Emporia’s West Plaza retail center now has a new distinction, Community Improvement District.
The CID status was granted, following a brief public hearing, by Emporia City Commissioners as part of their regular action meeting Wednesday morning. The CID status was requested back in February by the plaza’s ownership team, represented Wednesday by Joseph Huang.
Huang tells KVOE News the two percent sales tax instituted with the CID status will be used to generate revenue for various deferred maintenance projects across the property totaling right around $2.6 million. This includes updates to the plaza’s parking lot and roofs among other ventures.
It also comes at a time when the plaza is seeing significant growth in both retail and amenities.
Once the work begins, Huang tells KVOE News ownership plans to handle various projects quarterly and expects the work to take upwards of two years to complete.
The CID status will remain in effect for 22 years or until the $2.6 million goal has been reached.
In other action business Wednesday, commissioners also approved the appointments of Sarah Wyrick and Heather Caswell to the Emporia Public Library Board and Carlos Garate to the Emporia Land Bank. A purchase request for rear-load solid waste trucks was also approved and Mayor Danny Giefer presented a series of proclamations recognizing the month of April as Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month and Fair Housing Month in Emporia as well as April 14-20 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week and April 7-13 as National Library Week.
Following an executive session, commissioners adjourned to City Conference Room 1AB for their regular study session. During that time commissioners held their second strategic visioning session outlining the commission’s main goals and objectives for improving the community and various city operations.
Following Wednesday’s session, input from commissioners will now be handed off to city staff who will work to develop a strategic plan which will come back before commissioners for final approval at a date to be determined. Regular updates to commissioners are planned throughout the strategic planning process, however, exact dates have not been announced.
The Emporia City Commission will next convene on Tuesday, April 16 at 11 am inside the Municipal Courtroom at White Auditorium.
