Wichita psychiatric hospital clears final hurdle as City Council approves rezoning

Update, May 14: The City Council approved the zoning proposal 7-0 with one notable amendment.

At the recommendation of Dalton Glasscock, the council struck a provision that would have allowed for a “day reporting center” at the hospital site or on the surrounding property, and added a new provision specifically prohibiting the operation of a work release program on the property.

State and county officials both told The Eagle they had no plans to operate a wok release program. The language about the day reporting center was initially added because the hospital will technically be classified as a correctional facility under the zoning code.

Original story, May 13: A lobbying push to relocate Sedgwick County’s planned psychiatric hospital has officially stalled out. Now, an increase in state funding will allow the south Wichita facility to double its bed capacity.

The project will face its last major hurdle Tuesday when the Wichita City Council votes on a rezoning proposal for the MacArthur and Meridian site, which could pave the way for construction to begin in November.

Because 12 nearby residents filed protest petitions against bringing the hospital to their neighborhood, the zoning proposal will require a supermajority of at least six votes on the seven-person council to succeed.

“I’ve got a lot of history in this neighborhood,” said Michael Akright, who lives in a house on MacArthur that his family built in the 1950s.

“I understand you need your criminal state mental hospital. Let’s call it what it is. There’s criminals in there,” Akright told the planning commission last month. “They don’t belong in my neighborhood. They don’t belong [within a] mile of the YMCA, outdoor soccer field, indoor soccer field, outdoor kids’ pools, several mobile home parks, a lot of families within a mile.”

Half of the beds in the new facility will be dedicated to acute in-patient care and the other half will be for people charged with crimes who need to be evaluated for competency to stand trial. Sedgwick County Jail inmates in need of a competency exam wait an average of 130 days for a bed to open up at either Larned or Osawatomie state hospitals, the county has said. Some have to wait 300 days or more.

The county is responsible for constructing the hospital before it is turned over the state for operation. Assistant County Manager Tania Cole said it will essentially be a secure correctional facility in a hospital setting.

“We are putting in correctional-grade hardware — doors, master controls, cameras, security fencing,” Cole told the planning commission before its 9-1 vote in favor of approving the zoning proposal.

What will be allowed?

An extra $26.5 million hospital appropriation from the Kansas Legislature in recent weeks means the Wichita facility can be scaled up from 52 beds to 104 beds with Gov. Laura Kelly’s signature. The project has now secured $101.5 million in state and federal funding.

Jeff Lange’s community foundation is donating an 11-acre parcel on the southwest corner of MacArthur and Meridian for construction of the hospital. Ultimately, the plan is for the state facility to be the first project completed on a 77-acre behavioral health campus called OneRise.

The proposal calls for renaming the Brindle Meadows community unit plan OneRise, amending parcel development standards to allow for taller buildings with bigger floor plans, rezoning one parcel from general commercial district to limited industrial district and adding a number of permitted uses required to build a psychiatric hospital — “correctional facility, “correctional placement residence,” and “day reporting center.”

“I’ve heard concerns about that from neighbors in the immediate vicinity,” said council member Dalton Glassock, whose southwest Wichita district is set to house the facility.

“They have concerns about a potential work release facility being there in the future because the correctional placement zoning as written now would allow that as a use.”

State and county officials told The Eagle there’s no work release program component to the hospital project. People will be admitted to the hospital either as inmates or under court order to receive mental health treatment there.

“While it is an authorized category in the zoning type according to city ordinance, there are no plans to have a work release site at the hospital. There is no need for a day reporting site,” Cara Sloan-Ramos, a spokesperson with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, said in an email.

Still, Glasscock said he plans to suggest an amendment eliminating the day reporting center as a permitted use of the property “in an effort of good faith to the neighbors.” He said that should bolster support for the project as a whole.

“Overwhelmingly, people are saying that we have a need for the facility,” Glasscock said.

“We’re going to fill those beds immediately.”

Akright, the nearby resident, said it still doesn’t fit the character of his neighborhood.

“I agree you need it,” Akright said. “Let’s put it out on K-42 near Cessna or someplace like that. Get it further out. Get it in an industrial area. We don’t need our families around this stuff.”

Earlier this year, a lobbying effort spearheaded by former Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell aimed to persuade legislators the state facility should instead be built inside a renovated Riverside Hospital complex on west Central. That $67 million proposal gained some momentum with lawmakers but not enough to flip the recommendation of Gov. Kelly’s selection committee. The new money in the state budget is specifically for the MacArthur and Meridian site.

Car wash?

Somewhat oddly, the zoning proposal also calls for adding “car wash” to the list of permissible uses for the OneRise property. Matthew Tannehill, OneRise president, said that addition is a “technicality.”

“OneRise has no plans or anything in its current master plan to accommodate a car wash,” Tannehill said.

Brian Lindebak of MKEC Engineering, who represented the applicant at the planning commission last month, didn’t want to discount the idea.

“I thought if there was a car wash, perhaps it would be next to a QuikTrip (3945 S. Meridian) or something of that sort,” Lindebak said. “So that’s why we added it in there. Since we’re doing a zoning action anyways, we went ahead and added that in as a permitted use.”

Tannehill said as a whole, OneRise’s goal is to provide wraparound support services, including a health clinic, a childcare facility, either in-patient or out-patient substance abuse treatment and some sort of on-campus housing for people with specialized needs.

The state hospital, expected to be completed in October 2026, will likely be the first building erected on the vast expanse of empty land, he said. But that doesn’t mean the property is going to stay empty for long.

“One exciting thing that we’re going to be doing on campus while the land is still there and waiting for more buildings to be developed is we are partnering with ICT Farms to do a large farm on the campus that will be a way for community to engage and help through their program plant, harvest maintain the field,” Tannehill said. “We see this as also being an opportunity for workforce development in agriculture as well as opportunities to incorporate therapeutic offerings with nature.”

Clark Sparrow, whose elderly mother lives near the MacArthur and Meridian site, said he worries the hospital and behavioral health campus won’t provide the kind of community uplift that other development would.

“How about grocery stores? How about gas stations? How about churches? How about homes? Neighborhoods? Nope, we’re going to put a jail there,” Sparrow said at the planning commission meeting.

“Not only do the property values fall, but the socioeconomic status declines as well. Those that are currently in this area and don’t want to do this or live here will move.”

Tannehill promised the OneRise campus won’t be a liability or an eyesore.

“Safety and security is going to be paramount, but our other initiative within this is to create a place that’s beautiful, that people will want to be at, will be proud of.”