Russ Schoenberger may have plans for his future -- but that future doesn't include planning.
Schoenberger stepped down Tuesday night from the Board of Zoning Appeals after serving five years. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. For most of the time prior to that, Schoenberger had been Emporia's director of planning, a 33-year tenure that ended in 1998.
In other words, Schoenberger has spent more time on planning, zoning and mapping issues than even he cares to think about.
"I've never seen the board from this side before," he joked Tuesday, sitting among in the audience in the city conference room.
Schoenberger served as an Army cartographer in the 1940s. After getting out, he went to work for the city of Kansas City, Mo. as a cartographic draftsman in the planning department. He stayed in Kansas City for about seven years before he and his wife decided they wanted to try a smaller community.
"We had five kids," he said. "We wanted to get to a better environment to raise them than Kansas City was."
That was when the Emporia job came open. The Schoenbergers went west and never looked back.
It was harder presenting things to the zoning boards in those days, Schoenberger said, since most maps had to be hand-drawn. To that extent, he said, computerization and GIS systems have improved things dramatically.
But although the tools have changed, he said, the issues haven't -- particularly on the Board of Zoning Appeals, which is where people go when they want an exception to the zoning rules.
"The problems are the same, I'm sure," he said. "It's just the manner and the methods with which you accomplish your goals that have changed."
Schoenberger is leaving the board due to hearing loss. Otherwise, he said, as the board started to get underway, he'd probably be up there yet.
"I'll probably have to leave so I don't get up and say something," he chuckled.
His replacement is Tamie Vasholtz, who served in her first BZA meeting Tuesday.