Looking Back: ‘Growth Issue For City Planners’

     From a December 27, 1995 article by Forrest Martin in the Examiner:
    “Grain Valley planners soon will look into changing some ordinances to reflect the city’s recent growth.
     City administrator Tim Ryan said the city’s population has grown from 1,898 as shown in the 1990 US Census to an estimated 2,650 today.
    ‘By the year 2000, the population is expected to be 4,402, and by 2005, it is projected to be 7,225,’ Ryan said.”
     The article details efforts by Ron Eilers, the city’s building inspector and code enforcement officer, and the Planning Commission, to undergo the first major revision to the city’s zoning ordinance since 1989.
     Updates included mandating paved commercial parking lots, rather than chipped and sealed lots.
     “Proposed too, are several new zoning districts. These would include ‘non-retail business’ and ‘controlled business’.
     “These would both be appropriate between retail and residential areas,” Eiler said. “They would allow office uses, day-care centers, small restaurants, all better as a buffer than having something like a grocery store backing up to a neighborhood.”
     The article continues, “Several steps would be taken to get public opinion on the topic. After the Planning Commission reviews it, builders and engineers would get to comment. The commission would then refine the proposal and have a public hearing on the final draft.”
     “At the same time the city is working on coming up with these new rules, it hopes to complete work on a comprehensive plan for the whole city that would include some of these new zoning districts.
     ‘We hope to have the city adopt the new regulations and the comprehensive plan about the same time,’ Eiler said.”
     “It will allow us to get a handle on and plan our growth over the next 15 to 20 years,” he said.