After narrowly surviving a vote to scuttle the entire project, the Prairie Village City Council is moving forward with a years-long idea to build a city-owned community center.
The final projected price tag is now clearer, too, with the city council voting 8-4 to move forward with plans to repay construction costs over 30 years through an estimated five-eighths or three-quarter cent sales tax increase.
The cost of building a new city-owned community center to replace the current aging Paul Henson YMCA is estimated to be $55 million, but when interest is added on to repaying bonds over a 30-year term, the total cost the city is projected to pay reaches $92.5 million.
On Monday, Mayor Eric Mikkelson broke a split 6-6 vote to kill the project outright, a motion that was made on the fly by Councilmember Nick Reddell.
Several councilmembers said they are concerned about partnering with the YMCA, but some who shared those feelings voted against killing the project in order to get feedback at an already scheduled city public forum Oct. 15.
Monday’s approval only solidifies the sales tax increase as the city’s path forward for paying back the bond. No action has been taken at this time to initiate the actual borrowing of money or the implementation of a sales tax increase.
In two other separate votes, the city council also approved counteroffers to take to Johnson County Library and the YMCA of Kansas City regarding the co-location idea.
Several councilmembers who voted in favor of killing the project shared support for working with the library on a new Corinth branch, noting the desire to end conversations were no reflection on the library.
How the community center idea got to this point
The idea of a new community center co-located with a new Corinth Library branch has been a major talking point in Prairie Village since 2019, years after a previous proposal for a city-owned community center failed.
Two community surveys — one in 2019 and another in 2023 — found residents largely support the concept, though that support slightly decreased over that four-year period.
The Y continues to paint a bleak picture of the current facility’s future, saying it operates at a $200,000 annual deficit. Still, the Y owns the land in what is a nearly fully developed-out city.
For the past two years, city leaders have been exploring what a Prairie Village community center — built and paid for by the city, but operated by the Y — might look like and cost.
The city has also hosted public forums to garner resident feedback. If the idea passes ultimate city council muster, it will have to go to a public vote.
So far, the idea is to build a new roughly $55 million community center next door to a brand new Corinth Library at the northwest corner of the city’s civic campus, near the city pool and Shawnee Mission East High School.
The civic campus is the area just west of Mission Road that includes city hall, the police department, Shawnee Mission East, Harmon Park and the city pool.
A $55M bond would drop city’s credit rating
Columbia Capital Management, the city’s bond advisor, noted that borrowing $55 million to build a community center is “likely to lower the city’s credit rating from AAA to AA+,” according to city documents.
City Administrator Wes Jordan confirmed to the city council that debt and financial policies, which currently cap bond debt repayments over a 10-year period, would need to be updated to accommodate a 30-year payback period.
The city would pay about $3 million a year for 30 years to pay back the bond and interest, according to city documents.
A five-eighths or three-quarter cent sales tax increase would take the city’s total sales tax rate to somewhere between 9.6% to 9.75%, according to city documents.
An additional 1% would be added to the tax rates paid at the Shops of Prairie Village and Corinth shopping centers due to existing community improvement districts.
‘Too many red flags’
After a lengthy discussion Monday, Mikkelson broke a 6-6 tie by voting to keep the community center project alive.
Councilmembers Reddell, Terrence Gallagher, Inga Selders, Lori Sharp, Tyler Agniel and Terry O’Toole voted in favor of Reddell’s motion to kill the community center project entirely.
Councilmembers shared concerns about the Y as a partner, especially given the projected $1.4 million deficit the organization says it would run in the first years of a new community center.
Other concerns about moving forward included the $55 million price tag and the estimated $92.5 million total repayment cost, as well as the hit on the city’s credit rating.
O’Toole said the impact on the credit rating is especially concerning when the city is simultaneously talking about a new $30 million city hall and updated police department.
Selders said she thinks the Y needs to contribute at least one-third of the cost to build a community center. Overall, she said she sees “red flags” across the board and wants to “stop wasting the time and energy” on the idea.
“I wanted to have this process keep moving, but my gut thinks this is not working out correctly,” Selders said. “There’s just too many red flags. It is a sinking ship.”
Councilmembers Greg Shelton, Ian Graves, Cole Robinson, Ron Nelson, Chi Nguyen and Dave Robinson voted against killing the project.
Most who voted against killing the project said they wanted to take specifics — including a plan to pay for the community center and contributions from partners — to the Oct. 15 public input meeting.
‘Once in a lifetime … opportunity’
The general consensus from the city council was to hear what public feedback sessions generated before killing the project outright.
Still, both Cole and Dave Robinson shared concerns about partnering with the Y.
Cole Robinson admitted he’s been frustrated with the Y for years and its inability to “commit to an operationally neutral business plan.”
Nelson countered, saying he thinks “it’s disingenuous” to have moved forward with this project for the past two years and then kill it before a final public meeting.
Mikkelson said this is a project that’s been discussed for the past 15 years. Once it got to about this same point, he said, a previous city council killed the project.
After years of surveys and discussions, he said he thinks the city “owe(s) it to the residents to get their feedback on the finances.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime, perhaps generational opportunity, a confluence of factors with the library and the Y that you are, tonight, killing, probably forever instead of letting the residents decide on that,” Mikkelson said.
City council approves negotiation terms
After narrowly keeping the project alive, the city council then approved negotiation terms for city staff to take back to both Johnson County Library and the Y.
The city council voted 10-2, with O’Toole and Selders the dissenting votes.
The terms approved by the city council Monday include a potentially thorny condition that asks the library to agree to a land swap for the existing Corinth branch on Mission Road instead of donating two acres of land at Harmon Park at no cost to the library.
In a letter to the city from the library dated Sept. 16, a donation of land for a new library site was one of the library’s non-negotiables.
The city also wants the library to better define the site development costs it has agreed to fund such as demolition, parking and utilities.
Library staff anticipates updating the library board with a Corinth replacement recommendation on Oct. 30 at a retreat, and the board may take action on the city’s new terms next month.
The city council also unanimously approved the following terms for city staff to negotiate with the Y:
- The Y must cover any operational losses at a community center, and no city subsidy will be provided.
- The Y needs to contribute $7.5 million toward capital expenditures within the first two years, on top of the value of the contributed land (the Y previously estimated being able to contribute between $6.75 to $8 million, including the land contribution.).
- The Y needs to reimburse the city for facility maintenance by paying for one full time Prairie Village employee.
- The city would accept the Y will pay itself a 15% management fee to help pay for operations.
Additional negotiations over these same terms may come back before the city for review, and other negotiation points may be included in future contract agreements should the project get to that point.
It’s unclear when a public vote might happen
- City staff, the Y and the library need to flesh out negotiations for the project and draft ballot language before the city council determines whether it wants to move forward with the project.
- There was some discussion about moving toward a special mail-in ballot election for some time in the first quarter of 2025.
- In order to meet that deadline, the city and partners need to flesh out negotiations and a draft and turn in ballot language by December.
- City staff said the 2024 budget set aside about $60,000 for a special mail-in ballot for the community center idea.
- There was also discussion about holding it for a general election ballot measure, which would give the city and partners a longer time to negotiate specifics and draft ballot language.
A final public meeting is still on for Oct. 15
- Monday’s approvals give the project team additional information to share with public attendees at a final scheduled public feedback meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
- A 30-minute presentation will be shared twice, once at 4:30 p.m. and again at 6 p.m.
- Attendees can ask questions and share feedback following the presentation.
- The public meeting is from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center, 8788 Metcalf Ave.
Go deeper: Watch the city council’s entire discussion about the community center online here, starting at 2:34:19.
