Current discussions on changes to different zoning designations will continue through early December, and a potentially new category may well have more significant talks coming down the road.
Last week’s PlanELC zoning discussion featured information about industrial flex zoning, which would allow for a range of traditionally commercial-zoned businesses in an industrially-zoned area but would also bring new restrictions, including building height maximums and build-to lines much closer to streets than what industrial zoning now permits. Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas President Kent Heermann has concerns about available acreage, but he also has other concerns. He says an end result of flex zoning could be fewer industrial projects.
Emporia Zoning Specialist Joe Foster says concerns, both immediate and underlying, are addressed in the flex zoning proposal.
With Emporia’s growth patterns pushing to the west and northwest for years due to floodplains around the rest of the city, Lyon County Zoning and Floodplain Director Sam Seeley says flex zoning offers a wider range of opportunities for local business development.
Discussion currently has flex zoning perhaps overlapping Industrial Park IV just west of Emporia. Heermann says there is a 100-acre lot, a 26-acre lot and a 24-acre lot. By comparison, Park III has three buildable lots left, two of which are eight acres and one that’s 15 acres — far less than Simmons or Norfolk Iron and Metal, both of which were around 40 acres, or Hills Pet Nutrition, which is around 80 acres.
Over the past 25 years, Heermann says over 380 acres have been developed and another 360 have been added to the local inventory. He says the industrial-ready inventory shrinks from 150 acres to less than 40 if flex zoning is approved for Park IV.
More zoning discussions are coming, including a meeting on commercial zoning from 6-8 pm Thursday at the Trusler Business Center. Residential zoning issues will be discussed Dec. 5 from 6-8 pm at White Auditorium City Conference Room 1 AB. These discussions revolve around the second draft of the city-county regulatory plan, and Seeley anticipates at least a third draft being discussed before a final plan is hammered out.
