The Holden City Council rejected a request to rezone the vacant parcel of land located at Clay and Tenth Streets in a special session held last Tuesday night at City Hall.
Voting for re-zoning were councilmen Butch Shore and Jim Nipko. Voting against were Chad Manford, Ernie Taylor, Mike Zumwalt and Jim Robison. Dorothy Wakeman abstained. Manford and Zumwalt stated that they voted no because many of their constituents in their ward wished them to.
Prior to the vote, Shore, acting as mayor pro tem in Mike Wakeman’s absence, read a letter from the Holden Area Chamber of Commerce.
The letter urged the council to make decisions based on a plan for the future and not emotions.
Signed by chamber president Jo Ann Alpert the letter also said that they were not there to win a competition or a vote or endorse any particular developer or even to wage a war against the concerned citizens.
The letter continues, “Members of the Chamber of Commerce, mayor and city council, planning and zoning, Johnson County businesses and civic leaders and the economic development committee over the last several years has spent endless hours conducting meetings, surveys and planning sessions to help the city of Holden move towards developing a comprehensive plan.
“The city of Holden recently entered into a $28,000 contract with Olsson & Associates to formulate a comprehensive plan. The studies and town hall meetings conducted by Olsson & Associates revealed that one of the things that the citizens of Holden wanted was quality, affordable housing.’
The letter continued, “The economic development committee believes that rezoning would be a benefit to the community. Rezoning can bring about growth, provide much-needed housing and bring additional revenue to the community and to the businesses within the community. We will not support development that is not appropriate or does not fit into a particular neighborhood. However, we will support a plan that can have a positive impact on the community.”
The re-zoning issue had been tabled at both the April and May regular meetings and was hotly opposed by a group of citizens living in the Clay Street area. The group had presented a petition which included enough signatures that the vote had to be a two-thirds majority of the council in order to pass the re-zoning.
The re-zoning which had passed the planning and zoning committee was proposed by Dwight and Dusty Anstine and SJA Inc., developers. Scott Adams, owner of SJA, had originally planned to build five four-plexes on the land, but in a compromise effort scaled the development back to six duplexes.
In the May regular meeting Adams had presented a drawing of the projected area which placed six duplexes on a semicircle landscaped drive.
After last Tuesday’s vote, Shore urged Adams and the Clay Street group “to get together and look for a compromise.” He said, “That property is too valuable to the city to not be developed.”
After the meeting, a visibly disappointed Adams said, “Holden says they want to grow. That property cries out for what I proposed. There have been some ‘wild rumors’ about I am wanting to do with the property, but I’ve been building for 18 years and I am well-respected in the county.”
He also said that Holden needs good rental property. “Ive had phone calls from Holden people looking for a place to rent in my properties in Warrensburg because there’s nothing to rent here.”
By Steve Sullins
Editor
At the May 12 board meeting, the Holden R-III Board of Education hired Kevin Kultgen as the new assistant principal for the Holden High School. Kultgen will begin in August, 2008. He will be replacing Nancy Daniel, who has accepted a high school principal position in the Lexington School District.
Kultgen comes to Holden form the LaMonte School District where he has served as the junior/senior high school principal for the past three years. Prior to that, Kultgen served as the A+ director and technology coordinator for the Lamar R-I School District for two years. Kultgen taught social studies from 1999-2003 and coached basketball and volleyball as well.
Kultgen’s education includes a bachelor of science in education from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS. Kultgen earned his master’s degree in education administration from William Woods University in Fulton, MO, in 2003 and his specialist’s degree in education administration from William Woods University in Fulton, MO, in 2006.