GODDARD, Kan. (KSNW) – The Sedgwick County Commission unanimously decided against a Re-investment Housing Incentive District (RHID) on Wednesday, which would have helped create a 100-unit apartment complex in Goddard.

RHIDs set aside property taxes to support projects.

The developers say they need the $3.5 million in taxpayer support to make a 6% profit. Without it, they would lose money and say they wouldn’t move forward.

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City leaders from Goddard are backing the project. They say they’ve had zero Class A apartments that have higher quality construction in the past 50 years.

Commissioners cited multiple reasons the county voted not to back this project, including a study done by the economic team at Wichita State University that found the county would be receiving a return on investment of only 28 cents on every dollar from this project.

County staff said the $1.4 million the county would contribute over the two decades RHID existed would be hurtful. Deputy CFO for Sedgwick County, Division of Finance, Brent Shelton, added that the return on investment for the county fire district is even worse.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Sarah Lopez is also concerned. She said that the developer is delinquent on owed taxes.

Lopez said the developer could not confirm if the apartments would be reasonably priced.

“If we don’t even know if it’s $900 or $2,200, without specifics, it would be really hard for us to say we’re doing the right thing for affordable housing to pass this,” said Lopez.

Sedgwick County Commissioner David Dennis says an acceptable return on investment would be at least one-to-one. Dennis adds the developer could not confirm whether rent prices would be $900 or $2,200, causing concern that they may not be reasonably priced.

“The policy we put together focuses on infill, focuses on low-income housing, and those are the things we’re looking for to make sure we have a good return on investment because it’s taxpayers’ money that we’re using,” said Dennis.

Commissioners say they put together a policy on how they will handle RHIDs in the future.

“We had to do some quick research and figure out what’s going on and look at the future of Sedgwick County because not just Goddard can do this, but we got 20 cities in Sedgwick County,” said Dennis.

He said similar projects are happening without RHID funding, and he believes the developer could move forward without the $3.5 million.

“I see apartments going on all over the country. Maize is booming, they’re building apartments everywhere, and they’re not using these types of incentives,” said Dennis.

The City of Goddard sent the following statement to KSN:

“While we are disappointed with the outcome, we respect the decision made by the Sedgwick County Board of County Commissioners and look forward to collaborating with them on other important issues in the future. As to the future of the Goddard Housing project, we will take time to process today’s decision before discussing further,” said Goddard City Administrator Craig R. Crossette.

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Representatives for the developer and the City of Goddard left the meeting quickly and declined multiple asks for comment.

During the next legislative session, the county plans to ask for more of a say about RHIDs. Currently, counties have to either approve everything, or nothing at all.

Lopez said they would be willing to approve an RHID request in the future that aligns with their infill and affordable housing requirements.

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