ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Housing has been a hot topic in Liberal for the past several years and recently, some work has been going on to help with just that.
As Liberal Mayor Jose Lara tells it, developers are currently being kept busy with a few projects.
“We have a housing project going on in the north part of town by Tucker Road, and that's the Chance Addition. That project got approved at the beginning of 2023, and we funded it with the Rural Housing Incentive District (RHID), meaning the City of Liberal will fund the infrastructure and collect the RHID on it,” Lara said. “With that project, I believe they already have eight houses in different states of completion, and they should be able to do roughly somewhere between 40 and 45 units. Then, on the south side of town, which is the Ortuño Addition, that project was just approved, and we will be doing the RHID program with them as well. The developers will be doing 48 lots, with eight of them being multi-family homes, and the rest being single-family houses, and they already have three basem*nts complete on that project, and they're moving right along with everything. We're also in conversations to continue the project on the east side of town south of Seymour Rogers Middle School – that area had been done with an RHID paid for by the developer, and they're collecting the RHID and will continue to do so where they'll invest the funds and do the collecting instead of the City of Liberal. That project, when completed, should be roughly 66 more units, but there is still paperwork and platting and other planning needing to be done. Then, we approved – and we're still waiting on – for a tax credit through the state to remodel one of the motels in town and turn it into a 22-unit studio apartment complex, with four of those units having one bedroom and small living room, and the others will be studio apartments.”
Lara said it is good to see all the development going on throughout town.
“It's been a long time coming, and we're all glad it's moving forward. Recently, I was at a conference in Topeka, and I happened to speak to another insurance agent in passing, and they mentioned how Liberal is being talked about by some developers from larger cities,” Lara said. “That means we're finally gaining some attention and traction, and hopefully, this is a process we can continue to move forward on. We also have a few conversations going on with some local landowners who are interested in developing their properties to be able to sell the lots and/or build some homes on them, and with any luck, those will be on the lower scale of cost compared to some of the other builds going on. I'm hoping to get the more economical housing in town as well.”
Lara said it took more than a year for the pre-work to get completed for the projects.
“The discussions and all the pre-work had been going on for about a year and a half before they came to the commission. With the Ortuño Addition, at least, it had been about a year and a half since we'd had those initial conversations,” Lara said. “The Chance Addition developers had most of their paperwork done and ready to move forward, they were just waiting for a Middle Income Housing (MIH) grant, and while we were in those discussions was when we met with the Ortuño group. When they left the meeting, I remember we all looked at each other and asked 'How can we get these projects off the ground?' I'd already been doing about a year's worth of research on how cities can fund some of these projects, and we were able to reach out to Dodge City's city manager, Nick Hernandez, to see if the city could fund them and use RHID, which is what I'd initially presented. He told us we could do that, so we did some more research, did some more work to find out everything we needed to, and lo and behold, we found a way. We reached out to the developers who had reached out to us and told them we could go that route on these types of projects. With the Chance Addition, we moved on that within six months or so, and then the Ortuño Addition has officially been approved, and we just approved some bids on that. There was a lot of work to be done before the actual work could get going, and the end result was us taking processes that currently exist and adding a new mechanism to where the city takes care of the funding. THAT definitely took some convincing and a lot of research, but going into the future, any developer who's ready to do that, they just need to own the land, do the plats and engineering studies, get the engineering bids, talk to our Building Department, and have the funding ready to go, and the process will be much faster since we have that mechanism designed and ready to go.”
With that said, Lara said he sees a brighter future for Liberal in terms of housing.
“We have at least three or four other projects in conversations right now. Those projects, depending on what scale they come out, it could be another 1,000 units. We don't know how long they'll take, because each developer/builder is in a different stage of development with what they want to do,” Lara said. “The conversations are happening, and the desire is there, and the money (in some cases), the main thing is making sure all the paperwork and all of that is in proper order to actually have everything move forward. I'm excited for the prospect of being able to accept a developer who's ready from day one and be able to tell them 'Here's our process, and if you have everything completed, we're ready to go on our side' instead of a situation where the developer shows up with their paperwork and us still figuring out some steps, or maybe vice versa. Local investment is still going to be the top driver of housing development because in all honesty, housing here is not as profitable as it would be in other parts of the state, which has been brought up at the town hall meetings and some other gatherings. The chances of us drawing a large developer into town aren't really high unless they can qualify for some of the tax credits we as an area qualify for, but not the area developers. There need to be multiple people on staff to even just write the applications for the tax credits and all of that, and no one in the area really has the staff or knowledge. However, larger developers who have those resources might be interested in coming to Liberal if they're able to apply for some of those other incentives the state offers.”
And with more housing coming in, Lara said that could create some ripple effects for the community.
“Our City Manager, Rusty Varnado, has mentioned this before, and it was also brought up at a meeting I attended with Eli [Svaty], how if we want more commerce coming our direction, 'Rooftops guide the winds of commerce.' It was made very clear how, without a workforce and without available housing, a lot of companies are not interested in coming to this area,” Lara said. “We have quite a bit of interest in regard to local growth as well as businesses looking to continue developing here that would easily take up that growth currently going on with the residential side of everything. We have a lot of work to do on that front, but like I mentioned, as I talk to various people throughout the state who have some of those connections, they're hearing the chatter about Liberal, and that's what's making me most excited. Knowing Liberal's name is out there and is known as somewhere that's more friendly and accepting and business-friendly and willing to move forward, that's awesome. One of my biggest goals when running for office was to help put Liberal on the map, and for positive reasons. Many people on the eastern side of the state, and some of our other area neighbors, are seeing the growth going on in Liberal, and they're as excited as we are. As a region, we need to grow, and if that happens, that helps give us a louder voice so if we need something, such as four lanes on U.S. Hwy 54 and U.S. Hwy 83, which I know has been talked about for many, many years. But the state isn't wanting to consider those a priority until we show them we're a force to be reckoned with.”
Overall, Lara said, all of that work will help Liberal and its citizens.
“I think the biggest thing is not only are our more local investors becoming more educated on some of the processes, but so are we at the City level, and we can now work closer together with those partners to advance the city in a more positive direction,” Lara said. “We're all gaining knowledge we'll all be able to use to help better Liberal. There have been a few things worked on, but a big thing will be working with our public affairs director, Keeley Moree, who's been working with the Tourism Department and Arkalon Park and some other departments and entities to help make Liberal a great place to live in and visit. We do have a lot we're working on, especially with the more quality of life items in town, and we think people will be really happy with those results. Along with the housing, one of my goals has always been to help make Liberal a place people want to call home, and as long as we're developing more homes, I also want to see the quality of life improve in some areas. With our Comprehensive Plan, hopefully we can put some of that into place and make all of that happen.”
