Wichita seeks to correct an oversight, finally

Bob Weeks

on

December 15, 2014

A request to modify an agreement with the City of Wichita raises the question of why, finally, is the city dealing with an apparent oversight?

As I reported earlier this year:

Last year the Wichita City Council selected a development team to build apartments on the West Bank of the Arkansas River, between Douglas Avenue and Second Street. But city leaders may have overlooked a Wichita City Charter Ordinance that sets aside this land to be “open space, committed to use for the purpose of public recreation and enjoyment.”

Proposed apartments, west bank Arkansas River, Wichita

This week the developers of the apartments seek city council approval of revisions to their plans. As part of the revision, city staff recommends that council approve a resolution that eliminates the restrictions on land use contained in Charter Ordinance No. 144. That ordinance provides that by a two-thirds vote of the council the restrictions may be reduced or eliminated.

A few questions come to mind.

First, Charter Ordinance No. 144, which the council may override, says that the property being used for the apartments “shall be hereafter restricted to and maintained as open space, committed to use for the purpose of public recreation and enjoyment.” Now that the council has turned over the property for private use, we may want to ask: Is this good public policy? The council will have to explicitly decide this issue. When the city conveyed the property without dealing with this ordinance, the issue was not discussed.

Second: Why only now is Charter Ordinance No. 144 and its restrictions being recognized? Why was this ordinance not recognized in August 2013 when the apartment project was approved by the city council? Part of the answer may be that the Wichita city attorney at that time has retired.

Third: If not for the request to modify the agreement would the conflict with Charter Ordinance No. 144 have been recognized? Would it have simply been ignored as an inconvenient rule that doesn’t really need to be followed, as it has been ignored for over one year?