HOT SPRINGS - Hot Springs officials are set to vote this week on a budget that includes $50,000 to develop a plan for the property where the Majestic Hotel once stood.
The city demolished the landmark hotel after a fire destroyed it in 2014, the Sentinel-Record reported. City Manager David Frasher said any development plan needs to play up the city's namesake thermal water.
Frasher said the water is intrinsic to the city yet inconspicuous to visitors. He said raising its profile should be fundamental to development plans for the site.
"Somebody who named this place was so taken by the hot springs that they named it that," Frasher said at the city's budget presentation last week. "When you think about naming your city after a geographic feature, what if you named your city Canyon, and you got there and the canyon was covered up by a bath house? It would be a strange thing."
Frasher is urging a bold approach to the development. He told officials the property should generate 15,000 visitors a month.
The Hot Springs Board of Directors is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the budget.
A portion of the $50,000 will allow Hot Springs to participate in a program called Kansas State University Targeted Assistance to Brownfield, or TAB. The TAB program helps communities find new purposes for properties where other developments used to be located. The program will create architectural renderings of ideas to visualize development goals.
City officials have said the public will help decide how the property is developed. Dates are being set for workshops that TAB will facilitate. The city has to secure an environmental release for the property before any plan can move forward.
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