The Emporia City Commission discussed updates to its Rural Housing Incentive District policy for a third time on Wednesday, focusing mostly on mitigating risk to the city. Special projects coordinator Jim Witt took the commission through the proposed changes to the policy with the intention to vote on adopting the policy during next week’s action session. Commissioner Jon Geitz supports the policy but expressed concern regarding how to protect the city’s investment in infrastructure in the event that a developers’ project failed. “The taxpayers are the ones with the most at risk and the least to gain and the developer and the homeowners have the most to gain and the least to risk,” he said. He pointed out that the land costs — which the developer pays — are “a fraction of” the infrastructure costs — which the city pays. Therefore, he proposed that language be included in the policy that states that the city and the developer will be reimbursed proportionally with the RHID funds. Mayor Rob Gilligan said that in Dodge City’s policy, the city would collect three years’ worth of RHID funds to service its debts before it reimbursed the developers.
Source: Emporia Gazette
