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—-By Pauline Masson – In its quest to add more rooftops that can help attract retail development, the City of Pacific scouted building sites for McBride Homes. They found twelve properties in the city, totaling 275 acres, that are available for residential development. The sites were illustrated with location maps and names of owners in a formal presentation to the builder.
In an August 22, 2021 email from Alderman Andrew Nemeth to acting mayor Herb Adams, the aldermen, and city administrator Steve Roth – with the subject “McBride Presentation” – Nemeth said the presentation would ask McBride what the builder sees as the future and ask how the City could be part of it.
Karla Amos-Stewart, with the organization Pacific Zoning Matters (PZM), obtained copies of the presentation in a Sunshine Request involving the Manors at Brush Creek subdivision and posted them on the PZM Facebook page.
Amos-Stewart said opponents of the controversial Lamar Parkway subdivision, Manors at Brush Creek, were concerned that aldermen were earmarking prize locations to McBride Homes that they (aldermen) would then be responsible for zone changes and/or PUD approvals to enable McBride to build on the sites.
When a city is committed to growth as the best avenue to generate the needed revenue to provide for its citizens, identifying building sites might be a reasonable, or even good direction, Amos-Stewart said. But the fact that the planned presentation was made to only one builder, and that one builder is known to build high density subdivisions, raises concerns about the city’s strategy for the future.
Following is Nemeth’s email.
“Attached is the McBride presentation. I will be printing this for them rather than going through a slide show which are never fun. I would envision this being more of us asking them questions of what they see in the future and how we can be part of it.”
Nemeth identified twelve possible building sites in Pacific where McBride could develop subdivisions:
Two parcels totaling 23.92 acres with frontage to Osage that would be perfect for multi-use development, owned by LL Acquisitions LLC;
Four parcels, totaling 77.34 acres with access to Hogan and Thornton roads, owned by Lamar Capital Investments;
One 46.1 acre parcel owned by Keith Bruns with had access to Hwy N, potential access to Old Grey Suit Road;
Two parcels totaling 25.5 acres east of a subdivision with an entrance at the rear of the property owned by William Divine;
Three parcels totaling 102 acres located east of an existing subdivisions and west of a subdivision under development, owned by Old Grey Summit LLC;
Amos-Stewart said the main concern was that only McBride was identified to receive information on the building sites.
“They (McBride) traditionally build high design subdivisions,” Amos-Stewar said. “If the city has a program to promote residential growth that might be a legitimate activity for city leaders, but shouldn’t other developers be asked to look at our choice pieces of land?” Amos-Stewart asked.
The email and presentation details can be read on the Pacific Zoning Matters Facebook page by clicking on the circular PZM logo at the top right of the page.
I have to tell you . . . as a seasoned journalist I recognize that the city fathers are sincere in their belief that growth, and lots of it, is in the best interest of the city. At the same time, citizens have a right to question how much and how fast the growth would come, as well as the location.
One of the reasons all parties are taking a hard look at this now is the looming date of next week’s municipal election. Voters can opt in for heady growth or controlled growth by the candidates they choose.
Hometown Matters attempted to contact Alderman Nemeth to see if he wanted to comment on the presentation. The answering message on his phone number said, “This caller is not accepting calls as this time.” A text message asking him if he would like to comment was not answered.
City of Pacific needs to resolve the sewer, water & electrical issues, as well as the lawsuit(s) on the current residential areas under construction. It doesn’t matter how many resident houses are built if there is still no land available for commercial sites!
Question, is this presentation part of “the deal’ that the Alderman were so apposed to break “at the finish line”. a secret deal to give McBride some ‘no bid’ properties in exchange for allowing violation of some pesky zoning rule.?
If it looks bad and smells bad it mite be a duck.
City cries that they need more tax paying roof tops. The eight ‘extra” lots that the City allowed to be squeezed in at Brush Creek would only replace about 35% of the property taxes, per year, they lost by the ‘ tax deal ‘ they made on the Lazzy Larry property.
Growth is good and needed but only if it is done fairly and follows the plans and rules set forth in the zoning ordinances , and represents a fair deal to the land owners.