ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Plans for renovations to Liberal’s downtown area took a step forward Tuesday evening thanks to action from the Liberal City Commission.
The commission’s main focus of the evening was discussion of a request for qualifications (RFQ) for a Downtown Redevelopment Master Plan.
“Activation and redevelopment of Downtown Liberal through investments in public spaces and infrastructure was identified as a key goal in the Launch Liberal 2035 Comprehensive Plan. Working with experts in city planning, engineering, and design to create a redevelopment plan which considers a holistic approach to both the form and function of built public spaces will help provide us with a cost-effective, phased approach to creating a thriving Downtown district,” Chief Communications Officer Keeley Young said. “A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will allow us to solicit subject-matter experts to conduct public engagement and research activities to produce a Downtown Redevelopment Master Plan which assesses current economic and market data; identifies market opportunities for additional retail, office, civic, and residential uses; and provides visual design depictions for transportation systems, infrastructure, street-scape, and public space components which support connectivity and placemaking goals. The final plan will be utilized by the City of Liberal, developers, and other stakeholders as a guide towards achieving the future vision. Through this proposed RFQ process, staff will request interested firms to provide a résumé of personnel, a description of all services available, professional client references, copies of downtown master plans they have prepared, examples of successful engagement strategies from past projects, and a detailed work plan schedule timeline for completing the Downtown Redevelopment Master Plan. Staff will then evaluate submitted RFQs to identify a company with which to negotiate a final scope of services and cost of deliverables to be presented to the commission for final approval.”
Young also shared what would be included in terms of the scope of work.
“We would definitely like these firms to take a look at placemaking, which is the urban design side of everything, public art and other similar activities and events and how that could better function downtown,” Young said. “We would also want there to be consideration of the business and economic development portion of things and whether or not there are different policies and/or investments we need to be making in order to help with promoting the downtown area as a place to establish a business. Parking and overall mobility is another factor that should be considered in what we’re looking for throughout the course of our master plan because we would be looking for there to be traffic studies and similar work to be done. Engineers would need to be brought in to take a look, measure everything out and decide whether or not there are changes that need to happen downtown to help not only drivers but also pedestrians, I feel like that’s a missing component in our downtown area we’ve all recognized. Something else that would need to be looked at is the overall streetscape and infrastructure – if there are a bunch of changes looking to happen, we also need to consider what’s happening underneath the streets. I know we’ve got some drainage issues we’ve identified downtown, so having a look at how we could address that would also be beneficial, and how it could be done to help both form and function.”
All of that, Young said, would then come together.
“We would ask for an action plan and implementation strategy to be submitted with everything else,” Young said. “This is something that’s very common, and I’ve reviewed both Dodge City and Garden City and how they worked out their Comprehensive Plan and their master plan for their downtown areas. Looking at those, we like the plans can break out in phases in terms of what a street design over time might look like because obviously, there are those bigger projects where you can’t do everything all at once. This is really allowing us to put this out for firms to reach out and provide their qualifications so we can determine if there’s one we would like to move forward with and work with. And there are multiple ways to do that, including sharing on our Web site and sharing through bid postings. We do know of several companies in Kansas who do these types of plans, and they’ve worked with other cities, and that information is easy to look up if necessary.”
After some more discussion, the commission ultimately unanimously approved a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will allow the City to solicit subject-matter experts to conduct public engagement and research activities to produce a Downtown Redevelopment Master Plan.
The meeting also saw many City of Liberal employees recognized for their time working with the city. Those recognized for 10 years of service were Erick Rodriguez, Daniel Loesch, Albert Young, Keith Bridenstine, James Jackson, Samuel Cruz, Manuel Jurado, Christy Kirk, and David Lapoint. Those recognized for 15 years of service were Candace Swier and Matthew Williams, and those recognized for 20 years of service were Cody Regier, Ragan Dreitz, and Shawnna Shuck. Those recognized for 25 years of service were Nathan Abel, Lisa Macias and Brad Beer.
The commission concluded the meeting’s new business by unanimously approving a Water Utility Transfer to the General Fund in the amount of $1,100,000. Executive session also took place, after which the commission voted to move City Manager Scarlette Diseker’s pay to $180,000.
