Eudora presents two RHID proposals to Douglas County commissioners; city hearings scheduled
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Summary
Eudora city staff presented two proposed Rural Housing Incentive Districts — Holiday Woods (corrected acreage 65 acres; conceptual buildout includes single-family and duplex units; developer estimate $17.7 million) and Shadow Ridge North (146 single-family lots; developer estimate $12.6 million). The city commission will hold public hearings Jan. 12, triggering a 30‑day county and school-district review period.
Zach Daniel, city manager for Eudora, briefed the Douglas County Board of Commissioners on two proposed Rural Housing Incentive District (RHID) projects on Jan. 7: Holiday Woods and Shadow Ridge North. The presentations were informational; no county action was requested that evening.
Daniel explained how the RHID mechanism works: it caps current property tax collections at the present assessed value, and the incremental property-tax growth generated by new development is used to reimburse the developer for allowable public improvements. ‘‘It is not a new tax. It is not a tax abatement,’’ Daniel said, summarizing the RHID concept and the reimbursable nature of the program.
Holiday Woods (city-corrected acreage of 65 acres) is conceptualized as about 119 single-family houses and duplex units; the developer estimated total project costs at $17.7 million. Daniel said the city’s third-party feasibility work broadly aligns with the developer’s analysis and that the projected tax increment appears sufficient to reimburse the claimed public-improvement costs. For Shadow Ridge North, the concept currently includes 146 single-family lots on about 42 acres, with an estimated total project cost of $12.6 million; the RHID term proposed for that project is 20 years capturing 75% of the increment.
Daniel said the Eudora city commission will hold public hearings for both projects on Jan. 12. If the city adopts ordinances establishing the RHIDs, that action will trigger a 30‑day review window for Douglas County and the school district to request additional information or adopt a resolution if adverse effects are identified. County staff noted the administrative burden of processing increment pieces for many individual properties inside the county tax system and said the county is researching whether an administrative fee is appropriate.
Commissioners asked for more detailed increment projections that isolate how much revenue the county and school district would retain and how much would go to developer reimbursements; Eudora staff agreed to provide additional financial detail as the city finalizes development-agreement drafts.
