Horizon 2020 group to figure out whether it wants to craft new vision for community

Committee members

Lawrence Mayor Mike Amyx

Douglas County Commissioner Nancy Thellman

Lawrence schools Superintendent Rick Doll

Planning Commissioner Stan Rasmussen

Planning Commissioner Clay Britton

John Gascon

Bill Ackerly

Scott Zaremba

Lisa Harris

Kyra Martinez

Douglas County residents still love downtown Lawrence, don’t much like urban sprawl, and sure wish it was easier to find affordable housing.

A joint city-county board took away those themes and a few more as it tries to figure out how Horizon 2020 — the city and county’s long-range plan — should be rewritten. The committee now is set to start studying possible changes to the plan, but there may be one larger task still left on its plate: formulating a vision for the community.

“Horizon 2020 is a fairly technical document,” said Douglas County Commissioner Nancy Thellman, a co-chair of the committee. “But I think it can be aspirational and inspirational. It should be a document where we set out the type of community we want to be. It should help us aim higher.”

Lawrence Mayor Mike Amyx, who also co-chairs the committee, said figuring out whether the group wants to tackle a community vision process probably will be one of the next decisions the committee makes. The group meets again on Monday afternoon.

“My goal is to make Horizon 2020 better and incorporate things today that weren’t considered in the early 1990s when the plan was written,” Amyx said.

The committee has been tasked with making recommendations on what areas of Horizon 2020 need to be rewritten. Any changes to the plan will go through an extensive approval process that includes the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission, Lawrence City Commission and Douglas County Commission. The document includes a multitude of chapters that cover topics such as economic development, the environment, residential development, open space and historic preservation. Thus far, committee members have not recommended scrapping the entire document and starting with a blank slate.

Thellman, though, said the group may recommend adding completely new chapters.

“I think the big question is whether we are looking at revisions in some areas, or complete rewrites in some areas,” Thellman said. “We need to decide whether some information is taken out and replaced with new ideas and new goals.”

The 10-member steering committee got a long list of topics at two public meetings that were held over the past two weeks. Here’s a look at some of the topics that Amyx and Thellman said seemed to be on the minds of multiple people:

• Housing options that better match the residents’ incomes. “We heard a lot about affordable housing and the need for more of it,” Amyx said.

• Increased forms of non-motorized transportation, such as sidewalks, trails, bike lanes and other such infrastructure. Audience members particularly talked about using non-motorized transportation as a way to get to places in the community rather than just as a recreational pursuit.

• The trend of taller buildings and denser development in Lawrence, and in particular the downtown area. “Increased density was preferred, at least at the table that I was at,” Amyx said. “They want increased density over sprawl, but it still has to fit or blend in with the neighborhood.” Thellman said she also heard concerns about how new developments could create gentrification in some neighborhoods.

• A more balanced tax base that has residential property tax payers picking up less of the tab for services.

• A strong emphasis on preserving small family farms, and considering the quality of agricultural soils when planning future development in the county.

• The need for more incentives to help projects develop in a more environmentally friendly manner.

• More planning for how the community can become a cultural and arts destination. Thellman said that is an example of a topic that may require a whole new chapter in Horizon 2020 because the plan doesn’t currently address the issue in much detail.

Amyx said the steering committee likely will deliver an action report to city, county and planning commissioners sometime in the spring, but the timeline could be dependent upon whether the group tries to formulate some broader community goals.