The Blue Springs City Council's good, bad and ugly

One thumbs up and two thumbs down for the Blue Springs City Council this week.

A compromise was reached by the developer of a retail/office project and the Blue Springs City Council last week concerning an access entry off the Parkway. Instead of having an in/out entry directly onto the Parkway, the project will now have only a right-turn entry. We editorialized in this space last week that the project was a good one, but the Parkway should be kept clean of curb cuts other than at the stoplights to avoid it becoming another Missouri 7, known for its frustratingly slow crawl.

We still would have preferred a clean curb along the Parkway, but a thumbs up anyway to the city for working out a compromise that at least limits the access to one way and only with an extended turning lane.

Council Member Lyle Shaver, however, was right in lamenting what will happen to bicyclists. The Parkway was once lauded for its walking and bicycling trails, but they appear to be dwindling in space and desirability.

Council Member Ron Fowler voted against the project because he didn’t want the city to set a precedent, another valid concern. City officials should try to preserve that intention for future projects.

A thumbs down, however, to the council on another matter. Despite initial objections, the council unanimously approved an option to start at a later date the formation of a community improvement district for the Adams Dairy Landing development (with Target and Lowe’s as exceptions), which would mean another one-cent sales tax on top of a one-cent transportation district sales tax, which is part of the funding mechanism for the entire project, along with property tax relief in the way of tax increment financing.

When does it end?

I am sure the council doesn’t want to jeopardize the entire Landing project, which is what they were told a no vote would do, but those are the kinds of moves that make citizens wary of government. The possibility of a second sales tax was never brought up when the project was initially conceived and approved.

It also makes the council’s rather brash, treatment of Central Jackson County Fire District officials at the meeting Monday seem hypocritical, at the least, and worthy of a thumbs down. Council members skeptically questioned and seemed disapproving of the fire district’s sales tax proposal, which would be fine in itself if the city didn’t have its own questionable tax issues. Mayor Carson Ross has come out publicly against the CJC issue. The CJC proposal, however, which also lowers property taxes at the same time, must be approved by the voting public, in contrast to council-approved transportation district and community improvement district taxes, like the one that slipped through this Monday with little public warning or fanfare.

Hopefully, the CID tax will never come to fruition for shoppers of the Landing, as we were told it was only a fallback option not likely to be needed. But it is a symbol that such funding tools are becoming all too common for every new project that hits the drawing board.

We’re not against the use of a transportation district tax or a community improvement district tax for important community developments like the Landing or the arena project in Independence, but not both at the same time. The public is getting tired of tax increases, and these non-voter approved “funding tools” on specific projects only make it harder for cities to get more important issues, like for police staffing or better parks, passed by tax-weary voters.