Commission to send plan on to council

"This is a heck of a gift. But on the other hand we're being asked to spend millions of dollars. ... People will ask if this is the right thing to spend the money on," planning commissioner Jim Erpenbach, said during the Nevada Planning Commission's regular monthly meeting Tuesday afternoon before the commission voted 7-0 to recommend that the city council amend the city's 1984 Comprehensive Plan to include the Healthy Nevada Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan lays out a number of projects to upgrade sidewalks and build bicycle and walking trails throughout Nevada, as well as close to the city.

"This looked at pedestrian and bike opportunities in Nevada," Nevada City Manager JD Kehrman told the planning commission.

"This is a vision document," Kehrman told the commission.

He said there are about $84 million in projects contained in the document that the Cerner Corporation paid $75,000 to have completed by the Pednet Coalition Inc.

"We can't build all of them. It's meant to spark a debate," he said.

He told the commission that the city council is enthusiastic about the plan, but it needs to be included in the city's Comprehensive Plan. This is about a vision and goals for the community.

"This is where it belongs, where it will survive for 20 to 30 years," he said.

"This is a very, very powerful tool that advances many of the objectives in the '84 plan," he said.

Kehrman said he used this plan to get a 30-minute meeting with the Missouri Department of Transportation district engineer about adding bike lanes on Highway 54 between Nevada and El Dorado Springs when the road is resurfaced this summer.

It also has an inventory of the city's current sidewalks with scores based on the condition and whether they are ADA compliant that can be used to encourage developers to include sidewalks in their plans.

John Flynn, planning commission chairman, said the plan contains some of what Melissa Earl, who was at Tuesday's meeting, brought to the commission's attention six or seven years ago -- how difficult it is for people to reach Wal-Mart in a wheelchair.

"It was based on my personal of a man in an electric wheelchair that was having to get down on Austin Boulevard to go over the overpass," Melissa Earl told the commission.

She said the sidewalk on the overpass was not wide enough for his wheelchair.

Earl said that she almost ran into the man before she saw him and when she did she turned on the flashers on her pickup truck and followed behind him. While following him, she said that she saw, by way of her review mirror, an approaching tractor-trailer rig and expected to be hit by the truck and then hit the wheelchair.

After getting across the overpass she got the man to stop and talked to him and found out why he was risking his life on Austin.

She found out the battery in his wheelchair would last for three hours, which was about the length of time it took him to get to Wal-Mart from his house and return. Sometimes the battery went dead before he made the round trip and had to wait for someone to come and help him.

Earl told the commission she thought the plan was a great thing, but that building bike trails on U.S. Highway 54 between Nevada and El Dorado Springs does not get ADA compliant sidewalks in Nevada.

There are no ADA compliant sidewalks between downtown Nevada and Wal-Mart, she said.

Austin Boulevard is not the only street without sidewalks. According to the plan, most sidewalks are in the older parts of town and few are ADA compliant. Most of the newer parts of town have no sidewalks at all.

"I see in my neighborhood people walking in the streets because there are no sidewalks," commissioner Janet º said.

The commission also unanimously approved sending a positive recommendation to the city council to change the zoning on the property currently occupied by the Public Safety Building, 120 S. Ash Street and Earp Park, directly west of the Public Safety Building, from R-3, apartment district, to C-3, commercial district, at the request of the city of Nevada, which owns the entire block.

City Manager JD Kehrman told the commission he does not know why the property is zoned R-3, although there is some evidence there was a large house on that site in the past.

Flynn said that the north half of the block is zoned commercial and the current R-3 zoning is not appropriate for the location.

Kehrman said that when the Public Safety Building is demolished that property will be filled and be turned into green space. He said there is a possibility of partnering with the Farmers Market to eventually build a more sophisticated facility on that site, with grant money that is available to farmers markets.

"I would like to find it a permanent home ... the best would be a permanent home on city property -- this is the perfect location," Kehrman said.

As for Earp Park, he said the parks board has plans for it when the new facilities for the police, fire and courts are built, he said. The plans for those facilities are still in the draft stage.