The Dairy Farmers of America headquarters building project received a boost from the original planned $30 million in industrial revenue bonds to $46 million at Thursday’s Unified Government Commission meeting.
The commission did not discuss the Dairy Farmers of America $46 million bond issue. Instead, it spent time talking about three containers being added at a community farm, and two goats at a residence.
No one spoke at the public hearing for the Dairy Farmers of America IRB issue.
According to agenda documents, the Dairy Farmers of America are requesting an increase in the industrial revenue bond issuance amount from $30 million to $46 million. The location is on 12 acres at France Family Drive and 98th Street, near Schlitterbahn and The Legends Outlets shopping center. The project was approved earlier this year, and the topic at this meeting was the financing for the project.
Mayor Mark Holland remarked that he attended a recent groundbreaking event for the Dairy Farmers of America, and that this project was moving through the normal process.
Plans are to build a 100,000-square-foot global headquarters building for the DFA. The three-story building is to be completed by the first part of 2017, according to officials. The new building will be environmentally friendly. Working on the building project are J.E. Dunn Construction, VanTrust, RED Development and HOK.
Besides passing the bond issue, the commission on Thursday night also passed a new program that would provide grants to small businesses.
This program, according to past UG discussions, is a pilot program that would take some of the money generated by the cost of incentives for projects in the community, using a portion of it for small businesses. It would be a city-wide program; however, it would be especially for areas like the downtown corridor and older urban areas of Wyandotte County, according to UG officials. Grants could be used for start-up inventory, marketing and other operating costs, as well as repairing or renovating store fronts.
As discussed at an earlier committee meeting, the grants would range from $2,500 to $10,000. The program as proposed would have discretion to go over $10,000, but not over $25,000 per project. With its small budget, $50,000 for 2016, the program would not fund many projects, according to officials.
The meeting agenda at www.wycokck.org outlines further points of the program.
“Help us to work together in the spirit of unanimity as often as possible” was part of an invocation at the start of the meeting. All the votes at the meeting were unanimous Thursday. Some were without any discussion.
With two commissioners absent Thursday, the commission needed all eight votes if it wanted to overturn or change the planning commission’s decision. One vote in particular, a request for three containers at Cultivate Kansas City’s Gibbs Road farm, needed the eight votes because commissioners added a stipulation that the containers be screened. A representative of the project stated the containers would be out of sight, behind a building. The request was approved with the screening stipulation added.
Two goats were approved at a residents’ home, after a short discussion about a committee that is looking into the ordinances concerning domestic livestock in the city.
The commission at the 7 p.m. meeting also updated some UG ordinances, clarifying language and bringing them into agreement with state laws and other UG ordinances, including one about the number of dogs in kennels, and one regulating election signs on right-of-way property. Two other ordinances were approved for vacating right-of-way around the University of Kansas Medical Center.