City Discusses Possible Housing Development

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The Ulysses city council a month ago gave an Oct. 8 ultimatum to any developer interested in developing a 1-square-block parcel of land south of McDonald’s. Oct. 8 arrived and nothing new came of it.

City administrator Luke Grimes noted that neither developer who has expressed interest in the property were in attendance at the meeting.

“Jesus (Estrella) would like more time,” Grimes said. “A lot more time, He was’t able to get a concrete plan together by today and, really, even OC Homes we haven’t gotten ironed out. They can whip something up really fast.”

Grimes is pushing for a multi-family development on the site.

“It makes the most sense for that area, it’s the most cost-effective terms of infrastructure,” Grimes said. “250,000 single-family homes in that area I just don’t think it’s our best bet. It would work I truly believe our housing situation is desperate enough (that) they would sell those houses eventually but I don’t think it’s the best.

“So if you’ll support me in it I’m going to push for a multi-family development there, whether that means apartments or townhouses - more like row houses I think is how they’re referred to out here. Something that’s gonna make use of that space very well.”

Grimes said that OC Custom Homes of Liberal is ready to go for whatever the city wants.

“Jesus has all but withdrawn his (offer),” Grimes said. “I think he would still make an effort if we gave him another couple months maybe. He wants to but I know he felt a little discouraged that we didn’t get something done in the spring and he said he’s turned his attention to Garden (City).”

Councilman Caleb woods said he didn’t like the deadline in the first place because things take time.

“We still have to be able to know that we have a developer that wants to come to town and willing to build something, and nothing against Jesus - I understand that they gave us a month, basically, to sign a contract with them when they were doing it at the end of May,” said councilman Mark Diaz. “To me, I would have thought that he had some things in place at that time and to me that he’s asking now for a longer length of time - I understand he moved to Garden City - I think that if we’re gonna be looking at some developments we probable need to start looking forward now and moving as quick as we can to get it done. And if you have somebody that’s willing to do it, do we do that or do we continue to wait and then we put it off another two or three years.”

Councilman Ken Warner said the city should move forward since it already has a developer in place (OC Custom Homes) who is willing to do what the city wants.

“Jesus is great, but we didn’t tell him no, we said no on your project and your funding, and then he’s never been back,” Warner said. “Never even come to a meeting to say ‘I’m still interested.’

“That’s my concern, guys. I just don’t think we’re going anywhere.”

Diaz said the city needs to commit to something.

“I understand where Mr. Warner’s coming from - we’ve put it off - I understand where Caleb’s coming from, too,” Diaz said. “But when Economic Development came to us with Jesus, they put us on a time frame to sign paperwork at a specific time so that they could do this and to me, if they had that time frame set, then they had a plan. Evidently, there was no plan.”

The time frame was for a grant that was never given.

Diaz agreed that Estrella has not been back to a meeting with a plan and has moved on, while OC Custom Homes has had conversations with the city.

“How long is this gonna be put off again?” Diaz asked. “If we’re gonna step forward, we’re gonna step forward, we’ve been putting this off for five or six years that I’m aware of and we either need to do it or not do it and Jesus either needs to be in here and making a decision that he’s as committed as what the guys are from Liberal.”

Grimes met with OC Customs Homes last Thursday and the council decided to wait to hear the results of that meeting before moving forward.