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Wichita staff set public hearing for Old Town parking CID after petition clears state threshold
Summary
City staff told council a community improvement district petition from Old Town property owners met the state threshold (about 77–79%) but not the city’s 100% local policy; council will decide whether to waive the local threshold and set an April 1 public hearing.
Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson told the City Council on Feb. 28 that property owners in Old Town submitted a Community Improvement District (CID) petition and the city had validated it, prompting a resolution to set a public hearing on the proposal.
Anderson said the petition met the state statutory threshold but fell short of Wichita’s local policy: “Between those two measures, one was 77, I believe one was 79 to about 78 of the owner. So it exceeds the 55% threshold under state law but does not meet the 100% threshold under local policy,” he said.
The resolution before the council would only set a public hearing; Anderson said the public hearing has been scheduled for April 1. He added that if council declines to set the public hearing, the CID petition “would just die,” effectively preventing approval of the CID without further action.
Council members asked how often the city has waived the local 100% sign-on requirement to allow a CID to proceed despite not meeting Wichita policy; Anderson said staff would research past exceptions. Council members also asked whether alcohol sales tax would be included in CID revenues; Anderson said the current statute excludes sales tax on alcoholic liquor from CID calculations, though that could change if the state amends law.
On assessments and per-space costs, Anderson said the CID petition’s financing structure anticipates variable annual special assessments tied to actual sales tax receipts. “One year might be $15. If sales tax don’t come in according to projections, then those re-spreads might go up,” he said, adding that if sales tax revenues exceed projections assessments could decline.
The resolution to set the public hearing is on the council agenda for formal action; staff presented details and answered council questions during agenda review but no final council vote on the resolution was recorded during the Feb. 28 meeting.
Ending: If the council votes to set the public hearing, the public hearing is scheduled for April 1; if the council declines, staff said the CID petition cannot move forward.
