After more than two years of discussion, the Shawnee County Commission voted 2-1 Monday to approve the county’s first-ever comprehensive land use plan.
Commissioners Kevin Cook and Shelly Buhler voted in favor of the nearly 200-page plan, which will guide decision-making about the physical development of the county’s unincorporated areas for 20 years while serving as a blueprint for future growth and the preservation of agricultural land. Cook described the plan as being a “compromise” between various interests.
Commissioner Bob Archer dissented, saying the plan had little or no public support and he didn’t trust much of the data it contained. The plan seeks to guide orderly growth that balances environmental values and reasonable development demand. Commissioners Cook and Buhler had said it was important for the county to enact a comprehensive plan because owners of land in a 3-mile jurisdiction just outside Topeka city limits in unincorporated Shawnee County have no representation when the city’s governing body makes moves to regulate planning and zoning in that area.
The county’s approval of a comprehensive plan will give those landowners representation by giving the county a say in those matters, they said.
(Read more: News – The Topeka Capital-Journal)