Kansas State University is continuing to develop it’s research park on the north side of the campus and looking for the best ways to do so.
The University’s north side is continuously growing whether its the construction of the power plant for the future National Bio and Agro 
Defense Facility, improvements and expansions to Bill Snyder Family Stadium, and the new Kansas Department of Agriculture building being built in the University’s research park.
To facilitate that growth both the City of Manhattan and the University have developed plans to help guide them in the right direction.
Kirk Schulz, KSU President said Tuesday night during a Manhattan City Commission work session that the question of how other areas have facilitated that growth needs to be asked. He presented examples of how other University’s have created research parks similar to the one created at KSU. One of the examples Schulz presented was the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center. He explained that it best represents an area similar to Kansas State.
“This is the model that, as we look out there, we think that this represents a little bit of the future that it can be if we focus around particular things where we can be really, really good in this area that capitalize on Manhattan, capitalize on Kansas, Riley County, and on Kansas State University,” Schulz said.
In order to make sure the University and City are moving in the right direction and looking at all angles with their plans that have been developed Schulz proposed integrating all of them to form one master plan.
“We need to hire a group and work together on making sure that we take all of these planning efforts and work together,” Schulz said.
In his proposal Schulz said that what he would like to do is put a task force together and select a consultant with representatives from the corridor constituents which includes the University, the foundation, athletics, and the community.
“Ruth Dyer, who led our campus master plan, is going to kind of lead the group and we want to ask the city staff and the city to partner with us on this.”
To integrate the plans it would cost an estimated $225,000, which Schulz said the University would provide $150,000 of that and asked that the city contribute the additional $75,000.
On top of the funding it would also include the city commission, city staff and University staff working together to,”make sure we come out of this with a plan that makes since, that works well for all of us and recognizes that at this end of campus and this part of Manhattan, we’ve got a lot of exciting things happening and we want to make sure we’ve got the infrastructure and planning to make sure it’s something we’re proud of.”
The city commissioners were all in favor of the plan and explained that the city’s $75,000 match could come out of economic development funds.
“I consider it infrastructure for the economic development money there. To me this is the perfect thing that this should be used for,” said Commissioner John Matta.
Commissioner Rich Jankovich said,” This is going to be a monster as it unfolds over the next, probably seven years. We’ve got to be in front of it all the time instead of trying to catch up, and I think that’s a great approach.”
Mayor Wynn Butler agreed on the funding source and also mentioned that he hopes that the plan takes a good hard look at security for NBAF. “If there’s any infrastructure things that have to do with that, because that’s something that’s always in the back of everyone’s mind. While there’s great economic things there, there is also an added security risk that we need to pay attention to as a part of it.”
The Commission did not take any action on funding the plan because Tuesday’s meeting was just a work session. The funding would need to be approved during a regular meeting.