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Mennonite Housing seeks $80,000 in fee waivers, sales tax exemption to strengthen Harvest Point Phase 2 application
Summary
Mennonite Housing representatives asked the commission for a commitment of $80,000 in fee waivers plus a sales-tax exemption tied to IRB issuance to improve scoring on Kansas Housing Resources Corporation applications for additional low-income senior units; commissioners discussed options but made no commitment that night.
Byron Adrian, a contractor who recently retired as president of Mennonite Housing, and Angie Mendoza, the nonprofit’s new president, asked the Newton City Commission to commit to up to $80,000 in fee waivers and a sales-tax exemption via industrial revenue bonds to support a Phase 2 application for Harvest Point, a low-income senior housing development.
"If we did get the commitment for both of those items that we'd have a very strong application and have a good chance of being able to move forward with Phase 2," Byron Adrian said, explaining that Kansas Housing Resources Corporation scoring gives 10 points for the fee-waiver commitment and 10 points for a sales-tax exemption; together those 20 points could push a project score into the low 90s, which they said would be competitive for funding.
Harvest Point’s first phase includes 32 units, and staff said the property currently has a wait list of about 100 names. Byron told commissioners the development maintained a vacancy rate near 3.5–4 percent over the prior six months and currently had two vacancies that would soon be filled.
Commissioners pressed for clarity on what the city would have to waive. A staff member explained that building permit fees for a 44-unit second phase would not by themselves reach $80,000 and that some costs—most notably water meters—would require the city to spend funds rather than simply waive an internal fee. The city estimated water meters for 44 units could cost about $58,000 and that building-permit and plan-review fees were likely to generate about $24,000. One commissioner suggested the city could spread any commitment over two fiscal years or consider in-kind contributions such as trash pickup to increase the city’s contribution toward the KHRC scoring threshold.
Byron described the project’s income and rent structure: tenants must income-qualify (one-person households up to about $46,000; two-person households up to about $53,000) and rents are tiered by AMI bands, with sample rents described as about $285 for a one-bedroom at the 30% band to roughly $900 for a two-bedroom at the 80% band. Byron said the project accepts tenant-based Section 8 vouchers but does not have a site-based subsidy commitment from the public housing authority.
Commissioners asked about phase sequencing and whether a larger single-phase request would be feasible; Byron said cost and tax-credit availability made a single, larger phase impractical and that the team had reduced earlier plans from four to three phases to limit per-phase costs.
No motion or formal vote was taken on the waiver request at the meeting. Commissioners instructed staff and the applicant to continue discussions; staff said the KHRC preliminary application had been submitted in January and that invitations to apply would be announced in February, with final awards expected in August.
