The proposed Kansas Outdoor Lifestyle Center at Clinton Lake would be a 1,500-acre facility hosting outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting and kayaking, zip lines, biking, running, hiking, climbing and paddle boarding.

I’ve been getting questions about whitewater rafting, and for once, they don’t involve the phrase “can you swim to the lifeline?” No, this is about a 1,500-acre outdoor recreation facility that would feature a man-made whitewater rafting course, kayaking, zip lines and other outdoor activities at Clinton Lake State Park.

In case you missed it, City Hall reporter Rochelle Valverde reported on the project in today’s paper, and alerted us that developers will be in town Tuesday to pitch the concept to city commissioners.

The question I’ve been getting is: Who are these developers?

The simple answer is they are part of a company — Plei — that developed the large U.S. National Whitewater Center on the Catawba River near Charlotte, N.C.

More on that project in a second, but first I should remind you that this whitewater idea didn’t just suddenly materialize. You may remember that the secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism has brought the idea up before. We reported back in August of 2014 that state leaders were hosting officials with the U.S. National Whitewater Center. At the time, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism Secretary Robin Jennison said such a development “probably would be the second biggest thing the state has done for tourism, next to the NASCAR track.”

The proposed Kansas Outdoor Lifestyle Center at Clinton Lake would be a 1,500-acre facility hosting outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting and kayaking, zip lines, biking, running, hiking, climbing and paddle boarding.

So, that’s how we got here.

Jennison, at the time, also said the state needed to get more aggressive in offering nontraditional outdoor activities to keep up with the changing tastes of tourists. That may be where this discussion is headed next.

If you start searching for information about the U.S. National Whitewater Center, you’ll find quite a few news articles out of North Carolina. Certainly there have been some good reviews of the project. Parks and recreation officials in the Charlotte area call it a world-class recreational attraction.

Most of the recent articles, however, were about how the park this summer drained its whitewater course for a time period in response to reports that a rafter had the facility had died from a brain-eating amoeba.

But it also doesn’t take much reading to determine the project has been in the news for financial reasons too. The project has been heavily subsidized by local governments there, and still has had some financial difficulties. The last such article I found was in March 2014 when The Charlotte Observer wrote about county officials there debating whether to make a final $1 million subsidy payment to the development.

According to the article, a combination of six local governments agreed to provide the project up to $12 million in “service fees” as part of the project, which opened in 2006. In addition, the article noted that a group of lenders in 2010 ended up forgiving about $38 million in debt — or about two-third’s of the project’s mortgage — after the development suffered during the Great Recession.

Workers install siding on the overlook at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, June 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

But, if you also carefully read The Observer article, there are signs the development had begun to turn around its financial performance. In 2014, the article indicated the development turned a $4 million operating profit.

So, none of this is to say that the idea behind this development is good or bad. I mainly was interested in finding out whether Tuesday’s study session is the beginning of what could turn into a request for a large subsidy or incentive package from local governments.

City Manager Tom Markus told me that is not necessarily the case. The project may need some incentives, but he has other thoughts about who could provide them.

“This really is an initiative by the state, and the state came to us with it,” Markus said. “Quite frankly, they may be in search of a partner on this. I would like to see the state take the lead on this. Maybe more of the funding could be provided on their (the state’s) end.”

City officials likely would have a role to play in the development, though. The project, which is proposed to include a conference center with about 6,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant beer garden and other amenities, likely will need city water and sewer service.

The proposed Kansas Outdoor Lifestyle Center at Clinton Lake would be a 1,500-acre facility hosting outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting and kayaking, zip lines, biking, running, hiking, climbing and paddle boarding.

Extending city utilities to the site will come with a cost, but Markus said his staff hasn’t yet begun to make any analysis of whether it would be beneficial for the city to extend those services.

“The only objective I have at this point,” Marcus said of Tuesday’s study session, “is to expose the concept in a very public way. We haven’t figured out anything in terms of whether we participate or not.”

Markus, though, said the idea is intriguing.

“I think it is the type of project that could be an attractor for the whole state,” Markus said. “I actually like the idea of going to a more natural setting for this type of activity. Obviously there will be persons who will push back that they don’t want this much activity in the natural areas. But if we are going to get people interested in our wild areas, you have to have things to bring them there.”

Members of the U.S. National Whitewater Center are expected to be at Tuesday’s study session to present the concept and answer questions from commissioners.