Memorandum
City of Lawrence
Planning & Development Services
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TO: |
Thomas M. Markus, City Manager |
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FROM: |
Danelle Walters, Community Development Manager |
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CC: |
Scott McCullough, Planning & Development Services Director Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager |
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DATE: |
February 14, 2019 |
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RE: |
Update regarding The Cottages at Green Lake, a Lawrence-Douglas County Housing project. |
Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority (LDCHA) has proposed utilizing their HUD Moving to Work (MTW) funds for the lease of ten units of housing (The Cottages at Green Lake) from the county which are being developed adjacent to the proposed mental health crisis center at 1000 W. 2nd Street. The project is designed to address the shortage of housing and treatment for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness who are homeless or are at risk for homelessness in Douglas County. The units will be permanent supportive housing.
With all federal projects of this nature, an Environmental Review (ER) is required. Although the City does not have any funding in this phase of the project, it is considered the Responsible Entity (RE), which means the City assumes federal responsibilities for completing the review. The RE is a unit of general local government, tribe or state that receives entitlement federal funds such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME.
As stated on the HUD Exchange website, an environmental review “is the process of reviewing a project and its potential environmental impacts to determine whether it meets federal, state, and local environmental standards. The environmental review process is required for all HUD-assisted projects to ensure that the proposed project does not negatively impact the surrounding environment and that the property site itself will not have an adverse environmental or health effect on end users”. There are several different levels of environmental review that are dependent on the project scope. The higher levels of review include, but are not limited to, the compliance categories for all of the following:
24 CFR 58.6 requirements for compliance:
Airport clear zones
Coastal barrier resources
Flood insurance
24 CFR 58.5 additional laws and authorities for compliance:
Air quality
Coastal zone management
Endangered Species
Environmental Justice
Explosive and flammable facilities
Farmlands protection
Floodplain management
Historic Preservation (Including Section 106)
Noise abatement and control
Site contamination
Sole source aquifers
This particular project rose to the level of an Environmental Assessment, which is the default level of review for projects that are new construction, reconstruction, or demolition. Staff began processing the review as required, including the Section 106 review associated with the Historic Preservation category. Section 106 in part states that the RE must consult with tribes and other interested parties that have requested notification of projects in a certain geographic area. In the case of this project, consultation letters were sent to 21 different recipients, including 11 interested tribes. The remaining notifications went to individual members of the tribes (Chiefs or principal officers of the tribe) that have requested notification, as well as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the East Coast. These notifications allow for the interested parties and tribes to provide input or concerns regarding federally-funded projects and their location.
City staff received one response from the consultation letters. The Delaware Tribe Historic Preservation Office responded with a letter (attached) received on February 7, 2019 recommending that an archaeological field survey that includes subsurface testing in archaeologically sensitive areas be undertaken. Staff communicated this response to the LDCHA, and LDCHA is in the process of taking steps with the project partners to determine how to move forward. Staff has additionally forwarded a list of qualified archeological consultants provided from the Kansas Historical Society, and has offered to assist in those discussions with the crisis center partners. Agencies involved in the ER discussions to date include The City of Lawrence, Douglas County, LDCHA, Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, Bert Nash, the Kansas Historical Society, and HUD.
On February 14, 2019, city staff met with representatives from Douglas County and LDCHA. Douglas County will procure estimates for the Archeological Site Survey and LDCHA will research funding to pay for the study. As of the February 14 meeting, city staff updated the project partners that there were still several open items. Those items are as follows: