Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Attorney's Office

TO:	Toni R. Wheeler, City Attorney
FROM:	Randall F. Larkin, Senior Assistant City Attorney
DATE:	September 28, 2015
RE:	Border's Parking

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Question Presented

On September 27, 2015, Vice-Mayor Leslie Soden transmitted to Interim City Manager Diane Stoddard a question regarding parking at the former Border's site ("the subject property"). On that same day, the Vice-Mayor had received an inquiry from a citizen asking whether the City had vacated any of the public parking on the subject property because the new owner had removed all public parking signs and had replaced them with signs stating that it was a private parking lot. The question is whether the City has any right to public parking on the subject property?

Brief Answer

The brief answer is yes. Pursuant to an Agreement dated March 25, 1997, the City is entitled to sixty-seven (67) public parking spaces on the subject property.

Discussion

On March 25, 1997, the City entered into an Agreement with the then-owners of the subject property, Agree Limited Partnership and Winter, Inc. In that agreement, in exchange for the City's contribution of $100,000.00, as partial reimbursement for the then-owners' cost of constructing the parking lot, the City would be entitled to forty (40) parking spaces on the subject property (Phase I) and twenty-seven (27) parking spaces on what is now the Hobbs-Taylor Lofts site (Phase II). Under that Agreement, if Phase II was not developed within two years of the opening of the Border's store, then the City would be entitled to an additional twenty-seven (27) parking spaces on the subject property or, alternatively, the owners could construct twenty-seven (27) spaces on the yet undeveloped Phase II property. Because Phase II was not developed within the contemplated time-frame, the owner of the subject property, in 1999, opted to grant to the City an additional twenty-seven (27) parking spaces, for a total of sixty-even (67) parking spaces, on the subject property.

The Agreement, it must be noted, is expressly binding on all successors, assigns, and representatives of the parties, which would include the new owner of the subject property.

Conclusion

Thus, according to the March 25, 1997, Agreement, the City is entitled to sixty-seven (67) public parking spaces on the former Border's site.