By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays city commissioners spent more than a half hour during their Thursday night work session talking about how to grow the local economy.
Commissioner Henry Schwaller had requested the agenda item to specifically address how the city can help increase sales tax revenues which fuel the General Fund.
First acknowledging the price downfalls in oil and agricultural commodities, coupled with a dramatic change in the retail store environment, Schwaller then concluded “we need to take action. It’s going to take something special.”
Schwaller presented a list of American new store openings by U.S. retail industry chains with planned expansions through the year 2020, including ALDI, T.J. Maxx and Dicks Sporting Goods. “It’s pretty clear that even though we have a large number of commercial vacancies now, most notably in a 40-year-old shopping mall, these retailers are not going into a mall. Their model is different. So what are we willing to do to recruit a retailer?”
“I think we have to be careful about giving the farm away,” said Mayor Shaun Musil, “but I think we’ve got to be looking at everything, not just retail.” Musil also mentioned high land prices which he said “seems like a big problem, whether it’s true or not. It’s all the city ever hears about (concerning commercial development.”)
Earlier this week the city announced it will give away the two acres it owns for development of a mixed-use facility between Fort Hays State University and downtown Hays. “I think it’s a great step forward,” Schwaller said.
Commissioner Sandy Jacobs cautioned against using a “broad brush format” to recruit retailers. “Everyone is going to have a different idea of what they want.”
She told commissioners the Salina Central Mall is losing its Dillard’s store and “they’re going to change how they look at the mall. They’re going to restructure that north end of the mall where Dillard’s was and it’s going to have outside entrances. … I think of Town Center in the southern part of Kansas City.”
“If we truly know a business wants to be here, we should be on their doorstep talking to them,” Jacobs emphasized. “We need to let them know we want them to come to our community.”
Schwaller asked if the city should send a representative to the national trade show of retailers. Commissioner Lance Jones suggested the city might create a new employee position to “do economic development and go recruit businesses.”
Jones was more concerned about a need for affordable housing. “People don’t want to bring their families here and live in houses that have been retrofitted for college kids, and that’s what our housing is. We don’t have apartments for families and we don’t have affordable houses.”
Vice-Mayor James Meier, the city’s representative on the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development, was also concerned about “unrealistic” land prices. He had a larger question about slow population growth. “How do we grow our 20,000 population to reach 25,000 people,” Meier asked. “We’re a regional hub with a population that’s not quite large enough (to entice retailers) with a unemployment rate that hovers around three percent. You can look at those things in a positive light, but from a retail point, I think those things are not positive.”
Meier then brought up something city staff has talked about with the Hays Area Planning Commission, calling it “one of the best things we could do in the short term, and that’s to improve the north Vine corridor access.”
“It’s something we can actually do, that is within our realm, to open up access to businesses that are on Vine. By doing that it will open access to property that has not been developed, both north and south of the interstate.”
City Manager Toby Dougherty interjected with some good news.
“We finally this week got KDOT (Kansas Department of Transportation) approval for the roundabout concept we’ve been tweaking for the past year,” Dougherty told commissioners.
“We’ve already talked to the property owners along there. So, I think it’s time to find out what’s it going to cost to build this. It would dramatically increase access throughout the corridor.”
Dougherty has been monitoring traffic on Vine Street since demolition of the former Ambassador Hotel, 3603 Vine, began early this year. “It’s like the old ‘Frogger’ video game, trying to get out of the west side. That’s not sending a positive message to visitors.”
An update will be presented at next week’s regular meeting. The preliminary plan calls for creating three traffic roundabouts on north Vine Street.
Although Schwaller had asked at a meeting last month if the city wanted to help pursue development of a convention center, no mention was made of it Thursday.