By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The Hays city commission added its stamp of approval Thursday night to the final plat of Creekside Estates Addition in northwest Hays.
The property, located south of 27th Street west of Hall Street, is already annexed into the city and zoned for residential development.
The 12.17 acre plat includes 12 lots ranging from 0.6 acres to just over 1 acre, as well as right-of-way dedication for the extension of Englewood Street. The property was originally platted as Arbor Valley Estates Addition, a portion of which is being vacated. It had already been reviewed and approved by the Hays Area Planning Commission and city staff in the utilities and water resources departments.
Although it was a unanimous vote approval by commissioners, Henry Schwaller wondered about the size of the lots. “In the past we’ve been concerned about lots this big and I know there’s been some background discussion with the Planning Commission. Are we okay with big lots again?” Schwaller asked City Manager Toby Dougherty.
Dougherty reminded the commission it “pretty well set that precedent when you authorized the combining of four lots into one up by the Smoky Hill Country Club to create 0.85 acres there.”
Still, Dougherty said the commission needs to have a discussion about maximum lot size.
“When you discussed the Blue Sky Acres addition (south of Hays), the commission said we don’t want the 2 to 3 acre lot subdivisions in our city or next to the city.
“Everybody can spot a very large hamlet-type lot but where do you draw that boundary? We do want to have a future discussion on whether or not to draw those boundaries,” Dougherty confirmed.
In the past, Schwaller recalled, “we had plats that had very large lots and the specials were onerous. I think there’s some economies of scale here (in Creekside Estates Addition) because half of the development is already done.”
Public Works Director Greg Sund pointed out that Creekside is “starting to go along the way our discussions have been going where these lots are deep but they don’t have a lot of frontage, so it doesn’t take as much (city) water, sewer and street to service them.”
“I was a little concerned about the lot sizes,” Commissioner Lance Jones said, “but where the flood plain runs through there, I understand why. Plus, this addition does align that street up (Englewood) which is another discussion we’ve been having, so I think you give a little, you take a little.”
The proposed plat aligns the new street with the existing Englewood St. located north of 27th St. and eliminates the dead-end on West. 26th St.
The city doesn’t necessarily “hate large lots,” said Vice-Mayor James Meier. “I think the concern originated out of taxes generated by those large lots are not paying for the (city) infrastructure that has to go in to service them. In this instance, I think that is not really a concern,” he added.