The most important document the City of Manhattan will produce in the next ten-years is about to start. The City Commission voted 4-1 Tuesday night to approve the Scope of Services for Clarion Associates. It will be their job to develop the Manhattan Urban area Comprehensive Plan Update.

Commissioner Mark Taussig was the long "No" vote. Taussig wanted a larger plan.

Will the City have an area around where 12 plexs can be built? Will the City have zoning for new business? It all starts with this document. It is very important.

Here is the background from a memo that was given to the Commissioners:

BACKGROUND

This agenda item is for the City Commission to review the Scope of Work and Contract with Clarion Assoc., LLC, of Fort Collins, Colorado, for the Manhattan Urban Area Comprehensive Plan Update.

Project Overview: The project is being jointly funded by the City of Manhattan and Riley County, with each agency providing $77,250, as well as in-kind staff support throughout the project. The project is an update of the existing Manhattan Urban Area Comprehensive Plan, originally adopted in 1991 as the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, and which has since been amended on several occasions. The study area for this update includes the City of Manhattan and the surrounding urbanizing area, and extends slightly beyond the Manhattan Urban Area Planning Board’s jurisdiction, encompassing approximately 65-70 square miles (see study area map).

Because this is an update of the existing Comprehensive Plan, the project is not starting with a blank page from the policy standpoint. In addition to the original 1991 Comprehensive Land Use Plan, there are also a number of recently completed planning documents that will provide a policy foundation, which the update will build upon. These documents include: the Growth Vision, Manhattan Area Transportation Strategy, Downtown Tomorrow Redevelopment Plan, and Housing Manhattan Plan, all completed in 2000; and, the Gateway To Manhattan Plan completed in 1998. All of these documents will serve as a starting point for the update.

Following the consultant interviews in late January, the Selection Committee’s recommendation to hire Clarion was approved by the City and Riley County Commissions on February 12, 2001 (see Project Chronology). The City and County Planning Staffs then met to begin identifying the range of community issues that should be considered for inclusion in the Scope of Services, as well as coordination and administrative issues involving carrying out the project, so that the consultant could begin outlining the Scope. The City and County Planning Staffs held a number of conference calls with the consultant to work through several drafts of the consultant’s Scope of Work, budget and timeline, to get as much into the Scope of Work as possible, while keeping it within the project budget.

Concurrently, on April 5th, the League of Women Voters, Sustainable Manhattan and the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society sponsored their own public workshop, to develop citizen ideas for the Scope of Services. The consultant asked to see the ideas that were generated from that meeting as a way to confirm the issues identified in the draft Scope. The City requested a copy of the meeting summary and forwarded it to the consultant.

The Scope of Work was reviewed on May 11, 2001, by the Selection Committee and approved with some minor modifications. The Selection Committee was established by the City and County Commissions and was responsible for interviewing perspective consulting firms and forwarding a recommendation to the City and County Commissions on which firm to hire, as well as recommending a Scope of Work for the project.

On May 21, 2001, the Scope of Work, as modified and recommended by the Selection Committee, was presented at the Manhattan Urban Area Planning Board’s work session for input from the Board and public. The Riley County Planning Board was also invited to attend and one member of that Board, who also served on the Selection Committee, attended. The Scope of Work was modified slightly to address comments from the Planning Board. In addition, the Planning Board and public comments were forwarded to the consultant to begin building information for the finalization of the public participation plan and issues identification process listed in Tasks 1 and 2 of the Scope (see Minutes of the May 21st Planning Board meeting and the attached written comments received from the public).

The modified Scope of Work, draft Contract and a suggested outline for the makeup of the Project Advisory Committee were then forwarded to the Riley County Commission, which reviewed the documents on June 4, 2001, and approved them on June 7, 2001.