Planners bow to rezoning foes

Iola Planning Commission members voted 4-2 Wednesday night not to recommend 3.8 acres at 1002 N. Kentucky St. be rezoned from R1 (single family) to R3 (multiple family) to accommodate construction of a senior living complex.
However, Commission Chairman Larry Crawford repeatedly noted — before and after the vote — that the planners’ recommendation was just that, and that city council members would have final say at their 6 p.m. meeting Monday.
Crawford also encouraged opponents — there were many — of construction of the senior living complex on North Kentucky to show up Monday night, allowing there was strength in numbers and that council members were more likely to listen if they heard many voices in opposition.
Opposition to the $5 million project — 26 suites for seniors and eight for people with dementia-type concerns — was abundantly evident from the get-go. Concerns about privacy and depression of property values were prominent.
“We’re private residents and taxpayers,” said Shirley Catron. “No one asked our feelings.”
Dottie White, who has lived near the acreage proposed for development for five decades, read a letter that she earlier sent to each commissioner.
She and husband (Dick) “built two houses there because it was quiet and zoned as single family,” White said. Construction of the senior living complex “would adversely affect property values,” she added, and questioned whether there was adequate access for emergency vehicles in the plans.
She noted that construction of the new hospital, half a mile north of Kentucky, would increase traffic, and that having 34 residents in the complex, including the memory unit, and as many as 22 employees, which developer Scott Holder predicted, would put even more traffic on the two-lane street with narrow shoulders.
White also questioned whether with rent of $2,800 to $3,000, there were enough people to fill the units, and what would happen if they stood empty.
“It will lower the desirability of the entire neighborhood,” she said.
Ron Rutledge waved a paper over his head, which he said was a petition containing the names of 74 people living in the area who opposed the development.
White recalled that council members ignored the planning commission’s recommendation not to build the hospital on North Kentucky, and “need to cooperate and listen to neighbors on this one.”
Catron spoke out again: “We have three nursing homes in Iola. We don’t need another.”
Holder’s retort was that his company, Neighborhood Senior Living, Inc., of Dallas, had “done a lot of research” and was confident the project would be successful.
White wondered why another site wasn’t chosen.
David Toland, Thrive Allen County director, said seven locations were viewed when the company first came to town, and the one on North Kentucky was judged most suitable. Others, he said, had environmental, utility or purchase issues.
About then, Crawford gave opponents of the project a tutorial in how he thought they should approach the city council.
“I understand what you guys are up against,” he said. “But it’s not our decision; it’s the council’s decision, and numbers is what plays the game. It takes numbers to make things happen.”
Ken Hunt summed up the feelings of several rezoning foes.
“I wouldn’t have bought my home,” which is at the northwest edge of the acreage, if he’d known the development might occur, Hunt said. “I spent my life’s savings on where I wanted to live, and (now) there’s no doubt I couldn’t recoup my investment.
“There’s going to be lights, vehicles, ambulances, construction noise,” he said. “The quality of life for (those living there on a) full-time basis is going to suffer.”
Angie Lind was just as forceful in her opposition.
She recalled that she and husband Sean lived for 13 years at Madison and Cottonwood streets.
“We had traffic, helicopters flying over (on there way to the hospital) and ambulances,” she said. “We looked for six years and found a quiet place,” near the acreage. “It is our fourth house and we thought it would be the last, but (if the senior living complex is built) it’s not where I’ll want to stay.
“This (the development) will be right up against people’s back yards.”

ONCE THE ISSUE was in the commissioners’ hands, following more than an hour of comments, a decision, came quickly.
Mike McKinnis said he researched the company’s other complexes and found that all had more buffer space between them and neighboring homes than would be the case on North Kentucky.
“That’s a red flag for me,” he said. “I want to vote for it, but I don’t think this is a good place for it.”
“From the city’s perspective, this might be the only chance to develop the area,” said Jared Kelley. “But I question changing that area from RI to R3.”
At Toland’s request, Shonda Jefferis, city code enforcement officer, said she wrote a four-page recommendation on the zoning change — for it to be rezoned.
“It fits in the city’s comprehensive plan and that field has been vacant like forever,” she said.
But, she added the commissioners’ and her recommendations had no force to make the change, only council members could do that.
Then came the vote to deny the rezoning, which brought applause from the crowd of 35 or so.