Angel Cushing in favor of HB 2518 2022

Angel (Georganna) Cushing

3458 Road H2, Allen, KS 66833

To the Chairman and members of the Kansas House Local Government Affairs Committee:

HB 2518 is excellent legislation. I spent the 2021 year traveling Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri informing
residents that a National Heritage Area had created or was in the process of creating federal land
management plans involving their property. No one had any idea. In the case of Freedom’s Frontier
National Heritage Area, no one in that federal boundary had any idea that they are under federal land
management plans guided by the National Park Service. They have been in that federal boundary for the
last 15 years.

Freedom of Information Requests obtained on the Kansas Nebraska Heritage Area Partnership, revealed
that the board members of that proposed National Heritage Area had no intentions of informing land
owners or local municipalities. Their meeting minutes discussed their plans of lobbying congressmen,
special interest groups and some state representatives. Only when legislation was ready to be presented to
Congress for a vote on that congressional boundary, did they intend to let the secret slip.

In documents released to the public, North Central Planning Commission in Kansas solicited architects to
design new comprehensive planning and zoning regulations for counties within the proposed National
Heritage Area. That document states the new comprehensive plans and zoning regulations would be the
mechanism used to inform the public that land use policy had changed to a joint land use so Fort Riley
could expand drone training. To clarify, landowners would find out that their property rights would be limited
in favor of Fort Riley training when they obtained a permit for a new building or expansion. Or perhaps they
would learn of the new joint use policy when they complained about an incident involving Fort Riley on their
property. I have no doubt they would be made to feel ashamed for having never been told about the
donation of the use of their property to Fort Riley drone training.

In yet another incident, members of the public did not find out that public use had been designed into the
comprehensive plan for all unincorporated private property within Lyon County until days before the county
commissioners were schedule to vote to proceed with the zoning regulations needed to implement those
plans.

Please vote in favor of 2518 and create similar legislation on National Heritage Areas, Historical Districts,
and Joint Land Use Policies.

Effective decisions require information. Property owners deserve information.