Error calls for second CID public hearing on west Wichita development

Due to what city officials called a clerical error, a public hearing and possible vote regarding a planned hotel development on Wichita’s west side is scheduled to be repeated Tuesday.

The Kellogg and Ridge Community Improvement District project — initially approved 4-2 last month by the City Council — will again go before the council on Tuesday after notice of the hearing failed to be published twice in the city’s newspaper of record, The Eagle, according to Tim Goodpasture, an economic development analyst for the city.

On July 7, the council approved the CID project for an area just north of Eisenhower National Airport, near the intersection of West Kellogg and South Ridge. The project, which is estimated to cost close to $17 million, is slated to allow for the demolition of a vacant hotel and restaurant at the site while paving the way for a 2 percent district sales tax that would go to developers of a new hotel on the site.

If the CID item is taken to a vote and passes again Tuesday, it would go before the council again Sept. 8 for a final vote, said Scot Rigby, assistant city manager for development services. A number of city officials, including City Council member Jeff Blubaugh, say they hope the potential development will give visitors arriving at the airport a more sightly first impression of the city.

The amount that can be raised through the CID, essentially an avenue that governing bodies can use to provide incentives to developers to build in certain areas, is capped at just over $8.8 million, according to city documents. Raju Sheth is listed as the project’s developer and Natman Real Estate International as the new hotel’s owner. The developers also plan to create additional retail in the area.

Blubaugh referred to the location as a dilapidated area that has been in need of a makeover for years.

“We’ve had many issues in that area, including issues with homeless people there,” Blubaugh, who voted in favor of the project in July, said Friday. “I don’t know what will happen with this new vote. It passed last time, so we’ll see if that happens again.”

Blubaugh reiterated his belief that the creation of the district is a free market solution to a problem, but not everyone agrees. Doug Maryott, who holds an ownership stake in the nearby Wichita Inn Airport hotel, spoke out against the project at the July meeting, saying the city incentive goes against free market principles.

Maryott said that he plans to attend Tuesday’s meeting.

“This CID would solve one problem, but would cause the exact same problem somewhere else,” Maryott said during the July 7 council meeting. “There is no escaping the iron law of supply and demand. We have a supply of hotel rooms and a certain demand.

“This CID would absolutely force another hotel out of business and that might be me.”

CIDs were enacted in 2009 by the Kansas Legislature and approved for use by the City Council in April 2010. The districts allow businesses to charge customers up to 2 percent in sales tax to pay for construction, landscaping, parking lots, lighting, bus stops, art and other projects.

The property next to the vacant hotel at the site, a former Fortune Cookie restaurant, has been empty for about a decade. The special tax arrangement could last for up to 22 years, said Mark Elder of the city’s economic development department.

If approved, the improvement district tax is slated to begin July 1, 2018.

This story was originally published August 29, 2015 at 2:46 PM with the headline "Error calls for second CID public hearing on west Wichita development."