photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Clearfield United Methodist Church is pictured Thursday, March 31, 2022. The church is located in an unincorporated area 9 miles east of Baldwin City, called Clearfield, where residents have filed a petition to be incorporated as a city.

After residents of the unincorporated community of Clearfield — located 9 miles northeast of Baldwin City — filed a petition earlier this week to be incorporated as a city, Douglas County officials are working on the next steps in that process.

The next substantial step is a hearing before the Douglas County Commission; commissioners set that hearing for June 15 at Wednesday’s commission meeting. Before that hearing, though, there’s a lengthy to-do list to ensure that the process aligns with state statute, Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew told the Journal-World.

Shew said he had been working with the Clearfield residents seeking incorporation for about a month, during which time he and other county officials have been examining their petition to make sure it’s complete. That includes checking some basic requirements, as a petition for incorporation must be signed by at least 50 registered voters and the community itself must have at least 250 inhabitants. Shew said they checked those boxes with 52 signatures verified and a proposed population of 415 residents.

Ultimately, the Douglas County Commission will decide whether Clearfield will be incorporated as a city, Shew said. The commissioners will have to approve it unanimously, and Shew said it’s likely that the process won’t end with the hearing in June, given that commissioners will have to consider more than a dozen factors, including things like the likelihood of significant growth there or in adjacent areas during the next 10 years and proximity to other cities. The commission will also be able to hear from residents who live in the area and from expert consultants.

“I can’t speak for the commissioners, but I would assume (it takes multiple months),” Shew said. “I think they are taking this very seriously, and they want to look at each one of those items pretty in-depth.”

This process doesn’t happen often in Kansas, Shew said, but nearby Miami County went through it just last year, and theirs was a months-long process. Residents in an unincorporated area wanted to incorporate a new city named Golden; they ultimately failed because the Miami County Commission didn’t vote unanimously to approve their petition. Miami County Counselor Shelley Woodard told the Journal-World Thursday that a group of residents has since filed suit to have that decision overturned, and that litigation is still ongoing.

Litigation aside, Douglas County will likely look toward Miami County’s experience for guidance, Shew said. More immediately, Shew said, his office would have to begin the process of notifying the public of the hearing. To Shew’s knowledge, state law on incorporating cities hasn’t been updated since the 1950s, so some requirements are less than modernized. One example is a requirement to post a paper copy of the hearing notice in no fewer than three public spaces in the area wishing to be incorporated.

“I don’t know, before Miami County, when the last (time this happened) in Kansas was,” Shew said. “… Sometimes the law is very vague, but (this one) is very specific about the things that need to be taken into consideration. I think that’s going to help a lot.”

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The Clearfield School is pictured Thursday, March 31, 2022. The old schoolhouse, located in the unincorporated area of Clearfield, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

The Journal-World on Thursday wasn’t able to reach Carrie Brandon, who’s listed as City of Clearfield Committee chair on petition materials submitted to the county, for further comment about why residents in the area would like to incorporate; a message to her provided email address returned an automated reply that she’s away until April 6.

However, those petition materials do include a list of reasons those who have signed desire their own city government and services. Some of those reasons include access to state revenue, improved utility services and further control over the level of services provided to residents.

The possible development of a utility-scale solar energy farm in the area may also play a role in why some residents signed on. NextEra, a Florida-based energy firm, has expressed interest in developing a solar farm that would partially be located in southeast Douglas County, in the same area Clearfield is looking to be incorporated.

At least one individual whose name appears on the list of petition signatures — Barbara Kerr — is opposed to that development, saying as much in a Your Turn submission that was published in the Journal-World last October. That submission calls the industrial solar plan a “cynical project planned by a tax credit-fueled energy giant for profit alone, with little care about the human costs.”

The Journal-World reached out to Kerr for comment about why she wants to see Clearfield incorporated, but attempts to reach her by phone and email were unsuccessful.

Brandon, for her part, seems to be active with a group called Kansans for Responsible Solar, based on her public Facebook activity. That group has maintained a presence at past Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission meetings where solar regulations were discussed, and is critical of firms like NextEra.

The petition contains two other possible references to the topic of energy development. One states that the incorporated city would be able to adopt its own planning and zoning regulations that will provide for controlled land use and protect against undesirable land-use patterns. Another states that incorporation would preserve the unity and values of the community and protect its rural character and quality of life.