By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Two local governing bodies are looking into the new housing development proposed for the area directly east of the University of Kansas Health System-Great Bend Campus and south of Walmart. Monday night the Great Bend City Council discussed the development in a work session. Wednesday morning, Barton County commissioners discussed the county's possible involvement in the plan.
Commissioner Jon Prescott opened the discussion near the close of Wednesday's meeting by discussing an upgrade to the lift station near the proposed development. City officials have expressed concern the lift station could not handle another development on the west side of Great Bend.
"The way I understand it, that is the last lift station before it goes to the processing plant," he said. "(The city of Great Bend is) going to spend $8,000. Right now it is missing the equipment needed to measure the volume and the capacity, to see if it has the capacity."
Prescott said once the lift station upgrade is complete, Great Bend Mayor Cody Schmidt and City Administrator Kendall Francis would like to hold a study session with the commission to determine ramifications the development would have for both entities.
Discussion then turned to tax revenue the new development would bring to the county. Prescott said, and the end of the third phase, the city would collect nearly $42,000 in property taxes. If the development remained only in the county, property taxes would be just over $32,000.
The new development, called Cambridge Park, would include low-income housing and housing for senior citizens. Prescott said Sunflower Diversified clients would have first access to the housing, prompting a question from Commission Chair Shawn Hutchinson why Sunflower would get priority.
Prescott said because Housing Opportunities Inc. (HOI) previously did not have available land and Sunflower helped procure 24 acres of land from a group of local doctors who owned the land, Sunflower clients would be given priority.
"They said, 'Tell you what. Since you have a need and voiced a need and you encouraged us to look into this and brought some of the doctors to the table to make this even a possibility, because we had no place to grow in Great Bend without that, we would allow the clients of Sunflower to have first choice,'" Prescott said. "They have only like 30 to 60 days to make a choice. If they don't, anyone with special needs can have the choice to move into those."
Prescott and Commissioner Jennifer Schartz agreed moving Sunflower clients out of privately-owned homes in Great Bend into the new development would free up other homes in the city, including two large group homes.
"One of the things we can all agree on is that there's a housing shortage," Schartz said. "Any time something is built and somebody moves from one thing to another thing, it frees up wherever they were living. It's a plus, Even though this might be only for special needs people or only for senior citizens, those people are living here somewhere. That will free up those homes. It's kind of like a domino effect."
Commissioner Kirby Krier voiced concerns about the county's ability to collect property tax from the new development and about a third-party study that said low-income housing was not needed in the area. He further voiced concern about which government entity would pick up the tab on any construction in the new development.
County Counselor Patrick Hoffman said because of the development's proximity to Great Bend city limits, the city would likely have zoning rights and the new properties would be hooked up to Great Bend's water and sewer system. He suggest a joint meeting might be a good idea, and Commissioner Barb Esfeld all but closed the discussion with a similar sentiment.
"Going back to the partnership between Barton County and Great Bend, growth is expensive," she said. "We know that. We need to be cognizant of that, and we need to do whatever we can to make more housing available in this county."
Listen to the Barton County Commission's 15-minute discussion from the July 20, 2022 meeting.