Mission City Council awash in creek redevelopment
By: Nathan Dayani, Staff Writer April 28, 2005
Mayor Laura McConwell met with a handful of property and business owners Tuesday and proposed four options to reduce flooding along Rock Creek, which runs just south of Mission's downtown business district. The options were prepared for presentation to the Mission City Council on Wednesday.
"This is kind of a turning point for Mission," Councilman Phil Perry said.
All options would remove the district from the 100-year flood plain. The plain encompasses about $50 million worth of commercial property.
Two options would take advantage of the creek as a natural amenity conducive to attracting patrons to Mission's downtown business district, an important but struggling cash source for the small city.
"I don't think you'd find anything like it in a first-ring suburb like ours," Perry said.
Public costs of the four options range from $12.8 million to $19.2 million. Private funding is estimated to range from $12.9 million to $15.1 million. Mission officials would like to split public costs between city, county and federal governments.
City leaders could also do nothing, but agree that approach would lead to blight and cost the city more in the long run. FEMA regulations prohibit substantial redevelopment efforts in a 100-year flood plain.
Following is an overview of the four proposed redevelopment options.
* Enclose the creek with large, underground box culverts similar to those used under Mission Center Mall, with public costs at $13.5 million and private costs at $12.9 million.
* Create an open concrete channel. Public costs: $12.8 million; private costs, $12.9 million.
* Establish a 20-year "downtown redevelopment strategy" in which an open, low-flow channel would divert water into box culverts in the eastern, downstream portion of the creek. Green space and possible walking trails would flank the channel. Also, Johnson Drive would be changed to redirect traffic close to the creek and surrounding business district. Public costs: $19.2 million; private costs, $13.9 million.
* Establish a 20-year "sustainable redevelopment strategy" that would substantially widen and return the creek to a natural, perennial state with more green space than the previous option. The creek could be flanked by a boardwalk. Public costs: $17.2 million, private costs, $15.1 million.
"We have a golden opportunity here," said Perry, who chairs the city's redevelopment task force. "Mission's always had what other cities are trying to create: a downtown Main Street."
He and Martin Rivarola, community development officer, said residents, business owners and developers could play an important role in helping the city understand which options the community would support.
The city plans to present the options at a public forum at 7 p.m. Monday, May 9 at the Sylvester Powell Jr. Community Center, 6200 Martway. A full report of the options is available on the city's Web site,
www.missionks.org.
New flood maps submitted to the Mission City Council in January 2004 indicate the 100-year flood plain includes $50 million worth of commercial property - three times larger than previous estimates. The change meant the city faced a two-fold task: protect the surrounding 50-year-old business district from flooding while promoting redevelopment. Possible financial incentives could help reinforce this relationship.
In the past two years, the Kansas Legislature has passed bills to allow cities such as Mission to use tax incentives to fund storm water improvements. The incentives are tax-increment financing districts where incremental property values are used to subsidize improvements to public goods, and transportation-development districts where an extra sales tax could be levied. City officials said they hope public funding to reduce flooding along Rock Creek would beget private funding conducive to redevelopment.
Change of venue
McConwell, city staff and council members have traveled in the past year to other downtown districts throughout the country, including Denver, to gain insight about how to promote redevelopment. Many of these districts featured bodies of water conducive to attracting patrons.
"Water works wonders in drawing people to an area," Perry said.
Indeed, a city report cites several examples in which waterways and surrounding green space were featured to help encourage redevelopment. Local examples include Lenexa and the highly touted new-urbanism Zona Rosa district of Kansas City, Mo. Other examples include riverfront improvements in Detroit, St. Paul, and Milwaukee.
With such examples in mind, Rivarola and Perry are most upbeat about the two proposed options that would incorporate a waterway as a major feature of the downtown business district. Although the two other, more inexpensive options also would promote redevelopment by removing the district from the flood plain, they are unlikely to bolster patronage as well as the two waterway solutions.
"I hate to see us take the cheapest route just because it's the cheapest route," Perry said. "That's not the right answer."
A city staff report cites advantages and disadvantages to each of the four proposed options. The enclosed concrete channel would allow erecting buildings close to the creek, but "the box is not adaptable once built" and has a limited life-expectancy, according to the report.
The open channel, the most inexpensive of the four options, could include some recreation components and perhaps permit parking garages to be built over it. Rivarola said the option lacks a complementary aesthetic and would require fencing because the channel would be dangerous during a storm. The report also states the channel could diminish wildlife living near the creek but could increase sewer inhabitants such as rats and possums.
The two other options would feature green ways that could be aesthetically pleasing, and clean and absorb storm water, according to the report. The report states the city would incur new costs as a steward of the green way, and that "the community may be divided on any idea of substantial change." Another potential drawback is the options would require more space, in part to widen the creek, which could force the city to purchase more property for the project and potentially lose some property and sales tax revenues.
The sustainable redevelopment strategy has drawbacks, Rivarola said.
"It takes some area away from being developable ground," he said.
Perry said additional engineering and environmental studies might be needed before the city could implement either of the two green options. He said some engineers think Rock Creek is reactive, meaning that water flows through only during storms, whereas some geologists think the creek would be perennial if returned to a more natural state.
Rivarola said all redevelopment options could be changed. Now, he said, city officials can take a step back and let the community discuss Mission's future. Following that discussion, the City Council could formally endorse one or a combination of options as soon as August.
Perry said downtown business owners are getting excited about redevelopment. They no longer ask if the city will do anything to solve flooding and increase property values, he said, now they ask when.
At the presentation Tuesday, Kim Blake, owner of All Weather Window and Door on Johnson Drive, agreed.
"The redevelopment options are extremely important," Blake said.
©The Johnson County Sun 2005