if somebody’s proposing to build something in your neighborhood, you’d probably like to know about it. And if it’s something that will alter the character of your neighborhood or affect your property value, you’d probably want to have a voice in the city’s zoning approval process, right? Those questions are being grappled with at Wichita City Hall and the City Council was briefed on various options this week, but it really comes down to two key questions: ▪ Who should receive a letter from the city notifying them when projects are proposed near their home? ▪ Whose input should trigger discussion of projects at the City Council level. Most cities just notify the property owners within 200 feet of a development plan. Wichita starts there, but expands the notification zone out as far as 1,000 feet for larger projects, based on the acreage of the project, said Scott Wadle, director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Department. At Tuesday’s City Council workshop meeting, Johnson suggested that the mailed-notification area should be at least 500 feet. To return to our football analogy, that would be about 1 2/3 football fields. The rest of the council seemed a bit chilly toward expanding the notification zone. The reason is cost.
Source: Wichita Eagle
