Memorandum                    

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	City Commission
FROM:	Diane Stoddard, Interim City Manager
DATE:	January 22, 2016
CC:	Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager
RE:	HERE Project Neighborhood Revitalization Plan and Performance Agreement

In August 2014, the HERE project received approval for a 10-year 85% property tax rebate via a Neighborhood Revitalization Area (NRA) incentive.  The NRA requires approval of all of the taxing jurisdictions (city, county and school district) and a performance agreement.  Details of the project are set forth in an adopted NRA plan. 

According to the adopted NRA plan, the HERE project is described as:

The project would require demolition of the existing structures on the site and the construction of approximately 237 high-end apartment units, along with a first floor retail component consisting of approximately 13,137 square feet to accommodate multiple retail users. The proposed project will be LEED and Energy Star certifiable. It will also feature an automated robotic parking garage with 577 spaces.  This project is consistent with the Oread Neighborhood Plan for high density mixed-use building on this site. HERE Kansas, LLC estimates the costs of redevelopment for 1101/1115 Indiana Street to be $75.4 million. HERE Kansas, LLC has requested a Neighborhood Revitalization Act (NRA) be placed on the property. The following is the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan (“Plan”) for this area. 

In mid to late 2015, the City became aware that HERE was experiencing difficulties with its automated parking vendor, which declared bankruptcy. This left the developer with a major challenge of addressing parking commitments made on the project when the project was designed with automated parking that provided for a greater number of spaces in the garage structure than traditional parking.  It should be noted that during presentations about the HERE project, the automated robotic parking garage was highlighted as a unique feature, but not, in staff’s estimation, the main reason the NRA incentive was approved at the time. 

The developer began working on various ways to meet the required parking for the project in other ways, as are being discussed in other staff memoranda on this topic. These plans will require other approvals and processes to achieve and the application before the commission should be viewed as an interim step in the development meeting all of the code required parking standards.  However, staff did want to identify an issue for the City Commission with regard to the NRA plan.  Even if HERE is successful in obtaining all necessary approvals to meet or even exceed the amount of parking spaces required in the approved NRA plan, they will not have a robotic automated parking garage as included in the plan description.  It will be a policy decision to decide if they construct a project that meets all other items, and meets or exceeds the 577 spaces, without the automated robotic parking garage, will “substantial” be met.  Also, it is clear that without parking to fully accommodate all of the uses described in the NRA plan, the NRA agreement would not be met by the development.  Staff would recommend allowing the development to reduce the number of parking spaces proposed in this final development plan request as an interim step toward the larger plan.  However, in order to maintain the NRA, staff would recommend HERE be required to meet or exceed the parking requirements, without requiring they be robotic, along with all other performance provisions.  Staff advises that the City Commission discuss this matter and provide direction.