[0:04] All right. Good evening. Welcome to the July 14th meeting of the Nixa City

[0:08] Council. Call the meeting to order. Mrs. Coffee. Roll call, please.

[0:11] » J >> here.

[0:13] » Kelly Morris here. John >> here.

[0:17] » Peterson >> here.

[0:18] » Best >> here.

[0:21] » Please join me for the pledge of allegiance.

[0:27] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[0:32] republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

[0:38] justice for all.

[0:50] We got a night of presentation, so we'll go ahead and get this kicked off. Uh,

[0:55] first up tonight we have the presentation by Nixa Land Holdings

[1:00] Development. So, I don't know who is up first on that one. Guess I'm Mr. King.

[1:23] One more thing to remember. All right. Can you hear me?

[1:30] So, I'm Brad King and I represent the development group associated with the

[1:34] project we're presenting today. Um, a little bit about myself. I was born and

[1:38] raised in Clever, Missouri. Um, been a custom home builder and developer for

[1:41] the last 25 years. Uh, kind of cut my teeth in the high-end residential

[1:46] market. Um, and as I was doing that, I was watching the price of housing

[1:49] skyrocket for years. I just always thought there was a better way to uh

[1:54] design smaller footprints in uh great communities. And so I've always believed

[1:59] in the community aspect of development. Traveled all over the country um to see

[2:04] great mixeduse developments. Um I just saw there was no reason why we couldn't

[2:09] bring this type of a project to Southwest Missouri. And so that's one of

[2:14] the reasons why I'm here. After years of patience and reviewing and seeking out

[2:20] the sites, um it takes a lot of time to identify a site for this type of

[2:25] community development. And um it was super important that we could find

[2:30] something that had uh the right size, uh the proximity to major thoroughares,

[2:38] um potential for intersections, proximity to a great school district and

[2:44] what you have here. Uh supportive community and community leaders that

[2:49] have compreh comprehensive plans that allow us to do these types of

[2:53] development and support it. Um, and then just population growth alone, just 25%

[2:59] growth over the last 10 years, great median household income, uh, the age is

[3:04] perfect, proximity to Branson Springfield, just all these great things

[3:07] that you have going for this area. So once we finally identified the property

[3:12] that we'll talk about today, a lot of great people that I'm going to introduce

[3:15] to you that have helped us through this process. Um I I just I really want to

[3:21] acknowledge them and how we've gone about this process from the start of

[3:24] this. Um it's one thing to come up with an idea. It's another thing to be able

[3:29] to surround yourself with amazing [clears throat] people. Uh to be able to

[3:32] bring an idea to fruition. I watched over the years um in development that

[3:37] there there were always some missing pieces that um in development you always

[3:41] had one but not the other. Well, I think in this case we've assembled a team of

[3:45] professionals from around the country that have really um supported um me and

[3:51] everyone associated with me along the way uh including your city staff and the

[3:56] team that you guys have here. So, with that being said,

[4:02] someone should have told me to

[4:08] what? Yeah, it's on

[4:20] regardless of this. Um, [clears throat] it'll probably work here in just a

[4:24] second, but ultimately I'm going to tell you what it says on the screen here

[4:27] anyway. Hopefully, it'll work here in just a moment, though. Um, so I want to

[4:32] start with um the land planning team that we hired. Um, this type of mixed uh

[4:40] use development, commercial associated with uh residential,

[4:45] um, retail, entertainment, all of those things combined. It's a unique skill

[4:49] set. Thank you for that. It's a unique skill set in development and

[4:53] architecture and design um that not everyone has or has seen. And so through

[4:59] my research, I found a team that was actually out of Washington DC and it was

[5:05] Michael Watkins and Scott Leighton with Michael Watkins Architecture. They're

[5:09] going to talk a lot a lot about our land plan and how we came about that and the

[5:13] process to get there. Um we hired a company with Gibbs Planning Group. His

[5:19] name is Bob Gibbs. He did a retail market study for us for um as we were

[5:24] listening to the city and the perspectives as to what you want here in

[5:27] the city. Uh we knew that it would be important that we bring on somebody to

[5:31] do a retail study for us to actually help to identify the need and what what

[5:35] can actually happen here in the city of Nixa. Um we hired Palmer and Parish to

[5:41] do our site evaluation, our sinkhole studies. Our civil engineer is Clayton

[5:46] Hines with Schaefer and Hines and he's representing here today as well. Our

[5:50] traffic study, so we performed a traffic study in cooperation with the the city

[5:54] as well as Otto. Uh Crawford, Murphy, and Tilly performed that traffic study.

[6:00] Uh and Sarah Fields of course was supportive in the uh with the Ozarks

[6:04] transportation organization. We have a legal team here which is Pulson

[6:09] Pulsonelli law for uh Pulseneelli law firm. Ben Bigum and Curtis Peterson.

[6:15] [clears throat] They've been supporting us through the package that we have put

[6:19] together and helping us along uh every step of the way. Show me Christian

[6:24] County and Kristen Hessle and her team have been instrumental in this process

[6:27] and helping us to uh make sure that we navigate um the system and just

[6:31] supporting us in any way that we can possibly be supportive. They've been

[6:35] there for us. Our entertainment district site planning and development team is

[6:39] Billy Ang and Joshua Ang. uh and their background and what they've done over

[6:44] the years is instrumental in this process and all the things that they've

[6:47] done all over the world. Our investors are local business owners. Um they own a

[6:52] company uh in Springfield called Springfield Sign Neon and same with them

[6:57] they've done projects all over the country. Uh and they're instrumental.

[7:01] They're great friends of mine. They're great clients. It's Mark Wessle and Lisa

[7:04] Watts and they have without them we couldn't have assembled assembled this

[7:09] team that I just spoke of. It's because of them that we're able to do this

[7:12] development and do it the right way. So, now I would like to introduce uh Scott

[7:18] Leighton. Scott's a representative of the land planning firm and he's going to

[7:21] tell us all about the project. Thanks, brother.

[7:28] Good evening. My name is Scott Leighton. Just like Brad said, um you can go ahead

[7:33] and advance to the next slide, I think.

[7:44] I will try to keep ahead of them and and I'll just give you a signal for the next

[7:47] one. It's okay. Um I work for a small urban design firm located just outside

[7:52] of Washington DC and uh the the thing that motivates my company is uh building

[7:57] community and so when we design places everything that goes into designing

[8:02] those places is uh revolves around that building of community and that's what uh

[8:06] we have come here to help Brad do. So, we're excited to present some of the

[8:10] early design concepts. You can go ahead to the next slide, and you can sort of

[8:15] just keep moving through the first five or so. So, you know, I believe where

[8:18] where the site is. This is just south of uh US14 on 160. It's that kind of upside

[8:23] down Lshape um big piece of land. And that's going to be really important in

[8:29] terms of how the design shaped up because it's a really great piece of

[8:32] land for the possibility of commercial being located there.

[8:36] Um, just touching a little bit on some of the constraints we had to work with.

[8:40] We always make sure we're working with the natural constraints and try to

[8:44] design around things like existing trees as best as we can. And sink holes are a

[8:49] big thing here. We learned we don't have those as much in Washington DC, but we

[8:53] did our best to incorporate them into the community and uh make them into an

[8:57] amenity. So, you'll see that that winds up being a lot of green space that the

[9:01] community will have access to. And then also storm water. So those two big blue

[9:05] blobs on there are storm water management that we have to make sure we

[9:09] incorporate into the design. As we look at the scale of the site, you

[9:15] can go to the next one. Uh as we look at the scale of the site, we like to think

[9:20] of things in terms of the 5-minute walk. That's basically how long Americans will

[9:25] how far Americans will walk. Beyond that, they'll get in a car. They'll walk

[9:29] further for transit. If you live within 5 minutes of your daily eats, you might

[9:32] actually walk to get your milk and bread or walk to drop your kid off of the

[9:36] daycare or things like that. So, if as we think about building community, the

[9:41] best way to do that we believe is walkability. If you walk past your

[9:45] neighbor's house and they're sitting on the porch, you might say, "Hey," and

[9:48] they might invite you up for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. And it's a

[9:51] great way to build community, get to know your neighbors, and it's that sort

[9:55] of American small town that we all uh uh are are looking for. Um, but the best is

[10:02] when there's something to walk to, not just when you're walking the dog, but

[10:05] like I said, that that location for the commercial that this site is so good

[10:09] for. Um, we try to locate those at the center of these 5-minute walks so that

[10:14] people have a reason to be out, not other than just walking the dog or

[10:18] getting exercise. Good. Uh these these slides show a

[10:23] little bit now that we know you know about the site and what we have to work

[10:26] around physically then we try to figure out okay what's going to go on this site

[10:31] and yes there will be some retail uh we know there's uh serious demand for that

[10:36] as population growth like Brad said but then we also worked very closely with

[10:40] Bob Gibbs to identify the retail demand and there is significant retail demand

[10:45] so this is us just putting those on a page to see how they scale next to one

[10:50] another. You can go ahead to the next two slides as well. And these are just a

[10:54] graphic showing sort of how that all fits onto um this is the retail one. Uh

[11:01] how that might fit onto the slide. And then of course we're tasked with

[11:04] designing a neighborhood that is walkable, incorporates all these things

[11:08] and is designed around the physical constraints of the of the property.

[11:13] next. And so this is our current master plan

[11:16] uh as we've worked with Brad and and the whole team to come up with. Um and in

[11:22] order to make it walkable, what we do is we uh begin by locating the lower

[11:28] intensity uses such as single family detached homes closer to other single

[11:32] family detached homes. So in the top left you'll see near the sink holes,

[11:36] those are all single family detached. And then as you move to the right and

[11:40] down the master plan, it gets a little bit more intense gradually.

[11:45] [clears throat] So, so let's say you're walking from the top left down to the

[11:49] bottom right. You might walk past some larger single family detached homes with

[11:54] garages in the front and then you may move towards smaller detached houses

[11:59] with garages in the rear on an alley which uh makes for a more

[12:03] pedestrian-friendly street because you don't have the interruption of the

[12:06] driveway. And then you may continue past some missing middle forplex uh units.

[12:13] And then finally, when you arrive at the darkest purplish color, maroon color,

[12:18] you've arrived at the town center. Now, the town center is very carefully

[12:21] located next to the brightest orange on the right side, which is all commercial.

[12:27] So commercial and retail. There are sort of two types. They're what we like to

[12:31] call the regional commercial, and that's things like maybe some restaurants on

[12:36] pad sites. They may even have a drive-thru. That's up for up for

[12:40] discussion. There's uh potential for a grocery

[12:44] store, we think, based on the market study we received. And then all of those

[12:48] really need that highway visibility and really need that full intersection. So,

[12:52] we worked with the information from uh the transportation master plan that

[12:57] called for a connection of Pemrook Avenue through the project and out to

[13:02] 160. And so, there's a full intersection there. With a full intersection, you can

[13:06] get uh a lot more retail tenants. So, that's the reason for that primary

[13:11] intersection being located there. And that is also where the most intensive

[13:15] intense uses are. [clears throat] From there, moving back into the

[13:20] neighborhood, that darker maroon color is the sort of walkable retail. So,

[13:25] that's the local, that's the the cheese shop or the uh the local restaurant that

[13:30] is owned by someone who may have started in 14 mil market and now needs their own

[13:34] brickandmortar retail. Um, it's the smaller footprint sort of thing and it

[13:38] may even be two to three stories with a residential above it, a residential unit

[13:42] above it. So what happens by locating the walkable retail, the local retail

[13:47] with the regional commercial right next to each other is they form a symbiotic

[13:52] relationship. The parking can be shared. People can walk even to the grocery

[13:55] store. Think about the 13-year-old who can't drive yet can walk and go get

[14:00] their energy drink or whatever without having to cross any incredibly busy road

[14:05] and uh risk their life to do so. So, um, that's the reason for locating all

[14:10] the all of the commercial, uh, next to each other.

[14:14] You can go on to the next one. And this shows a little bit of how it ties back

[14:19] to those walk circles. So, um, the 5-minute walk locates right on the

[14:24] neighborhood retail and then also on a park in the residential piece of the

[14:29] neighborhood. That park may act as a second center. The first center, of

[14:34] course, being a local commercial that everybody walks to and from in the

[14:37] evening or for their for their errands. But there's also civic uh civic uses

[14:44] such as a park or maybe a pavilion, a picnic pavilion, things that you might

[14:48] go to uh during the afternoon on Saturday. And so those two centers are

[14:52] working together to anchor the two pieces of the neighborhood there.

[14:59] Thanks. >> Sorry, I'm expecting you to to be able

[15:03] to predict, but I've never given this presentation to you either. No, you're

[15:06] doing excellent. You're doing excellent. >> This diagram shows uh the the amount of

[15:11] pedestrian facilities, and it's a little bit hard to see the lighter green, but

[15:14] what what you're looking at here, the solid green lines are pedestrianon

[15:18] thoroughares. So, things like trails, paths that houses might face, uh which

[15:24] we have an image of coming up later. And then the dashed are sidewalks on

[15:28] streets. Every street's going to have dedicated sidewalks. And that network

[15:32] that connects you around the entire neighborhood connects you from your

[15:35] front door to that local shop to that grocery store and to a fantastic network

[15:40] of parks and greens and squares that are shown in lighter green with that will

[15:45] all have trails in them like I mentioned with the the the sink holes. Next.

[15:52] And this slide shows everything that's accessible to the community. It's not to

[15:56] say it's publicly owned necessarily, but it's things that anyone can can go to.

[16:01] So, the commercial, the grocery store, the restaurants, the the retail shops,

[16:06] all of that is shown in green, teal, and the darker purple color. Everything

[16:11] that's white is privately owned residential or or uh things that are not

[16:16] accessible to the general community. And you can see the vast majority of the

[16:19] site is available to the community as a whole. Next,

[16:25] now I'm just going to briefly zoom in on a a few uh elements of the plan. This

[16:30] this park um is is providing that necessary [clears throat] storm water

[16:34] next. And instead of just having a kind of a storm water pond with a chain link

[16:38] fence, what we like to do is incorporate it as an amenity. So this is one of our

[16:43] favorite. We work from precedent a lot and this is one of our favorite

[16:47] storm water management ponds that actually acts as a park. When the water

[16:50] fills it up, you can't use it. But when it's when there's when there's no flood,

[16:54] which is most of the time it's a park. There's a playground, there's a lawn,

[16:57] there's plenty of trees, and it's those houses around it are actually the most

[17:02] uh desired houses in the neighborhood where this exists. Next, and this is

[17:06] what that could potentially look like. Houses facing that that park. And next,

[17:13] another element of the plan, there's an existing road that has some really

[17:16] beautiful existing trees along it. And we thought, let's try to save these. So,

[17:21] if we can save those trees and face some houses next onto a path, it could look

[17:26] something like this. So, this is one of those pedestrian only thoroughares that

[17:30] I mentioned earlier with the solid green line. Next,

[17:36] a cottage court. That's essentially just a small green with cottages, single

[17:40] family, detached houses facing it. And it could look something like this. Next.

[17:48] And next, there is a bit of a multif family component to this that uh is is

[17:54] in the northeast corner of the site. And the reason for that is because where I

[17:58] mentioned the full intersection is available, that's where the commercial

[18:01] really needs to be. Uh they really need access to that full intersection next.

[18:06] But up in the top corner, it makes sense to it may make sense to where retail is

[18:10] not available. Not not typically going to like that that portion of the site.

[18:14] Multif family may be a better use and it could look something like this. Um next

[18:19] and then that town square next. Zooming in a little bit on the detail

[18:24] there next. Again, working from precedent from

[18:28] spaces that are similar size that we know work excellently. This is a a

[18:32] fantastically popular uh retail square in a neighborhood that we designed in in

[18:37] uh that we work in in in Louisville and uh it's very successful. Next, and this

[18:42] is what the the square in Nixa could look like.

[18:47] Next, looking very briefly a little bit at a few numbers here, not drilling into

[18:52] the details, but looking just at the percentage of commercial. So, there's

[18:56] about 14% of the land is is dedicated to that. Um, and then there are some other

[19:01] components as well. Um, the the largest one at the bottom, the pink one, is is

[19:06] an entertainment piece that uh Kurt is going to speak on in just a moment next.

[19:11] And finally, the PUD ordinance, the PUD standards are what allow this to happen.

[19:16] Next, uh, the map of the regulating plan that

[19:20] you're looking at here, it's a map that essentially takes the rules that require

[19:23] everything I just spoke to. So, it's it not only have we designed things that we

[19:28] want to be walkable, we're going to make them be walkable. And that's what the

[19:32] regulating plan and PUD go together to do next.

[19:36] And with that, that's a very brief overview of of the design here. So, with

[19:40] that, I'll hand it over to you, Kurt.

[19:47] Mayor and Council, good evening. Kurt Peterson here on behalf of the

[19:50] development team. Um, rounding out our overview of the concept plan that we

[19:54] just walked through. You'll see our anchor tenant on the screen, which is an

[19:59] adventure park. I'm speaking of the 29 acres at the very southern tip of all

[20:04] those maps you saw. And it's an indoor outdoor adventure park with uh lots of

[20:10] I'd call them familyfriendly activities. This things like zip lines, bike trails,

[20:16] pump tracks. I didn't know what a pump track was, by the way. If you if you

[20:19] YouTube it. I have five kids. They're going nuts. They're like, "We want to go

[20:21] to that." But pump track, uh, ropes course, climbing, things like that,

[20:26] gathering, eating options. So, the idea of this anchor tenant space at the

[20:31] southern end, uh, southern gateway of the project is certainly for Nixa

[20:36] families, full stop. But it is also something we really think would attract

[20:41] some others to come into Nixa and to spend money and and spend time in the

[20:46] community. So, uh, Brad mentioned this at the beginning, but I wanted to make

[20:49] extra sure just because of the, you know, sort of gravitas and experience he

[20:53] has. Billy, who's here, right here in this row, um, I mean, he's a he'd be a

[20:58] co-developer of this piece and just to having seen some of his work, he's had

[21:02] 40 plus years of experience on projects just like this. Um,

[21:07] not only domestically, but actually internationally. So, he's our

[21:10] co-developer that would help with this specific anchor tenant space. And with

[21:14] that, that is kind of turning the page now. That was our trying to be efficient

[21:17] but also give you a sense for over all these months of design and concepts and

[21:22] design sharets what we've come up with as an overall concept plan for you to

[21:26] consider tonight. But as I turn the page, we go from the overall vision and

[21:31] concept plan to a sense for the obstacles that we're facing with this

[21:35] particular project on this site with this land with the current condition

[21:39] it's in and the extraordinary amount of infrastructure that will have to come to

[21:44] fruition to make us be able to put that plan into place. So stating what you

[21:49] know, the 192 acres today is entirely unimproved. It generates less than, drum

[21:56] roll, for an entire year. Everything you see within the red hash boundaries,

[22:00] about $400 in taxes per year. Next slide.

[22:05] We have unstable soils. We have significant erosion as you can see on

[22:09] the screen. We have trespassing. We have trash dumping. We have graffiti. We have

[22:13] sinkholes. I feel like sinkholes is the theme tonight, but sinkholes. Uh we have

[22:18] standing water. Next slide. We have deteriorating pavement. We have street

[22:23] that's blocked off, which you may recognize. Overall, this the sense

[22:27] you're getting is accurate. It's not in good shape. And most importantly, right

[22:30] now, it's not doing anything for the citizens of Nixon. Next slide, please.

[22:38] So, aside from the nature of the site itself, we have a real barrier in the

[22:46] form of infrastructure or lack thereof to bring this project to life. I'm going

[22:51] to divide it up into off-site infrastructure. So, everything that's

[22:53] not within the balance of that land, but then also on-site in infrastructure. So,

[22:58] starting with off-site infrastructure, focus on Highway 160, we have early

[23:03] estimates are approximately $5 million of work to do at the minimum in terms of

[23:10] uh signalization at Penroke, which you can see sort of 2/3 the way down where

[23:15] you see the double arrow on the on the road there. and then turn lanes all

[23:20] along there. But at the same time, we're been in talks with MDOT and as you know,

[23:24] everybody in this room respects MDOT. They help keep us safe. They work at a

[23:29] pace that is not the same as maybe everyone else works. I think very

[23:33] deliberate if you're following me. We have been in talks with them for some

[23:37] time and we look forward to bringing those to conclusion at the right time.

[23:40] But my point is there's potentially in those conversations an additional on top

[23:45] of the 5 million what we'd estimate to be $10 million of work that may need to

[23:49] be done there. Mostly focused on possibly widening. We're not necessarily

[23:53] inviting that. We're going to let the process work through. But we wanted you

[23:55] to know when we talk about off-site infrastructure, whether on the low end

[23:58] or the high end, we have a lot of public infrastructure that has to be done to

[24:02] make this project reality. Next slide, please. That's off-site infrastructure.

[24:07] In terms of on-site infrastructure, you know, we're starting with a green field.

[24:10] We're starting with a blank slate. Um, all the public infrastructure in this

[24:14] kind of situation has to be delivered. So, we're talking streets, we're talking

[24:18] sanitary, storm water, detention, water lines. Next slide, please. And overall,

[24:24] we estimate that this is probably around early estimate about $33 million of

[24:29] infrastructure. Now, that would be phased. A project like this, you know

[24:33] this intuitively, doesn't just show up in a year. It gets phased out

[24:36] methodically and so would the on-site infrastructure. But when all is said and

[24:40] done, it's significant. And I'll say we didn't even get into the micro

[24:43] infrastructure like fiber and electric and gas. That was just the the major

[24:49] on-site infrastructure. So that's on top of the 33 million um to make this

[24:53] project a reality. Now,

[24:57] the current state of the land, the daunting public infrastructure on-site,

[25:01] off-site required to make this project a reality

[25:06] will prevent private development at least of this scale. Onesie, twoozy, you

[25:10] know, little things can be put on a piece of land like this. That that's

[25:13] possible. But to do something like what we've shown you tonight, this vision, it

[25:18] takes an extraordinary amount of money. And it doesn't. It doesn't. That's why

[25:22] you don't see projects like this in this situation very often unless we can come

[25:27] up with a public private partnership. And fortunately, the Missouri

[25:30] legislature over time has given Nixa and other cities various tools to use. Now,

[25:35] do you have to use them? No way. They're discretionary. That's in your toolbox.

[25:40] So, our job, what we do is we come in, we say, what are the barriers and is

[25:44] there even a way to bridge that gap and what tools would be needed? So, we've

[25:48] spent quite a bit of time on that in the background as the design team has been

[25:52] trying to design the project to the site. So, I wanted to give you, you

[25:57] know, by the way, not to be presumptuous, if you find at the end of

[26:00] the day that this is a compelling vision, right? If you don't, then you

[26:03] can tune me out honestly. But if that's a compelling vision and we want to see

[26:07] can we figure out how to make it happen, here are the tools that we've

[26:10] identified. There's four of them to put together to make this project happen.

[26:15] The first is tax increment financing. The second is community improvement

[26:19] district. The third is transportation improvement district. And the fourth

[26:23] fourth is chapter 100. Now what I just said to some of you may be like, I got

[26:28] it. I know what each of those things are. But in case some of those are not

[26:31] familiar for you, I thought I'd spend just a surface level tonight giving you

[26:34] a sense for what I mean when I mention those four tools.

[26:38] First, tax increment financing. What does it do? I will say in so many

[26:43] places this just because I am a finance person real estate development for for a

[26:47] living many nights in front of governing bodies just like you and for in so many

[26:52] instances this can be almost a I was going to say four-letter word but you

[26:57] know what I mean threeletter acronym um but hear me out because I really think

[27:01] that there's a lot of times where it takes on a life of its own which it

[27:04] becomes something it's not in this case it captures new emphasis on new new

[27:10] property tax that's generated by the developer building a project. It also

[27:15] captures half of the new sales tax that is generated by the project on the site.

[27:21] By the way, the other half of the sales tax flows to the taxing jurisdictions,

[27:24] the state, county, and the city. And then the revenues that are generated

[27:30] over a long period of time under the tiff are then used to reimburse

[27:35] infrastructure and other costs of the project. Again, over a long period of

[27:39] time. Next slide. I'm going to lump the second and third tools together because

[27:43] while they have different acronyms, different names, they are mechanically

[27:47] the very same thing. And and what is that? Transportation development

[27:50] district and community improvement district which is C and TDD both add an

[27:56] extra sales tax in this case up to 1% each on charges on taxable charges

[28:03] within the project. So what is it not? If somebody goes to the grocery store or

[28:07] some other business right now in the community, if this project were to move

[28:11] forward, just as we're saying, using these tools, this would be irrelevant.

[28:14] It's only when they come on to the project. Things that Brad and his team

[28:17] bring to the site, then have cash registers. It's there that you would

[28:20] have an additional sales tax. And those additional sales tax dollars would be

[28:24] collected over a long number of years and again would be used to reimburse

[28:28] certain costs of the project over that period. So that was the second and the

[28:31] third tool. The fourth and final tool is referred to as chapter 100, which is

[28:36] just referring to where in the Missouri statutes this tool exists. The sole

[28:39] purpose of this, there's actually another way you can use that tool, which

[28:42] we're not using, and I won't talk about it cuz it's irrelevant. The only purpose

[28:46] for this tool for this project would be sales tax exemption, Missouri sales and

[28:50] use tax exemption on construction materials that go into everything that's

[28:55] built within the project. So, it's these four tools together that

[28:59] making make up what I would call the financing structure that would make this

[29:04] project uh financable and make it something we can move forward with.

[29:09] So, in in closing, I I just was reflecting on on all of this because

[29:14] we're clearly using a fire hose. Hopefully, you appreciate it and know

[29:18] that we're not we want to get a lot of information out there and I just did a

[29:21] lot um in just a few minutes. But I thought about if I had heard all that

[29:27] associated with this conceptual plan that you just heard tonight, what would

[29:32] be going through my mind? So rather than coming up with 10 question answer, I

[29:35] have two two things that would be going through my mind if I were you possibly.

[29:40] The first is there's a lot of commercial here and

[29:43] that's a focal point of this project which we've talked about.

[29:49] We can't seriously actually and this comes from a career worth of experience.

[29:54] If you go out before you even have the uh you know sort of uh conceptual buy in

[29:59] and support from a city both in terms of the concept plan, the vision and the

[30:06] financing aspect of it and you go try to get businesses and retailers and then

[30:11] you say well wait I'm not there yet. I don't know really I I you go prematurely

[30:16] you literally can lose credibility for that project and it probably makes

[30:18] intuitive sense. Then you go back later and like no really we're ready this time

[30:22] and and they don't take you seriously. So we are at the point where we're

[30:26] trying to look for by holding discussions holding this

[30:30] discussion get the kind of general support. Yeah there's something here we

[30:33] understand these tools we understand this plan and then that will allow us as

[30:37] we move closer to approval if we get there that we can go out and start

[30:41] recruiting these businesses and the tenants and we we don't doubt for a

[30:45] second that they will come. They will want to be here. we just can't do that

[30:48] right now in terms of sequence. So that was the first question that came

[30:53] to my mind. The second one that came to my mind is is probably the most

[30:57] prevalent which is is this and this is the kind of thing oftenimes I see in

[31:02] social media or other uh venues like that which is is this what was presented

[31:08] tonight these tools specifically are they really just I don't know a giveaway

[31:12] I hear that phrase a lot is this a giveaway from a great city to a

[31:17] developer and just kind of lines their pockets

[31:20] using literally those are the kind of words that you would see used. This is

[31:24] by far the number one biggest misconception and honestly it's not your

[31:30] job. It's our job as the development team over time to give the details and

[31:36] explain how all of this would work so people don't have the misconception. So

[31:39] we have that burden not not you all but doing a a surface level tonight

[31:44] treatment of it to get started with the answer. The city actually doesn't hand

[31:49] out any money that it has right now. None. remember the city's portion. We'd

[31:53] have to look at the percentages probably like what 10% of the mill levy,

[31:56] something like that. Um, and this is generating what, $400 a year in property

[32:00] taxes and no sales taxes. There's nothing there today. Nothing that's

[32:04] being requested as part of these tools exists today. It has to be created and

[32:08] it has to be created by somebody that goes and takes out huge construction

[32:12] loans and puts huge construction guarantees on personal guarantees on the

[32:16] line and brings retailers and tenants and causes cash registers to go and

[32:20] causes people to move into the housing and the parks have to be created. All

[32:24] that has to happen before any of these tools are effectuated.

[32:30] This is not a tiff bond deal. I like you have read many times about other cities

[32:34] even in the general region of our state that have gotten into tiff bond deals

[32:39] and they guarantee the bonds a lot of times and that can go well sometimes and

[32:43] sometimes it doesn't go well. This is this has nothing to do with that that

[32:46] there's no proposal for tiff bonds there won't be tiff bonds.

[32:50] So again the developer only has access to revenues that in a sense that it

[32:54] generates through its risk and heavy capital investment. All the risk is on

[32:59] the developer here. All the risk is on the developer. Meanwhile, as residents

[33:05] and visitors are attracted to the project, residents

[33:10] really I this is a term that I use a lot, maybe some of you do too, the idea

[33:13] of leakage. Another uh synonymous concept would be if somebody said, "Wow,

[33:18] you know, we're more of a bedroom community." That means that when we wake

[33:22] up in the morning and need to go buy something here or get this service or

[33:25] get this entertainment with my family, I have to leave the community. It's it's

[33:29] considered leakage, right? Sales tax dollars, uh, economic activity is

[33:34] leaking out of the community. So, back to what this helps us do is keep

[33:39] residents here and stop as much leakage as is happening today from Nixa for

[33:44] entertainment and for retail and and the like. Also, when we attract people here

[33:51] and when more Nixa residents stay here, it's a huge injection into our current

[33:56] businesses, right? not just the what will happen here but it's more economic

[33:59] activity in the city which helps promote promote the existing businesses that are

[34:04] here today and overall over time it's a massive investment in the city's tax

[34:09] base both from a sales tax and from a property tax perspective.

[34:14] So with that that's a lightning round. We were all quick hopefully efficient

[34:18] enough for you but substantive. That is our vision. That's our proposed public

[34:23] private partnership. We are nothing short of thrilled to be here. Each one

[34:28] of us on this team alongside Brad. Um this is a project that hopefully you'll

[34:34] share in our vision has a project to be extraordinarily impactful. You know,

[34:38] this is sort of one of those generational projects for Nixa. Um and

[34:42] at this point, subject to the mayor running the meeting, we could answer any

[34:45] questions you have. Uh but again, thank you for taking the time to let us

[34:49] present like this tonight. Anybody have any questions?

[34:58] We're good. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council.

[35:02] » And thank you to the whole group. It's been it's been great. It's I can't even

[35:07] remember how long ago we started this, but it seems like it's gone really fast.

[35:11] I know it's been a while. Um it's been very interesting to see the whole

[35:16] process go out. It's also been very unique to have you get so many

[35:21] people in the community involved in helping form this. That's not something

[35:26] that's often done. So greatly appreciated

[35:34] and it's very exciting by the way. Wish we could have watched the video as well.

[35:38] That one was pretty cool. All right.

[35:45] Well, next up we will move on to our next presentation which is Mr. ORF the

[35:50] Forest Heights Virginia Lane update.

[36:28] Okay, there we go. All right. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, as I'm

[36:33] sure you're all aware, uh, the city dealt with a very complex issue, um,

[36:37] starting in August of last year. Um now that it's all been resolved, Mr. Lyles

[36:43] has asked me to give a presentation update um to all of you um discussing

[36:48] all the work that was done to get the the sewer main repaired on the forest

[36:52] sites um development. So this presentation will look at the the

[36:56] complexity of this project. Um it'll also go over the general timeline of

[37:00] events. um they'll look at the the three phases that staff used to address this

[37:05] uh this issue and finally provide an overall uh of total costs for this

[37:10] project. Um so for the overview um this this repair was very complex um

[37:16] [clears throat] in part due to the proximity to two existing homes and also

[37:21] being very deep. It was 17 ft deep and um there was only a 23 ft uh distance

[37:27] between the two houses. Um the stewart repair complexity was compounded by the

[37:32] fact that it sat next to a raveling erosion dome um which is essentially the

[37:36] precursor to a sinkhole. Um it just hasn't reached the surface yet. Um uh

[37:42] the erosion dome ended up being closed on October 16th as part of the phase 1

[37:47] work that was done. Um so with the sewer man being so deep uh traditional methods

[37:52] uh of excavation couldn't occur uh as the dig would affect the foundations of

[37:56] those homes as well. So, staff engaged with several

[38:00] contractors and engineers to develop a three-phase plan um to finally repair

[38:04] the sewer line. Phase one being filling the voids um in the soil with compact

[38:09] route that would close the erosion dome. Phase two being underpinning the

[38:13] foundations of the homes to protect them during uh the excavation. And finally,

[38:18] phase three um excavating and repairing that line.

[38:23] So, as you can see with this lot map of the forest heights phase five or phase

[38:28] four, the red line um in between the two manholes was the portion of the serum

[38:33] main that collapsed it. Let's see if my laser works. It was right in this area

[38:39] here um where the issue occurred.

[38:43] Um at the time of the collapse, 17 homes were actively utilizing this line. This

[38:49] is a very new fairly new development. So all the lots throughout this were either

[38:54] complete or through uh various phases of construction at the time. Um but 17 of

[38:59] them were actively utilizing the line and were being lived in at the time. Um

[39:04] so all the lots within this phase do flow through that compromised sewer line

[39:09] with the exception of three. So once the um compromised sewer main was

[39:13] discovered, uh staff placed restrictions on further construction activities

[39:18] um within the development mainly to eliminate the potential for additional

[39:23] flow through that line. Um these include restrictions on sewer ditch inspections,

[39:29] um halting the new or the installation of new water meters and also not

[39:33] allowing any new certificates of occupancy until the um the the main

[39:39] could be repaired. So outside of this, the the developer

[39:42] was allowed to continue building while city staff worked on a solution towards

[39:46] those repairs. And as you can see with that red line there, um there is a

[39:50] manhole just at the very north end of that line. Um the homes within the

[39:54] culde-sac were south of that manhole um where we were able to set a bypass pump.

[40:00] So we unfortunately had to shut off their water service as we could not

[40:03] capture their their flow um into the compromised surain.

[40:10] So moving back to the start of the project or started where we discovered

[40:13] the issue um the issue was discovered on August 13th um where a homeowner um

[40:21] experienced a backup in the drain of their their home after uh calling a

[40:27] plumber. The plumber discovered mud in their lateral line uh which indicated

[40:30] that it had separated from the sewer main. The the the main was then came and

[40:35] that's when the the collapse was discovered.

[40:38] Um on August 15th uh staff implemented an emergency purchase order to expedite

[40:43] an assessment of why the main failed as well as engaging with contractors to try

[40:48] and fix the sewer main. Um, upon implementation of this order, city staff

[40:52] worked with Cochran Engineering throughout this process uh to identify

[40:56] and develop plans to fix it. Um, on August 25th, we had own

[41:03] engineering out performing a soil test to better understand why the

[41:06] infrastructure had failed. There's a video on on this slide. Um this video

[41:11] shows the core sampling that was done uh where they uh tap into the soil to um

[41:16] one test it strength but also to see if any voids are present. Um when uh the

[41:22] ground was was very soft here which indicated the presence of a carsted

[41:26] feature that was later determined to be the raveling erosion dome. Um staff also

[41:31] smelled sewage near the the holes which indicated that the compromised mane was

[41:36] leaking into the surrounding soil. So, with the presence of an

[41:40] environmental hazard posed by the collapsed sewer main, staff had to

[41:44] inform the home homeowners in the culde-sac that were south of the main

[41:47] that their public water and sewer service would have to be shut off as

[41:50] we'd be unable to capture their flow >> [snorts]

[41:53] » um from the bypass pump that was set up. From that point on, staff was in contact

[41:58] with these uh these five homes on a daily basis um until service could be

[42:03] restored.

[42:07] So just trace off through there. On August 29th, um we got the

[42:13] geotechnical report back which can identified a raveling erosion dome um

[42:19] present and that the compromised surain was located within the rim of that dome.

[42:24] So that report also provided recommendations to staff on how to

[42:28] remediate the dome which included compaction grouting and um foundational

[42:33] underpinning. uh those recommendations would later become our respective phase

[42:37] one and phase two portions of the serial repair plan.

[42:44] So using the um recommendations from the geotechnical report, Cochran Engineering

[42:49] began reaching out to companies to perform um compaction gring services. Uh

[42:54] staff received quotes from two companies and ultimately chose Ren Engineering out

[42:58] of St. Louis to perform the phase one work. And the the photo on this slide um

[43:03] is the bypass pump that was set up at that manhole.

[43:08] So um from August to September, we were kind of working through what needed to

[43:12] be done. By October uh 6th, we had ren engineering out. Um the video on this

[43:20] slide shows the the drill rig that drilled six primary holes into the soil

[43:24] and then pumped the compaction grout into uh into the the erosion dome. um at

[43:31] a certain pressure or until a certain pressure was hit. Um by hitting that

[43:35] pressure, Ren was able to determine that the grout wasn't just flushing into an

[43:40] additional void in the ground, but was in fact filling the erosion dome as

[43:43] indicated and as intended. Um all drilling locations did hit the pressure

[43:48] that needed to be hit um to to close that dome. Um and it no longer exists.

[43:55] In total, phase one cost the city $126,264.68.

[44:02] Um, a little more than 6,000 of that being the compaction material and the

[44:06] rest being green engineering services. So after the 16th, um, that leads us

[44:12] into phase two, um, which is the underpinning the the foundations of the

[44:18] homes so that phase three could occur. Uh, Ren Engineering also was the

[44:23] engineering firm um that did the phase 2 work and performed this work on behalf

[44:28] of the city. Um, after working with the homeowners, Ren Engineering was able to

[44:32] get back on site on November 17th of last year. And between then and December

[44:37] 5th, um, when they concluded their work, they drove 18 piles to Bedrock until

[44:44] certain pressures were hit. So those piles were then attached to the home

[44:47] foundations um effectively transferring the house load from the soil to the the

[44:52] bedrock below. Uh this prevents the foundations from shifting or becoming

[44:56] compromised since we had to dig so close to the houses for phase three. In total

[45:01] phase two with the underpinning um cost the city $148,614.50

[45:07] 50 cents

[45:11] moving into phase three. Um it phase three actually started the very next

[45:15] week that the underpinning was concluded. So it started on December 8th

[45:18] with excavation repair work being performed by Hamilton and dad. Um they

[45:23] were able to fully repair the surain and place the line back into service on

[45:26] December 12th which allowed the five affected homes in the culdesac to have

[45:31] their water and sewer service restored. So they had been out since October

[45:35] August 28th. So, the repair and restoration work

[45:39] performed by Hamilton and DAD totaled $252,265.

[45:45] Um, there's restoration work that led into uh this year. Um, so it wasn't

[45:51] fully which it was fully completed on June 4th uh when the sod was laid. Both

[45:56] phase 2 and phase 3 were pretty intrusive to the nearby homes. Uh, which

[46:00] is why there's quite a bit of restoration work that needed to be done

[46:02] to complete the process. uh city staff performed the dirt work um

[46:08] here and then Ryan's lawn and tree service performed the sod installation.

[46:12] Um in total phase three with Hamilton and dad performing the repair work was

[46:17] $261,45.84.

[46:22] So for the total cost for repair, um this includes all the phases of of the

[46:28] the project including equipment rentals, um engineering fees and other

[46:32] miscellaneous items was $62,973.

[46:37] Um this doesn't include all the time that staff spent going out there and

[46:40] coordinating the process, but um for for dollar amounts, that's that was the

[46:45] total process or total project cost. Um, as you'll see later tonight, we have a

[46:50] budget amendment that will just be for the amount that was expensed in 2026,

[46:54] which is why it's a bit lower. Um, but that amount ends up being $266,

[46:59] um,723.

[47:03] So, does council have any questions?

[47:14] Thank you. I believe so. Thank you. And Mr. Gorf, I want to thank you again

[47:19] for all your help on that project. No, that was not Well, we don't want to

[47:26] get back into that, do we? But I made some new friends. Bob, love

[47:32] you guys.

[47:39] Keep going. Okay. Just let me know.

[47:44] All right, we will move on to the visitors section.

[47:48] Mrs. Coffee, do we have anyone signed up to speak?

[48:01] » Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Kristen Hazelton and I am the

[48:04] president and CEO of Christian County Business Development Corporation. We are

[48:09] a nonprofit organization that operates Show Mech Christian County Economic

[48:12] Development and a tourism platform called Explore Christian County. We

[48:17] represent 55 investor partners who want to advance economic growth and quality

[48:22] of life in communities across Christian County. I appreciate the opportunity to

[48:27] provide some insight from the past year of working with the development team on

[48:31] the potential development in South Nixa. Brad King and I have worked together

[48:35] over several years on various projects throughout the county. When [snorts]

[48:39] this Nixa property was listed just over a year ago, Brad called and was very

[48:44] excited about the opportunities this parcel would have for the community. He

[48:48] had a vision for a walkable development that would be unique in our region. Brad

[48:53] started asking questions about specific needs and desires in Nixa and the

[48:58] surrounding area actually. and he even got to work doing local research and

[49:02] talking to strategic partners. He wanted to approach this development differently

[49:06] by incorporating community feedback from the beginning and that is exactly what

[49:10] he has done over the past year. The property has been examined via a

[49:15] sinkhole study, traffic study, land use analysis and many other ways of

[49:20] analyzing it. So in addition to that, Brad has put together a team to listen

[49:25] and learn from locals uh from locals about the needs from both the city and

[49:30] the Nixa community members. He's hired industry experts to research and analyze

[49:35] the property and the community to create a viable plan that works for Nixa. All

[49:40] of this work has been done to meet the needs of the community and to move to

[49:45] the next phase of the large-scale development. I see this project as an

[49:49] exciting opportunity for Nixa Council to help enact the vision that has been

[49:53] casted by community members through the comprehensive plan and through NIXA's

[49:57] internal strategic plan. In these plans and through the public engagement

[50:02] process, NIXA residents have emphasized many times that they want more quality

[50:07] parks and green spaces, a walkable community, more retail, a variety of

[50:12] housing options, and things for families to do together. This project is a great

[50:17] example of what can be accomplished when the public and private sectors come

[50:21] together in collaboration to meet community needs. As this project returns

[50:26] to council for further discussions, the conversation will turn to a critical

[50:31] stage which is solidifying a public private partnership and finalizing a

[50:35] development agreement. In any project of this scale, the development team will be

[50:40] required to make massive upfront investments into public improvements and

[50:44] infrastructure like roads, utility connections, water and sewer

[50:48] connectivity, and others. All of these improvements happen in order to prepare

[50:53] the site to recruit end users like retailers, restaurants, commercial

[50:56] tenants, and more. When the time comes, we encourage council to thoughtfully

[51:01] evaluate the developer responsibilities and consider how the city may partner

[51:06] with the development group to make this project come to fruition. We are happy

[51:10] to answer any questions along this process. And I just want to say thank

[51:14] you for your time. >> Thank you, Kristen.

[51:20] Okay, we do not have anyone else signed up, but if you would like to speak, you

[51:24] can still do so.

[51:31] And I will close the visitors. Oh,

[51:36] » we'll run. Jeez. No, >> it's a bigger room. Hey,

[51:40] » clap. Make a noise. I don't even >> It's a lot bigger than it used to be.

[51:43] So, >> I know.

[51:44] » I should have cut through the middle. Marin Council. Hi.

[51:46] » I thought you were leaving, honestly. >> I'm like, I'm out.

[51:49] » Um, hi. Wow. Hi. I need to think now for a second. Start the time. Okay, they

[51:54] started the time. I don't think me running should have counted, but that's

[51:57] okay. Uh Whitney Geon, I'm the president of the Nixon Chamber. I just want to

[52:01] take a minute to talk a little bit about this development because I am stoked. I

[52:05] don't know if you're allowed to say stoked city council, but I am. Um I

[52:09] think that as Nixa grows with residential, it's great to see that

[52:14] there's interest in growing our commercial side as well. And we need

[52:17] that commercial side to support all of the people who are moving here who want

[52:20] to live here and work here and play here. And so to see this potential out

[52:25] there is incredibly exciting. A lot of the feedback that I get probably most

[52:30] often is when are we building more commercial space? And I'm like I when do

[52:35] you want to build more commercial space person who's asking me? But it's really

[52:39] just exciting to see this. I mean I'm excited for the residential part as

[52:42] well, but obviously my heart is a little bit closer to all the potential that we

[52:46] can see in the growth of Nixa. are going to grow either way, but if we could have

[52:51] some kind of control over what that looks like and bring something that's

[52:54] truly unique to our area and unique to our region, it's incredibly exciting.

[52:59] So, um I'm excited to see where this goes. And I will not answer any

[53:04] questions because I'm not in charge of this one, but uh thanks so much and I

[53:08] just wanted to say how excited I am for that.

[53:12] » Thank you, Whitney. We'll

[53:17] say I think we're we're in a really good place right now. We have between Show me

[53:21] Christian County, our chamber, honestly, our downtown group. We have so many

[53:25] people in Otto. I mean, we have so many people that want to see Nixa succeed and

[53:30] you have a council that wants to do it, not by raising taxes, by focusing on

[53:36] economic development and increasing the tax base. So, that's not very common in

[53:40] this political world we live in. I will leave the public hearing open just in

[53:46] case anyone else decides they would like to speak

[53:52] and I will close the visitor section. Thank you all very much.

[53:58] Still good. All right. Next up, we will do our first reading of ordinances. Mrs.

[54:03] Coffee, could you please read council bill 2026-16?

[54:08] First reading council bill number 2026-16

[54:11] an ordinance of the council of city mix amending the 2026 April budget in the

[54:16] amount of $266,723.34

[54:22] to appropriate funds for all items expense in the 20 in 2026 related to

[54:27] forest sites repair project presenting as project facilitator.

[54:32] » Good evening mayor and council. Um, as I presented earlier, um, the the entire

[54:37] project cost was, uh, $62,973.

[54:42] However, um, the items that were the expenditure items that were finalized

[54:47] this year, um, primarily includes an invoice from Cochran for geotechnical

[54:52] engineering services. Um, all the work that was performed by Hamilton and dad

[54:56] for that phase three. Um, and then the site res restorative work. Um, as I said

[55:02] previously, the expenditure items that were finalized in 2025, which don't go

[55:06] towards this um, budget amendment, was the phase 1, phase 2 items, um, some of

[55:10] the rental equipment and other things like that. So, staff is requesting a

[55:15] budget amendment for $266,723.34

[55:20] all the items expensed in 2026 related to the Forest Heights sewer repair

[55:25] project. Any questions? >> Any questions?

[55:31] You better hope we approve this, huh? You going to take it back?

[55:35] » Yeah. [laughter] No.

[55:37] » No. >> No.

[55:40] » Money we didn't want to spend, but money well spent for sure. All right. No

[55:45] questions. I will open up the public hearing. If you would like to speak on

[55:48] this budget amendment, feel free to do so at this time.

[55:53] And I will close the public hearing. Anything further from council? Anything

[56:01] further from staff?

[56:04] All right. Further moving on. Mrs. coffee. Could you please read council

[56:08] bill 2026-17267

[56:25] district

[56:32] mayor council? Good evening. Uh if you have an energy drink, feel free to take

[56:35] a big swig cuz I've been told I get pretty boring. So,

[56:40] but with the uh the presentation earlier, this is kind of convenient

[56:43] because now we're talking about a downtown overlay zoning district. Um so,

[56:48] if you may have noticed in our downtown area that there have been some buildings

[56:52] come up missing due to um some dangerous building proceedings that, you know,

[56:57] property owner decided to demolish rather than try to repair as they were

[57:00] in severe disrepair. Um, so therefore, when you get into

[57:06] those situations in your typical downtown environment where you have lots

[57:10] that were created and buildings that were created long before building codes

[57:13] or land development codes, it gets hard to try to recreate that environment

[57:17] during with current uh codes. So with that in mind, staff teamed up with our

[57:22] planning partners, Southwest Missouri Council of Governments, to come up with

[57:26] this downtown overlay district. Now, I will admit majority of the heavy lifting

[57:30] was performed by uh Simco, which was represented by Mr. Thomas Hughes back

[57:34] here. Um, but so in this zoning overlay district, again, this is an overlay.

[57:40] It's not replacing the underlying zoning. This is basically a blanket that

[57:45] goes on top to kind of give relief on certain uh code requirements. Um, so we

[57:51] didn't address every little thing, but we addressed a lot of the big things

[57:54] that we heard concerns about or that we know are concerns. Um, one of the things

[57:59] that we heard about was a concern, not necessarily directly from to us, but

[58:03] we've heard through community members that land use um how we classify uh land

[58:09] uses and how we look at land uses via our table of approved uses. Our current

[58:14] code is very specific on our table of approved uses. So it gets down to a

[58:18] candy store, a candle shop, a a bar with restaurant or restaurant with a bar. Um

[58:24] it's very specific in that manner. So it's not very open to interpretations

[58:29] when it comes to new development of new proposed developments that may not, you

[58:34] know, fit the general mold that we have seen in the past. So what we are

[58:37] proposing with this overlay district is to kind of be a little more generalized

[58:41] in how we look at land uses. So rather than getting specifics, we're looking at

[58:46] um a general commercial category, a food and beverage category, personal

[58:51] services, uh business and professional services, cultural facilities, uh

[58:56] residential uses, and the introduction of mixed uses, which is again another

[59:00] big component that this is going to allow u mixed uses, which is commercial

[59:05] on the ground floor building with residential uses above it. Um, again,

[59:10] that's something that's not directly allowed in our code, but this overlay,

[59:13] if approved, will allow that concept to exist in this downtown overlay district.

[59:19] Um, another concept that we are u looking at in here is signs. Now, we're

[59:24] not changing a lot when it comes to signs. Um, we are getting a little more

[59:29] specific on the signs that are typically found in a downtown environment. Um, so

[59:35] that's every way from your your sandwich signs that go on your sidewalk to your

[59:40] projecting signs. I'm talking to a sign expert, so I feel kind of weird, but in

[59:46] the downtown environment, but if there are large enough lots that

[59:50] can that can handle the setback requirements for freestanding signs, we

[59:54] want to make that an option for them as well. Uh, the big one that we ran into

[1:00:00] is building setbacks. So this is where in order to recreate or

[1:00:06] or continue with the typical downtown environment, we needed to provide some

[1:00:11] relief to building setbacks. Uh the big one is when you are adjacent to a

[1:00:17] existing structure that is on the property line, whether it's the side or

[1:00:21] the front, you are allowed to connect to it if you so choose and you can also

[1:00:26] enjoy that f same front setback that that neighboring structure is utilizing.

[1:00:31] So again, in that downtown environment of South Main Street, if those three

[1:00:36] lots that are now vacant, if somebody wanted to redevelop on them, they can

[1:00:40] redevelop in the same manner as the structures that were previously on it u

[1:00:43] due to the fact that their neighboring structures are enjoying this zero

[1:00:47] setback uh environment. That is the big one on when it comes to

[1:00:51] setbacks. Now, when it comes to if you're not uh abudding another structure

[1:00:56] that is on the lot line, um you have your typical or not typical, but the

[1:01:02] setbacks that are found within this overlay district. So, again, we're

[1:01:06] trying to create that separation from structures. Um if that existing

[1:01:12] structure is not on that property line, then then you can't try to abut to it or

[1:01:16] get on that property line. You have to have your the setbacks that are found

[1:01:19] within this overlay district. Um, another big concept that um, we are

[1:01:24] introducing is with when it comes to parking. Now, we know parking is limited

[1:01:30] downtown. So, in this overlay district, we are highly encouraging that new

[1:01:34] developments take advantage of our satellite parking code. Um, which is

[1:01:38] basically they can contract with a land user or land or property owner that has

[1:01:44] an abundance of parking available to them. Um, they can have a contract that

[1:01:49] they can or they're allowed to use that property. uh based off the terms that

[1:01:52] they come up with in that contract. Another big concept is that, you know,

[1:01:57] that's it's common to try to reduce parking minimums right now. Um, and we

[1:02:03] know there's not a whole lot of parking in the downtown environment, but we also

[1:02:06] don't want to create an environment where new development has to provide

[1:02:11] every single parking that they need or require to if there is public parking

[1:02:16] available. Now, we have municipal parking lots downtown. We can't reserve

[1:02:20] those spaces for a specific business, but we are allowing those new businesses

[1:02:24] that are within 200 feet of a municipal parking lot to count those towards their

[1:02:30] overall parking requirement counts. But again, they're not reserved for them.

[1:02:34] It's just a way to reduce that parking requirement burden on new development in

[1:02:40] that area. So, that's kind of a quick overview. Now, this downtown overlay is

[1:02:45] meant to kind of evolve and change as we start to see development pattern

[1:02:49] redevelopment patterns occur. So, it's it's going to be it may come back again

[1:02:54] once we start seeing some redevelopment and we identify some issues or or uh get

[1:02:59] some better feedback from the community as they or developers as they start to

[1:03:03] develop within uh the downtown overlay area. So, at the June or July 7th

[1:03:08] planning and zoning commission meeting, um a property owner uh within

[1:03:14] that's going to be within the area that is designated as the downtown overlay,

[1:03:18] which will be the next agenda item, um made suggestions to the planning and

[1:03:23] zoning commission to seek relief for setbacks on freestanding signs and also

[1:03:29] um proposed a change to the building setback for

[1:03:34] when there is an existing structure that is say not on the property line but

[1:03:38] within a couple feet of the property line like not within the proposed side

[1:03:42] setback of of 5T or whatever it is there may be like 2 ft from the property line

[1:03:48] that property owner wanted to be able to enjoy that same setback from the side

[1:03:51] property line as that existing structure.

[1:03:56] That's what was proposed. Um, planning and zoning commission uh did vote 4 to

[1:04:01] zero to recommend approval with the uh recommendation for staff to look into

[1:04:06] those possible revisions uh to the building setback and the freestanding

[1:04:10] sign setback. Um staff has looked into those. Uh we're

[1:04:15] not in favor of modifying either of those setbacks at this time. Uh it

[1:04:20] creates issues with the fire code when it gets into those building setbacks

[1:04:23] that we're not uh a big fan of right now. So, but [clears throat]

[1:04:28] if council recommends that we we uh propose an amendment, we'll definitely

[1:04:32] look into it. But the uh proposed code update does serve uh to provide an

[1:04:37] easier path for redevelopment activities in the downtown area. Um so with that,

[1:04:42] staff does recommend approval. If you have any questions, be more than excited

[1:04:47] to answer them. Scott, I just want to kind of look at

[1:04:52] this the the two requests from the land property owner. Um you said you guys

[1:04:56] aren't in favor of the staff's not in favor of that. Um, can you explain a

[1:05:00] little bit more about that that setback? Because the way I interpret it is that

[1:05:04] we talk about currently they can go up to their

[1:05:08] property line if the other development is up to the property line, but the in

[1:05:14] the specific example given that that this person 2 ft off of their property

[1:05:18] line, does that mean that the new development

[1:05:23] still has to be 5 ft from the property line? Is that how it currently reads?

[1:05:27] » Correct. If your neighboring structure is not on that property line, you do not

[1:05:31] get to enjoy the same or you're not going to abut to that structure. You

[1:05:35] don't get to enjoy that same setback. So,

[1:05:37] » you can't go up to that property line and put it right there. Okay. Correct.

[1:05:41] » Make sure I understood that correctly. Um, and the other was about the

[1:05:43] freestanding sign and just talking about, hey, we have setbacks and we want

[1:05:47] to stick to that. Correct. >> Yeah. The idea behind that is that if if

[1:05:50] a freestanding sign were to fall, you'd rather it fall on your own property

[1:05:53] versus on somebody else. So that's why we're not necessarily looking for any

[1:05:57] relief on that setback. Um something I did forget to mention, uh we will be

[1:06:01] bringing an amendment uh to the next meeting, but it's based off of some

[1:06:05] language that we've read over 200 times and just missed, but um it would address

[1:06:10] this situation that we're talking about right now with the building setbacks

[1:06:13] right now. The way the reads that a freestanding sign can have or not sign

[1:06:18] building can have a sideyard setback of zero feet when a putting a commercial

[1:06:22] and manufacturing zoning district. So that's misleading. It's meant to be

[1:06:26] probably at least 5 to 7 ft based off of fire code requirements. So that is an

[1:06:31] amendment we'll bring for sure next time.

[1:06:36] [clears throat] So the 200 ft um from a municipal owned

[1:06:42] parking lot, is that how is that defined? Does it define like the

[1:06:47] consumption and sale of alcohol close to a daycare or something where you have to

[1:06:53] be the legally like traveled road cuz it's you have to

[1:06:58] go down to the crosswalk over and back or is it as the crow flies? Uh we would

[1:07:02] look at it as the crow flies. Okay. Property line to property line.

[1:07:06] Just wanted to make sure. Thank you for that clarification.

[1:07:12] Any other questions?

[1:07:20] Thank you. >> Thank you, mayor.

[1:07:24] No other questions. I will open up the public hearing. If you would like to

[1:07:29] speak on the overlay district, do so at this time.

[1:07:37] [clears throat] >> Hi, I'm Thomas Hughes. I'm with SIM COG

[1:07:39] um Southwest Missouri Council of Governments. Um I really don't have much

[1:07:43] to say. I just wanted to say um it's been really great working with Scott and

[1:07:47] his staff. Uh they've been super helpful and this process has been great to great

[1:07:53] to go through. Um so any questions I can answer, I'll try. Um but just let me

[1:07:59] know. Thank you.

[1:08:04] » Thank you very much, Mr. Hughes. All

[1:08:13] right, nobody else. I will close the public hearing.

[1:08:18] Anything further from council? Anything further from staff?

[1:08:24] Right. Nothing further. We will move on. Mrs. Coffee, could you please read

[1:08:28] council bill 2026-18?

[1:08:32] First house 18

[1:08:41] district in the area including adjacent to the intersection of main street and

[1:08:47] the city >> mayor council good evening on this one I

[1:08:52] have a visual aid for you which I know you're excited about. So if you can

[1:08:55] scroll down to the visual aid.

[1:09:00] So again, this is where we are proposing our overlay district to be. Again, this

[1:09:06] is not replacing the underlying zoning. It is simply sitting on top of it to

[1:09:10] provide um land use uh relief on some topics that we've already discussed. Um

[1:09:16] this area was specifically chosen um because the downtown overlay district

[1:09:22] does not provide any benefit to single family residences. So therefore, we try

[1:09:28] to stick within the commercially zoned areas or industrially zoned areas in the

[1:09:32] downtown environment. Now, we are aware that there are some non-conforming land

[1:09:37] uses such as homes that are still used as a single family residence when the

[1:09:41] underlying zoning is commercial. Again, those can remain. We are not kicking

[1:09:45] anybody out of their house. Um we are not buying houses. These are um

[1:09:50] questions that have been asked. um those non-conforming land uses can still occur

[1:09:55] and as if they're residential, they can still be bought, sold, and even repaired

[1:10:00] as residential. Um again, this will not impact single family residents. Um but

[1:10:05] this is the extent that we are proposing. If you scroll down a little

[1:10:09] bit, you'll see a a feature along South Main where we put a little tail. Um

[1:10:16] again during the planning and zoning commission uh we had some members of the

[1:10:21] Nixon downtown revitalization committee um recommend that we increase the size

[1:10:27] of the proposed uh layout um with that tail going down just our rideway. It's

[1:10:34] an easy way to allow property owners to reszone their property into this overlay

[1:10:40] if they so choose. Um, we did that down south main, but we can also do that in

[1:10:45] other directions if needed. Um, but with that, the planning and zoning commission

[1:10:51] did recommend 40 to recommend approval to city council and staff does recommend

[1:10:56] approval. Uh, the intent of this is to start small and then expand as uh,

[1:11:01] redevelopment patterns start to occur and show themselves. So, if you have any

[1:11:05] questions, again, super excited to be here to answer them.

[1:11:10] Any questions?

[1:11:15] » Oh, I do. Uh Thomas didn't mention it, but he's a Nixa resident.

[1:11:21] Super excited to have you here. Thank you, Mr. Governor.

[1:11:29] All right, no further questions, I will open up the public hearing. If you would

[1:11:33] like to speak on this, hop on it

[1:11:39] and I will close the public hearing. Anything further from council?

[1:11:45] Anything further from staff?

[1:11:49] All right. I have been asked that we take a quick 10-minute bathroom break.

[1:11:56] So, we will see you back here in about 10 minutes.

[1:12:00] We will call the meeting back to order.

[1:12:05] And >> okay, next up, Mrs. Coffee, could you

[1:12:10] please read Council Bill 2026-9? >> First reading, council bill number

[1:12:14] 2026-9 in order of the council of the city of

[1:12:19] amending the 2026 annual budget $7,000 to appropriate funds this year.

[1:12:26] Presenting is assistant waters, superintendent from

[1:12:34] » Good evening, mayor and council. >> Uh, we fell $7,000 short on our skid

[1:12:39] steer. >> You want to turn the mic on?

[1:12:42] » Thanks.

[1:12:45] » And I break it, too. >> You're good.

[1:12:46] » Uh, but we fell $7,000 short on our skid steer for the recycling center. Uh, but

[1:12:51] we saved $10,000 on a trailer for the water department. So, we're wanting to

[1:12:55] transfer funds from the water department trailer to the recycling center at

[1:12:59] Skidster. >> Pretty short and sweet.

[1:13:03] » Any questions? >> Any questions?

[1:13:04] » That's perfect. That's how we like it. >> Exactly.

[1:13:07] » Okay. Any questions? >> So much longer.

[1:13:09] » Pretty self-explanatory. So, >> all right. Thank you.

[1:13:12] » All right. Thank you. >> All right. No further questions. I will

[1:13:16] open up the public hearing and I will close the public hearing.

[1:13:21] Anything further from council? Anything further from staff?

[1:13:25] Fantastic. All right, moving on. Mrs. Stafy, could

[1:13:28] you please read council bill 2026-20620

[1:13:35] and ordinance of the council that amend the 2026 annual budget in the amount of

[1:13:41] $174,256

[1:13:44] to appropriate funds for newer presenting issue?

[1:13:50] » Mayor and council, good evening. Uh this budget amendment request is for the

[1:13:54] purchase of a new bulldozer. Our current uh bulldozer being 24 years old has been

[1:14:00] removed from service. Uh it had uh some issues back uh late this wintertime and

[1:14:08] it was deemed uh unusable by a John Deere mechanic and so we have taken that

[1:14:12] out of service. Um this amendment uh is a request to pull funds from our storm

[1:14:19] water department. Um the uh Cherry Street form water project was budgeted

[1:14:25] for 2026 for $1 million. Uh that was figure was come up with by

[1:14:32] our engineers estimate and uh considering the additional easements

[1:14:36] that were needed. Luckily, first time in history for the street department. The

[1:14:42] bids came in well below what we had anticipated. Uh KMBB was awarded the

[1:14:48] final phase of the Cherry Street Stormwater project for 521,000,

[1:14:52] leaving 478,000 in our storm water budget. And so this

[1:14:59] request would be to transfer funds from that project to the street department so

[1:15:05] that we can purchase the new doer to replace the one that's been taken out of

[1:15:08] service. And that amount is $174,256.3.

[1:15:15] Be happy to answer any questions. >> How long once it's ordered will it take

[1:15:21] to come in? Um they actually said that it would

[1:15:25] probably be close to this winter, but they're also going to look to see if

[1:15:30] they can have one shipped in. So if this if they can find one, it would be

[1:15:35] relatively quick. If not, be this fall or winter.

[1:15:42] » So it just continue to rent until we get the unfortunately. Yes.

[1:15:50] So that's where this other 300,000 is going to go.

[1:15:54] [laughter] >> That's for you all to decide.

[1:15:56] » That'll come up later. I'm sure. >> Yeah.

[1:16:00] » Any further questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Russo.

[1:16:07] No other questions. I will open up the public hearing. If you would like to

[1:16:10] speak on this new dozer, feel free to do so.

[1:16:18] And I will close the public hearing. Anything further from council?

[1:16:23] Anything further from staff? >> Mayor, there is a typo in two lines of

[1:16:27] the words that was taught on the last box of the 2024 budget and then the

[1:16:34] section one is of the 2024 budget. That's the typo. As we move forward to

[1:16:40] the first reading, we have corrected that typo for the second reading. the

[1:16:44] bill will be correct state 2026 budget next.

[1:16:48] » Perfect. Thank you. Uh before we move on to the resolution

[1:16:54] section, kind of a trend here of you know skid steer dozer and you know

[1:16:59] making sure our staff has the right equipment to be successful is very

[1:17:04] important. Um so I actually wanted to I had something else that I wanted to kind

[1:17:08] of throw out uh this evening. Um, Chris Huitt, I actually uh recently found an

[1:17:15] extra loud and extra large alarm clock um that I would like to give you. Uh, I

[1:17:23] actually ordered it while we were waiting on you when you slept in. So,

[1:17:26] um, >> yeah, I'll give this to you after the

[1:17:29] meeting. Told you what?

[1:17:37] And moving on, Mrs. C, could you please read resolution

[1:17:42] 2026-32? >> Resolution number 2026-32.

[1:17:48] That resolution of the council of the city of Nesa grants a permit to public

[1:17:53] schools that authorizes the display of fireworks for the 2026 high school

[1:17:57] football season. Presenting as planning and development director,

[1:18:02] » mayor, council, good evening. Uh this is kind of becoming routine, but the Nixon

[1:18:08] public schools has requested to shoot off fireworks at their home football

[1:18:11] games. Um this will be after every touchdown and every victory. Uh the

[1:18:16] dates are on the screen, August 28th, September 11th, October 1st, and October

[1:18:21] 9th. Uh these will be performed by a a competent pyro technic tech technician

[1:18:31] that word um am pyrochnics

[1:18:36] um they have uh assured me that am pyro techchnics will be available to do these

[1:18:41] shows for them as there's recent news going around about them but they are

[1:18:46] have committed to this project and and we'll see it through. Um the rest of

[1:18:51] this is kind of nerd stuff so about setbacks.

[1:18:54] So I I'll save you but there is a visual aid again. Um this is uh where we are

[1:19:01] proposing uh please scroll down. Uh this is where we're proposing they uh launch

[1:19:07] their launch site. Um is where the fireworks will be launched from. This is

[1:19:11] the same spot as last year. Uh the school district said it worked well for

[1:19:15] them and it provides a buffer to the apex to make sure that we don't cause

[1:19:19] any problems there. Um staff does recommend approval uh if you have any

[1:19:23] questions unavailable.

[1:19:27] Any questions?

[1:19:31] Thank you, Mr. Yi. Thank you. All right, no further questions. I will

[1:19:37] open up the public hearing. If you would like to speak on these fireworks, do so

[1:19:40] at this time. And I will close the public hearing.

[1:19:44] Anything further from council? Anything further from staff?

[1:19:51] Nothing further. I'll accept a motion.

[1:19:56] » So made second.

[1:19:58] » First by Mr. Peterson, second by Mr. Morris. All in favor?

[1:20:04] » Those opposed? Eyes have it. Motion carries.

[1:20:12] All right. Next up, Mrs. Coffee, could you please read resolution 2026-33?

[1:20:18] » Resolution number 2026-33, a resolution of the council of the city

[1:20:23] of MAC consenting to the mayor's appointment to the plan zoning

[1:20:27] commission presenting the development director.

[1:20:31] » Mayor, council, good evening. Uh, we made Mr. Evans wait this long, so I'm

[1:20:36] going to delay this as long as possible. Uh [laughter]

[1:20:40] uh we recently had a PNZ commissioner resign due to uh moving outside of Nixon

[1:20:45] city limits. Uh he was recently appointed back in November. So his term

[1:20:50] uh actually doesn't end till November of 2025 or 2029. Um Mr. Clyde Evans who has

[1:20:56] come highly recommended to us from numerous individuals uh including

[1:21:00] another one in the room. Uh but uh through my conversations with Clyde I've

[1:21:04] learned that he is he's a former planning director. So, I'm

[1:21:08] going to have my hands uh full with this guy. He's going to keep an eye on me for

[1:21:13] you guys. So, you're welcome. Um, but staff does recommend appointing it to

[1:21:18] the planning zone commission to serve out the remainder of uh Mr. Ives term.

[1:21:22] Um, if you have any questions, more than happy to help you.

[1:21:27] Any questions. All right. Thank you, Mr. Godby.

[1:21:34] No questions. I will open up the public hearing if you would like to speak

[1:21:39] on Mr. Evans appointment and I will close the public hearing.

[1:21:45] Anything further from council said does he want it but he's here so I'm assuming

[1:21:49] he does wonder.

[1:21:53] [sighs] >> All right if nothing further I will

[1:21:56] accept a motion >> second or first by Mr. Lucas and second

[1:22:00] by Mr. Vest. All in favor? Those opposed have it. Motion carries. Thank you very

[1:22:08] much for your willingness to donate your time to the city. It's

[1:22:14] actually a really good time. It was the first thing I ever did when I came along

[1:22:17] and to be on PNZ for a while. Um, and it was You're welcome. It was a lot of fun.

[1:22:23] Yeah, I listen to him. And good luck with Mr.

[1:22:27] Godby. That's all I got to say. Try to keep

[1:22:34] Did you want to swear him in now or now or after?

[1:22:39] » Go ahead and do it now. >> Summer, do you care?

[1:22:44] There's >> a microphone out there.

[1:22:47] » Jonathan, do you care?

[1:22:54] » You want me to bring this microphone up?

[1:23:15] I can see here you >> raise your right hand. Repeat after me.

[1:23:22] I state your name. I, Clyde Evans, >> do solemnly swear

[1:23:25] » do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of

[1:23:28] the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of

[1:23:31] the United States >> the Constitution of the State of

[1:23:33] Missouri >> the Constitution of the State of

[1:23:35] Missouri >> and the ordinances of the city of Nixa

[1:23:37] » and the ordinances of the city of Nixa >> and I will faithfully demean myself

[1:23:42] » and I will faithfully >> demean myself

[1:23:44] » dean myself >> in the office of planning and zoning

[1:23:46] commissioner >> in the office of planning and zoning

[1:23:49] commissioner >> for which I was appointed

[1:23:51] » for which I was appointed >> on the 14th day

[1:23:53] » on the 14th day >> of July 2026

[1:23:56] » of July 2026. >> Thank you.

[1:24:03] [applause]

[1:24:20] Perfect.

[1:24:25] Well, I know I know I joke, but I also want to thank uh Chris and Travis. Um,

[1:24:30] we recently attended the American Public Power Association National Conference,

[1:24:34] and it I always learned something. Um, it was another very fast but great trip.

[1:24:41] Um, I appreciate you guys for everything you do.

[1:24:45] Even after that, it's still mine now. the the knowledge that they have

[1:24:50] and the respect that they have in that world is absolutely amazing. Um we

[1:24:55] should all be proud of that. Um anything further from staff?

[1:25:03] May I got a couple things for you? Uh July 24th is our final strategic plan

[1:25:09] wrap up with our large comm joining us for that. um as well as the rest of that

[1:25:15] committee as we review all the action steps and all the action um items that

[1:25:19] came out. Uh it'll be a day um here in the House

[1:25:23] of Cuber on the 24th. And so we're we're excited to get it wrapped up one, but

[1:25:28] this group is put in a lot of time and effort into that. So we'll be presenting

[1:25:32] that to you a little bit after that as we wrap up that paperwork and get things

[1:25:37] aligned to present to you guys. We'll bring that forward. And then uh July

[1:25:41] 25th uh so a week from this coming Saturday is our next movies in the park.

[1:25:45] We'll be showing a Minecraft movie at Holly Park uh pre movie starts around

[1:25:51] 6:30 with a movie starting >> dark.

[1:25:55] I always get that question about 8:30 give or take a little bit. So look

[1:25:59] forward to maybe seeing you guys. Thank you.

[1:26:05] All right. Nothing further from staff. Anything cancel?

[1:26:13] Fair enough. Thank you all very much. Um, honestly,

[1:26:18] for everything. We are in here. We have audio. We're getting it all fixed. Um,

[1:26:24] there's been a lot of people involved in getting this done and getting a lot of

[1:26:30] things that we talked about today completed. Um, appreciate all of you

[1:26:34] guys more than you'll ever know. And I believe that is all. Meeting a

[1:26:39] journey. Have a good night.

City council 7-14-2026

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