The apartment complex at 10th and Peach is on to its next step after the developers addressed concerns at Monday night’s City Commission meeting.
The City Commission voted to approve the preliminary development plan for the project by Dustin Baker and GW Weld. The commission did add some conditions to the motion to address concerns about traffic and parking.
The Planning Commission previously approved the plan and also added a stipulation about parking. Most of their conversation also centered around traffic for students crossing 10th Street and parking for the residents.
The apartments are two separate complexes – one called 10 Union Lofts and the other Paschal’s Landing. With these two sections, Weld said they will be able to offer rents from $500 to $1,000 due to the fact Paschal’s Landing will be an affordable housing option and the other will be market rate.
Paschal’s Landing will have 36 two- and three-bedroom units while 10 Union Lofts will have 96 one-, two- and three-bedroom options.
Weld planned for 1.5 parking spots per unit as it is comparable to other cities in the area, like De Soto, Tonganoxie and Gardner. With concerns from both commissions, the City Commission asked that Weld add an additional nine parking spots to the final development plan to allow for the two-bedroom units to have two spots instead of 1.5.
Weld said he expects some of the renters to be seniors who have only one car but may want a two-bedroom for hosting. He also noted that if parking does become an issue, they would likely have trouble filling units so they are confident there won’t be an issue.
He and Baker are comfortable with this total but said adding the additional nine spots is not a problem. There is also additional space for more parking to be built if this does become an issue, he said.
Commissioners also had concerns about how students will be able to safely cross the street to the elementary school. City staff asked that two crosswalks be added instead of the previously discussed single option.
Conversations are ongoing about how to slow drivers down in the area, and how to make the crossing most safe for students. The commission did ask to form a separate agreement with the developers to address how this issue would be addressed while not holding up the project’s timeline.
Commissioners discussed the possibility of crossing guards, pedestrian hybrid beacons and changing the area to 20 mph/extending the school zone. Weld said they would help fund a crossing guard if the city was interested but was open to what the city wants for the area.
“What we have proposed to the city staff is we’d like to help pay for a crossing guard for the first five years of the development, so that we make sure that we’re getting safe crossing there,” Weld said.
Mayor Tim Reazin said he would prefer the pedestrian hybrid beacon over a crossing guard.
Jason Hoskinson with BG Consultants is helping the developers with the project and said the road does not meet federal guidelines for needing a pedestrian hybrid beacon. The traffic is about half of what it would need to be to install these kinds of lights, he said.
That does not mean the commission cannot choose to install them, though, he said. The city would need to talk to its attorney and prove informed consent of installation when not warranted. Reazin said he would like the city to further investigate this possibility.
Commissioner Alex Curnes agreed he would like to look into the beacon.
“I think that having a pedestrian flashing beacon is less intrusive most of the time, but I do feel like it’s a safer way for kids across the street,” he said.
Hoskinson said it would be possible to have both a school zone and the beacon in the same area.
Commissioner Roberta Lehmann also brought up a concern about traffic since drivers will be going to work as students are walking to school because the proposed crosswalks would line up with driveways of the elementary school. With drop off and pick up, this is already a congested area.
Weld said they don’t expect many of the renters to work in Eudora so they will be headed the opposite way to get on K-10.
Since this was just a preliminary development plan, the final plan will need to go through the Planning Commission again – but will not need to be re-approved by the City Commission as the conditions they added are required.
Further details about the plans for the crosswalks will be discussed in a future development agreement.
In other business, Reazin brought up the possibility of opening an application for property tax relief for seniors. The application would require financial information submitted. Reazin said the city would hold off on opening applications for the downtown grants while this is investigated. The downtown grant money may be used for this tax relief.
In other business, the city’s planning consultant Kyle Kobe said the city is looking to revamp the codes handbook as many terms are outdated, unclear and could be made more efficient. He said a lot of the handbook has not been updated since the ‘80s and could use some clarity.
Parks and Rec Director Sally Pennington gave an update on the 2012 master plan as they continue to work on the new one. She shared a heat map to show where money went during that master plan period.
Since the city has been passing the capital improvement plan separately from the budget, budget analyst Michael Gentry presented the 2025 to 2029 plan. None of the costs are set in stone, but give a general layout for priorities.
Here is the 2025 plan that includes Pilla Park renovations, north pool fencing, Community Center security upgrades and Great Kaw Adventure Race planning:
In other business, the city will begin using a broker to investigate health insurance options for city employees. Staff had already budgeted an 8% increase in rates for 2025, but their current provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield, came back higher.
City Manager Kevyn Gero presented the commission with the possibility of hiring a city planner rather than contracting out a planner like they currently do. As the city hears of more projects and plans for more development, this could be beneficial, she said.
Pennington reminded commissioners of the annual events happening this weekend.
The city also has to submit an amended budget to the state since it estimates it will exceed the budget expenditure included in the state budget form. This is a common practice, the agenda statement says.
The following will receive amendments:
Bond and interest: amended to account for the expenditure of $5.84 million in the refinancing of the 2020A short term note. There is essentially no net impact to the fund.
Special highway: amended to account for pavement management program, which was not originally in the 2024 budget
TIF: amended to include the transfer to bond and interest for the refinancing of the Nottingham district
Wastewater: combined the wastewater project and impact funds in the 2025 state budget forms to better reflect how they were displayed in the audit
Stormwater: ARPA funds were used to complete the stormwater detention pond project.
The commission went into two separate executive sessions. The first cited attorney client privilege. The second closed session was 15 minutes to wrap up the city manager review.
After that session, the city approved an amendment to the city manager’s contract. The Eudora Times has filed an open record request to view the document. Commissioners did not give any public comments Monday night about the city manager’s review, which involved multiple closed sessions over the last several weeks.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]
