The Unified Government Board of Commissioners approved the increased STAR bond package for the American Royal project 8-1 after a lengthy meeting that included nearly two hours of commentary from the public and commissioners.
Commissioners Andrew Davis, Melissa Bynum, Tom Burroughs, Gayle Townsend, Bill Burns, Christian Ramirez, Evelyn Hill, and Mike Kane voted for the proposal, while District 6 Commissioner Phil Lopez, representing the Turner area, voted against the proposal.
Lopez noted concerns with property maintenance as well as the attendance projections. Townsend’s vote was a reversal from her opposition to the 2016 STAR bonds issue. She stated that in her opinion the 2025 vote represented a different, better project proposal.
District 7 Commissioner Chuck Stites, who represents Bonner Springs and Edwardsville, did not vote because the issue is specific to KCK. Mayor/CEO Tyrone Garner also did not vote because the mayor only votes in tie-breaking situations. Garner’s comments indicated that he supported the proposal.
The open comment period featured a lengthy string of submitted statements from area business and community leaders citing the economic, educational, and community benefits of the project, with only a handful of residents submitting opposing views.
During the live comment period, Alan Carr, executive director of Visit Kansas City Kansas put his vocation in simple terms. “Our job is to get people to come here, spend their money, and leave. When they do, they leave behind tax dollars. Every dollar they pay is a tax dollar that residents don’t have to pay.
“This American Royal project,” he added, “will bring a lot of visitors into our community. The American Royal estimates that it will bring in 2.3 million visitors annually.”
Residents who opposed the project cited the need for tax relief, especially property taxes for elderly residents, and opposed the diversion of sales taxes from development in the area to repay the bonds.
J. Michael Tiner-Mackey, former Bonner Springs councilman, said, “I’m just curious — where’s the tax relief that we were promised? When my grandmother’s house was demolished by Carol Marinovich, promising tax relief for Nascar — her need for speed took my grandmother’s house.”
Local resident Scott Harding, pointed to the number of land bank homes as highlighting the issue of residents losing their homes.
“My concerns are, as a lot of people in Wyandotte County,” said Harding, “and speaking for some of the seniors that can’t be here today…it comes up to basically 7,200 [homes] in the land bank. We’ve having problems. I’ve seen the map. [KCK property developer] Erik Murray gave a presentation, and it was just devastating for me.”
The Commission also approved, by the same 8-1 pattern, to call a public hearing on May 29 for the creation of a Community Improvement District, covering only the American Royal grounds, for the purpose of applying an additional one-percent sales tax there.
In a statement release Friday, Garner reiterated his support for the project. “As the Mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, I am proud to support the positive contributions the American Royal will have in education, innovation, and creating a sustainable epicenter for agriculture in Wyandotte County.”
“Visitors near and far will no doubt benefit from planned conferences, seminars, and other phenomenal events that will further solidify the Village West area of Kansas City, Kansas as being the number one tourist attraction in the great state of Kansas.”
The mayor also laid out his vision for what should happen with the project’s proceeds. “I will strongly advocate to the Unified Government Board of Commissioners to allocate a reasonable portion of these added revenues to ensure that we mitigate property tax and BPU bill PILOT fee burdens on our residents, and to move towards being just as aggressive in investing and revitalizing the areas east of I-635 as a means to uplift areas of Kansas City Kansas that for far to long have been redlined, disinvested, and disenfranchised.”
