Calls resume for Holton comprehensive plan update

The last time the City of Holton paid for an update to its comprehensive land use plan, it cost the city about $40,000, Holton City Manager Teresa Riley noted at the Holton City Commission’s regular meeting on Monday.

An update to the existing plan — which was approved by the city commission and planning commission in 2001 — would likely cost the city “a lot more,” Riley added.

During Monday’s meeting, Holton Mayor Marilyn Watkins reiterated a past concern that an update to the city’s comprehensive plan, which guides the development and implementation of zoning and subdivision regulations, location and classification of streets, public facilities, parks and open spaces and housing and economic development programs, was “definitely overdue.”

“We’re six years behind updating this,” said Watkins of the city’s current comprehensive plan, written to guide the city’s growth through 2020. “I feel like we need to have one for 2027 through 2047, and that seems like forever for most of us.”

The city’s first comprehensive plan was drafted in 1961, with updates following in 1985 and 1991. Planner Tom Phillips of Manhattan was hired by the city in 1998 to revamp the 1991 plan update, and his work resulted in the plan approved by commissioners in 2001. 

Commissioners last authorized Riley to seek proposals for updating the city’s plan in April of 2024; she later noted that not enough proposals were received at that time for the city to review. But on Monday, Riley said she “written up specs to send out” to land planning and consultation firms for proposals.

The issue of updating the city’s comprehensive plan was most recently brought up in early August, when the city approved the Holton Planning Commission’s recommendation to change the city’s zoning regulations to allow single-story business owners on Holton’s Town Square to split their buildings between commercial and residential use.

At that time, Watkins stated that the zoning change should be considered as the first part of a “three-phase plan” to improve Holton that included developing land along U.S. Highway 75 as the second phase, establishing an extra-territorial “three-mile zone” around the city limits as the third and hiring a consultant to update the city’s comprehensive plan.

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