The pro-Tomahawke response

The following letter from attorney Chris Byrd responds to criticism of the Tomahawke Ridge subdivision from the developer’s perspective…

With the P&Z vote on Lake at Tomahawke Ridge coming tomorrow afternoon, I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and opinion on the Lake at Tomahawke Ridge development.

First and foremost, the media continues to report that there is an abundance of already developable land in the Northland.  This is patently untrue, especially in Platte County. Much of the vacate ground that appears to be developable in the Northland has no water and no sewer. Additionally, noise contours from the airport, commercial land uses and various terrain issues, such as steep slopes and flood plains, take out the vast majority of the remaining ground.

The fact is that no ground, presently in Kansas City, can support a development of this size without major capital improvements to the water and sewer systems.  However, the ground for the proposed Tomahawke Ridge can support the needed development.  There is an existing water transmission line on the property and the property is located less than two miles from a sewer treatment plant.  Additionally, the developer is willing to construct the sewer system at his own expense in order connect to the treatment plant.  The ground is currently zoned for apartments. It has no terrain issues and does not lie within any noise contours from the airport.

Secondly, all issues with the city departments have been resolved.  Fire no longer opposes the project due to the fact the residential sprinklers will be built in homes. Just a side note, residential sprinklers are required by the International Building Code for all new homes as of 2012.  The police have always been neutral on the project.  They have never stated response time is too long.  That issue has been misreported from day one.  The issues with the ambulance service will be resolved with a mutual aid agreement with the regional ambulance district.  Finally, the Aviation Department has sent a memo that they do not oppose annexation.  Many of these issues have been resolved after the Staff Report, often cited by the media, was published.  However, the City never issues an amended Staff Report.

Most recently, the Fiscal Analysis done by the KCEDC has been attacked as misleading.  The KCEDC used an average home price of $250,000 as a basis for the analysis.  This number has been attacked as it has been above the $170,000 work force housing number used in discussing the project.  However, the developer has said from day one that the project is a mixture of price ranges with 75% at $170,000 for work force housing and the other 25% starting at $350,000.  The KCEDC blended the number, adjusted the number up since; (1) these numbers are starting prices and (2) it is a 20 year analysis adjusted for inflation.  Therefore the KCEDC used $250,000 as the average price for the entire project. The same logic holds regarding the number used for the average household income.  It is a blended number based on the expected occupants of the development.

One of the common refrain is that this is sprawl.  However, we are providing workforce housing in a very close proximity to one the largest concentrations of jobs in the City.  The KCI Corridor has employers like Citicards, Harley Davison and ADT.  Literally, thousands of jobs are close to this project.  Placing housing next to jobs is a strong planning concept. It just happens to be that these jobs are not in the core of the City.

Finally, it has been misreported that this will be an economic burden on the City when it is the developer that is paying for all the infrastructure, building of all roads, all water and sewer connections. The developer is also supplying trash removal, recycling and snow removal.  In reality, the city’s taxpayers and media should be welcoming a developer that is willing to build in the City and not ask for any tax incentives; but instead, leave the City in better financial shape.  I would hope that the City could go out and attract more developments such as this so at the end of the day the City would have more resources to take care of basic services for its current existing citizens.

Christopher W. Byrd, P.C.