21 February 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) -The Topeka planning commission revisited a proposal Monday night to rezone a downtown neighborhood after it was kicked back to them by city council.
The planning commission heard from both representatives with One Gas, and a number of people who took part in public comment.
The biggest concerns coming from the public is noise, lights, traffic, property value, being next to Hayden High School, and an industrial business being in a residential area.
One Gas representatives say they’ve made accommodations in response to these concerns. Representatives say the lighting won’t affect neighbors as pole lights will be on the north side of the property away from neighbors. With this, they want to put high fences around the property, claim that traffic will be less than pre-pandemic, and that they’ve talked to Hayden High School and say they are okay with it.
Tonight’s tally from the planning committee: 3 voted yes, 3 voted no, and 1 did not vote.
“Our votes are just for a recommendation to the city council,” Topeka Planning Commission Chair, Corey Dehn said. “It didn’t garner enough to pass, or garner enough to fail. So by not garnering enough votes to pass it kind of automatically fails. But then city council has ultimate voting to approve yes or no. Ours is just approving the recommendation to the city council.”
The debate isn’t over yet. This topic will now go back to the city council in the coming weeks where they will make the final decision on whether or not to go forward with the rezoning of One Gas.