At Tuesday's Wichita City Council workshop, we received an update on work that continues at the Northwest water treatment plant.
Work on the 6 faulty clarifiers at the plant should be completed by early summer. A representative from Burns and McDonnel says thanks to the weather, they are about a month behind on applying protective coatings to the clarifiers.
Gary Janzen, Director of Public Works, said in an ideal world, the city would be handed the keys to the plant in September. He reiterated that a lot does need to fall into place to meet that target.
Council members also received an update on work underway around Equity Bank Park.
A mixed-use building, with retail space, a parking garage and apartments is planned for the northwest corner of Maple and McLean. It will be 7 stories tall and will have 192 apartments.
Some changes to the hotel were announced, to be constructed along the west bank of the Arkansas River. The affiliation was recently changed from Hyatt to Marriott and will have over 114 thousand square feet of space, with 160 keys.
Both projects should be mobilized in June with vertical construction starting before the end of July. The hotel is tentatively scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2028 while the mixed-use facility is completed by the end of July 2028.
Parking was a big part of the discussion Tuesday as well. The council discussed "back in parking", which has been illegal in city parking spaces since 2008. Drivers backing into spots have caused damage to property and parking enforcement's license tag readers can’t read the tag to check if parking fees were collected.
The city is holding off on citations for now as they explore next steps, like a warning citation for a first offense and additional signage.
The city began their new managed parking system last summer, in an effort to cover maintenance and operating costs of their parking assets.
