Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

Hastings City Councilman Chuck Rosenberg speaks at a stop near the 16th Street viaduct during a Hastings Planning Commission bus tour Thursday morning.

Lisa Parnell-Rowe, development services director for the city of Hastings, speaks at a stop near Walmart during a Hastings Planning Commission bus tour Thursday morning.

Lisa Parnell-Rowe, development services director for the city of Hastings, speaks at a stop near the Hastings Municipal Airport during a Hastings Planning Commission bus tour Thursday morning.

Hastings City Councilman Chuck Rosenberg speaks at a stop near the 16th Street viaduct during a Hastings Planning Commission bus tour Thursday morning.

Lisa Parnell-Rowe, development services director for the city of Hastings, speaks at a stop near Walmart during a Hastings Planning Commission bus tour Thursday morning.

Lisa Parnell-Rowe, development services director for the city of Hastings, speaks at a stop near the Hastings Municipal Airport during a Hastings Planning Commission bus tour Thursday morning.

Members of the Hastings Planning Commission toured the community by bus Thursday morning to learn more about the city’s corporate limits as well as recent and upcoming issues.

Commission Chairman Greg Sinner has pushed for a bus tour to educate commission members since he became chairman in February.

“I think that’s a large part of what we do, and I believe, as I’ve said before, that we need to be more proactive,” he said.

He wanted to get away from a rubber-stamp approach.

“In order to make good, sound judgments you need to have good information and know some background about what’s going on in the city that you’re making decisions for because a lot of times things are voted on and if you don’t it’s not a good thing because 10 years down the road it could be adversely affecting something or somebody,” Sinner said.

Planning issues constantly are evolving, he said, so additional bus tours in the future may be a good idea.

The kickoff for the process to update the city’s comprehensive plan took place later on Thursday at the Hastings Museum in the Super Screen Theatre.

The kickoff provided the opportunity for attendees to learn more about the timeline, objectives and future opportunities for public input.

This is the city’s first comprehensive plan since Imagine Hastings, which was written in 2009.

In addition to Planning Commission members, the bus tour was open to other city officials as well as consultants who are in Hastings working on the comprehensive plan, including Keith Marvin, president and senior planner of Marvin Planning Consultants. Hastings City Council members awarded the comprehensive plan contract to Marvin Planning Consultants of David City in April.

Marvin said the bus tour was a good way to get an understanding of what’s been happening in Hastings.

“The good thing is to get the Planning Commission here and our team all on the same page about some of the key things that are going on in the community right now,” he said.

The next step in the comprehensive planning process is developing the digital engagement aspect through SurveyMonkey and a process called MindMixer.

Representatives intend to be on site during Kool-Aid Days to get information to the public about the comprehensive plan process.

“I put a challenge out there to all my communities when we start doing different ideas with the survey,” Marvin said.

The tour, which was led by Development Services Director Lisa Parnell-Rowe, started with the bus circling through the one-way streets of downtown Hastings. The city is looking into transitioning some of those one-way streets into two-way streets.

The tour included spots of development in Hastings as well as locations of notable council action including the Theatre District on the site of the former Imperial Mall, the land north of Walmart that is the site of a proposed casino and horse racing track, and the 16th Street viaduct, which is in the process of being razed.

Councilman Chuck Rosenberg, who serves as the Planning Commission liaison, took part in the bus tour.

The Planning Commission, which is a recommending body, as well as the council each narrowly voted against applications for a rezone and conditional use permit for the racino.

“I think the feeling is the location here was not the best location,” Rosenberg said when the tour stopped at a Walmart parking lot to look at the racino site. “It never was in the comp plan to put a casino there, and obviously they want to be where the action is, but I’m afraid to say I don’t think we’re going to see it right now.”

When the bus tour stopped at the north side of the viaduct, Rosenberg said the city needs more grade separations.

“The comp plan in ’09 addressed that, but they’re probably looking more at Marian Road or at Baltimore because they make more sense than rebuilding this facility here.”

Demolition of the viaduct is expected to be complete by the end of September.

Rosenberg manages City Iron and Metal, which was awarded the contract by demolition contractor United Contractors, Inc., to process scrap metal from the viaduct.

Due to a change in steel prices, City Iron and Metal has not processed all of the steel from the viaduct.

Rosenberg said he’s been photographing what’s coming in, including the beams that sat on top of the columns.

He said the beams were pitted very badly.

“They were rusted through,” said Commissioner Lou Kully, whose family owns City Iron and Metal. “On a wide flange beam it’s as strong as its weakest point when used for a bridge. That thing was ready to come down.”

Council members will act at their regular meeting on Monday to accept the city’s Transportation and Parking Master Plan, which includes a recommendation to identify potential sites for a new viaduct.

“Obviously, if we’ve got one off here to the east at Elm Street and we’ve got the one on Burlington, it doesn’t really make sense, at least in my mind, to have one in between them,” Parnell-Rowe said.

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