(The following story by Kevin Wright appeared on the Kansas City Star website on June 23, 2009.)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Gardner City Council opened the door Monday for Edgerton to expand it city limits all the way to Gardner’s southern boundary.
The council voted 3-2 in a special meeting to rescind all current agreements for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway intermodal and logistics park.
The resolution will force the council to de-annex the land in July and begin from square one with negotiations.
But the Allen Group, one of the principal developers in the project, is not interested in starting over with Gardner, said Bill Crandall, Kansas City president of the Allen Group.
“We (had) an agreement that was negotiated in good faith,” he said.
The Allen Group and BNSF must move forward with the project, Crandall said.
BNSF had put the intermodal project on hold because of the economy. The project received new life with the recent announcement that the Kansas Department of Transportation was trying to obtain $50 million in federal stimulus money for construction of the intermodal hub.
The Allen Group met with Edgerton officials Tuesday to begin negotiations on possible annexation of the hub and park.
Edgerton City Administrator David Dillner said it was just an initial meeting.
Pete Heaven, an attorney representing BNSF, said the Gardner council’s decision will not prevent the intermodal from developing, but he was disappointed to see almost two years of negotiations and work go to waste.
Skip Kalb, director of economic development for BNSF, said the railway will continue to work cooperatively with Gardner despite the decision, but they needed to have all the local agreements in place before Sept. 15 to receive a favorable rating in the stimulus money process.
Monday’s vote was the culmination of a two-year battle between pro- and anti-intermodal forces in Gardner.
Although voters approved annexation of the intermodal land by 72 percent in 2006 and the City Council approved the annexation, financial and project agreements 18 months later, opposition forces were able to obtain a majority on the Gardner council in April elections and brought the issue back to the table.
Councilman John Shepherd said there were too many unanswered questions about infrastructure costs such as improvements to Waverly Road, sewers, wastewater treatment and electricity, which made the city financially vulnerable. He said he could not support the current agreements and wanted to renegotiate. Council members Dan Thompson and Mary Peters agreed with him.
Council members Todd Winters and Steve Hale said the agreements were solid and the intermodal project would expand Gardner’s tax base, which currently relies on residential property taxes. Both council members said the other council members were just making excuses so they could nullify the agreements and prevent the intermodal from becoming part of Gardner.
Monday’s decision sends a bad message to developers — it tells them that Gardner is a difficult city to work with and that the council does not keep its word, Hale said.
Mayor David Drovetta said the decision could set Gardner’s economy back several years.
“All (developers) will know is that we said, ‘No,’ again,” he said.
Several people in the standing-room-only crowd at City Hall spoke both for and against the intermodal for two hours before the council discussed and voted on the issue.
“I don’t think we should be debating this,” Paul Jones said. “The people voted, and don’t go against the people.”