Eudora’s population has increased by about 50% in the past 23 years while home building has recently substantially declined, leaving fewer homes that are more expensive.
The City Commission and School Board met for a joint meeting to catch up on upcoming projects, bond updates, housing and the city’s population at a meeting on Wednesday night.
City Manager Kevyn Gero presented statistics on the city’s population, saying that Eudora is leading the area in growth.
Eudora has increased about 50% in population since 2000. However, the number of homes being built has decreased. In 2018, there were 32 new houses, 13 in 2019,19 in 2020,10 in 2021 and 19 in 2022. The median home value is $245,100.
Assistant City Manager Zack Daniel said not only is there a housing shortage, but the houses that are being built are more expensive.
So far for 2023, there have been 12 building permits for new homes, Daniel said.
Fewer people moving in is going to translate to fewer people in the student population, he said. Between 2018 and 2022, there was a 5% decrease in overall Eudora students, Daniel said.
The population trends from 2000 to 2020 are going to hit a ceiling because of these housing factors, Daniel said, but the large growth in those years shows people’s desire to live in Eudora.
“As the city manager pointed out in the last two slides, we’ve got pretty demonstrable growth between that 20-year period of 2000 to 2020,” Daniel said. “So there’s obviously a community that people want to move to and be a part of.”
The district has its largest classes – containing about 160 kids – graduating, and the younger classes are in the 100-120 range, Superintendent Stu Moeckel said.
Any housing will help the district, he said. As families swap their starter homes for bigger homes in the area, that frees the starter homes for new Eudora families, and as home renters either buy homes or move to apartments, it frees their rental. Student per capita drives most of their funding, so all rooftops benefit the district.
The city also updated the school board on the Nottingham Center development, saying they are trying to be purposeful in what they place in the space. Mayor Tim Reazin mentioned an auto parts or grocery store possibly going in the space.
They also discussed the entertainment STAR bond district. Moeckel agreed that if the district is built, people will come because there is a demand for youth sports activities.
Gero also updated the changes coming to the city’s parks and recreation. There will be a new master plan in 2024, where the city asks for community input on what they want to see. There will be bathrooms coming to Bluejacket Park and improvements coming to Pilla Park.
School board member Becky Plate asked the city if there was any plan for them to bring back after-school or summer programs for more child care in the area with this new master plan.
Gero said the city is trying to focus more on recreation, and input from the community is valued once the master planning starts. Licensing fees could be a problem, she said.
Commissioner Roberta Lehmann said child care in Eudora is expensive, and there are not many options for infants. There’s a real demand, but she said she isn’t sure the city should get involved with it.
Moeckel gave an update on the aspects of the bond that will help increase child care in the area. The early childhood program currently serves 75 students, but the district hopes to increase these numbers as they begin this construction.
West Resource Center is receiving a lot of updates with the bond. New renderings for the project can be found here.
The program is aimed to serve students with IEPs or students considered at risk, but word of mouth has increased the program’s numbers. The bond will help build eight new classrooms with a max of 20 kids in each, Moeckel said.
As for other bond projects, Moeckel updated the city on the new auxiliary gym and 6-12 new classrooms coming to the high school and the middle school’s new secure entrance.
“What I will tell you is everything in the scope of this bond was built on what we need now with the idea of flexibility,” Moeckel said. “A lot of these things have been talked about for years, and then with the board’s vision of remaining as flexible as possible, so we don’t paint ourselves in the corner knowing that we all serve the same community.”
The city and school board also discussed changes coming because of the RAISE grant the city was awarded by the federal government.
The $21 million will improve Church Street from about 20th to 28th Street. The road will be widened and new roundabouts will be placed. The process has started on the back end, but the actual construction process is not yet starting, Gero said.
Moeckel said the grant has been a longtime coming, and is a great opportunity for the district too, he said. Moeckel said he is also working with Parks and Rec to build a street connecting the high school to 20th street to give students another exit to leave school.
The group also discussed participating in county boards so that Eudora can stay in tune with Douglas County affairs.
“I’m not sure if we’re underrepresented, but we want to make sure if there are areas that we’re not seeing services from the county that — they want us to participate – but just maybe finding someone to volunteer and spend the time to do that,” Gero said.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
