Pottawatomie County commissioners reviewed a contract with Bartlett and West to continue a plan for road and thoroughfare improvements in the Green Valley area.
While not finalized, the nearly $75,000 contract will include an overall project scope, complete with an outline for how and when those projects can occur. County Planner Stephan Metzger says the project essentially creates a road map for future development.
“This plan is really going to dive down into individual roads need to go here, this is kind of what the material costs are going to be, these are the long term maintenance costs are going to be, which is something that we’ve never done,” he said.
Metzger says they’ll use some of those previous plans that looked at the area from a higher level as an initial guide and then drill down on specifics for the future,
The project will blend recommendations from seven existing documents, including the Fort Riley Joint Land Use Study, the county’s comprehensive plan, the Green Valley land use and growth management plan, and the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) long-range transportation plan. It also will include recommendations from the Marlatt-Junietta concept study, the Kansas Department of Transportation functional classification map and the Highway 24 corridor management plan.
Commissioner Pat Weixelman expressed concern that there is already an over-saturation of information based on the seven plans and land use studies it will draw from.
“Unless you know, you could have a big business park, park or anything using that property. It makes a difference on how you put these driveways in or access roads off of it,” he said.
Metzger attempted to simplify the purpose of the plan for commissioners.
“It will be like we have a shipping company and there are seven people that came up with seven different business plans for our shipping company. We just need to figure how those seven plans interact with each other,” Metzger said.
One of the key roads the county is looking at paving is Harvest Road.
“Is it a three lane road with ditches, is it a two lane road with storm sewer and sidewalk? That’s some of the things they’re going to be answering as part of this plan,” Metzger said.
The county is not financially tied to most of those studies, with the exception of the MPO plan. Action is expected at a future meeting. If approved the project would likely be completed by the summer with adoption slated for sometime in the fall.
