To the editor:

Loren McVey’s recent comments about the May 22 planning commission meeting and the broken state of our local government are no exaggeration.

When notified of the development proposal for the area south and west of Sixth Street and Folks Road, our neighborhood began studying the issue and the planning process. We found Horizon 2020 specific about infill development. It leaves no doubt that the proposal is inappropriate. We studied the accepted practices of good planning as codified in Kansas’ and other states’ laws. The proposal is in blatant violation of all of them.

We learned the rules of the process and followed them. We wrote our letters on time, but the developer was allowed to submit material past the commission’s deadline.

Finally our turn to speak to the commissioners came on May 22 and we shared our findings. We pointed out that this development is an intrusion into our neighborhood, that it will diminish its value and is grossly out of character. It does not follow existing zoning lines and its high density will add dangerous volumes of traffic to an area already suffering from the commission’s previous mistakes.

There is nothing to support this development. A responsible developer would not propose it and no planning commission should consider it.

We learned the rules of the game and presented our case. Good planning practices, logic, facts, substance none of that mattered to the planning commission because the real game is not played in public, and Mr. McVey is right.

Walter Emerson,
Lawrence