Tonganoxie council hears Multi Studiodraft of downtown regulating plan

Multi Studio consultants introduced a draft regulating plan for downtown Tonganoxie to the City Council on July 21, laying out traffic-calming and parking concepts, streetscape and maintenance strategies, public-space programming, and a set of code updates intended to guide future infill and redevelopment.

The plan pairs a public-space framework with a downtown development framework and targeted regulatory changes for the Historic Business District and residential overlay, the consultants said. Alexandra Purvis Smith, an urban planner and urban designer with Multi Studio, said the regulating-plan approach "pairs policy and design with a regulatory piece to implement all of that" and gives the city "a really specific block by block plan for downtown as development and redevelopment unfolds over time."

Why it matters: The draft aims to preserve downtowns historic, pedestrian-oriented character while increasing flexibility for housing and compatible new uses nearby. It calls for immediate, low-cost "quick wins" such as paint and planters, and longer-term investments to improve walkability, parking access and gateways into downtown.

The consultants highlighted four public-realm priorities: traffic calming and parking to improve safety and add accessible spaces; streetscape improvements that factor in maintenance costs; programming to better connect parks and public spaces for events; and an arts, culture and identity strategy including potential public-art locations and gateways. "We're talking paint paint and planters even to start to improve the safety of downtown," Purvis Smith said when describing short-term tactics.

On the development side, Chris Brewster of Multi Studio outlined a set of proposed code updates intended to reduce the need for variances and ad-hoc amendments the city has used in recent projects. Brewster described frontage types that regulate how buildings relate to the public realm ("Main Street," "transition," "workshop," and "neighborhood" frontages) rather than focusing only on permitted uses. For the Historic Business District he said the draft would add lot and building standards to preserve a fine-grain, walkable pattern and would "be more flexible with the uses" as long as new development matches downtown scale and frontage patterns.

Brewster also discussed possible rezoning steps for the Fourth Street corridor (currently RSF in parts of the corridor) to a mixed-use residential category (referred to in the presentation as RDT2) to better accommodate missing-middle housing while preserving downtown-scale commercial areas. He said the depot property has requested inclusion in the HPD district and that property-specific rezoning could follow the plan.

Councilmembers asked several clarifying questions. One councilmember asked whether the industrial-designated area east of downtown was proportionate; Brewster and Purvis Smith said the plan retains those properties' existing rights while proposing standards to limit large-lot industrial expansion and to improve streetscape presence, describing a "workshop frontage" that allows utilitarian uses while encouraging better street-facing design. Planning Commissioner Patty Bittler attended as a stakeholder and was acknowledged by staff.

Next steps: Consultants said they will collect council and planning-commission comments, revise the draft, and return for the formal public-hearing process at the Planning Commission and then the City Council, targeting late summer or early fall for revised materials and hearings. "Since this is a plan and a code update, it's going to need to go through the full public hearing process," Brewster said.

The presentation was informational only; the council took no final action on the plan at the July 21 meeting.

Ending: Staff asked for written comments and said they would distribute the remaining presentation slides to council members who said they did not receive the full packet. The consultants and staff expressed hope the code updates and public-space recommendations will provide a clearer pathway for compatible reinvestment in downtown.