A major land-related item and upcoming tax question both gained the support of Emporia City Commissioners during their regular action session Wednesday evening.
Commissioners voted unanimously to sign an incentive and compliance agreement with the Emporia Pavillions development in northwest Emporia to bring three new retailers to town. The agreement entails a five-year, $100,000 forgivable loan to develop the build-out plan for over 50,000 square feet of retail space at 24th and Industrial Road.
It was recently announced the development will see the addition of Ross Dress for Less, Shoe Show and Marshall’s. The new businesses will be located next to Hobby Lobby which came to the Pavilions development back in August of 2017.
Last week, the city received initial data returns from the 2020 census which indicated the city had a more than three percent population decrease over the past decade. After seeing those figures, Emporia Mayor Rob Gilligan, who also serves as a Kansas Counts Committee member, stated that the city and county need to be working avidly to find new ways to attract more residents to the community.
He says the addition of these new businesses is a good step towards that goal.
The new businesses could open up within the next year if all goes according to plan.
In other business, commissioners approved the Mayor to sign a letter of intent to support the continuation of the county’s one-cent sales tax. The sales tax has been in place for the past decade throughout Lyon County providing additional funds to local governing entities. Gilligan says as the largest population hub in the county, Emporia has received anywhere from 53 percent to 48 percent of the sales tax dollars over the past ten years which has mainly been put towards needed infrastructure improvements across the city.
Lyon County Commissioners are set to vote on whether or not to place the sales tax question on the November general election ballot at 9:30 am Thursday morning.
Separately, commissioners also approved a contract with HW Lochner for design work involving an extension of the runway at Emporia Municipal Airport, bids for the sale of vacant lots at 902 Neosho and 1626 LaSalle, a request to annex property in the 600 block of Road 180 into the city limits to help Evergy relocate its local service headquarters from downtown and approved a motion to override the State Historic Preservation Offices decision to deny the painting of a mural on the Bourbon Cowboy property at 605 Commercial.
The Emporia City Commission will reconvene for a study session next Wednesday morning inside the Municipal Courtroom.
