Rexburg, now’s your chance to weigh in on the city’s future
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REXBURG — Some Rexburg community members aren’t thrilled about the city’s plans.
About 15 residents voiced their concerns at a special joint meeting of the City Council and Planning & Zoning committee held Wednesday evening.
The meeting was initially scheduled to review the comprehensive plan, but it ended up being more of a question-and-answer session between council members, Emily Morales of planning firm Logan Simpson and those in attendance.
Morales gave the council a preview of the plan, which was supposed to be available online for public comment on May 1. A copy of the revised plan was accidentally posted on the city’s website, said Planning & Zoning Administrator Alan Parkinson.
It was the future land-usage map showing updates to the East Parkway Corridor that caused the discontent. Some residents feared it was being discussed and adopted without their input.
“This doesn’t predetermine exact land uses or densities for given parcels of land,” Morales said. “Rather, it defines community vision for the land.”
Not everyone shares that vision.
“One of the big parts of the original 2008 plan was to preserve the existing single-family neighborhoods,” Cory Barnad, who lives in the Eaglewood area, told EastIdahoNews.com. The new land usage plan doesn’t do that, he feels.
The East Parkway Corridor has been a sore topic since its introduction. Rexburg has officially supported the idea since January 2006, and opposition to the corridor has continued throughout the years and through several redesigns. The original alignment was adopted in November 2012. In April, the City Council voted to revisit and realign the proposed path of the corridor.
The corridor was designed to take traffic away from Second East, the main north-south traffic artery through Rexburg. Anticipating growth in the Sugar City area, experts and city officials felt a larger road that went around Rexburg to the east and joined up with Seventh South, then up to Sugar City, would be a logical step.
“Now that we have the (Latter-day Saint) temple announced, there’s more interest in building that direction,” said Parkinson.
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The comprehensive plan, said Morales, wasn’t a binding document. Rather, it is a “guiding document.” It doesn’t pre-determine exact land usage for any parcel. That’s up to the zoning commission to decide.
Wanless Southwick, a long-time Rexburg resident, disagreed.
“The new comprehensive plan map will control the kind of zoning changes the city will permit in the future,” he asserted. “Whatever is on that map affects decisions in zoning.”
Barnad said it sounded as though the council was trying to address the public’s concerns.
“It’s important for residents to have a voice,” he said.
Two open houses were held on the matter earlier in the week, as evidenced by large printed pages of the plan posted on boards around the council chambers. Colorful sticky notes adorned many of the printouts, especially the land usage map.
There is still plenty of time to add your feedback. The finished, public draft will be posted on the city’s Plan Rexburg website May 1. It is designed as an interactive document where people can leave comments or respond to others. Public feedback, city officials said, will help refine the plan.
“This is a process that we believe needs to have a lot of input from the citizens,” Parkinson said. “This is their plan. This is their city. We want to be sure that we get their desires and wants in there as best we can.”