs Analysis, required by the state to accompany the RHID application.
In short, an RHID is a Kansas Department of Commerce program designed to aid developers in building new housing by assisting in the financing via tax credits, said City Administrator Howard Partington. There are at least two developers eager to build in Great Bend, but will not do so without such a district in place.
“This is working on your number one priority,” Partington said to the council. The governing body identified housing the city’s biggest challenge for economic development.
The housing study quantified the need for housing at different levels and types. It also verified the shortage is expected to worsen if no incentives are put in place, and that the shortage is detrimental to the community’s growth.
According to the study, there are 6,483 total occupied housing units in Great Bend, both owned and rented. There are also 630 vacant homes, empty for various reason.
With over half of the current houses dating back to 1959 and earlier, the housing stock is aging, Partington said. In the past five and a half years, there have been only 22 new single-family homes built and 13 senior-living duplexes. There have been no apartments built for 35 years.
It is recommended, Partington said, that a community see an increase of 1.7 percent each year in new houses. For Great Bend, that translates to 100 annually.
In order to take advantage of the incentive, property must be within a redevelopment district. Districts are defined by the city or county and must be based on the study.
For this application, the city included tracts of land in Amber Meadows near the new city cemetery, on Grant Street south of 10th Street and near 29th and Washington south of Walnut Bowl. One developer wants to build eight new single-family homes (at Amber Meadows) and six four-plexes (near Walnut Bowl), and another wants to construct a 32-unit apartment complex (on Grant).
Partington said other areas could be added at a later date.
The city tapped local freelance writer Maggie Lee who worked with Partington to prepare the study. The council gave a thumbs up to the study when it met Oct. 7, which paved the way for its submission to the state.
Lee also interviewed business leaders and real estate agents. Their stories, included in the study, told of how the shortage hurt their recruiting efforts.
In June, Partington, Mayor Mike Allison and Great Bend Chamber of Commerce President Jan Peters met with a developer interested in building homes in Great Bend.
This came after an effort to build an apartment complex in Great Bend fell through when the developer couldn’t get the federal tax credits they were seeking for the low- to moderate-income housing project.
However, the project developer, Overland Properties of Kansas City, is one of two companies interested in taking part in the Great Bend RHID.
The other now wanting to get involved is Ross Vogel, owner of Employer Housing LLC.
The RHID program captures 100 percent of the incremental increase in real property taxes created by a housing development project for up to 15 years.
RHIDs are available for any city in Kansas with a population less than 40,000 in a county with a population of less than 60,000 or for any county with a population of less than 40,000.
