and I'm texting. Uh, >> okay. It's 7 o'clock so many. Okay. Uh,
first thing just a short announcement. Uh, Greg David passed away this
afternoon. speak John David that's why he will not be joining us
today this evening um let's just run around and quickly do an introduction
because I know planning commission and city house don't always interact too
much with each other so let's start with Mike Proctor
say who you are and where what you do it's Mike Proctor I'm on city council
and I do run an investment advisory US.
I'm just joined planning commission and I'm recently retired. Would you like to
spend some time with two grand? >> Brandon Moff council.
I work as an engineer direct street. >> I'm Demian
retired engineer. >> Well, Jordan, planning commission,
retired architect and I have some real estate and some I have a farm and Jim
and I was talking about that I did a little bit. I just not
city council lived in Beller since 2010 and I work at Wildcat to start.
I'm Jim Bage. I'm mayor and mostly retired
» and I'll if you don't mind I have my staff introduce themselves so they know
who who's. >> Yep. announce
the development director and the staff person for
» James Miller, facilities director and interim police manuction.
Huh?
BC. >> Ted Henry, city manager, proud employee
for the last 10 years. And tonight we're here to or you want to queue it off,
Jen, or you want me to? >> Oh, well, go ahead.
» First thing on the agenda, try to keep to an hour is zoning code updates. I
think we have somebody.
» Thank you, mayor. Yep. I'm Kylie Jennings. Um, I work at PEC,
professional engineering consultants. We serve as your guys' on call city
planners and city engineers. Um, do a variety of things with the city. And
tonight, we're going to work through a zoning and subdivision regulations
update. This is the first workshop that we'll do with you all out of four.
All right. So, are we ready to dive into it?
» Yeah. I I will just say we are broadcasting to the public. It's mainly
audio because I have her presentation on the the live stream. So just just be
aware that um audio [clears throat] is going
» and if you have any questions at all during this, please let me know. Um
we'll do a little presentation um to explain what this project is. You guys
will do some discussion amongst yourselves and then as a big group we'll
go back to a presentation. We'll do one more activity and then wrap it up. Um,
so my co-orker Lance Onto is also um your guys's on call planner and he's in
Rose Hill right now helping them with something and is on his way as we speak.
So he'll get here eventually. Um, but how did we get here? Some of you that
were on council previously for any commission, remember that we just
wrapped up the Bellair 2035 comprehensive plan. This is a
comprehensive plan document. spent two years talking to the public um and
working with you all um and we at that time the city council and planning
commission through several workshops um we talked to several different
stakeholder groups like the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, the tree board. Um
we're at pop-up events at festivals here in Bair all gathering community input to
give us the values and goals for Bair for the next 10 years for Belair 2035.
So there's multiple values. We won't go through all of them. Um, one of them was
economic development. Your value statement there is Bellair's
non-residential environment will enhance the quality of life for all residents
and visitors alike. Right. And one of those goals that's boxed to your goal
number two is review and amend adoptive regulations to identify inconsistencies,
improvements, and revisions. And then focus this review towards incorporating
modern best practices for non-residential regulation tailored
specifically to assist with the implementation of this plan. Sorry,
that's kind of jargony, but that means do the projects that we are now doing.
So, um you guys and same thing in housing. We had the exact same goal for
housing as well as goal number six here, explore amending or redoing the zoning
code, especially as it pertains to residential development. Um to ensure
best practices are in place for the city, the developer, and the citizens.
So, you all get to say hello constituents. We are doing exactly what
you asked us to do. This is awesome. So what this project is that we're
partaking on is the next best step for Belair and often the step that comes
after a comprehensive plan update. So does that make sense where we're
going right now? >> Yeah. Who who um was involved in the
process of the comprehensive plan? You don't mind? Okay, that's what I thought.
So most of you. Great. Okay. So before um we dive into Belair's
zoning code specifically, we'll do a brief overview of what zoning is. So
zoning 101, it existed all the way back in antiquity. For as long as humans have
been alive, we have been organizing our space in some sort of order, right?
There was a religious center, a commercial center, um a place where you
know all the business happened. There was places where people lived and there
was places where people played. There was outdoor things. Think of a walled
city. Certain things were allowed to happen outside the wall, certain things
had to happen inside the wall. They probably didn't have it written down in
several articles on the MUN code website, but it existed and it was in
some form happening. Um, then zoning, as we call it now, took a big shift during
the industrialization period. So, um, people always kind of lived and worked
in the same place, right? They didn't have to, we didn't have cars back then,
so they didn't have to travel far to go to work. So work and home work together.
Now industrialization comes about and we have all these factories and we realize
that work and home together is very very bad for the human person. Um think of
like the London the great smog of London and all of these uh pretty quickly
escalating health problems. So that started a pendulum swing of we have to
separate land uses. People need to live over here and work over here for health,
safety and welfare. good idea until that pendulum swung and swung and swung and
swung. We never stopped it and we said, "Okay, people are going to live here if
they live in one house, but they're or a single family house. They'll live here
if they live in a duplex or a triplex or quadlex. They live over here if they're
in an apartment. The uh healthcare will be over here. Retail will be over here.
The grocery store will be over here. And the factory will be over here." And so
now no one can access the things that they need on a day-to-day basis. Right?
So that is what 20th century um zoning has kind of swung towards. And we have
some really good things that did happen um like really walkable cities, things
that are, you know, uh just think of like our really historic neighborhoods
um in Witchah, historic neighborhoods here in Melair, things that we all enjoy
being in. And then some things that weren't good happened like just endless
endless endless suburban sprawl, right? That is generally not great for the
human spirit. So the modern goals of zoning are to take away this. So this uh
dashed circle is like a a walkable radius, right? And we do sometimes live
in this world where often now our uses are surrounded by parking lots on very
large roads leading to the fact that no one can walk to anywhere that they need
to go. And the goal is kind of shifting towards mixing those uses to make them
um more usable so that you can maybe live, work, and play in one
neighborhood. I think a lot about uh kids and elderly who cannot drive. How
much how far can they go without a car in their day-to-day lives? Can they get
any of their needs done in their day-to-day life? Right? There's kind of
like a big uh some people are saying like, "Oh, kids these days can't can't
handle anything. We were out till the street lights came on." Well, it was
like different to be out till the street lights came on when you could go to the
quick trip and you could go to the park and you could go to all these places
with your friends. Um, and now you can't. Like I know growing up if I
wanted to go to the store I had to cross a four-lane road um with cars going 45
miles an hour, right? So that wasn't really part of an option. So zoning now
today we're trying to get more into this area on the right where the environment
that we're building is good for development for the human. Okay. And I
know that's kind of a heavy statement and that's not that perfect, you know,
combination of uses there isn't going to fit in every single um city, right? So
the goal here is to make Belair's a little bit more oriented toward what the
citizens want, what all what you all think is good for the next few years.
Um, I will say that this is so we'll get to discussion, but real quick I want to
note that this is not unique to Belair. Every city in America is trying to go
through this zoning and subdivision regulation update, right? This is not
something that it's like you guys are so behind. This is crazy. Um, at the same
time, this is impressive that we're already making this next step, right?
you guys just adopted the comprehensive plan and you're already starting on this
next project, which isn't necessarily um common everywhere. So, it's really
exciting. So, this is this is the next best step for citizens. Um and these
regulations will be like continuing to evolve, right? Just like our knowledge
of zoning, our knowledge of planning, the way we build houses changes, the way
we design cities changes. So, now you guys will get to talk. Um, and we're
going to do this kind of in groups. So, I think maybe each table could have a
miniature discussion and then we'll discuss as a group. Um, you guys get to
decide as a group what is the most important rule of your zones and
regulations. I'll put a timer on my phone for like three or four minutes and
then we will discuss as a large group. So, go ahead discuss amongst yourselves.
What's the most stressful?
That's part of it.
» It's designed to
availably
don't know very Oh,
It's very
easy.
Whatever.
All of us coming down.
There's always
another
Facebook.
» Oh, yeah.
I know
something
This is exciting. You guys are daddy. I love it. Um we are in a strict request
to keep us under now but we're trying to starting
let's start at the table you guys want or are you guys ready to what was your
answer for the most important role of your code?
» I mean I don't know if we had a collective answer but I just said to
bring order and value out of chaos. >> Nice. Yes.
» Yeah. I talked about how, you know, when I came to city council, I pretty much
have this idea, hey, you know, property rights are king. You know, if you own
the property, I want you to have maximum ability to do what you want on that. If
you've got a problem with it or you form HOAs to kind of enforce, you know, we
have different things in there, but minimize top down control. Um, but I
hear from residents, you know, this feels like in black city, you know, is
there a role that we should play in shaping or minimizing some of that? So,
um, bring order with it and freeze it, but I
don't always know, uh, what that should look like and how complicated that
should be for >> our side of the deal.
» Yeah, that is that'll be a core, we'll discuss that later is how do you balance
personal property rights and maintaining an ordered city? Yeah, great. And your
guys's job as elected employment officials. Great. I'm not envious, but
that is very cool. Okay, this table. Yeah,
» we we said just the most important role is so that our city can develop with a
plan.
» We didn't think it was fair. You did start with those ideas first.
I think it comes down to um the citizens safety but also with the vision that
they have for the city um and then staying on top of like what we are now
as as things change and evolve trying to make sure that we're staying ahead of
that so that the the quality of life is >> I think another one was our zoning
regulations are there for a reason and it it
to just change them or ask for changes just because you want to
struggle with. >> Yes.
» Why? >> Uhhuh. And so like are you asking why
are we changing right now? >> No. Or
» but why back on that? So we talked a little bit about making sure that the
regulations are clear and I don't know the words predictable,
right? But we don't want more. We would like less and less case by case and more
and more structure. >> That's kind of a general rule. But also
one of the things that we talked about a little bit too is being creative and
having some option especially for variety of housing
you chat about a little bit. >> I'm going to come back real quick. So
what about the changes? >> So when people ask for changes, why do
you need that change? Is it all financially driven? is that you think
it's better if we do it this way. And so all of these documents, all these words
we put in here were thought out. And if we just say, okay, here it is. And then
somebody talk, I don't like this or I don't like this. I want to change that.
» And they want to come in and do it. And and why why do you want to
» not just I want to do it. >> Okay. Having reasons behind the variance
request. reasons how those help citizens of Belair and the city.
» Nice. Okay. Is there anything else in this table? Housing flexibility.
» I think we wanted to see something. The code obviously we started with it public
safety. >> Yeah. Knowing the separating isolating
compartments from quiet from more safe areas maybe
less safe areas. >> That's the role of of zone. I don't
know. I'm not trying to bash on the because it's actually a pretty neat
city, but if you've ever gone to Oklahoma,
find something that's just different and and and that is um it's weird. There's
houses next to businesses, next to fire, and it's just kind of weird. So, if you
ever go there, just I've just noticed that.
» Um so, trying to make those what you saying order of the
right place, the right place to be separated by the right amount of
distance or together or what. But Jim didn't know the connectivity and we
talked a little bit about how subdivisions and zoning, you know, you
build a subdivision, you build a subdivision and they're just kind of
desperate. They're not connected. But we really do as we want to master plan our
city need to be thinking about how do we provide for future connectivity knowing
there's going to be some sidewalks to nowhere until we connect that but if
there requirements for putting that in then eventually we'll start connecting
them or the city might take a path if the side connect
» awesome yeah
it's it's also a balance of there's families that have been in the valley
for decades So they they love why they're here and they don't always want
the change. Um so it's it's a it's that balance of really trying to make sure
that we're that they feel heard and that the reason they want to stay here is
also >> defin
we know how and I haven't had a chance to read that just
35 point fits in this play.
Um, yes, I will come back to that in just a second to hit on what you're
saying. That will be yes, the thing that we kind of tie in, right? We're not
going to change the way Belair looks with the zoning regulation update. How
do we tease it? How do we make it more flexible, more predictable for people,
for citizens, so that people can not be out of shock when something new goes in?
Right. So, yes, >> I just want to say one piggyback thing
there. I agree with that. Um, I think it's important to see what strengths
Belair has, what unique characteristics Belair has and and and and try to try to
maintain those to some degree and not just be a meto city like, oh, we want to
be like dirty, we want to be like God, we want to be like mates. No, look at
what's made us really different >> and sure we maintain some of those
special qualities. So that's if you got more nerds that that's what I I was in
that thing. >> Awesome.
» Yes. So So for some more context on with the comprehensive plan um so the
comprehensive plan that's a legal requirement by the state of Kansas and
by most states um to have in place before you can enforce zodia
regulations. So you have to be able to tell a citizen we've thought through the
next 10 years. We've looked at our utilities. We've talked to citizens.
we've gathered all this feedback um and that gives us the legal right to say you
cannot build a so and so on your residential plotted neighborhood. Um so
the comprehensive plan is much more visionary in um just in its personality
of a document. I guess if you can give a document a personality, right? It goes
through we can come back to um one of these slides here.
You have four value statements. There's only two of them here. Economic
development and housing. Um but we can read this uh paragraph for housing here
real quick. Retaining residents in Belair over the next 15 years will
largely hinge on housing. If resident is able to rent or purchase a starter home,
move into a larger home as their family expands, and then downsized during
retirement, Belair will have served them well. City can proactively take steps to
ensure that missing piece of housing stocks, the missing pieces of housing
stock are incentivized and eventually built to keep citizens in Belair. Um, so
those are the type of that's like the level that we're looking at when we're
looking at the comprehensive plan, right? is like this is a thing that
needs to be addressed and this is what we heard from your citizens that needs
to be addressed as well as planners looking at the city. This is what we
recommend. Um and then we list these goals. So you'll see they're pretty
vague, right? Like goal number three is promote multiple housing types and
densities of housing to ensure residents at all stages of life can remain in
Belair. Goal four, support and encourage maintenance and redevelopments of
underutilized and or deteriorating existing neighborhoods. Um because that
this is a plan for the next 10 to 15 years. So this is the uh the workload
basically of your staff here um and you all is how do we achieve these goals
over the next 10 to 15 years. So many ways you can do that. Um this zoning
regulation update is like the next best step to start to do that. Does that kind
of give more context for that piece? And it's a little bit but this is on
your website. Um it is a large document but there's a lot of pictures. So I
would recommend working through it. um that is the comprehensive plan will be
updated annually by the planning commission. So that is something that
you guys will continue to review as being
» just to kind of add to a little bit your about things that get requested changed.
Some of that comes from our side too like we'll review a plan at planning
commission or we'll review the city council and we'll go wait here's
something missing here and we'll say hey we want to sidewalk there connection. So
it goes both ways. But I think the intent of updating our zoning is so it's
very clear what our expectations are of the developers and what we're providing
our citizens. So that hopefully we have less and less and less of that over
time. But also one thing I've observed is developers will come in and ask for a
change and a lot of times I'll hear hey this is how Witchah does it or this is
how and so they're used to developing in areas across the area and our code is so
old and so dated that a lot of those little things have just not caught up
and I'm not saying that everything Wita does or everything that Derby does is
going to want to do but I think there is probably a decent chunk of the issues
we're having are probably related to we're kind of on some of those things
and that's what I've observed over the last several weeks since I've been on
council when they have asked for adjustments or changes. It seems like
it's rooted in it's kind of normal but you guys are different.
» So how these aren't good I'm not saying get rid of all
» there are good differences but there are four things that would totally be up if
they were yeah >> press four. All right, if there are no
more questions, we're gonna move on to your this is your second discussion
question that you'll do on your tables again and then we'll move on with the
evening. Um
the next section,
» what is the most common development oriented complaint you hear in Belair?
» Yeah. No, this is small small groups first. I know what one answer is going
to be. I know if anyone can come up with something other than duplexes, you can
start
Okay.
When you start getting
down, I mean, that's all
that
burning city.
about
you know
what's
Thursday
night
special.
All right.
» I hope that was some good. >> I'm sure you guys all want to hear these
things. I'm interested in your guys's answers for this one, too. And the
previous one, sorry. >> All right, let's start over here again.
Come up with [laughter]
your hand. it would be deeplexes idea like
like on one hand you know and I feel this way too like but the bedroom
community isn't such a slur to me because we're close to W 11 nice things
to say you know like you've been here for 20 years you like a restaurant but
you don't want all the hassles of restaurant or maybe more people coming
up here that might cause other issues. So just that tension of how do you grow?
How do you grow in an organic way where you're not putting your thumb on the
scale maybe with incentives that don't make sense but at the same time there's
an upper use in just
so um we're not going to say the word [laughter] and but I think in some way
it's a bit of a red herring and I want to go back to what we talked about when
planning commission meetings what I gave you some homework because I know that
there's these laws which just come down to
Kansas that would make it difficult for us to do anything if you single out a
certain type of house. But as I thought about it really I don't think people are
necessarily complaining about a duplex. What they're complaining about is 200 of
the exact same floor plan, exact same color side by side. And I think if even
if those were million dollar single family homes, if they were all identical
floor plan, all identical color side by side in the same subdivision, we'd all
have the same complaint. So I think when you listen to what people mean versus
what they say is the homogeneity, right? We all love variety. And I think
one of the things I think people should look at is is there a way in that we can
force the developers to have some kind of variety whether it's duplexes, single
family homes, forplexes, apartments, I don't care
regardless of residential type. We want variety. And so if we had that as
goal number three or statement number three that would go back I'd like to see
that driven out in the individual zone.
» Yes, we will get to that next. >> So I think so not single out a type of
residential property but we want variety.
» Awesome. Yeah. Um, to go off of that, I live in a
neighborhood that is filled with duplexes and I find a new one almost
every month that I didn't know was there prior because of the design of the homes
or I live in Riverside. So, you drive through and you never realize that's a
duplex until you notice there's two addresses on the front. Where's the how
they where are they going? So, yeah, it's a great a great comment.
» I'll add on to that. I think also besides the variety, I think the mix,
and we talked about this a little bit, the mix of green space, sidewalk
accessibility, some of those things do get more cramped when you're just trying
to fit as many duplexes as we can on that partial, you know, 40 acre lot. So,
if we're thinking about making a requirement, it may needs to be more
driven to our vision of how much green space do we need per acre or whatever
metric we come up with. And maybe that can help drive a little bit of no matter
whether it's duplex or a single favorite, it's going to have these
things and that could help to y >> as we're saying that I was kind of
thinking those same things. So I think you it's well well said the way you put
it
» as I am in uh the outside of I don't know exactly what I'm called but
» but anyway those of you who have known me for a while know there are few things
I talk house and one of them is lighting. Okay, those are the kinds of
things that you look at I think in zoning from the standpoint of people
from the outside looking at your city when they come in. example
for part of the community. I live on Greenwood Road. If you come down 85th
Street and Greenwood Road, people talk about the Christmas tree.
You know what that is? That's a SEMA facility and it's all referred to as the
Christmas tree. People talk about the duplexes. They all look alike. And then
there's another issue that's coming about with this zoning too that we need
to think about our whole society how we're becoming more geared towards even
light pollution. You know, it used to be water pollution. It used to be, you
know, soil pollution. Now we're looking at black pollution also. So this is what
some of this thing of the zoning changes can do is to look forward and bring Bair
into this concept of all the way around, you know, beyond the city limits.
» Thanks. >> I got one thing I'd like to density
versus green space and pocket. So the more dense populated and area it
is, the more green space and pocket parks they need to be able to get out.
Imagine living in Soviet Russia during the 1970s.
You're in 20story building and there's a park outside. This whole room is the
building and this is so we need to have a we need to put
something in. It's been done in those cities where density
per acre of major has to have so many
feet of square feet or square yards of open space pocket parks.
» And the pocket parks are so important for a neighborhood because where the
kids go to they walk to the park and then they it's five tin the houses down
where the parents go with kids where the parents they meet the other parents that
neighborhood forms to cohesive identity.
» Yeah, I I guess I'll let's say several of these concepts together. I
know the question is is a little bit broader than what I'm about to say. I
would say what I hear is reflexes. So that but I think um one thing that Brian
mentioned and you got V mentioned I think what I would like to see is a
variety a variety of lot sizes >> in in this in let's say one subdivision
typical subdivision we need a variety of lot sizes you need
a variety of housing types like talked about maybe they're not all good places.
Maybe they're not all single family, but maybe a variety of living choices,
creative living choices and a variety of green space. And even if there's two
adults that wanted to share a nice green space and it was a special green space,
maybe that that's an opportunity to save some of the financial burden often by
developer. So, okay, this development, this 4 acres has to be green space and
this 4 acres has to be green space. there could be a little bit space on
shares. So I guess variety is
thing I got brought up was what is our we said the key word but uh the second
biggest thing is just not having sidewalks or sidewalks and this is
usually an issue in older parks failure. It's obviously not as big an issue in
our new subs because most of those can't say all most of them have sidewalks on
at least one side. Some of them have it on both, but there are some new
specifically duplex development that did not get sidewalks put in. So that's a
problem in my opinion with the density. Uh so the other issue is just we we kind
of a couple times of green space. I don't know if it's city parks. I think
when I hear pocket park sets probably tends to lend itself to requiring an HOA
supply that and us not taking on more city general budget to do that. But um I
think it is probably the second biggest thing I hear is just not having enough
connectivity, enough sidewalks, enough safe space to walk, bike
and other timing under what said. Yeah, I agree. The city doesn't need anything
more than the budget like five huge parks.
» But you know, sometimes simplicity is fun. like maybe it's okay to have a
green space because it can just be, >> you know, it doesn't have to have a
$350,000 play set. It can just be gratitude
what Tyler said. >> I'm gonna come to the staff table real
quick. What do we think? I'm a little biased, but um I think in
addition to um the zoning code related to housing and I know we talked a lot
about the types of I'm worried about retail and commercial opportunities
because oftent times when you have a little something it brings people into
the city and when you only have houses of thinking, oh my gosh, I've got to
drive 10 miles to get to a grocery store. I got it. So, I think retail uh
the right kind of retail in the right kinds of places according to the
comprehensive plan is going to be really important and I know that sometimes when
you get a few a few more may come, right? And so, we're starting to see a
little bit of that right now and I'm really excited about that. Um as long as
it's the right kind and what people want and so I think um I think that's really
helpful because I don't want to continue I don't want Belair to continue to rely
on driving some other city all the time. I I appreciate having some of those
conveniences in the city.
» You do. You do. The reality >> it's not quite zoning related, but we're
about ready and some of the new council members are going to experience their
first bond issue. Pro special assessments are the main one I hear. And
and and it's all tied together, guys. That's what's fun. It's uh it's
interesting how citizens want one thing and then the other and then retail is
another big one. >> The other thing when I'm talking is it's
funny how why do people move to Valair? They want to look up at the sky. They
want to go to their backyards and have that sense of I'm outside the city but
also, you know, close to the city. So, how do we preserve that feeling of and I
hate hate to say it, but you know that I'm out in the open but not out in the
open and that's where we talk about lot sizes and and those types of things. So,
those are the three things I get. >> Okay, thanks you guys. That was really
informative, really good. Um, we are going to move on to project philosophy.
Lance is going to take it from here. gets to all fun
act and she says lance once you can be in there just deflate everybody's
» conditions >> like a in parks and wreck the show it's
a lot like cities there's the two finance guys and one of them like talks
about all the good things they're going to do and then the other guys launches
the budget >> welcome to another guy
» so I'm generally the second least popular person at every party the first
finance guys. So, at least I have you guys beat. So, I don't have to worry
about paying, right? Say that jokingly because uh that is a point that I'm
going to try to make. So, what we're trying to do here tonight is kind of
what we've started with. Trying to get some of your guys's thoughts, ambitions,
the things that you guys struggle with, start to kind of put some context around
what this next version of your zoning code will look like. Um,
the other part of what we're trying to do tonight is kind of ground you guys.
So, we're all marching forward with this with the same goals in mind. So, what is
this project going to do? What is this project not going to do? Are we going to
be able to address every single thing that every person in this room wants to
address? No. Uh, so what is our purpose? So, we're going to pause. We're going to
talk about a little bit of that here in the middle and then we're going to get
some we're going to hope we'll try to set some priorities so we can at least
identify those really big ticket items that we have to make as part of this
update. Again, we will not be perfect. This will not be a code that you guys
adopt and never has to be touched again. That's how we get into the situation
we're in now, right? where we've kind of got to reset, go back to foundations,
figure out what's important, and figure out what we need to do just to make it
work correctly. The one piece, and I caught most of that last thing that I'm
not that's not on this section that I wanted to mention, I want to I want to
remind everyone the difference between encouragement of and requirements and
regulations. So just because we want our built
environment, our city to look a specific way, uh there are different ways we can
make that become reality or actuality. Some of that is through our requirements
and our regulations. You must do this, right? Not everything fits a zoning code
in that way. So not saying that this is applicable or not, but just to use an
example because we've talked a lot about variety of lot sizes, variety of housing
types, all those things, right? Can you write a regulation that requires that?
We're going to find out, right? Uh but there are other mechanisms that a city
can use to encourage that rather than just require that or have the
regulation. So I want you to be thinking in that mindset, too. Not only are we
talking about requirements and laws here within the zoning ordinance, uh, but
even if it's not appropriated or does it fit well in a zoning ordinance, some of
these ambitions and goals can live elsewhere. Uh, which we can talk about
those as we go. So, I'm actually going to let Kylie
explain that. I don't want me to have all the fun. So, I'll let Kylie explain
this slide, then we'll get into the real stuff.
» Okay. So this analogy is usually given um for time management, right? What are
your rocks in your life? What are your pedals? What are your stay? So rocks are
like I have to eat three times a day. Um me, I have to also snack like three or
four times a day. Love snacks. Um I need eight hours of sleep and I need to hang
out with my husband, right? That might be your rocks. And then your pebbles
could be um I I like to cook. I like to um hang out with my neighbors. These are
things that add value to my life, but they're not required for me to survive.
And then the sand are things that are just now I have free time. What am I
going to do? Right? I'm going to read a book or go outside. Um, so you pick
where your things land. But that's basically what we're saying here is if I
only read books and never eat lunch, then I will not continue to survive as a
human, right? That would be putting my sand in before my rocks and my pebbles
go in. So you have to put in your big things first that are the most important
then the next important and then fill in around the rest. So for this project the
most important thing is organizing the code right the zoning code currently
does not flow in the most uh what do I want to say intuitive way right that the
organization of this will be the rocks we have to get the right sections in the
right place the right things in the right order and it has to talk well to
the subdivision regulations and then the pebbles the next important thing we're
going to look at are districts and uses so that's single family residential
multif family residential um light commercial, heavy commercial,
light industrial, heavy industrial, those types of uh zoning districts, what
your piece of property is zoned and then what is allowed to happen on that piece
of property. Those are the next level of importance. And then the final thing,
the sand that fills in the jar um that we do absolutely last um is the
regulations. So that is what we were talking about earlier like what is the
uh recommended acre per density of green space for this housing development right
how far do we want these street trees to be placed apart from one another what
type of architectural facade do we want people to use on their buildings those
are the sand things so that would be something that we have to shift our
minds is away from wanting to fill out all of those sand regulations right
because we say okay I know I want brick and limestone stone with the spots. Why
can't we just write that as a regulation? We're not there yet. We have
to start with the organization so that we can get there without just making
things more confusing in the process. That make sense? Does that land? Cool.
She's an analogy expert, so I give all analogies to her. How long is that gonna
take? >> Two weeks now. No, I'm No. I I think a
lot of the pacing of this project. So, we will cover all of these as part of
this project. A lot of the pacing I'll have we'll have a better idea of
following the end of this workshop and before our next workshop. next workshop
which we'll talk about we'll be presenting actual districts and UC
we'll see how close we are as a group to getting through that. So, I hate
putting, but my goal is to have full draft zoning code in the minimal
subdivision that we're touching by the end.
That's the goal. And as Kylie knows, I'm meetings I'm in never go late. Projects
never go beyond the deadline. >> And steering phase like yourself never
request another meeting like
Okay. So what hopefully this will look like at the end it will not we are not
going to be submitting this to some national you know hopefully some
national award there's not going to be a number of cities that are going to be
like I want their code so what is successful for us at this stage of what
we're trying to do as Kylie mentioned our code is not overly organized user
friendly which means we have a lot of compliance issues development has a lot
of risk that's unnecessary homeowners don't really know what to do it drags
down staff time. So, they can't be proactive. They're very reactive. So,
hopefully our code by the end of this is well organized. It's consistent. We've,
as Paula can tell you, uh we often are debating conflicts in your code. It says
one thing in one section and contradicts it in another section. We got to figure
out what it says. So, organized, consistent. Uh we always give cities
this as kind of the the process or the pathway. So we did your guys'
comprehensive plan that can set those goals and those ideals. Now the zone
goes next which is a tool to implement that comprehensive plan. So better it
should be aligned with that comprehensive plan. So remember one of
the reasons why we did comprehensive plan A is because it's not just us in
this room that's saying we want our city to be this. It should be something that
is reflective of the community consensus. So always should be relating
back to the adopted comprehensive plan. If we can make this easier to either
self administer or staff administer administer or for you guys on the
planning commission to make decisions and city council to make decisions.
That's what we want to do. So, we want to be necessarily strict and have heavy
requirements where it makes sense from a community vision perspective, but those
places where we want people can do business or we want they're going to do
it for the code. We want it to be predictable and easy enough to do. I
don't want anyone to say, I don't want to move to Belair. I don't want to build
in Bair. I don't want to start a business in Bair because the process is
too hard. And then uh again to use a different
analogy, I'm not highly going to be nearly as good, but we're at the
foundation phase, right? So we'll continue to add on and do renovations
and maybe focus on one piece of the house, one room at a time in the future,
but we got to get the framing, the foundation, everything ready. That's
what success will look like for this phase hopefully by the end of the year.
So what this project is and what this is not. So my goal is with this is just to
make sure that we're being efficient with your guys' time and you guys
understand what our role is. So when we get to the end of this uh it's a success
for everybody. So this is a project to build a stronger foundation for you guys
when you're making decisions on some basis. Um it will align with the 2035 or
the ballet comprehensive plan. We will reorganize this. We'll modernize the
structure to bring it up to best practice. We'll look at your zoning
districts and your procedures, your definitions because right now they're
kind of all over the place. They're usable, right? We use them on a daily
basis, but we can definitely make this uh this work a lot easier. Our goal as
planners when we write zoning regulations now is you shouldn't have to
have a master's in planning to read with them. So, we try to use common language
as much as we can. There are some terminology that genius what it is. Uh
but if a homeowner can't understand it and they're constantly asking Paul of
interpretations which happens uh I don't know how many times a day follow a lot
» a lot. >> That means we we need to do a better job
as a profession and writing this for people to understand. Uh and then
that's the last. So what we're not doing we're not rewriting every single
regulation in this country. I am not going to sit down and draft a brand new
landscape code that specifies the the types of uh allowable species. We're not
going to get into that level of detail. Um are there things that we can kind of
pick the h maybe some high touch things? Yes, we're we'll be looking at lot sizes
and maximum building heights and setbacks and all the things we typically
think about uh for sure. But some of those hightouch unique items to to the
city of Delair, we're not going to be diving into these. Those are the later
additions or revisions. We do a good job organizing here. Then maybe phase two of
this project is looking at your landscape, but phase three potentially
looking at your parking. That one's got a little aspect next to it. We might
talk real about that. every complaint that you've ever got with the issue
that's been raised by a resident, a business owner, a developer or yourself,
we don't we're not going to get into that level of detail here. It will not
be perfect. The foundation, the organization will be perfect, but there
will always be something to touch. We will kind of benchmark you guys against
other communities. So, let's say we look at lot sizes, right? I want to know what
Goddard and Vandover and Witchaw and Skicha and everyone's doing. Uh but
we're not we're not aiming to be like anyone. We're also not aiming to be
unlike anyone. We want you guys to have context of what is happening here, but
we want those to be reflective of what you guys want to be as a city. So you
guys are going to say, I heard Dodd's done this or I heard Derby's doing this.
That's perfectly fine. We just have to make sure it's right for your nexus.
You will find at the end of next year when you implement this, you will find a
mistake. Somebody codes are complex, right? People will find something. I
know. Believe me, it shocks us when people find our mistakes. This happens
like maybe never forgets to me. But uh you guys will find things you want to
keep. Maybe not even like a mistake, but something like, "Oh, I didn't really
think that all the way through." So, that's just the way zoning codes work.
They are living documents. They should be updated, reviewed every every year. A
lot of times after a case, you'll recognize or question a resident will
call like, "I've never really had to incorporate that or interpret that. I
don't really like it." So, I just want to set that expectation. Now, there will
be some of these things. So, we want to keep you guys at least to start at this
higher level, right? The rock's not the same. Any questions about what this
project is or what this project is not now that I've deflated everybody's So,
I'm going to say this in like the most negative way possible clearance. Don't
take it the wrong way. That's my stuff. Um, so are you telling us that, hey, we
just heard your number one complaint to Europeans, but this project's not going
to address that? No, we are looking like if those things if those things can be
incorporated, we want now like that specific example like yes, we want to
know the number of every complaint that's
will address the number one complaint. We all pre-wesome
variety issues. >> No, we will very much be looking at 90
» and we'll talk a little bit more about how we get there towards the end. Yeah,
I think it has to be data driven too because I think there's a perception
that there is a ton of something and data just doesn't that so you do have to
be cognizant of perception versus reality and then how do we overcome that
as a part of this project too. you know, there there are ways to market
that information out, right? It's just a decision we have to make as a city of
how we're going to communicate, what our changes are, why they were made, and
maybe some statistics on our housing inventory.
» I think that's a good idea no matter what we do on a regular
» what air is defines it better. >> I think it's to your point just for our
notes. So we did look at uh existing land uses as part of the comprehensive
plan. That's a year and a half ago year and a half or so ago that we pulled that
data. So we can simply update that map and maybe we present that next
workshop. We'll give you an update with land use because we'll be talking about
land usees next. So we'll present it here and figure out really
lance. One thing I I think we need to talk about is I've been to the uh
planning and zoning and each and every time we have a board of zing
landscape weave landscape off I think is a
mistake. We have to have some baselines so we're not okay. We're gonna do this
over here and this person wants to do this. I think it's it's a it's a mistake
not to attack that. I generally agree that your guys's landscape code needs
work. I think everyone in here would agree with that. The way that we have
this project scheduled right now is we're going to take what's in your
landscape code. We're going to reorganize it, make it fit within the
the updated code. So, you're not getting rid of Mscape. The same requirements
that are on developments for landscape and for houses will be there in the end
uh as part of this project. Um, if we want to write and revise the landscape
code because that's a completely different
part of our brain subject matter expertise, we can definitely do that.
That's not really my my goal is to take what we have and make it enforceable.
» Yeah. Yeah. Little tweaks like that we certainly will be looking because we say
2 in somebody I want to put one. >> Yeah. Why you want to put one in? Well,
that's not good enough. >> Well, that's why landscape specifically.
I don't want to get off on landscape on my own. That's why it's so challenging
because enforcement is a major piece of landscape code. You're going to have the
greatest most extensive landscape code in the world, but if you don't have
equal if you don't spend equal time thinking about how you're going to
enforce the thing, it doesn't really matter so much. So, a lot of that is
outside of the realm the realm of the community development department
includes other departments. It includes budget and finance and all those things.
But we will certainly look to improve on your existing landscape code. We will
not totally remove as the the thing about landscape code is certificate of
occupancy. >> That's
until somebody wants a certificate of occupancy in November and they can't
plant the landscape until next spring. >> Eight months. Yeah. That's like bring
back to wrap this up pretty quick. I don't know if it's done through
presentation but >> almost we have no more activity for you
guys. So I will >> of course not the duplexes being
» and talking about how heavyhanded we want to be because I don't I don't know
it's really duplexes it's like cheap housing or or things that are going to
look rund down or out of place. That's something that I'd like to talk about
here. you know how talking about maybe having and how many requirements and
facads and things like that that we don't care how many people fit in there
» how do you agree neighborhood it's been 20 years we'll do something with the
city right >> well I'll end the density is still an
issue for me like we do need to get more defined off how many duplexes are we
going to allow piece of l like can't we set that like maybe we don't agree with
how many are being fed into a certain And there's nothing wrong with us saying
I get [clears throat] your lot size variations but we can come up with what
we feel comfortable allowing >> yeah like dirt it's black and white 40%
of any type of vision can be duplexes so yeah so thatation that can happen
» I don't want to prolong it but you're in a kind of unique position because you've
worked with the city for a year or so Now, talking about the foundations,
what's maybe one thing that you see in our code that we should think about when
we're addressing in these meetings? Um, because you're very familiar with our
code, but yet Lance travels throughout every city and runs these presentations.
So, I'm just interested in your quick opinion.
» Yeah. The biggest items for me working to implement your code on a daily basis
is having a list of zoning districts that are functional that make sense that
cover all of the different or different possibilities of development and within
those zoning districts having a concentrated thought process in what's
allowed and then when you get to a point to where use is appropriate. What are my
setbacks? What is my maximum height? So just that basic that real basic
understanding land uses where can I build it how do I build it mass and sus
and those types of things uh are the biggest issues that we currently have
with >> those are the foundational
zoning 101ies what else if I said anything else
» I think uses is a huge problem that's why you all see so many cases is because
we at some point went down the laundry list versus the use list so right Now,
Beller doesn't even allow restaurants >> anywhere in the city. You can't build
» anywhere in the city. Restaurant without That's right.
» So, that's an issue. That's a problem. >> Unfortunately, that was done on purpose.
No, it was done on purpose when I first moved up here. They That was a source of
pride for misplaced pride in my opinion, but that
was a source of pride. They wanted to lock it down. So again, wrap yourself
up. We are out of time. >> You guys are in charge. So you guys tell
us okay
» pretty brief individually. I'll give you 90 seconds so that we can wrap it up
quickly. You're going to mark three priorities that you think we need to
focus on for this.
Sorry.
[laughter]
» Your call. >> Circle them, underline them, however you
want to identify them on your paper.
Does anybody need a pen? I think they already got one.
keep them. I will take them at the end.
» Yeah, I think what we'll do is then last three. Yeah, I know.
» We're gonna have you guys try to find some commonality, but I think what we'll
do is we'll just take them when you're done and then we'll go back and do some
analysis and we'll just start next meeting with our next workshop with that
uh to see where you guys agree. >> Well, then turns out I had a data
question. Are you going back and if so, how are to see what kind of cases are
you seeing >> to see a pattern of what people are
asking for having to look at? We know I feel pretty confident
anecdotally for the last year and a half, but before that we we haven't
talked about it, but I think that's probably a really good idea.
» So I told Paul and I talk about all the time if you've got a variance case
that's the same variance case every time. You might want to change your ide
if you can see data points and actually see our
» things that we're constantly saying yes to that should be helpful. Well, and
just a reminder, you've only had a couple of cases because up until
recently, we haven't had a board of zoning appeals. So, you're those cases
have not been bought, right? You'll you'll see more of the zoning change of
uses, you know, those kinds of things. But as a BCA, you've not seen a lot of
variance cases. So, >> you see other ones and see absolutely
then you can decide does that fit our plan and then decide whether we want to
adopt it. But it gives you more data points to actually help the kids to make
their decisions off of. >> Oh, for sure.
» That's a great point. So, one I'll just end here. So, the next workshop we have,
we will be looking at those core building blocks. We will bring to you
guys what we recommend are your zoning districts and we will be working through
what uses are allowed in which zoning districts. So, we'll be digging in
technically on the next workshop. After that, that's the foundation or the
foundation. to the next workshop. So the third workshop will be looking at the
regulations within those district groups. So lot sizes, max length, I set
that more technical details. And then workshop four which to Ted I didn't I
should have answered Ted's question with also this caveat is the other big piece
is process and procedures that we have in our Z today need overhaul. So we will
be looking at process and procedures and implementation in workshop four. You
need more workshops. We'll travel down that road when we get there. Are all of
these combined city council? >> Yes.
» Okay. Would it be possible to have a single planning commission workshop?
» I'm not opposed to it. I like it just to have you guys together sometimes because
you guys work together, right? And you got to have that relationship.
» So you get more Yep. There's two groups here once.
» Yeah. No, I think we can definitely game plan that. I'm not opposed to it anyway.
So, questions for me before the mayor kicks me out of those doors. [laughter]
» It's always going to keep >> literally.
If you have any questions, reach out. So, shoot them to Paula and Ted. They
know how to get a hold of us. And just don't give out my personal information.
Paul, >> I'm doing it.
» You guys, >> I'm so doing it.
» All right. Now you guys can have fun with the budget.
» Thank you so much. That was really
» just remember the buzzing
question.
Okay, let's continue the workshop with the uh presentation of the final draft
of the 2027 budget, all funds. And I think Mr. Barry Smith is going to help
us learn all about this. Thank you. >> Oh, yes. Good evening, Mayor Council. Uh
tonight is the overall draft of the fiscal year 27 budget. Um we'll
um review all the funds we've already presented. Um this time we'll also have
the non- taxing funds included like streets, land bank, equipment reserve,
bond and interest. Um the goal of tonight is just to receive comments and
feedback and if there's anything else we need to change before our hearing on the
first. [snorts]
Just to recap with general fund, um, our 2027 valuation estimate came in at just
over 142 and a half million, which was increased from about 130 million the
year prior. [snorts] What does this mean for the
city? At the same mill levy as last year, we'll generate um about 520ome or
514,000 more dollars in property taxes that we levy. our revenue neutral rate,
which was if we didn't levy a dollar more than we did the year prior, would
equate out to the 37.390 mills number there. So, if we didn't generate one
more dollar of tax revenue than we did for this year in 26, that's what the
overall mill levy would be at the end of the day.
Here's a breakdown of the valuation estimate we received. breaks it out into
real estate which is all real and personal property like businesses and
commercials and residential housing personal property status assess
utilities and which [clears throat] makes up our overall valuation. We had
an overall increase of 9.66% um from 26 to 27.
[snorts] So what's that mean? If we keep the same
mill levy for a $250,000 house, the average increase of that 9.6% was 6.63%.
So, the owner of a $250,000 home will roughly pay $70 more in taxes in fiscal
year 27 than they did this year in 26. Um,
and we last time we presented, we had those various various different
calculation models and methods up there. So, that's what those other three charts
are.
So, I added in this slide for this presentation, which was the Epic Sports
IRB that was recently um voted upon at our last meeting.
This is a unique opportunity. I have never had this happen um during a budget
cycle where an IRB sold midway through the year and not as planned at the very
end of the year. So, I reached out to the county and figured out how they
actually do this. And the appraisers's office, their answer was they'll take
the total valuation of that property divided by 365.
Whatever day is it sold, if there's 100 days left, they take that number times
those 100 days, and that's what will come back on the tax roll for this
budget cycle. So what does that basically mean? Well,
that original valuation number I just talked about will actually increase to
146 million. Um, which will actually I miss I didn't update that one. It's 143
million. The no value goes from 142 543 to 143 415. Since we've already set our
cap of how many property tax dollars we can levy, that automatically pushes down
the overall mill rate when it's calculated out. So, I calculated this
based on a September 1st sale date, which I think it's going to sell this
week or next. So, it actually be a little bit more. But even though our at
our hearing our mill levy is going to be 41.003, 003 at the end of the year in
November when those final taxation extra abstracts come out our mill levy should
be around that 40.753 number and that's exactly how these IRB
incentives are designed to work right when they come back on the tax role we
absorb that into our property tax dollars which drives down the levy for
everyone citywide especially residentials users since those are our
highest tax base [snorts]
don't hold me to that Exactly. It is an estimate. It's the first time I've been
through this, but it should be hopefully it's pretty close to that number there.
So, general fund, all of our revenues, what are those made up of? fines and
fees charged for service, property taxes, sales taxes, um very small amount
of those grants and other [snorts] once that revenue bucket um all the
revenues come in that bucket tips over and that's how we pay for everything all
of our city services that the general fund provides which is administration,
wreck, PD, parks and facilities, planning and zoning and then all of our
transfers to bond and interest our debt service payments etc. [snorts]
Not much. Well, nothing has changed within all the departments. I can run
through each one again if you want to or I can kind of skim back to the last
slide of general fund. >> Yeah. If anybody wants to go through any
of these details and just say so.
» Okay. >> So, city manager, we're going to split
an FTE um to assist with rec retention. We have some additional monies budgeted
for engineering and legal services regarding Willon. It's there if we need
it. If we don't need it, we don't spend it.
[snorts] Um engineering on call engineering services are maintaining
that PUC. Um added in some extra money for other additional engineering
services, plan review for new subdivision developments, things like
that. Of our finance department, we're g one
of us can do the KUCPM course and we added that new waterwork software. We're
going to continue that for 27. um governing body highlights here is
just the annual chamber dues that we're gonna um start providing and then we
increase hotel and travel because LKM will be in Kansas City next year for
anyone that wants to attend. [snorts] Human resources actually had a slight
deduction reduction from 26. [snorts] Um legal is going to get the
other half that FTE we mentioned when talking about the city manager
department. It's going to help with record retention. um sight increasing
quantities and reducing contractuals for additional legal services.
Question >> I don't I don't want to get hung up on
details, but we're we're going to talk about the chamber in November, but
that's just budgeted. >> Yeah. Yeah. Budgeted, I guess, would be
the proper word. >> Sarah, if you need it, if we don't need
it, don't got to spend it. [snorts]
» Um court moving one part-time employee to full-time employee. um reduction in
various items within the commodities, training, dues, memberships, supplies,
and furniture. Um we're looking at the addition of that diversion project for
2027 and the utilization of code enforcement cases through municipal
court start that process. >> Just just a comment on that. I'm kind of
concerned about the amount of cases we're running through court and
especially the continuitances. Um, I'm not saying change this, but I I
do want to see us find a way to reduce that significantly because I that's
expensive, especially continuences because every time you have continuous,
especially if you had police officers had to come in or, you know, everybody
has got to come back again and we're paying them every time they come. So we
need to really work on on that and I know Mia and I have had some discussion
about that but uh we need to see what we can do in that area. So,
» and if I might not, you did great. Uh, the difficult part, too. And we can we
can talk about continuations. That's kind of a separate matter and just the
total volume as we grow. It's it's we really just, you know, the more people
you have, the more cases tickets you're going to write and cases you're going to
have as well. And I think that's part of the growing pains as well. I'm not I'm
not saying we can't do measures to help reduce those numbers. It's just it we're
really noticing that especially in um on the court and PD side is as we get
bigger the more more tickets more uh misdemeanors and actually felonies as
well. I think some of those too I'm not the expert at it but uh um it's um it's
one of those things that's tough as you get keep growing.
» Yes, I do I think Marie has done a fantastic job with Missile Core moving
forward. Um, we actually received our draft audit today and I think we're one
audit away from having any reference of Miss Pakort totally off there. So, kudos
to Maria. Um, work with me on the internal control side of things, making
sure everything's flushed out. Um, so just want to give Maria a quick shout
out on that one. [snorts]
Uh for police, no or we had an FT um full-time records clerk back in 26 27 no
additional personnel were requested. Um just minor adjustments here and there to
commodities contractuals moving forward. >> The pool um some increase for chemical
costs at the pool and we also did include $35,000 for the coping repair
next year at the pool.
» Day camp. no significant changes for 2026. Um,
recreation in general, increased the event planning line item to help with
those events throughout the year. And for the capital projects, still waiting
on getting that final direction on the rec center there. Um, when we get down
to the CIP reserve fund later, we'll talk a little bit about the maintenance
items for the rec center. [snorts] Senior services, no significant changes.
Land development, the special assessments there, 42,000 of that will
expire this year. So that's why you see our commodity line item there go from 79
to 37 for 27. Uh 33,000 of that 37 will expire at the end of 35. So that's
slowly going down as we pay off those special assessments. [snorts]
This is where our land um debt service transfer comes from. So we bring in
property tax revenues into the general fund. It gets transferred from the land
uh department out of the general fund into our public building commission fund
to make that debt service payment. So if you follow the money trail, that's where
that's how that goes. [snorts] Parks. Um we added a facilities manager
position back in 2026 as James Miller who's also here with us today. Um done a
great job so far. correct quantities. We increased a little bit in playground
equipment, replacement maintenance, vehicle equipment maintenance, um all
those reoccurring items there. We moved all the capital items out to CIP. So the
general fund for 27 is essentially strictly operating. The only really
capital item in there is that pool coping for 27 [snorts]
planning and zoning. We had $30,000 this year for the zoning code updates that we
just had the workshop on downstairs. We reduce that to 7500 in 2027 for
additional enhancements to the zoning code miscellaneous um engineering
service needs which through PC and zoning code that's what that is
for the facilities department here at city hall. We have that personnel
placeholder for the compensation classification study for all general
fund employees only. We budget that at 300,000 does not mean we'll spend that.
Um, it just means we have room if the competence class study says we need to
go that route. So, it's just sitting there if we need it. [snorts]
This also handles the transfer to our CIP reserve fund. 415,000 100,000 to
equipment reserve and 850,000 to the streets fund for the streets annual
maintenance program. >> Can we go back a slide or two slides?
Now, >> this one
» we one more. So we had you had an engineering one where we pay PEC
a retainer to do services for us,
» but then I seem to see a bill every time we ask PC to do anything for us. What is
the the money we pay them on a monthly a regular basis bias?
» Sure. Um, [clears throat] so if you see a bill for and a lot of what you'll see
on the AP ordinance might be related to inspection services for a certain
project. So that means we contract them through a work order um that they'll
inspect that particular project that's spread then spread on special
assessments to the benefiting lot. What PC does for us on a monthly basis, boy,
a lot. Um, one they we were talking earlier, Lance and Paula will review
cases together. Um, I think they have a one once a week meeting. Um, that's a
little bit of it. And we'll have all the reviews that we have for those
subdivision projects they'll do um with under that MSA or that on call
agreement. Um they also have um MS4 permit regulations that they handle for
us that takes a load off an and her uh staff. Um we also have a general uh the
traffic study you're going to hear next uh Tuesday from Tam Asure is done
underneath that agreement. So these little little uh projects that I don't
can't really give u uh that uh maybe take their professional traffic engineer
five hours to do. We don't have to go out to bid or uh go out to a single work
order. We just put it under that um that MSA.
» So there's probably 20 other examples and I'll probably I can write I can
write a good report on it if if you'd like, but those are the ones that come
top of mind. >> Okay. [snorts] Thank you.
» Another one of those is since we don't have a um GIS technician on staff,
whenever a new subdivision comes online, they submit those GIS asbuilts with the
um final asbuilt documents after construction's completed. Then PEC gets
those uploaded to our GIS system for us. That's not the big thing to do.
[snorts] >> Barry, while you're on that one, I did
have a quick comment or question. No, the the next one. Uh, so we talked a
little bit about moving Sky View Park forward.
Where would that come from in this budget?
» That would be the CIP reserve funds. >> Okay. So, that $415,000
transfer is what would be covering at least part of that
» if we move that forward. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that.
So here's just a brief overview of everything, all the highlights from each
of those slides there. And then here's our overall revenues in,
expenditures out, and change in fund balance. So the fiscal year 25 actual
numbers are from our draft audit we just received today. Um, so through 2027,
we'll be down to around 24.4% of our annual revenues.
So I think we're sitting at a good spot there. [snorts]
There's a note down there about the recent legislation. If they did pass
that 3% cap this year, that would have caused a reduction of 355,000 in
property tax dollars. So that reduction with all expenses in this budget would
result in a deficit of 643 instead of 293 that it's currently at. This is just
side note. [snorts]
Utility funds. We went over this um at our last workshop or no regular council
meeting um talking about water, sewer, storm, and solid waste. Water fund
highlights. Um everything in here includes a 0% increase for 2027. We're
adding in 75,000 additional for our personnel for the comp class study.
maintaining our water tower maintenance at 75, water meter replacement program,
GIS information input, uh maintain wish purchase, CCA operations, debt payments
were adjusted, um included 75,000 for water sampling stations. Those are the
blue water sampling stations you'll see outside along the roads now, which makes
collecting samples a lot easier. Um as we grow, we'll get those installed
around town, make that process very much more efficient. [snorts]
Then also included is the 930,000 for water line replacements [clears throat]
which was our 10-year CIP plan for that. Once again, these are just maintaining
what we have. Nothing new, nothing additional at this point.
So our change in fund balance there from 25 through 27, we are expected to be
down around 27% of revenues.
I do want to point out here, you'll see the capital projects line for 27.
There's $ 1.92 million budgeted for that. And then down
here, you'll only see a reduction of 700,000 in fund balance. That's because
right now, currently, I have the 2026 waterline project also budgeted in 27
because it's looking like it might roll over depending on the timing of 45th
Street and that main replacement itself. So it's in there so we don't have to
amend the budget next year. If we don't need to use it once again it
won't be used
as pursuer once again includes 0% increase for 27. We got the additional
funds for the common class study 120,000 for chemicals. That's the chemical
injections at the lift stations once we get that original or that main hole
project up and going and completed. um 80,000 in system maintenance and
repairs, CCUA payments were adjusted. Um the fence or wall around the Harding
lift station. Um and then we're still working on refining that CIP plan
longterm from there. But right now currently we do have that manhole
project skated system all budgeted in there.
[snorts] So from 25 to 27, those are our fund balance changes. Uh we get down to
a 61% fund balance by the end of 27. still sitting in a pretty good position
even with the 0% rate increases for water and sewer for 27
solid waste. We just budget our accounts that we have that have trash accounts
revenue in expenses out via the contract. Pretty straightforward. We did
transfer an additional 100,000 from solid waste to streets since the fund
balance could handle it and we're going to be sitting around 32% at the end of
27 >> and that's the rates on that are set in
contract. So we don't have a we won't have a rate increase this year, right?
» Correct. >> Okay. Thank you.
» Whenever that is it July to June? >> June.
» Yeah. So June. Yeah. I think that's when the first rate increase will take
effect. [snorts] >> Storm water fund. We talked pretty
extensive extensively about this um at the last meeting. Um our fund balance
will be down to around 20,000 at the end of 2027. Um we workshop some ideas.
We'll bring back uh some potential solutions to that later on.
So non- taxing funds, where does the money come from for the streets fund?
Comes from fuel taxes from the state and the county transfers from the general
fund. [snorts] Land bank is just straight land
sales. Bond and interest is transfers in from general fund, water fund, sewer
fund. Equipment reserve transfer in from general water and sewer. And CIP is a
transfer in from general. So these are all funds that are budgeted and the
primary funds are just coming into these funds that are non-budgeted or non-
taxing. SH's fund like I said relies heavily on
the gas taxes from the state and the county. I think we're it's around
338,000 that we get from both state and county fuel taxes. Um and then the
transfer from the general fund for the streets plan. So 27 we maintain those
transfers. Um the fuel tax estimates surprisingly did increase for 27 about
19%. Um up from 26 or 25 expenditures the 2027 street maintenance plan 950,000
pave street repair gravel repair snow and ice material and removal. Um
currently working with our street [clears throat] maintenance plan
individuals to get that continuous five-year plan rolling. I think Ted
touched on that our last meeting about what next five years consists of
fund balance there. Um get down to about 200,000 at the end of fiscal year 27
which is about 14%.
» Can you remind us again what the the target revenue or balance ending
percentages? >> So in our comprehensive plan it's
anywhere between 17 and 30. 17 would be >> so 30 is the high end
» there. There's no official number. That's kind of our targets like right
between 17 and 30. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you.
» That's I I wouldn't say this fund's different, but it's a unique fund in
that it only handles streets and um I I think we would like to continue to
bolster that to probably 17%, but we're we're comfortable it resting at 14
knowing we have transfers available or any anything to bolster it up. But a lot
of this expense is the street maintenance repair that we do on a
yearly basis. So, we're pretty comfortable in the controls elements of
this um fund. We're not quite relying on the state and county fuel tax
distribution because it is >> 300,000 of a million
» budget. I will say that just to keep it alive, I've been doing this for a long
time and what fuel tax brings in doesn't nowhere near covers the the street
maintenance uh that you need to do on streets. not a proponent of increasing
it, but it hasn't changed since I think 1997. So, it's something that maybe the
state legislators want to grapple with, but nothing kind of out of our hands.
» I think they actually were toying with the idea of doing a holiday on that tax,
but that it didn't go any worse. And I hope it never does because that I don't
think they understand where that money goes. It's just kind of an interesting
point and you know property taxes are 100% subsidizing the streets uh which is
a fine process. I just want to make sure everybody understands that your your car
taxes aren't really going to maintain the streets.
» Okay.
And then another point on that that percentage there, the streets fund, it
doesn't have any um dedicated bills like debt service that we have to pay every
year with just streets money. So that that threshold is a little more relaxed
in this case. Now, if this a general fund or water or sewer, yeah, we would
need to be getting that back up there within that range for sure. Um because
we have those debt service payments for a long time coming out of those funds.
So Barry, just to kind of restate that what you're saying is the control as you
referred to really this is an annual fund that every year this body is
approving. Yep, we're going to spend a million or we're going to spend 600,000
or we're going to spend 1.5 depending on our priority. And that's kind of why you
feel more comfortable because it's more project annual focused and less
» we can change it a lot more than some of the other contractuals.
» Yeah. And and this comes from the fiveyear street plan. So yeah.
» Right. >> Yeah. Based on that plan, if four years
from now we're going to need $1.3 million to do that annual plan, well,
we'll track our spending. So we do have that within our means at that point in
time. So it's going to eb and flow. [snorts]
Land bank. Not much out of here. We just get some interest every year um and let
our balance sit. We started off at 6.2 million25. Then we transferred out um
the city portion of the base grant for the public works building. So that
building is completely 100% paid for in cash. No debt service needed for that
project. So great use of funds. Saved a bond payment for 20 years. Um by the end
of 27, we're still sitting around a $3.7 million fund balance.
An interest fund. This is just what pays our debt. It's funded by transfers in
general fund water sewer. Um special assessments also go here and it goes
right back out to pay the debt service for our annual payments.
» Barry, I'm sorry I'm slow. >> If we go back to the land bank,
um are there any restrictions on how we're allowed to use this money?
» So that's a that's a fun loaded question. [laughter]
um inside the land bank. Yes. But um the council always has the option to
dissolve completely dissolve the land bank and transfer those funds into the
general. That would be the the big uh the big swing. But uh pretty much you
can use them for some economic development. Um there I'm losing the my
mind on the state statute because we uh we just discussed it when we did that
transfer for the public works, but it's it's relatively flexible in the type of
needs that you would like to use that money on.
» Okay. Thank you. >> What was the source of that funds where
that where that money come from? >> That would be all our all the land sales
we've done over the last 10 years. Yeah. >> Thank you.
And this is the remaining amount from those sales. It's the remaining amount.
Correct.
» Interest payments. Equipment reserve fund. This is funded by general fund
water and sewer. Our annual transfers there. The 400,000 comes in per year. We
take that 400,000 in per year and budget out all of the equipment. I know it's
really hard to read. Sorry. I tried to fit it all in there just to show it. Um,
[laughter] but it has all of our admin, parks and wreck, parks, um, water,
sewer, streets, uh, PD, fleet, and heavy equipment on the schedule planned out
for 10 years. So, right now, as of what we currently have, we have a replacement
plan for it over that time frame. And this will more than fund that program as
we move across that 10ear period. >> And and we don't want to be here till
9:30, but um, this is kind of the Barry and Ted version. The James version is a
lot more in depth and uh he could he could fill you with um tons of knowledge
that we've even learned from this our new hire. I'm very very happy with James
and what he's doing to just make us rethink the fleet maintenance
completely. Um, I mean, we're talking [snorts] uh how much it costs per mile
on on certain vehicles, probably proper fleet ma maintenance, but he's actually
doing it and we're going to start implementing here and there uh to one
save taxpayer money, but two, but have reliable vehicles uh at all times. So,
um, again, I'll I'll let James take the podium at a later date when he's ready,
but, uh, very impressed with his work and I think you'll see a lot of fruits,
uh, and honestly, a lot of return on that investment we made this year.
» Barry, one other thing I I didn't want to cut you off when you were doing that,
but I did want to touch one more time on the land bank money. Um, just wanted to
make a statement. One, thank you. And some of we all [clears throat] know
this, but the fact that we were able to build the public works facility with the
grant and do it with no debt is amazing. And I think that you guys deserve a lot
of credit for staying on that and making it work. But also, we have to remember
that the reason why we had those funds was because we borrowed a lot of money,
bought a lot of land that, you know, generated that issue. But at
least we put some of those funds back to use and paying for a facility that's
going to benefit the city for decades. But I'll also
say that I don't like the idea of keeping that money in that bank for too
much longer. I'd like to see us put that back into the community in a way that
could be a value proposition for our community and we can start benefiting
from whatever that thing is in the in the nearer future. Um,
this body has no control over what the next body might do, but that money could
be spent any number of ways. Um, so I just put that out there that we need to
be thinking about how we can put that money to use for the community.
» Definitely. Yes, we need to.
» So for 2027 out [clears throat] of equipment reserve fund, we have two PD
responders um scheduled. the PD drone, the passenger van at the rec center, um
computer replacements, the track Bobcat, new new Holland TLA or TL100A, um new
mower, and that totals around 443,000. So that'll get us to a fund balance of
right around 1.1 million in fiscal year 27.
CIP reserve fund. Um, council member Dean, this is what we'll talk about the
sky view park here. This fund's funded by the transfer from general fund of
that 415,000 a year. It's 400,000 for the projects and we al always do the
15,000 for the sidewalk reimbursement grant. Um, if that is continued. Um,
this fund it's it's like we were talking about with the
zoning code updates downstairs. The CIP [clears throat] reserve fund, it's a
living breathing document. It can change anytime we want it to change. Just
because we have items up here that we want to talk about does not mean that
they are set in concrete and then we must do them. It's a non-budgeted fund.
We have no requirements to spend what we want out of here.
So for based on our discussion last time, um we got Sky View Park going.
It'll start here in 26. I don't know if it'll be done in 26, but maybe early 27.
Um, we have 50,000 for engineering architecture for city hall and the rec
center. We have an HVAC replacement for city hall. For the other seven units, I
think it was um the sidewalk grant program still in there. And we have
100,000 for wreck maintenance repairs and then 150,000 for refreshing existing
parks. With all those, at the end of 27, we'll
have a fund balance of around 890,000.
Barry, you might go back one slide and touch a little bit on what we're
thinking as far as paying for some of the drainage improvements. Uh,
» sorry, skip right over that. >> I think that's a really nice a good idea
that we should touch on. >> Yeah. So for one of our recent projects
um regarding a lot of drainage improvements was Voro Park that that
project um there were definitely some overages along with the city portion
that was guaranteed when we initiated those projects. So our total city
portion of that project came out around 585,000
overall all said and done. Um obviously storm water doesn't have the money to
cover that cost now. So, what we're proposing is we'll take out a CIP um
335,000 of that out of CIP this year, then Storm Water will reimburse CIP
those funds over the next two fiscal years.
» I do that. >> So, essentially instead of bonding it
and paying interest, we're >> we're using CIP funds, but we'll get
paid back. So, it's it's more of a So, we're not paying interest on on
money if we have some idle reserve that we can use.
» Thanks, Ted. Let's skip right over that. >> Always better to borrow from ourselves.
» You know, it's it made more sense and and we're getting ready to start
[snorts] we're getting ready to finish audit season and go straight into bond
season. So, we wanted to have that conversation tonight so you guys aren't
surprised or what asking questions. We'll bring it back up when we roll that
bond uh in the next couple months. >> Okay.
» Um so yeah, that's what we the ideas we
have presented for 2027. If those are all if we want to do all of those, then
um that drops our fund balance down to that 890 611 number at the end of 27.
Once again, this is just a plan. It's not set in stone. Anything that comes
out of this fund will come before you for presentation and approval. Um it's
not a blank check or anything like that. So
we have there um >> I already have this all inputed in that
state form I talked about last time. So this is the budget hearing notice that
will be published in the paper on August 20th. Um this is what be sent out. It
shows the actuals for 25, estimates for 26 and proposed budget for 27. It does
say the mill levy is 41.03 003, which is what we filed on our intent to exceed
the levy form we submitted to the county in July. So, we're all um up to code
there. Um but once again, I do think that number will fall around to that
40.75 number when November gets here and those final
numbers come out. I didn't realize I talk with my hand so much. Hang on a
second. There there's a couple things we didn't talk about that was mentioned
earlier and I I want to address a few of them. Uh we are looking at some health
insurance uh options for our um for our uh employees. That's something that
we're already budgeting for where where we're at right now. So any cost savings
we'll we'll be able to discuss and and review with you. The other thing that
didn't quite make it just because I I didn't think it um economic development,
we've met with a few type of uh there's some outsourcing e economic development
opportunities. um the value in that we can have
discussions about it. I just didn't feel um right now $50,000 for, you know, some
training and some different things didn't quite match up with me. It didn't
make it to the main board. Um but that's definitely something that's always on
top of our mind. I do my best to meet with everyone and uh honestly with all
the housing and the growth we got going on that we're really starting to get
recognized. So, how do we how do we steamroll that into more successes? and
I'm I'm very open for that conversation and uh but it just didn't quite make it
past the line for what we were looking at earlier this year. So that that's a
little update on that, but always welcome to have that discussion with you
» and that's just our remaining schedule. We'll um we're presenting the final
draft today. We'll get it published in the paper on the 20th and then on the
1st we'll hold our revenue neutral rate hearing. We'll adopt the resolution to
exceed the RNR with a roll call vote at the hearing and then we'll hold our 2027
budget hearing and um have the item to adopt the 2027 budget. And the rest of
that is just internal things. We'll publish it to the website. Then I'll get
everything wrapped up in a nice bow and send it to Cedric County for submitt.
That's all I got.
If there's any questions or >> I I just had a couple of just really
fast things. First of all, thank you guys. Back in May, hearing all the
department heads, I'm like, there is zero nonsense in here. And we used to
subtract out, you know, our land debt. This is a this is a tight ship you guys
are running. So, thank you. Um, and it's cool about that IRB that we get that
symbolic drop. Um, kind of painfree. Um, regarding the water 3%, I know we
touched on the last workshop. >> So, you guys are comfortable with that
knowing we might need a water tower. You know, even that even though that fund is
high, you're comfortable doing the holding the line for now and with the
intent we're going to go back and continue that 3% increase each year.
» Yeah, I'm comfortable with the one year for sure. Um, now once we get ahead and
get into the timing of when that water tower actually come, we may have to make
a bigger adjustment one year, two years down the road and then drop back down to
three. It just all depends on that timing and the overall cost and how we
approach that.
» Okay. >> But the the $100,000 difference isn't
going to make a huge impact on a $3 million project if we get to that point.
So, yeah.
Once again, the water and sewer funds there, [clears throat] even though they
are budgeted at the 0% increase, the expenditures is what really matters. So,
when we normally do the water and sewer rates in November, it's fine if we do it
then or don't do it then. Like, it's not going to affect what we have to have
certified to the county for our budget. They're just worried about our
expenditure side. If we do increase rates, then our revenues will just come
in a little bit higher. If we keep it at 0%, then it should be pretty close to
what we have on the board here today. >> So, this is th this doesn't tie us to a
a no increase. If we decide later that we we need to do that. Okay. All right.
That's good to know. I like I would like probably a little more finite analysis
on that on the water fund because uh while I thought it was good idea, I
wanted to see the numbers. and you say, "Well, it it worked on paper, but these
are some things we didn't think about. We need to we need to think about
those." So, >> and just a quick update, I'm meeting
with the author of our master plan tomorrow at 9:00, 9:00 in the morning.
So, I'll have some some of that information to you guys well before we
need to actually make the official decision in November. I just think it's
important we have these discussions now during budget season because a lot of
times we'll get to November and say, "Oh, I gotta pass this resolution of 3%
increase." We didn't talk about it. So, I'm glad we're having the conversation
now so that we have an informed conversation when the fee schedule comes
up. [snorts] >> Yeah. Thank you.
» Okay. Any other questions or concerns with budget proposals
because this is what's going to be what we're going to be asked to approve here
in a couple weeks, right? >> Yes. Much more condensed, but yes, it
will be. Yes. [laughter] >> But the entire state form will be in
there to see every fund broken out. um how we need to report it and submit to
the county. So, it'll all be in there.
» Okay. >> Well, thank you very much. I know this a
lot of work, but it's what you like to do, right?
» Like I say, it's my most favorite 12 months of the year. So,
» yeah. >> Thank you so much.
» Okay. Well, that's the only issues on the agenda for tonight. So, uh, thank
you everybody for taking time to to, uh, go through the planning, the zoning
codes and with the planning commission and budgets, and I think we're good to
go. So, everybody have a good evening. We'll see everybody next Tuesday.