Re: City Commission Study Session

8^th & Pennsylvania

Thank you for agreeing to look more closely at this project at the request of ELNA. There is widespread support and appreciation in East Lawrence for the Harris Construction historic preservation and mixed redevelopment on the east side of the 800 block of Pennsylvania. There is a lot of middle ground and potential for win/win in this situation.

Density is a word that has been thrown around a lot in this discussion. The concept of a certain level of density actually has a lot of support in our neighborhood. However, the density of 54 units plus retail in the transition zone (zone 3) on the west side of the block is out of character with the surrounding neighborhood. For example, this zone of redevelopment, specifically the parking for it, will back onto a block that includes wonderful historic homes, including an 1868 home built by an escaped slave. ELNA requests that the density of units on this block be duplex zoning (24 units) and that retail be limited to the east side of Pennsylvania. This would eliminate the need for the 3^rd floor on the buildings on the corners of 8^th & 9^th, which is also out of character with the neighborhood.

The attendant parking and additional traffic on our narrow old streets are major concerns.  We have been working on possible solutions for the 11th street traffic problems for over a year now. Since it is the main road closest to this project, we can only assume this will make it worse, with no viable solutions in sight. The traffic impact is also a huge issue to New York School and the Boys and Girls Club Program that operates at New York School, as they are only one block away from this redevelopment project.

As for parking, the stated concept of needing fewer parking spaces because it is “shared parking’ between residential and commercial is highly dependent on the types of businesses that move in. The project is not exclusively geared towards offices, but also plans to incorporate restaurants, coffee houses and other evening parking businesses. Our residents already struggle with the demand for on street parking in the evening hours, and the lack of parking for residents and their guests and shared parking for all aspects of the project seems likely to exacerbate the problem.

Gentrification is a growing problem in our neighborhood and residents see this as a major effect of this particular redevelopment. Our elderly and lower income folks have already been harshly impacted by rising property taxes. It is heartbreaking to see folks losing their homes, homes that they have worked hard their whole lives for, that they would like to grow old in, or hand down to their children. We are one of the few remaining affordable neighborhoods in town, but affordable housing is more than just the purchase price. Our entire neighborhood culture, that unique vibrant mix of all ages and races, artists and musicians, social workers and teachers, is based on that affordability, and it will be a thing of the past if gentrification continues at its current rate. We realize that this problem is not new with the Harris project, and that it is a tough issue to resolve, but we implore the city to work with us come up with some solutions.

Since the beginning of ELNA’s discussions with Harris about this project, we have insisted that a percentage of units be permanently affordable by the standards of Tenants to Homeowner (now Lawrence Land Trust), and be purchased and administered by them. Harris has always agreed to this in principle, but concrete action on this plan has not been forthcoming. ELNA requests that every phase of this project contain 20% perpetually affordable housing, and that this requirement be written into the design guidelines that will become code for the area if the urban conservation overlay district is approved. The history of this block as a former residential neighborhood of poor black and Hispanic families who lost their homes to the planned “Haskell Loop” make this particular issue quite poignant for many long term residents.

And finally, ELNA requests that the C5 zoning in conjunction with the overlay district not be approved until there is a way to condition the zoning uses. We are adamant that any restaurants should have to comply with the 55% rule (with regard to liquor and food sales), that there be no liquor stores, pawn shops (unless they explicitly cannot sell firearms), or loan offices. There are more items on this “conditions” list that we have compiled over a series of ELNA meetings, but these are the major ones. We understand that Harris has stated that they do not want these uses either. However, there is no guarantee that they will always own the property, nor that economic factors in the future would not change their position about these types of tenants. Perhaps with the adoption of the new development code, a solution can be found, but ELNA believes that the district should not be approved until the zoning can be properly conditioned.

Again, thank you for your time and attention to this matter.