District 5 Advisory Board Meeting

Documenter name: Wyatt Barmann

Agency: Wichita City - District Advisory Board 5

Date: Sept. 4, 2024

See more about this meeting at Documenters.org

Notes

It was a hot day on September 4 when I went to the Advisory Board meeting of District 5 on the west side of town at the Northwest Water Treatment Facility's office.

District-5-Advisory-Board-DAB-5. Originally the meeting was going to be at 6:30 pm yet before the meeting, it had been changed to 6 pm. This took me by surprise even though I was prepared for the time change. When I arrived, the topic of discussion was a presentation on future events at the local library. Two notable developments are the Makers Arts and Crafts event and a new shipment of books that will be there by the end of the month.The Makers event has already been covered by the Wichita Eagle kansas.com/news/local/article. The speaker then proceeds to list iconic authors of the books that will soon be in the library.

Afterward, Gary Janzen read the Parks and Recreation Report to the audience. He slowly made his way to the podium and started his presentation on the department in a firm yet welcoming tone. He first brought up that the splash pads will be closing on September 29th. However, no details were given on when those attractions will be open again. Fall classes at parks across the city will start next week. Open Streets ICT has changed the date from an unspecified one in September to October 13. It is an active community-building event that takes place over the afternoon through Wichita’s historic Deland district to the College Hill area. The event will be family-friendly and have live music, food trucks, and even activities for your dog if you want to bring yours. The event seems like it will be amazing and a lot of fun. Here is the official Facebook page for the event. Douglass Road will be closed during the event.

The Parks and Recreation department is always hiring, so it would be a great place to work if you want to contribute to the wonderful community and educational opportunities it provides. A massive, exciting opportunity is the new Wichita Bicycle Plan, which has been ongoing for the last year and a half. The speaker stated that this new project is the most recent of a decade's worth of projects all around bike lanes. He laid out the individual steps of the new project. Afterward, he went into the results of the survey that the city conducted to figure out what Wichita residents believe should be the priorities of The Bike Plan.

System Safety 35.7 was the largest priority for 35.7% of survey takers, Equity was 17.6 percent, Trip potential was 25.3 percent, and public input was the main priority for 21.4 percent of survey takers. He then goes into how there are plans to increase the size of bike lanes. Plans of 81 miles of new bike lanes were laid out across the screen. The plan also includes 3.2 miles of reconstructed bikeways. The plans are laid out in more detail at https://www.wichitabicycleplan.com. These goals are currently in progress. The project is expected to be 95% complete by September 29. However, that day also happens to be the deadline. This means that an extension is necessary and will likely be approved because of how close the project is to completion. Council member J.V. Johnston brought up the condition of the bike path on Maize Road, describing it as “looks barely usable.”

After an extensive presentation, only one more speaker was left, Christina Rieth, Associate planner for the City of Wichita. She shared the plans for a rezoning to allow for a new office building. The housing area is 13525 W. 21st Street North and will be the place of a 2300 sq. ft. office building with 13 parking spots. A reception tower will be built in the same area, although an office building will be built around it. Upon further research, I discovered she had been arguing about this particular property’s zoning since April of this year.

Lamount Anderson was the only advisor who asked a question, and it was a simple one. “Have the people near the area been notified of the new construction?”.

Rieth responded with a definitive yes. Moments later, the advisor unanimously agreed to approve the rezoning effort.

J.V. Johnson then announced that there was nothing left on the agenda. He announced that the next meeting would be on October 7th.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@citybureau.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line.