A Promise Delayed, Or a Promise Broken?

I noticed tonyskansascity.com linked to the Martin City Telegraph article on the recently reviewed Hickman Mills Area Plan. The problem with that link is that the article was written by John Sharp. He’s the one who testified in person before the Neighborhood and Development Committee when he was supposed to either send in his comments for the city clerk to read or participate by Zoom. That testimony, as mentioned before, rambled on for a good 8 minutes and covered items that weren’t related to the plan.

As an aside, one of those items he mentioned is the move of Price Chopper on Blue Ridge Boulevard just south of Bannister Road to a location a little further west on Bannister across from the Cerner Innovations Campus. Mr. Sharp seems to think this is a great move, which implies he is also happy with the soon-to-be-vacant building on Blue Ridge Boulevard and the CID area that was created for the Price Chopper. That CID will add an additional tax to groceries for the already-impoverished area. This is exactly the argument that has been made recently for TIF districts and the school districts they encompass.

But I digress. The plan Mr. Sharp is so happy with has quite an emphasis on the Three Trails (California, Oregon, and Santa Fe) and well it should. It is mostly through Hickman Mills that these three trails converge, making them unique to the area. The plan, however, says very little about the history of Hickman Mills, even though there are original buildings still standing which were part of the original town of Hickman Mills. Mr. Sharp seems to be as okay with ignoring this history as the city is.

The bigger issue, however, is the City has once again broken its promise. When the original Hickman Mills Area Plan was drawn up, the boundaries did not include the entire community of Hickman Mills (not to be confused with the school district of Hickman Mills). Instead, the area west of 71 highway was to be included in the Red Bridge Area Plan. When the community pleaded with the City to change the boundary, they promised they would when the plan came up for review, which was this past year.

A few years ago when the Red Bridge Area Plan was under discussion, the City was asked about changing the boundary and they said that would occur when the Hickman Mills Area Plan came up for review and proceeded to take the Red Bridge Area Plan which included a good portion of Hickman Mills to the City council for approval, which of course they did. This past year, when the Hickman Mills Area Plan was being reviewed, the City was again asked about changing the boundary. They said it was too late because the Red Bridge Area Plan had already been approved. Promise broken with a caveat. Hickman Mills is now being told to wait for the City to finish its review of FOCUS, the overall city-wide plan and perhaps plan boundaries will be changed.

Fifth and sixth district representatives seem to be fine with this decision because they approved the Hickman Mills Area Plan and agreed the community just needs to wait. Again. It’s been over 10 years, but apparently the City believes a few more won’t matter. Just as he seems to be okay with creating an additional tax burden on those he formerly represented, (perhaps having been on the council for a total of 4 terms, he is more politically-minded than community-minded) Mr. Sharp also has no problem with the City breaking its promise to the community.