info, Author at Ranson Financial Group LLC

Leavenworth County Commissioners approve land use concept for road corridor

info2019-04-19T10:50:19-05:00April 19th, 2019|

Leavenworth County commissioners have formally approved a land use plan for a County Road 1 corridor south of Tonganoxie. The concept approved by commissioners Wednesday includes areas of the corridor that can be used for commercial and industrial businesses as well as residential areas. The County Road 1 corridor spans six miles south of Tonganoxie. The corridor also extends 1.5 miles to the west of County Road 1 and 1.5 miles to the east of County Road 1. The corridor includes the county’s only interchange with the Kansas Turnpike. Krystal Voth, deputy director for the Leavenworth County Planning and Zoning Department, [...]

Resident wants zoning regs enforced at Marion county lake

info2019-04-19T10:48:33-05:00April 19th, 2019|

Donna Kaiser’s concern about her county lake neighborhood filling up with storage buildings brought much discussion at Monday’s county commission meeting. Zoning regulations in the residential area by the lake require single-family homes to be built in the area with water and sewer connections. The rule is on the books, but the county does not have a building inspector to enforce it. "What is happening is, three lots were sold and people were going to store their lake toys," Kaiser said. "My concern is, if one gets to do it, pretty soon everyone wants to do it." [MORE] (Read more: Marion [...]

Riverfront legacy master plan a “once in every 100-year opportunity”

info2019-04-19T10:45:17-05:00April 19th, 2019|

Community leaders announced Thursday plans for a Riverfront Legacy Master Plan, a comprehensive vision that connects projects and both banks of the Arkansas River. The vision and plan are still in early stages but will consider a performing arts center, convention center, Century II, the former library and pedestrian bridge among other elements. "We've got one chance to do it really well for generations to come," Evan Rosell, VP of projects for the Greater Wichita Partnership said. Rosell wants it to be a place where the community can gather and put on events. Over two decades ago, seven-term Wichita mayor Bob [...]

Crawford County commissioners reluctant to approve work on land use plan

info2019-04-19T10:42:17-05:00April 19th, 2019|

The Crawford County Commission hosted a work session Tuesday with representatives of the firm Olsson Associates to discuss a land development plan the firm is working on with the City of Pittsburg, but did not reach any agreement with Olsson to expand that plan to include the county. “The City of Pittsburg has the long range goal of producing a citywide comprehensive plan,” said Brian Coomes, a civil engineer with Olsson Associates, “and so as a first step to that process they want to develop a citywide land use planning document as a baseline and then build upon that as they [...]

Topeka’s new flag featuring star, sunflower received runaway support

info2019-04-19T10:32:26-05:00April 19th, 2019|

Voters choosing from among three finalists to be the next city of Topeka flag overwhelmingly approved a design featuring a sunflower accompanied by a white star at Topeka’s location on the state map. That design was chosen by more than 70 percent of the nearly 4,000 people who participating in the selection, representatives of Forge, the city’s young professionals association, said Thursday. Forge planning committee members Leo Espinoza and Brittany Stiffler Crabtree announced the winner near the end of the annual State of the Community luncheon, which organizers said 500 people attended at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center. The number [...]

‘Investors Are Hesitant’: Rural America Might Miss Out on ‘Opportunity Zones’

info2019-04-19T10:31:30-05:00April 19th, 2019|

This week, the federal government released new guidelines for the nation’s more than 8,700 "opportunity zone" communities trying to attract venture capital investment and boost their struggling economies. Rural areas account for 40 percent of the designated opportunity zones, which offer private companies and investors tax breaks in exchange for investing in certain low-income communities. But some warn that even with the tax incentives, many rural areas still likely won't benefit unless state and local governments intervene to make the investment less risky. The zones were created by the 2017 federal tax overhaul as a way to entice companies to invest [...]

City Center Lenexa purchases final 4.9 acres from city of Lenexa

info2019-04-19T10:28:39-05:00April 19th, 2019|

The city of Lenexa is selling 4.9 acres of City Center property to City Center LLC, the developer that has been in a development agreement with the city for the past several years. The purchase agreement of 4.9 acres located in the center blocks of 87th Street Parkway west of Renner Boulevard will complete City Center Lenexa’s acquisition of all of the property covered by its development agreement with the city, according to a city memo. Lenexa first entered into a development agreement with Copaken White & Blitt in May 2006, according to the memo. Subsequently assigned to City Center Lenexa [...]

Roundabouts right-of-way property acquisitions to be considered by Hays city commission

info2019-04-19T10:27:04-05:00April 19th, 2019|

An engineering design supplement for the North Vine Corridor roundabout project will be considered by Hays city commissioners tonight. The agreement would give the engineering firm WSP more authority related to right-of-way property acquisitions needed as part of the project. When the initial engineering contract was awarded, the scope of the project had not yet been formally defined. “Without having the design started, we weren’t exactly sure which portions of property we would need to require right-of-way on,” said Jacob Wood, asst. city manager. “We felt like it was better to have this happen after the fact, once we had a [...]

Sales tax helping Junction City debt recovery

info2019-04-19T07:22:56-05:00April 19th, 2019|

The continuation of a one-cent sales tax will be crucial for Junction City’s debt recovery program. The tax is scheduled to expire December 31,2020 and with city commission approval could possibly go on the ballot this November for possible extension. Mayor Pat Landes told the city commission this week that if the city didn’t have the sales tax everyone’s property tax would have gone up at least 20 or 30 mills. “We’re still looking at that if we don’t renew it. ” Landes added, ” If we lose that ( sales tax ) we’re all in big trouble, especially property owners.” [...]

New stadium may have half the parking of Lawrence-Dumont. An expert says there’s enough

info2019-04-19T07:20:43-05:00April 19th, 2019|

There are enough public and private parking spaces downtown to serve the new baseball stadium, but not close-in, the head of a national parking company told a Wichita advisory group. Instead of a main parking lot right next to the ball park — the way it was at the now-demolished Lawrence-Dumont Stadium — parking for Wichita’s new Triple-A team will be a patchwork of existing public lots and garages, streetside parking, and office parking that is vacant during evenings and weekends. That’s the analysis by Jeff Wolfe, president and CEO of The Car Park Inc., who briefed the city’s Transit Advisory [...]

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