Describing the more-than-hundred page document as an attempt to set guidelines for land use and direction for upcoming development decisions, BNIM’s Steve Hardy handed copies of a rough draft of Phase II of Greensburg’s Master Plan to the newly comprised city council last week before hitting highlights of the details inside the cover.
  With only hard copies before the council and mayor, those looking on had to rely on Hardy’s description and slides of select pages to get a sense of what the proposed plan is suggesting.
   An area on which Hardy spent considerable time was that of energy, saying the plan suggested the City eventually reap “around four megawatts” of electricity from wind generation, with the ability to purchase “green power” off the grid when “the wind’s not blowing.”  He also said NREL had submitted the suggested goal of achieving a minimum 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency in residences, 40 percent in businesses, the agency saying such savings would be possible “without a great increase in cost.”
   Also suggested is a two-step building permitting process, whereby the builder would submit plans detailing the level of energy efficiency.  If the respective 30 or 40 percent efficiency improvement were not indicated in the plans, the City would issue recommendations as to how the levels could be attained, with opportunity to resubmit the plans once amended.  “That’s one way to approach it,” Hardy commented.
    Though mass transit typical of a more urban setting isn’t a possibility in Greensburg, Hardy said other means of encouraging people to move about in town by means other than personal vehicle are feasible.  By way of example, he named a program in Tulsa whereby residents can rent a bicycle free of charge with the swipe of a credit card, which frees the bike from its locked position.  Once the bike is returned to another locking station, the charge isß removed from the card.
   As for economic development, Hardy said an eco-industrial park is “still a real possibility” northeast of town and could make a “big difference in attracting” new, green businesses and even new tourists.  He also pointed to agri-tourism possibly intertwining with eco-tourism.  Hardy likewise pointed to the probable completion of the business incubator by October as “good news” in regard to the concern for getting pre-existing businesses “back up and running.”
   Hardy’s associate, Rachel Wedel, spoke to the issue of housing, likening the question of whether jobs or housing comes first to the “age-old matter of which comes first, the chicken or the egg?”  Citing the housing crunch as a “challenge needing to be looked at for the next three to five years,” Wedel pointed to the need for a diversity of housing options, including townhomes, duplexes, and four acre lots with four-bedroom homes.  She also said thought should be given to how “houses relate to a street,” in the sense of whether houses are more “automobile or pedestrian,” related.  This she characterized by asking whether a house would feature a driveway or expansive front porch.
   Wedel also mentioned the rough draft commending the pre-tornado ratio of rental to private ownership housing of 30 to 70 percent, and recommending a similar ratio be the goal for the future community.
   Aaron Ross was the third and last BNIM planner to speak to the rough draft’s contents, focusing on parks and green corridors.  Ross mentioned the City looking at LED lighting for areas in town not calling for decorative fixtures, LED fixtures being highly efficient with an expected life span of 20 years.
   He covered areas previously discussed, such as using both native and xeric plantings in the downtown, street-scaped areas—xeric plants being those not native to the area but possessing similar water needs.   Development of five main recreational areas were touched on, including the rodeo grounds/state fishing lake area; downtown streetscape; Memorial Park (around the Big Well and City Hall); the new Davis Park to be relocated and integrated into the new school campus on the south edge of town; and walking/nature trail network, which includes a long-term goal of a linear trail system eventually interconnecting the lake and rodeo ground, as well as the parks.
   The plan includes a land use map to be employed by the planning commission.  The planning commission, in fact, will get a chance to discuss Phase II of the plan at its May 14 meeting.  If okayed by that group, final approval will be up to the city council at its meeting of May 19.
Council affirms planning group’s vote…
   The city council took time at its May 5 meeting to consider and eventually endorse a pair of zoning decisions previously reached by the planning commission at its April 16 meeting.  The first was the planning and zoning commission’s approval of Richard Koehn’s request to install a single section manufactured home at 623 North Main.  According to community development director Mike Gurnee, a “manufactured home” had been located on the site before May 4, 2007.  Council passed ordinance 951—which affirmed the planning group’s approval of Koehn’s request—unanimously.
   The council likewise backed up the commission’s 4-1 vote to deny a request by Northwest Management, LLC for Bobbi Fisher, to change the zoning at 503 S Elm from R-1A single family to RP-2 multi-family residential to allow a two family duplex on the site.  Gurnee reported eight neighborhood families had protested the request at the public hearing of April 16.  One neighbor spoke up at the council meeting, saying she “opposed this because this has been a single family residence neighborhood for as long as I can remember.”  With council member Matt Christenson abstaining because of “indirect connections to this particular case” the remaining members voted 4-0 to uphold the planning commission’s denial of the request.
  Councilman Gary Goodheart suggested during the discussion preceding the vote that the City “plan for an attractive manufactured home park in the future.”  While one resident had suggested opening up an RV park on a temporary, two-year basis, City Administrator Steve Hewitt downplayed the feasibility of such an approach, saying, “If someone’s going to invest money in an RV park for two-year use, they’re probably not going to get a return on their funds.”
  Hewitt also suggested a proposed resolution allowing for the re-establishment of “pre-existing manufactured home and recreational vehicle parks within the City” with three modifications of code, be rewritten with “language that concentrates more on an RV rather than manufactured home park for now” and brought back for consideration by the council at its May 19 meeting.  Council concurred.