College Hill has a new neighborhood plan, but what does that mean?

College Hill has had some well-publicized controversies in recent years, such as the potential demolition of the Crown Uptown Theatre and the razing of houses for parking at the Belmont restaurant, but the Wichita City Council on Tuesday approved a new plan for the neighborhood.

So what does that mean?

Trish Hileman, vice president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association and a member of the steering committee that worked with city officials to create the plan, said the plan is now another guiding document for city staff to use when dealing with issues that affect the neighborhood.

“What changes right off the bat is staff’s interaction with developers,” she said.

When developers seek rezoning or other approvals from the city, if they agree with the guidance in the plan, Hileman said it will help streamline those processes.

“They’re trying to help direct developers into what the neighborhood wants to see.”

In the case of College Hill, Hileman said neighbors collectively agreed they “want this to be very residential oriented. Very walking oriented.”

There are lots of photos in the plan showing what kinds of architecture they want in the neighborhood, such as arts-and-crafts styles and brownstones.

“Things that have more character,” Hileman said. “Most people knew what fit. You can spot it when it’s right.”

The idea, she said, is “that we’re not . . . having to fight back saying, ‘No, that’s not what we want in our neighborhood.’ ”

The plan is especially comprehensive.

“It was meticulous,” said Jack Patton, another member of the steering committee who also is president of the neighborhood association. “We went over things line by line by line.”

The bottom line, he said, is “we want to keep College Hill College Hill.”

“People move to College Hill for a reason.”

Patton said some situations still won’t be prevented simply because of the plan, but he said the idea is to create more awareness and transparency as things are happening instead of hearing “plans were made, secret handshakes were done.”

“There will be no surprises.”

A model plan

From the beginning of the process to create a plan, City Council member Brandon Johnson said he thought what College Hill created could become a model for other neighborhoods, and he said that’s what has happened.

“It will be a good blueprint. The city learned a lot as well.”

Johnson said it was about “bringing together the different factions of College Hill that wanted to see development differently.”

“They wanted to respect kind of some of the basic characteristics of the neighborhood,” he said. “They got into some real specifics on mission and vision of the neighborhood. The final product is real evident of the success of that.”

Johnson said he didn’t hear complaints about the outcome, “which was a surprise because (of) how loud it was in the beginning.”

Complaints died down after a few months, and Hileman said it became “very interesting how people pretty much agreed.”

However, she said there were some complaints about how long the process was taking.

Now that it’s done, though, she said, “I think everybody gets it now because it got everybody on the same page.”

Johnson said “they truly engaged the neighborhood in a way that was better than I even expected.”

“I’m proud of the neighborhood for the participation and glad to see it get done.”

Hileman said people can’t stop participating, though.

“These neighborhood plans don’t just solve neighborhood problems. It still always comes down to engagement and communication.”