Don’t derail comprehensive plan
Because Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Richard Ranzau wants too much, and is awfully late in asking, the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission should join the Wichita City Council in rejecting his “suggested changes” to the new city-county comprehensive plan.
The community investments plan has been in the works since 2012, and was crafted with the benefit of extensive citizen engagement and input. All six city district advisory boards recommended adoption of the plan, which is needed to guide decisions about the city’s growth and public infrastructure investment though 2035. The MAPC voted 10-0 in August to adopt the plan, after its commissioners praised the work of the steering committee and staff.
Yet the County Commission applied the brakes and recommended changes to the MAPC just last week, though Ranzau had participated early in the process and county commissioners were briefed on the draft plan in June and July.
If Ranzau couldn’t influence the document before now, perhaps it’s because his ideas are so contrary to the fundamentals and purpose of the plan as to be anti-planning as well as anti-Wichita.
His recommendations reflect his libertarian values in their emphasis on roads and bridges and property rights and their de-emphasis of public transit, bicycling and walking as transportation, and the arts. But Ranzau, who often criticizes the city for dictating to the county, could be accused of butting into the city’s business in suggesting that a privatization of Wichita Transit seriously be considered.
He even calls for striking language about “promoting economic growth and job creation,” “advancing community quality of life and safety,” and “creating a community that will attract and retain future generations” – all urgent goals for our metropolitan area, which is still fighting to find its footing in the postrecession, 21st-century economy.
Ranzau is entitled to his opinion, but he is not entitled to hold the plan hostage to his ideology. County Commissioner Jim Howell didn’t help matters with his provocative recommendation to add wording locking in the 30-year-old distribution formula of the 1-cent sales tax between the city and county. (That worthy debate is still pending, as Wichitans are 76 percent of the taxpayers of Sedgwick County but Wichita receives just 58 percent of the sales tax proceeds.)
The city-county comprehensive plan is meant as a helpful framework for the future, not an instruction manual to be followed strictly. The county needs to be a partner in completing this document, and not be allowed to derail and rewrite it this close to the finish line.
This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Don’t derail comprehensive plan."