Wichita takes steps to annex a planned luxury development next to McConnell AFB
The Wichita City Council took steps Tuesday to annex 58 acres of land that has been rezoned for duplexes across from McConnell Air Force Base.
The property at 3646 South Rock Road is in unincorporated Sedgwick County and does not directly border Wichita city limits. It is in the Derby school district.
The City Council voted unanimously to start the annexation process. Now, the Sedgwick County Commission will review whether doing so would hinder future growth plans for any of Wichita’s suburban neighbors.
“We have no issues with that development,” Derby city spokesperson Kristy Bansemer told The Eagle. “Affordable housing in our region is definitely a need, especially for military families and airmen, and it will benefit us with possibly additional students in our school district.”
This is an expansion of Rocky Ford’s existing Wichita development, which consists of four cul-de-sacs of duplexes and additional single-family homes ranging in price from $370,000 to nearly $500,000.
Owned by Wichita homebuilder Jay Russell, the property is currently developed with one single-family home and surrounded by farmland roughly a half mile north of east 39th Street South. It was rezoned from single-family to two-family residential by the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission last October, and two privately owned parcels of farmland sit between the expansion site and Rocky Ford’s existing development.
An agent representing the developer told the planning commission that the 58 acres would eventually be filled with a combination of single-family and multi-family dwellings.
City staff estimate that the property would generate $1.4 million in annual tax revenue if developed as Russell is proposing. The site falls within the growth area in the 2035 Wichita Future Growth Concept Map.
Wichita police at the Patrol East Bureau on South Edgemoor told city staff that servicing the area “is not anticipated to have a significant impact on the response time or the capabilities of the East Bureau.”
The nearest water and sewer mains are located less than a quarter mile north of the site, and city staff recommend providing public assistance to extend utilities services to the duplex development.
“The applicant has the option to pay for the extension of services and special assess the cost of this infrastructure to the future property owners within the new development or wait for Capital Improvement Program funds to become available for future improvements,” the agenda report states.
“The funds available from the City will assist to cover the cost of the extension of the water and sewer mains. Additional extensions off the mains to individual lots will be at the applicant’s expense.”