The following letter was submitted to the editors of the Iola Register. It will appear in print on Saturday, February 12, 2022. The Iola City Council will meet on Monday, February 14, 2022, to discuss the rezoning of the former Arkhaven nursing facility to allow the creation of apartments.

We’ll be talking about Monday’s decision for years.

Not because it’s Valentine’s Day, a moment long ago when a Catholic priest named Saint Valentine was executed for ignoring the edicts of a tyrannical Roman emperor because he selflessly married soldiers who had found love. It’s a great story of love and romance that poets like to tell.

But it’s not love and romance we’ll be remembering. It’s Iola’s future.

I hope Iola city council members take the story of Saint Valentine to heart on Monday when they determine the fate of the former Iola Nursing Center, aka Arkhaven. Not the execution piece, of course, but the Saint’s exhibition of bravery in doing what he believed was right against the wishes of an antagonist. On that day, council members will decide whether to overturn an earlier decision made by Iola’s Planning Commission to deny a rezoning request made by Meo Development to change the property’s zoning designation from single-family to multi-family. This would allow Meo’s team to completely renovate the former assisted living facility into more than 50 one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Talk about meeting a huge need in our city, not to mention a significant financial investment.

It’s no small task considering the state of disrepair into which the building has fallen. But Meo Development is not deterred by the building’s condition or the outspoken opposition of a handful of people living in the area. Meo’s team believes in Iola and likes what they see. Although residents in the neighborhood don’t like seeing a blighted building slowly deteriorate before their eyes, some like what they see in Meo’s vision for the property even less.

That was made abundantly clear during the Planning Commission meeting in January, when residents stood before commission members and brazenly hinted at clandestine meetings between the commission and outside organizations to influence the commission’s decision; detailed fears of increased crime, traffic, congestion, and property devaluation created by an influx of “those people” (aka low income); and feigned a sincere interest in new housing in Iola. We need housing, they said, but not in our neighborhood.

And therein lies the problem. When a handful of people have the power to influence the future health and well-being of an entire community by pressuring those in authority to satisfy their own interests, it can be harmful for everyone.

Like people, communities develop reputations, which are the sum of their actions and what others think about them. Are we easy to work with or difficult? Do we chase away opportunities or embrace them? Is a project okay as long as it’s not located on my block or in my neighborhood, ward, or city? Right or wrong, this is how reputations function.

And reputations matter. It’s regrettable when communities develop reputations for opposition or indifference to progress even when good ideas have the potential to benefit the majority. The unfortunate thing about reputations is that they have a funny way of spreading, especially the bad ones. And once a community earns the label for being regressive, it’s extremely difficult to ameliorate.

Iola has enjoyed broad community success over the years thanks to teamwork and by embracing new opportunities (G&W Foods, Eastgate Apartments, the new hospital). Yet it also has lost out on several possibilities that would have been worthwhile for us. The assisted living center on Kentucky Street and the Sleep Inn and Suites along U.S. Highways 54 and 169 come to mind.

If the city council upholds the Planning Commission’s recommendation to deny a rezoning change at Arkhaven, we can add it to the list of things that might have been. The outcome will have serious negative consequences for Iola well into the future. And though unfair, these are the ones we often remember the most.

People talk, and those seeking investment opportunities in rural communities will eschew us because of our “can’t do” or “Not In My Backyard” reputation. Investors will breeze on by Iola without a second glance headed for destinations such as Chanute, Fort Scott, Independence, and Pittsburg. Places that welcome opportunity.

Let’s face it, Iola needs housing. Affordable housing. Workforce housing. Market-rate housing. What that housing looks like may appear in any number of forms: new single-family homes and duplexes; rehabilitated vacant homes; repurposed elementary schools; new development up north.

The apartments at Arkhaven.

Redeveloping Arkhaven will have an immediate impact and stands as Iola’s best opportunity presently for getting the quantity of new housing the city needs on the market within a year. No, it won’t solve our housing problem, but it’s a good start. Unlike large metropolitan areas, we don’t have the luxury of developers or builders knocking down our doors to invest in our community.

Meo Development does, so why are we allowing a few dissident voices to stand in the way?

Yes, concerns about parking, traffic, and the safety of the neighborhood’s residents are legitimate, but Meo has gone out of his way to allay these fears by promising more parking spaces and assuring a boost to property values through market rate rental pricing. That means the units will not be income restricted. They will be available for the people who need them most, like our manufacturing workers, teachers, retail associates, and healthcare professionals who constitute the majority of our local workforce. We want them and more like them living in our community.

There is nothing to lose except the council’s blessing to make a blighted building attractive and useful once again. Meo and his team stand ready to get started, in spite of the obstacles. Before Monday’s meeting, contact city council members to encourage them to overturn the Planning Commission’s recommendation, because a council vote for new housing – a vote for Iola’s future – is a story we are ready to talk about for years to come.

I can’t think of anything more brave. Or loving.

Lisse Regehr

President and CEO, Thrive Allen County