(Atlantic) Site preparation is well underway for the Vision Atlantic initiative—a $75 million transformative project that includes new housing, a YMCA expansion, and a childcare development center.
Beginning today, KSOM/KS95 News will launch a weekly series of updates, offering listeners and readers exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into this groundbreaking effort. We’ll speak with the key leaders driving the project forward.
Our first installment features Vision Atlantic President Christina Bateman and Vice President Nick Hunt, who outline the initiative’s overall scope and purpose.
According to Bateman, the project’s roots go back to 2021, when several community groups independently worked on various aspects of community development.
Batema explains that the next step was finding practical ways to bring those early ideas to life. In 2022, Vision Atlantic was officially formed to address the community’s housing needs and explore how the community’s needs could be met. One of the group’s actions was contacting the group’s foundation to inquire about potential grant funding for infrastructure, specifically road development.
Bateman acknowledged that lifelong community leaders, the late Don Sonntag and Bob Camblin, were aging, and others needed to step up and lead the community into the future. Nick Hunt added that Don Sonntag was, for several years, the principal housing developer in this community.
The housing development will feature 144 mixed units, including townhomes, duplexes, single-family homes, and purchasable lots, along with a community park and a biking and walking trails network. A major contributor to the project, the Charles E. Lakin Foundation, is investing $23 million in housing capital. In addition, the new Child Development Center aims to significantly reduce the local childcare waiting list, offering capacity for up to 300 children. Complementing this is a $16 million expansion of the YMCA, designed to provide state-of-the-art facilities for the entire community.
Bateman noted that Atlantic has the highest percentage of aging housing stock compared to its peer communities. She also pointed out that Atlantic has the lowest rate of newly built homes among similarly sized cities across the state.
Nick Hunt says that this project’s three Phases all fit together.
This marks the first installment in a series of stories we’ll cover throughout this significant development we’ll elect in Atlantic. Next week, on Wednesday, May 7, KSOM and KS95 News will sit down with Christina Bateman, and committee members Ted Robinson and Bailey Smith for the next segment in the series.
The entire interview is posted under this story on our website, westerniowatoday.com.
