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The city has been trying to develop a square block of land at South Main Street and East Miller Avenue for years. Developers have recently approached the city council with ideas for the land that range from upscale single-family homes to multi-family dwellings such as apartments, townhomes and row houses.
The council has twice set deadlines for proposals but has delayed a decision waiting to see if anybody else was interested.
The city heard a second proposal from OC Custom Homes out of Liberal at its Oct. 23 meeting, but delayed action again and set a Nov. 11 deadline for all proposals to be delivered, with consideration by the council at its next meeting Nov. 13.
None of the interested developers were in attendance at the meeting, but OC Custom Homes did turn in a proposal to city administrator Luke Grimes.
“I’ve had nothing but great conversations with these guys, really solid outfit, real professional, I like them quite a bit,” Grimes said. “We discussed at the last meeting looking at some kind of multi-family housing (and) they’re supportive of that.”
Grimes said he spoke to the city engineer and to several realtors in town, and they are supportive of multi-family housing.
The proposal from OC Custom Homes that Grimes read included several options ranging from eight single-family homes, eight duplexes, triplexes, a mix of duplexes and triplexes, and a 48-unit townhome complex.
“There are pros and cons to each of these,” Grimes said, adding that the developer from OC Custom homes suggested a mix of single-family homes, duplexes and triplexes.
The homes proposed would be two bedrooms.
“We certainly don’t need to commit to a specific plan tonight,” Grimes said. “If the council wants, then they could commit to working with OC Homes.”
Developer Jesus Estrella expressed an interest in the land last spring, and Grimes said another developer recently came forward. But OC Custom Homes has been the most aggressive and wiling to work with the city `with whatever type of housing it thinks best fits the property. Estrella’s latest idea was to build apartments and rent them out himself. OC Homes wants to build and then sell, not rent.
The caveat is with higher density comes higher cost to the city, upwards of $9,500 per unit.
“Now that we’ve gone to higher density, that’s more money from us,” Grimes said. “These costs could add up really quickly for the city.”
Grimes said he spoke to county commissioner John Martin who offered tentative financial support from Grant County.
“He thinks the county should help and would pitch in,” Grimes said. “He ballparked a number of $40,000 or something to that effect but he wasn’t gonna commit to anything.”
Grimes also said there may be some grants available to cut into that $9,500 cost per unit.
“I have no issue with working with OC Homes, I think they’re a good, they gave the best presentation so far,” said councilman Terry Maas. “Obviously that’s a big commitment from us and we have to find where the money is. We have other projects, we have the road project coming up, we have a lot of other irons in the fire.”
Maas wondered if OC Custom Homes would be willing to do half of the project, then complete it later. Grimes said they wanted to four phases with a mix of different units to see what price point works.
The council decided to give the other interested developers until the week before its Nov. 13 meeting to bring proposals.
•The council repealed Resolution 2024-9, the Rural Housing Incentive District, due to incorrect language in the original resolution, and approved Resolution 2024-11 which corrects the language as required by the state.
•The council repealed Ordinances 1306, 1307, and 1308 relating to annexation, and approved Ordinances 1341, 1342, and 1343 - each by a separate vote as required by law. The properties on the west side of town requested to be brought inside the city to hook up to city utilities.
•The city delayed accepting a bid for a new dump truck in order to see if more bids will be received. The council liked the bid received and said it was probably the best price but decided to look for more bids “just to say we did.”
•The council went into executive session for discussion amongst the council regarding an unnamed issue, reconvened in order to add Grimes to the executive session, and went back into executive session for approximately 30 minutes.
No decision was made regarding the discussion during the executive session.
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