A Deep Dive into Topeka's LUGMP 2040 and Why Development at 37th & Gage Is Exactly What the Growth Management Plan Ordered.
The official 2014 City of Topeka video City of Topeka Land Use and Growth Management Plan (uploaded September 19, 2014, by the City of Topeka channel) is the straight-from-the-source explainer of the Land Use & Growth Management Plan 2040 (LUGMP 2040)—the blueprint that still guides every smart-growth decision in Topeka today. Narrated with clear visuals, maps, and commentary from then-Planning Director Bill Fiander (listed as "Fyander" in the transcript), the roughly 8-minute piece lays out a no-nonsense vision: fiscally responsible, sustainable, planned growth that prioritizes infrastructure-first development over sprawl. And right in the heart of that vision? The Urban Growth Area (UGA)—specifically the southwest corridor that includes the 37th & Gage intersection.
Here's the beautiful part: every acre, every pad site, every mixed-use proposal, and every road improvement happening at 37th & Gage right now isn't some rogue expansion—it's textbook LUGMP execution. The plan literally calls it out by name as a future Mixed Use Node. Development there is not just allowed; it's justified and encouraged as the smart, compact way to grow. Let's pull it straight from the video and the official LUGMP 2040 document itself.
1. The UGA + Service Tiers Framework: 37th & Gage Sits in the "Ready Zone" (Tier 2)
The video breaks future growth into three clear tiers inside the designated Urban Growth Area:
- Tier 1 (highest priority): Existing city limits where police, fire, water, sewer, and roads are already in place or planned.
- Tier 2: Areas "most ready for annexation" where all five services can be extended without massive new investment—exactly the compact, sustainable footprint the plan wants.
- Tier 3: Longer-term areas to plan for but not develop yet.
37th & Gage sits squarely in the southwest portion of the UGA (Tier 2 territory). The LUGMP map and text explicitly designate this corridor for planned urbanization because the infrastructure backbone (roads like Gage Blvd., utilities, and proximity to existing city services) makes it efficient. The video hammers this home: "The plan guides the future sequencing of growth in Topeka to ensure investments in infrastructure and services are in place prior to development." No random sprawl—only sequenced, ready-to-go nodes like 37th & Gage.
2. Nodal Mixed-Use Development at High-Traffic Intersections = The Official Strategy
The LUGMP doesn't just wave at the southwest UGA—it names the intersection. On the Future Land Use Map and supporting tables, SW 37th Street and SW Gage Blvd. is listed as one of the key Mixed Use Nodes with a projected 17,000 Average Daily Traffic (ADT) volume. That's not an afterthought; it's a deliberate callout alongside other nodes like 37th & Wanamaker or 37th & Burlingame.
The plan explains why these nodes matter: they create compact, walkable, mixed-use centers (commercial + residential + office) that serve multiple neighborhoods efficiently. The video reinforces this with downtown Topeka as the "poster child" of compact development—mixed uses, transportation choices, higher return on existing pipes and pavement. Applying that same logic to 37th & Gage means nodal development here delivers exactly what the LUGMP wants: shorter trips, density that pays for services, and fiscal health instead of spreading thin.
3. Fiscal Responsibility & Avoiding Sprawl: The Core Justification
The video lays out the cold math why unplanned fringe growth hurts:
- Since 1960, Topeka's land area grew 65% while population grew only 7% → less dense, more expensive services.
- Only 2 out of 10 new Shawnee County residents moved inside city limits (vs. 8 out of 10 in Lawrence) → lost tax base and higher per-capita costs.
- 1,200+ vacant platted lots inside city limits already exist → but the UGA is the planned place to add more when ready.
Developing the 37th & Gage node follows the plan's "pillars": promote compact development, invest where we already are (or where services can be extended cost-effectively), and achieve urban densities. The video quotes Fiander directly on services being "in place or planned" before growth. Current road projects (Huntoon/Gage reconstruction, Southwest Parkway extensions) and utility work are the exact infrastructure sequencing the LUGMP demands. It's not "sprawl"—it's the plan delivering higher ROI through nodal density.
4. Mixed-Use & Commercial at 37th & Gage: Explicitly on the Menu
The LUGMP Future Land Use Map and text support Mixed Use and Neighborhood Commercial categories at these UGA nodes. The video celebrates mixed-use examples and calls for "housing choices, transportation choices, walkable neighborhoods" to attract younger residents and take pressure off streets. That's precisely why PUD zoning, C-2/C-4 allowances, and recent approvals (42-unit multifamily, site grading for retail pads, commercial listings) fit like a glove. The plan even anticipates traffic growth at 37th & Gage and builds the road network to support it—meaning commercial viability is baked in.
Bottom Line: It's All Just Part of the Plan, Baby
Watch the 2014 video and then look at what's happening at 37th & Gage in 2026—site prep, road upgrades, mixed residential-commercial momentum—and it clicks: this is the LUGMP 2040 working exactly as designed. The plan didn't leave development at 37th & Gage to chance; it identified the intersection, assigned it nodal status in the UGA, tied it to infrastructure sequencing, and justified it as the fiscally smart, compact-growth antidote to sprawl.
Every shovel of dirt, every new apartment unit, every future retail pad is the plan in action. Bill Fiander and the Planning Commission laid this out over a decade ago, and the city is simply following through. No surprises, no deviations—just smart, sustainable growth at the intersection the LUGMP 2040 explicitly highlighted.
It's all part of the plan, baby. And it's unfolding beautifully.
https://37gage.blogspot.com/2020/02/time-to-revisit-this-today.html
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