The journey to push an update to the Riley County Comprehensive Plan over the finish line received a boost Monday when the county commission approved spending $150,000 to hire a consultant to finish the document.
Riley County Planning and Special Projects Director Amanda Webb asked commissioners to approve spending the money, which will come from the county’s economic development fund, because county staffers are at a point where they need outside assistance.
“The reality is we don’t have the in-house staff to really be able to properly tackle this upcoming portion,” Webb said. “We’ve got a lot of other things going on, a lot of really pressing things that we also need to tend to.”
The comprehensive plan is a document that guides growth and development within the county. It includes guidance and recommended regulations for how land can be used for housing, economic development and other forms of growth while also protecting agriculture and rural preservation.
The county began updating the comprehensive plan in April 2023. However, a request for proposals went unanswered because the county only allocated $25,000 toward the project.
“We, unfortunately, did not receive any proposals,” Webb said. “The dollar amount that we put in there was just based on the information I had available at the time and, of course, just wanting to be financially prudent with our funds.”
As a result, county staffers decided to tackle the early portions of updating the plan themselves.
“We went ahead,” Webb said. “We wanted to get going, get the project underway and we wanted to go ahead and just attempt in-house with the existing staff both as a cost-saving measure and, again, to get the project underway.”
Staff has been able to complete many of the initial steps in the process, including public outreach and public education, gathering input through a survey and community meetings that took place last fall. There’s also been media outreach and coverage.
“We’ve done a lot of the background work, a lot of the reaching out to folks,” Webb said. “All of that’s going to remain valid and will be incorporated into our plan. All of that work that we’ve done is still useful.”
But Webb told commissioners there is “still a lot of work to be done,” there is and not enough capacity among staff to complete it.
Webb said she wanted to issue a request for quotes to find a consultant who can help finish the update. The remaining work includes a review of all existing related plans and studies; drafting goals, policies and actions; updating demographics and socioeconomic data; conducting current and future land use inventories; and continuing public engagement and committee coordination.
Although the initial goal was to have the update finished by the end of this year, Webb said that may not happen, depending on how long it takes to hire a consultant. She added that the focus should be on quality work.
“I want to keep things moving, but I also don’t want to be like, ‘We need to go, go, go, go,’ and sacrifice a good, quality plan,” Webb said. “It’s more important to get the plan right than to finish by the end of the year.”
The $150,000 approved on Monday includes the previously approved $25,000, most of which has not been spent.
“I think that the money being spent here is going to pay itself back over the course of time,” Commissioner John Ford said. “This is a very, very important document for what we need to do.”
Webb told commissioners that she would create a draft request for quote and bring it back to the board before sending it to potential consultants.
