As housing demand grows in Manhattan, city leaders struggle to move projects forward amid disagreements over funding.<\/p>\n
Manhattan Mayor Susan Adamchak, who joined KMAN\u2019s Within Reason with Mike Matson earlier this month, said she\u2019s proud of the city\u2019s accomplishments on housing over the past two years, but admits getting the USD 383 school board, Riley County and Manhattan commissions to fully agree on housing projects has been difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had one project we tried to bring forward last year, which encompassed 40 different housing units, and the county was not persuaded that this was worth the investment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As previously reported by The Mercury, Riley County unanimously voted in June 2025 to strike down a city proposal to use Reinvestment Housing Incentive District funding, a state tax incentive, for a 40-unit duplex project on Little Kitten Avenue.<\/p>\n
During a March 11 city commission meeting discussion on housing policy, commissioner Larry Fox supported the county\u2019s decision and said RHIDs weren\u2019t fitting to use for a city of Manhattan\u2019s size. Commissioner Andrew Von Lintel also opposed their use, outright saying, \u201cIf they come to me, I\u2019ll just vote no for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fox and Von Lintel are two of the three new commissioners sworn in this year.<\/p>\n
Adamchak said she viewed the housing units as a way to support Manhattan\u2019s ongoing housing needs and hopes the project\u2019s concept isn\u2019t completely abandoned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see this as a public tool that we can use to help support a common good that we need in our community,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see that taken out of our toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n
With three new commissioners elected in November, Adamchak said priorities have shifted. She said she disagrees with statements made from constituents who told commissioners that they didn\u2019t feel heard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do listen and I hear what people say,\u201d she said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re always going to change my mind on my decision making. I have changed my vote on several occasions based on feedback from the community, and I probably will do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adamchak said votes often come down to more than information provided from constituents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to say we\u2019re making decisions that are not transparent, but we have reams of materials that we read for each commission meeting,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve had the wonderful experience of going to both, to state conferences, I\u2019ve gone to two national conferences. I can benefit from that experience and from that knowledge that I am getting from outside sources that the person standing at the podium may not have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adamchak said the current housing policy will be revised based on the commission\u2019s successes and challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As housing demand grows in Manhattan, city leaders struggle to move projects forward amid disagreements over funding. Manhattan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63,87],"class_list":["post-176324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}