OP Council gives new life to Brookridge tax incentives; approval is already in doubt
The Overland Park City Council may have reopened the door to negotiate tax incentives for the long-delayed Brookridge golf redevelopment on Monday.
But opposition from five board members signaled the financing plan’s chances of final approval are in doubt.
The council voted 7-5 to approve the developer’s application to negotiate a new tax incentive package for the first phase of the $2 billion proposed office, apartment and retail complex at the site of the former Brookridge Country Club — this time without the STAR bonds for business tourism that turned off officials who shut down a previous request in October.
But the most recent application still requests $96 million in tax-increment financing as well as $33.7 million from a proposed 1.5 percent sales tax in the development area and economic development revenue bonds. These financing tools would allow future tax revenue from the development to reimburse some of the developer’s costs.
The application also asks the city to pay $26 million of required road improvements at 103rd Street and Antioch Road, with the understanding that Overland Park would be reimbursed with TIF revenue.
The majority of council members voted to allow city staff to consider the financing plan, while saying developers would need to make sure the city wasn’t on the hook if revenues didn’t come through.
But opposing council members signaled Monday the request for public dollars was already something they couldn’t support.
“I cannot see any reason to open this door again,” said Councilman Faris Farassati, who voted against the request along with council members Jim Kite, Dave White, Gina Burke and Curt Skoog. Farassati said moving forward would ignore the will of the people.
Nearby residents have opposed the redevelopment plan for years, citing concerns about traffic, flooding and density.
Supporters would be hard-pressed to reach the supermajority vote — nine of the 12 council members — ultimately needed to approve tax increment financing, a crucial piece of the revised plan. The other aspects of the financing plan require a simple majority.
“Watch and see how many ‘no’ votes you’ve got tonight,” said White. “If you’ve got more than three, we should just call this dead.”
Representatives of Overland Park Development Co. will spend the next few months negotiating a plan with city staff before they return before the council. Any plan would also require approval from the finance, administration and economic development committee and the planning commission, and would be subject to a public hearing.
The financing requests would help pay for the project’s first $596 million phase — retail stores and restaurants, 625 apartments, 280,000 square feet of office space and a 200-room hotel. The developer has said it will cover $446.4 million with private funding.
The rezoning of the golf course has already been approved. And on Monday, the city council OK’d plans for the project’s first piece: a six-story building with stores, apartments, parking garages and a residential clubhouse.
“I see this as potentially a very important project for the city,” said Councilman Paul Lyons. “Really in my mind what we are talking about here is the development of a new office park. This is an office park of the 21st century.”
In their application, developers tentatively agreed to guarantee that the city would not be out money if TIF revenues don’t materialize, though it’s unclear what that protection would look like.
“The way I look at it is is we are simply talking, negotiating,” said Councilman John Thompson. “Ultimately if the project plan and development don’t have sufficient protections for the city, then I would have no problem not approving this ultimately in the future.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2019 at 5:02 PM.
