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After a lot of concern from people in the community, a new truck stop in Topeka is going to have to pump the brakes. At Tuesday night's city council meeting, the governing body voted to send a request to rezone a west Topeka property back to the planning commission for more work. Maverik has more than 400 locations in 12 states, and wants to expand to Kansas. It's looking to add a location off of I-70 on Fairlawn where the old Holidome was located. Source: KSNT 27 News

Gary Scott retired from a long career serving as director of Parks and Rec to continue to serve the community in a different capacity – with lots of volunteering. “I think it’s because most people when they volunteer they get a lot back in return,” he said. Giving back to his community has always been important to him. When he worked with the Special Olympics, he saw the number of volunteers who made the event possible. Even though it was a paid job for him, it opened his eyes to how rewarding volunteer work was for everyone else. Source: The Eudora [...]

Dirt is moving on a new $200-million development as part of the Crosswinds Casino and Resort in Park City, located north of Wichita. Officials from the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma broke ground Thursday on a new 15-story hotel and casino expansion, which will feature 238 new rooms with 32 suites, food and beverage offerings, a pool and bar, and an 8,500-square-foot ballroom. Source: Wichita Business Journal - Local Wichita News

City and Riley County officials tried to find common ground in a meeting about RHIDs Thursday. After the county vetoed a resolution to create a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District on June 12, Manhattan officials asked for more specifics about what the county wants to see going forward. The RHID task force, composed of city, county and USD 383 officials, met again at the Lincoln Education Center. An RHID, or reinvestment housing incentive district, is a program to help communities support new housing by devoting the tax property revenue from a new development back to the developer to cover the cost of [...]

Wichita city officials are considering a cut to the city’s property tax rate for the first time in decades. But the cut is so small that the vast majority of homeowners would still see an increase on their city property tax bill as property valuations continue to soar. The proposal would lower the city’s mill levy from 32.816 mills to 32.316 mills. Source: Wichita Kansas Local News, Crime & More |

Many towns in western Kansas lack gyms and fitness centers. Some small communities are building outdoor walking trails to encourage better health and attract new residents. Western Kansas towns are surrounded by land. Yet some communities have very few spaces to safely exercise and explore the outdoors. While most of the land in this region is used for agriculture, residents of the area want designated spaces to connect with the arid plains. Those spaces also can improve community health and help rural economies. Source: The Iola Register

Northeast Kansas will be on the international stage next summer and preparations are already underway. Topeka has already started preparations this year ahead of the upcoming World Cup in Kansas City. Local officials and business owners are expecting a bump in traffic from the big event. The City of Topeka is in the process of planning attractions as well as getting local businesses and hotels ready for the expected arrival of new visitors. 27 News spoke with the Greater Topeka Partnership (GTP) about what locals can expect when the World Cup arrives in one year. Source: KSNT 27 News

For five and a half years, rural residents along Gardner Road near Edgerton in southwestern Johnson County have fought a 2020 annexation that could bring millions of square feet of warehouses to their country neighborhood. Now that a three-day trial has ended, those residents are awaiting a judge’s decision about a boot-shaped piece of land at the center of it all. Is the boot — whose elongated toe reaches out to connect Edgerton city limits to a stack of potential warehouse lots — really the “narrow corridor” outlawed by state statute? Or is it more like a partially collapsed triangle whose [...]

Plans for a $12 billion data center campus, Wyandotte County's largest economic development project to date, scored initial approval from the Unified Government Thursday. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, approved a master plan amendment and request to rezone 550 acres for a six-building data center campus near the Kansas Speedway. Aaron Wolofsky of Red Wolf DCD Properties LLC plans to build three 330,000-square-foot data center buildings and a substation on each side of Parallel Parkway. The 600-megawatt campus would cover multiple land parcels generally located between 131st and 118th streets. Source: Kansas City Business Journal - Local Kansas [...]

A group opposed to a possible battery energy storage system has submitted a petition to force a vote on an ordinance banning certain kinds of the technology within the City of Halstead. Kevin Henderson stated that he and others delivered a 30-page petition with 252 signatures on Friday to City Hall and received a receipt for the submission. State law requires a City Council to vote on a submitted ordinance if it receives a petition with signatures of registered voters that equal 40 percent of the number of people who voted in the previous City election. Source: Harvey County Now