They came, they saw, they conquered Craig Hoium’s request for input.

Thursday, December 09, 1999

They came, they saw, they conquered Craig Hoium’s request for input.

Another workshop session was held Wednesday night at the Austin Municipal Building to update the city’s comprehensive plan.

Hoium, the city’s planning and zoning administrator, is working with Yaggy, Colby Associates of Rochester. Their goal is to prepare the initial draft of an updated comprehensive plan by the end of the year. Then, the final draft can be reviewed by the Austin City Planning Commission in early 2000.

Wednesday night’s meeting attracted representatives from the townships bordering the Austin city limits, planning commission members, city officials and citizens.

Ron Fiscus of Yaggy, Colby Associates called a comprehensive plan a "reflection of where the city is at this time, plus where they want to go."

According to Fiscus, the meetings to date have examined focus areas such as downtown rehabilitation, historic preservation, parks and recreation, the north side development and education facilities.

From the early sessions to review the comprehensive plan, Fiscus and Hoium have heard messages loud and clear from citizens.

"They want an orderly community, where uses next to each other are compatible to each other," Fiscus said.

Another priority is protecting the "viability of the central business district" along North Main Street. Because of the high concentration of government services, banking and retail, it will be one focus of the updated plan to "do whatever you can to hang on to the uses of the central business district," Fiscus said.

However, that comes with a caveat and that is "We must find some other reason to be downtown," the consultant cautioned.

Already, the city is addressing that issue by locating high-density housing projects near the downtown area.

Other future land uses will involve managing the transportation activity that comes with the increased development in the northwest.

Hoium revealed some efforts to do that, such as a widening of 14th Street Northwest from Interstate 90 south to 8th Avenue and with it a turning lane for Riverland Community College. The new college entrance will be aligned with a crossing street off 14th Street.

That prompted Gloria Nordin, a 3rd Ward council member, to advise Fiscus and Hoium that the constantly expanding needs of bicyclists and pedestrians in the same areas also must be met.

Nordin suggested an expanded service drive area for vehicles and bicyclists and pedestrians south of Prairie Sky Apartments, the Hy-Vee Food Store and ShopKo/OakPark Mall.

The city’s "most attractive development areas" continue to be the northeast, northwest and southwest and the former Cook farm site, now called Austin Development Park, is the most attractive in Fiscus’ opinion.

The city began looking at its comprehensive plan in January 1998, according to Hoium, and soon the looking will stop and the rewriting will begin.

Fiscus said other local units of government can assist in the process and especially, Mower County. "We encourage easy interaction between the city and the county wherever possible," Fiscus said.

Mower County Fourth District Commissioner Len Miller told the audience: "Mower County is getting ready to update its own comprehensive plan."

An unidentified citizen asked whether any of the public meetings called by Hoium have produced a "We-like-Austin-the-way-it-is" opinion. Fiscus prefaced his response, saying, "Change is always tough" before telling the citizen, "The ‘no-growth’ opinion has not been prevalent."

What Fiscus has heard is a controlled and managed growth of the city is acceptable, he said, and not a "grow-at-any-cost" attitude.

What can the comprehensive plan provide?

"One of the things that comes from a comprehensive plan is the policy statements that will guide your city Planning Commission and your City Council as they make decisions," Fiscus said of the plan’s importance to city zoning and subdivision ordinances.

The plan’s many multicolored zoning maps will, like a picture, the consultant said, be worth a thousand words.

"A comprehensive plan is a yardstick the city can hold up to a development proposal," he said.