[E-minutes] City Commission meeting minutes of March 25, 2003
Diane Trybom
dtrybom@ci.lawrence.ks.us
Fri, 4 Apr 2003 16:16:17 -0600
March 25, 2003
The Board of Commissioners of the City of Lawrence met in regular =
session at
6:35 p.m., in the City Commission Chambers in City Hall with Mayor Hack
presiding and members Dunfield, Henry, Kennedy, and Rundle present. =
Student
Commissioner Elmore was present. =20
Mayor Hack proclaimed the month of April as "Mathematics Awareness =
Month."
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to approve the City Commission meeting minutes of March 11th and 12th, =
2003.
Motion carried unanimously.=20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to approve the Public Transit Advisory Committee meeting minutes of =
February
20, 2003; the Public Library Board meeting minutes of February 17, =
2003; the
Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority meeting minutes of January =
28,
2003; the Arts Commission meeting minutes of November 13, 2002 and =
January 8
2003; the Board of Electrical Examiners and Appeals meeting minutes of
February 5, 2003; and, the Neighborhood Resources Advisory Committee =
meeting
minutes of February 13, 2003. Motion carried unanimously. =20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by
Dunfield, to approve claims to 483 vendors in the amount of =
$2,232,175.65
and payroll from March 9, 2003 to March 22, 2003 in the amount of
$1,297,882.12. Motion carried unanimously. =20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by
Dunfield, to approve the Drinking Establishment Licenses for The =
Jazzhaus of
Lawrence, 926 =BD Massachusetts (Contingent Upon State License) Chili's =
Grill
& Bar, 2319 Iowa (Contingent Upon State License); Columbus Club =
Association
2206 East 23rd; Bella Lounge, 925 Iowa (Contingent Upon State =
License-New);
the Retail Liquor License for Glass House Liquor, 2301 Wakarusa Dr., =
Ste: C
(Contingent State License); and, the Cereal Malt Beverage License for =
Conoco
Food Mart, 955 East 23rd (Contingent Upon Departmental Approval). =
Motion
carried unanimously.
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by
Dunfield, to approve a one-year extension of the City's towing services
contract to Hillcrest Wrecker & Garage until February 28, 2004. Motion
carried unanimously. (1)=20
The City Commission reviewed the bids for six =BD ton pickups for
Finance, Parks & Recreation and Public Works Department. The bids =
were:
BIDDER BID AMOUNT=09
Roberts Auto Plaza $110,557
Laird Noller Motors $114,863
Shawnee Mission Ford $115,112
Jim Clark Motors $115,621
Ed Bozarth Chevrolet $117,265
North Larsen Motors $119,112
Crown Chevrolet $138,918
=09
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to award the bid to Roberts Auto Plaza, in the amount of $110,557. =
Motion
carried unanimously.(2)
The City Commission reviewed the bids for one compact pickup for the
Kaw Plant, Utilities Department. The bids were:
BIDDER BID AMOUNT=09
Laird Noller Motors $17,436
Shawnee Mission Ford $17,722
Ed Bozarth Chevrolet $17,897
Extreme Ford $17,919
North Larsen Motors $18,292
Jim Clark Motors $20,172
=09
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to award the bid to Laird Noller Motors, in the amount of $17,436. =
Motion
carried unanimously. (3)
The City Commission reviewed the bids for yearly mowing contracts
for Park Districts 1, 2 and 3 for the Parks and Recreation Department. =
The
bids were:
PARK DISTRICT NO. 1 BIDDER BID AMOUNT=09
Cru-Cut Lawns $15,932.00
Downings Lawn Care
$18,654.00
Green Acres Lawn Care $19,948.00
First Management
$24,760.00
DF Construction $28,066.00
Grass Roots
$28,280.00
Harrell Mowing $32,276.60
Cut-N-Edge
$38,660.00 =09
=09
PARK DISTRICT NO. 2 BIDDER BID AMOUNT=09
Grass Roots
$14,740.00
Cru-Cut Lawn Service
$15,060.00
Downings Lawn Care
$15,150.00
First Management
$25,625.00
Green Acres Lawn Care $27,506.00
DF Construction $25,938.00
Cut-N-Edge
$30,760.00
Harrell Mowing $31,180.70
=09
PARK DISTRICT NO. 3 BIDDER BID AMOUNT=09
Downings Lawn Care $
5,430.00
Harrell Mowing $ 5,770.00
DF Construction $ 7,010.00
Grass Roots $
7,310.00
Green Acres Lawn Care $ 8,962.00
First Management $
9,480.00
Cut-N-Edge
$11,606.00
Harrell Mowing $31,180.70
Cru-Cut Lawn Service No
Bid=09
=09
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to award the bid for District No. 1 to Cru-Cut Lawns, in the amount of
15,932.00; District No. 2 to Grass Roots, in the amount of $14,740.00; =
and,
District No. 3 to Downings Lawn Care, in the amount of $5,430. Motion
carried unanimously. (4)
The City Commission reviewed the bids for a single ram baler for the
Public Works Department. The bids were:
BIDDER BID AMOUNT=09
Roy Conley & Co., Inc. $56,061
American Business Resources $58,500
Glen L. DeHart & Son, Inc. $61,426
Liberty Compactors, Inc. $61,508
Mid-Iowa Solid Waste Equipment Co., Inc. $64,373
=09
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to award the bid to Roy Conley & Co., in the amount of $56,061. Motion
carried unanimously. (5)
The City Commission reviewed the bids for replacement of two
condenser units at Holcom Park Center for the Parks & Recreation =
Department.
The bids were:
BIDDER BID AMOUNT=09
Chaney Inc. $24,454
SRH Mechanical Contractors Inc. $28,000
McElroy's $29,600
=09
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to award the bid to Chaney Inc., in the amount of $24,454. Motion =
carried
unanimously. (6)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to approve an architect design contract with Smalter & Associates for
renovation/addition to Fire Station No. 3, 3708 West 6th Street, in the
amount of $30,000. Motion carried unanimously. (7)=20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to approve the purchase of property and easements adjacent to Riverside
Business Park and north of North Michigan from Westar Energy for =
sanitary
sewer and pump station improvements, in the amount of $20,000. Motion
carried unanimously. (8)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to authorize the City Manager to execute an Engineering Services =
Agreement
with BG Consultants for Crossgate Drive, north of Clinton Parkway, =
street
and retaining all improvements, in the amount of $19,897.68. Motion =
carried
unanimously. (9)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with =
Institutiform
Technologies USA for the Inflow and Infiltration Project for the =
Wastewater
Collection Division, for an amount not to exceed $398,192 to complete =
the
project. Motion carried unanimously. (10)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to authorize the City Manager to issue a change order for the existing
contract with Danis Construction for $41,219, for additional work on =
the
Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion Project. Motion carried =
unanimously.
(11)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to set a bid date of April 8, 2003 for the 2003 Overlay Program, Phase =
1.
Motion carried unanimously.=20
=09
(12)=20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to set a bid date of April 8, 2003 for the following comprehensive
rehabilitation projects for Neighborhood Resources: 1745 Learnard =
Avenue,
2425 Overlook Circle, 1201 West 22nd Terrace, and 1210 Hacienda Lane.
Motion carried unanimously. (13) =20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to place on first reading Ordinance No. 7629, adopting and amending the =
2000
Edition of the Uniform Mechanical Code. Motion carried unanimously.
(14)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to place on first reading Ordinance No. 7630, establishing all-way =
"stop"
signs at the intersection of Inverness Drive/Legends Drive and Wakarusa
Drive. Motion carried unanimously. (15)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to place on first reading Ordinance No. 7631, establishing all-way =
"stop"
signs at the intersection of Kasold Drive and Peterson Road. Motion =
carried
unanimously. (16)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to place on first reading Ordinance No. 7632, establishing "yield" =
signs on
Kansas Street at Utah Street. Motion carried unanimously.
(17) =20
Ordinance No. 7627, annexing approximately 2 acres generally located at =
1303
East 1600 Road (O'Connell Road), was read second time. As part of the
consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by Dunfield, to adopt =
the
ordinance. Aye: Dunfield, Hack, Henry, Kennedy, and Rundle. Nay: =
None.
Motion carried unanimously. (18)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to adopt Resolution No. 6456, authorizing the issuance of bonds in the
amount of $650,000 for the milling, overlaying, and curb repair on =
major
trafficways. This amount is budgeted in the Capital Improvement =
Budget.
Motion carried unanimously. (19)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to adopt Resolution No. 6458, authorizing $350,000 in general =
obligation
bond authority for 2003 KLINK Project (City/KDOT) maintenance, North =
3rd
Street, from Industrial Lane to north City limits, and 23rd Street, =
Learnard
Avenue to Harper Street. Motion carried unanimously. (20)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to adopt Resolution No. 6459, authorizing the Mayor to execute an =
agreement
with the Kansas Department of Transportation for KLINK Resurfacing. =
The
project involves milling and overlaying 23rd Street from Learnard =
Avenue to
Harper Street and North 3rd Street, from Industrial Lane to the north =
City
limits. The State will participate at 50% up to a maximum of $200,000.
Motion carried unanimously.
(21)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to concur with the Planning Commission's recommendations to adopt the
findings of fact and approve the request for rezoning (Z-12-42-02) a =
tract
of land approximately .86 acres from RS-2 (Single Family Residence) to =
RMD
(Duplex Residential District); and, direct staff to prepare the =
appropriate
ordinance. The property is described as being located at the southwest
corner of West 3rd Street and Illinois Street. Motion carried =
unanimously.
(22)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to concur with the Planning Commission's recommendations to adopt the
findings of fact and approve the request for rezoning (Z-01-01-03) of
approximately 2.0 acres from A (Agriculture) to RS-2 (Single-Family
Residence District); and, direct staff to prepare the appropriate =
ordinance.
The property is generally described as being located at O'Connell Road =
and
Goodell Court. Motion carried unanimously.
(23)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to approve as signs of community interest "Friends of the Library" =
annual
book sale. Motion carried unanimously.
(24)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to receive the 2002 Utility System Development Charges Annual Report.
Motion carried unanimously.
(25)=20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to authorize the Mayor to sign a Subordination Agreement for Kiley and =
Mary
Bost, 832 Locust. Motion carried unanimously.
(26)=20
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to authorize the Mayor to sign a Release of Mortgage for Sara and =
George
Kapfer, 1033 Rhode Island. Motion carried unanimously.
(27)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to authorize the Mayor to sign a Release of Mortgage for Mark Kaplan, =
1029
Delaware. Motion carried unanimously.
(28)
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Rundle, seconded by =
Dunfield,
to authorize the Mayor to sign a Release of Mortgage for John and Jane =
Hoyt,
830 Alabama. Motion carried unanimously.
(29)
Concerning the regular agenda, Paul Werner, Paul Werner Architects, =
L.L.C,
requested that the City Commission table rezoning (Z-12-43-02) a tract =
of
land approximately .51 acre from RS-1 (Single-Family Residence =
District) to
RO-1A (Residence -Office District) located at 501 Rockledge Road until =
the
additional rezoning request could catch up to the original item.
(31)
Also, pulled from the consent agenda were the Oakley property items, =
which
would be deferred for one week. These items were: the Area Plan; a =
request
to rezone (Z-01-06-03) a tract of land approximately 11.0855 acres from =
A
(Agricultural District) to PRD-2 (Planned Residential Development =
District);
and, the request to rezone (Z-02-05-02B) a tract of land approximately =
3.995
acres from A (Agricultural District) to RO-1B (Residence-Office =
District). =20
Vice Mayor Dunfield said there were a couple of concerns about the =
Oakley
property. One concern was that the applicant had made substantial
alterations to what they were proposing; and also, staff was =
considering the
Area Plan as part of this discussion and that Area Plan was not =
something
that had been widely disseminated so that people could have a chance to =
look
that plan over. Therefore, the City Commission felt it was better to =
give
people time to consider these issues.
(32)
During the City Manager's Report, Mike Wildgen commended the =
Fire/Medical
Department for an annual report that was drafted by their staff.
The Public Works Director presented the City Commission with an update =
on
the 2003 Street Improvement Projects.
Soules said April 8th would be the bid date for Phase One of the 2003 =
Street
Maintenance Program. Phase One was the main mill and overlay part of =
the
program. Most of these roads were residential, however, staff would be
working on Wakarusa from Westgate to 15th Street. This was basically a =
2 =BD
-inch mill and overlay project. All these projects were sensitive to =
oil
prices so staff was being conservative with their project estimates. =
He
hoped that these bids would come in better than what staff was =
estimating
for these projects so that if the City had extra money, staff would be =
able
to mill and overlay more street projects. If the bids were high, then =
staff
might need to cut some of those projects. =20
Soules said Phase II of the 2003 Street Maintenance Program included:
Camelback Drive, Camelback Place, Dorel Court, milling, overlay, and =
curb
repair on both sides; Clinton Parkway, Crossgate Drive to Inverness =
Drive,
milling, overlay, and curb repair on the south side and around the =
median,
including white-topping the eastbound and westbound legs through the
intersection at Inverness Drive; Kasold Drive, Clinton Parkway to 300 =
feet
south of 26th Street, milling, overlay and curb repair on the east =
side;
University Drive, Iowa to Engle Road, milling overlay, and curb repair =
on
both sides; 13th Street, Haskell Avenue to Brook Street, milling, =
overlay,
and curb repair on both sides; and, 15th Street, Iowa to Crestline =
Drive,
milling overlay, and curb repair both sides including islands. =20
There was also a concrete only portion of this program which included:
Downtown Crosswalks at 7th and Massachusetts, south leg and 11th and
Massachusetts; Iowa, 15th to 19th, curb repair on the west side; =
Kingsmill
Road, Foxfire Drive to Burning Tree Court, curb repair on both sides; =
Palmer
Drive, Nicholas Drive, concrete pavement patching; Stratford Road and =
Emery
Road intersection, removing existing pavement and replacing with =
concrete to
improve the drainage; and, Wimbledon Circle, east of Wimbledon Drive, =
curb
repair on both sides.
Soules said there would also be a project at Naismith Drive, 19th to =
23rd,
milling overlay, and curb reconstruction on both sides and around the
median, constructing new sidewalks on both sides, re-stripe as one lane =
with
a bike lane per the bicycle plan.
Finally, the KLINK, projects scheduled for this summer was on North 3rd =
from
Industrial Lane north approximately =BD mile to the north City limits, =
and on
23rd Street from Learnard Avenue to Harper Street. On North 3rd =
Street, the
existing islands would be removed and replaced as pavement marking. =20
Soules said staff would be implementing another Chip and Seal Program =
which
last year was on Learnard Avenue from 15th to 19th, 29th to 23rd and =
also
Forest Avenue. There were no complaints from the residents and these =
streets
held up well during the winter. This year staff would be looking at =
the
Western Hills and Anderson Acres areas, and several other streets =
throughout
the City.=20
Soules said the Crack and Seal Program was undertaken annually by the =
Street
Division. There had not been an organized and systematic approach to =
this
program. Staff had broken down the City into basically 8 Areas with
approximately 50 miles of roadway in each area with the exceptions of =
Area 1
and 2, which was approximately 35 miles each. Staff was anticipating
starting with Area 1 to make sure that all the cracks in Area 1 were =
sealed.
Because there were only approximately 34 miles in Area 1, staff would =
also
take a look at North Lawrence to get that 50-mile goal that was set. =
If
there was more time and additional materials, staff would start on Area =
2
and next year staff would be that much further ahead. He said this =
would
give a systematic and organized approach to the Crack and Seal Program.
Soules said all of these projects would be implemented into a Pavement
Management System. He said the City was advertising at the present =
time for
an Assistant Engineer who would be in charge of the City's Pavement
Management System and hopefully 5 years from now, you would be able to =
look
up on the system to see what was expected on your streets. =20
Soules said when approaching any one of these projects, staff would =
send out
flyers notifying them of the construction process and who to contact =
along
with construction zone reminders.
Commissioner Kennedy did not think anyone realized that the crosswalk =
in
front of the Arts Center was actually concrete. He said the crosswalk
looked like brick and thought it would be much more feasible to have =
this
type of crosswalk in our downtown area.
Soules said staff was happy with durability of that crosswalk. =20
Commissioner Rundle received reports that brick was a lot slicker in =
icy
weather than concrete. He thought that type of crosswalk was good for =
that
reason.
Mayor Hack said Soules had taken on some ambitious work for this =
summer, but
was confident with the quality of work in the Public Works Department.
Commissioner Henry thanked Soules personally for his leadership in this
Pavement Management Program.=20
Commissioner Kennedy recognized that Lawrence was ranked No. 40 on the =
list
of "Best Metro Areas for Golf."
Mayor Hack asked Wildgen if the Community Development Block Grant =
(CDBG) and
HOME Investment Partnerships allocations were 10% less than they were
previously.
Wildgen said yes. The allocation to CDBG was approximately $100,000 =
less.
(33)
Mayor Hack called a public hearing on the proposed special assessment
benefit district for the acquisition of the Orchards Golf Course.
David Corliss, Assistant City Manager/Legal Services Director, said =
tonight
was the evening that was scheduled for the public hearing that was =
required
by State law in order to establish a special assessment benefit =
district.
The City Commission had received a copy of the Resolution that was =
mailed to
all of the property owners and a memo that indicted that tonight was =
the
time and place for that hearing. =20
He said in discussions with the City's bond counsel, they wanted to =
include
the property that was owned by the Condominium Association in the =
benefit
district because it was similarly situated to the other properties =
adjoining
the benefit district. The resolution the City Commission would adopt =
would
include that property and the cost would be based on their assessed =
value.
Another concern of the City's bond counsel was that because the special
assessment statute did not specifically mention "open space", that the
counsel wanted to remove the term "open space" from the label of
improvement. Corliss thought there was statutory reason why the City =
could
include "open space," but bond counsel convinced him that it would be =
in the
City's best interest to remove that phrase. He did not know if
operationally it would make that much difference because the City had a
number of park parcels that the City had bought under our legal =
authority as
"open space." =20
Corliss said if the City Commission proceeded to adopt this resolution,
staff would wait 20 days after the Resolution had been published in =
which
there would be an opportunity for a protest petition and then the City =
would
enter into negotiations with the property owner. Staff would then =
present,
to the City Commission, a contract for sale for the Commission to =
approve.
Staff would then use the temporary note proceeds, or the Capital =
Improvement
Reserve Fund money to be reimbursed by the temporary note proceeds, was =
the
more likely scenario to close on the property. He said there would be =
some
discussions about how this property would be operated. One of the key
issues about a benefit district was that it had to be a public =
improvement
so the City of Lawrence would own this land. =20
Vice Mayor Dunfield asked Corliss if the decision point on the part of =
the
City Commission as far as a purchase offer would be 30 days out.
Corliss said at yes. After the resolution was executed and published =
under
State law there would be a 20-day protest petition opportunity. After =
those
20 days, staff would create a benefit district. =20
He said staff would adopt an Ordinance establishing the maximum =
assessments
on all of those properties. After 30 days after the publication of =
this
Ordinance, no one could challenge the benefit district because they had =
been
told what their maximum assessment was going to be by law. At anytime =
after
that, he recommended to the Commission that they had the legal =
authority to
close on that property.
Commissioner Rundle asked Corliss if this property was to be leased to =
a
private individual, even though it was owned by the public, would that
require that the property taxes be paid. =20
Corliss said no, you would structure it in a way so that you were =
providing
a public service, which would be golf for the community and the best =
way to
provide that service was through a private entity. The public would =
still
own this property. You could transfer enough of an interest where you =
could
say you want payments in lieu of the fact that it was not on the tax =
roles.
The mere operation of the course would not trigger its tax status =
unless you
lost ownership interest. =20
Commissioner Kennedy said the Parks and Recreation Department had =
contracted
with people to run their concessions. It would be that same principal =
in
which the City would ask for a Request for Proposals from private
individuals. These individuals would lease or manage this property =
from
the City.
Corliss said he had not yet given this matter a great deal of thought. =
If
the City went toward a lease arrangement, you get more into the issue =
of
collecting tax. He speculated that any entity that would want to =
operate
the course would probably prefer public ownership. From tax and =
liability
standpoints, the City had a number of protections under the Tort Claims =
Act
in regards to publicly owned property for recreational uses. It might =
be
possible to lease that property to someone, but that might trigger tax =
and
liability discussions and other issues.
Rundle said if they were willing to pay taxes, it would be to the =
City's
advantage.
Corliss said yes, because by public ownership the City would be taking =
this
property off of the tax roles.
Mr. Adrich said he recently moved to Lawrence and had come from =
Kalamazoo,
in which they had 3 public golf courses. What they had done after =
finding
out what did and didn't work, they ended up with a large percentage of =
the
golfers taking out annual fees to become members. They had eight =
elected
officers that run these golf courses, but the City Council had veto =
power
and had to approve the annual budget, approve the major officers that =
run
these golf courses, and the fees that they charged the individual. =
They
would pay the City a little more than what they would have to pay if it =
was
a private company. This money would then go into the Parks Department
Budget for summer recreation and this money represented over half the
budget. He said this technique was working quite well. =20
Jean Milstead, Lawrence, thanked the City Commission for their interest =
and
consideration of this item and urged the Commission to approve the =
Orchards
Golf Course.
Chuck Mead, Lawrence, said he was in favor of this golf course. He =
said not
too long ago, there were many skeptics concerning a public golf course =
not
working, but now public golf courses work. He said the Orchards Golf =
Course
was more than just a public golf course, it was an executive golf =
course and
that was something unique. You could go for miles around and not find =
an
executive golf course that would match the Orchards Golf Course. He =
thought
an executive golf course was one that was adaptable to all types of =
people.
He asked the City Commission not to pass up a golden opportunity. =20
Constance Wolf, Lawrence, said her husband teaches golf in Lawrence. =
As his
classes continue to grow they had been looking for a golf training =
facility
for him to operate. She said they knew the Orchards Golf Course was =
for
sale and thought the course would fit his classes. There had been
discussions with the current owner of Orchards Golf Course about the =
cost of
the course, but they simply could not negotiate a price so they =
abandoned
that idea. =20
Earlier this year, they saw a newspaper article in the Journal World
concerning the Orchards Golf Course and read that the City made an =
offer to
purchase this piece of property last year. This idea intrigued them
triggering her to investigate a report produced by City staff =
concerning the
analysis and appraisal of Orchards Golf Course. In that investigation, =
she
realized even if the City did move forward with purchasing this =
property and
operating this course, according to the City's report, the City would
possibly operate at a $40,000 a year loss, even after purchasing this
property.=20
After they investigated this report, they came up with an idea that =
might
benefit everyone which was if the City chooses to move forward to =
purchase
the property, they would like to lease the property from the City to =
save
the City's resources on a yearly situation. If the City was looking at
operating on a yearly loss by leasing this property to them, they could
operate the course and save resources that way. She said they would =
like to
operate this course as a "state of the art" golf training facility and =
also
keep this as an executive nine-hole course. She said they would teach =
an
indoor class in the wintertime and still have it open for the executive
course. They thought this would be an exciting idea to offer the =
community
of Lawrence. She thought it would be a regional draw because of the
uniqueness of this facility. Again, they thought this would save the =
City's
resources; keep the property green and municipally controlled; offer =
the
community an affordable and a unique golf training facility; and, this
course could potentially be a regional draw to Lawrence.
John Purcell, Lawrence, said he has enjoyed the Orchards Golf Course =
and had
golfed there for more then 15 years and playing a round of golf was his
highlight of the week. He could walk this course and did not need to =
use
the golf carts. He said there were approximately 125 members in the =
senior
league. He sincerely hoped the City Commission would see fit to =
somehow let
the senior league continue to enjoy the Orchards Golf Course.
Commissioner Rundle asked Milstead about the including of the =
Condominium
Association in the benefit district. =20
Milstead said if they had their preference, they would prefer to raise =
the
$280,000 benefit district without including the Condominium =
Association, but
as she understood, that might not be legally possible.
Commissioner Rundle said the Condominium Association could be included, =
but
like the way the City did streets sometimes, the developer paid for the
whole street because one side was already developed. Staff would need =
to
comment whether or not this was something that the homeowners in the =
area
could absorb that cost. =20
Milstead said they had homeowners that were willing to absorb that =
cost, but
again, legally she did not know if that could be done.
Moved by Henry, seconded by Kennedy, to close the public hearing. =
Motion
carried unanimously. =09
Commissioner Rundle asked Corliss to comment on the possibility of
homeowners absorbing costs.
Corliss said someone could always pay someone's special assessment =
bill. If
the neighbors wished to pay the Condominium Association's special =
assessment
bill, they could do that.
Commissioner Rundle asked if the bill had to be paid formally.
Corliss said the bill could be paid privately or even a side agreement =
where
it was formally executed, but the homeowners could pay that bill.=20
Moved by Kennedy, seconded by Henry, to adopt Resolution No. 6457,
establishing the special assessment benefit district for Orchards Golf
Course. Motion carried unanimously.
=09
(34)
Cinda Garrison, owner of Prairie Patches, 821 Massachusetts, presented =
her
request for an amendment to the City administrative policy governing =
the use
of right-of-way for licensed pushcart vendors in the downtown area. =
She was
proposing a flower stall at the crosswalk area in the 800 Block of
Massachusetts on the west side of the street. She did not want a =
pushcart,
but something that would abut the cement flower area. She was =
requesting a
maximum of a 2' X 6' area. They would be selling fresh flowers and =
they
would only be there according to the weather and customer population. =20
Presently, the street vendor license only allowed for food vendors and =
she
was requesting to sell fresh flowers. Also, the placement of the carts =
was
only allowed at the corners and she was requesting to locate at the =
middle
of the block. She had contacted all of the business owners within 75 =
feet
and received consent from those owners to sell at her proposed =
location.
She also took a picture of a mock area at that location so that the
Commission could review her idea. She thought it would add to the =
charm of
downtown Lawrence.=20
Maria Martin, Co-Director of Downtown Lawrence Association, said they =
had
indicated in a letter to the City Commission that they supported =
Garrison's
request. They felt that having a cart or stand that sells fresh =
flowers at
this particular intersection would enhance the downtown area in a =
tasteful
way. =20
She said the DLI, also recognized what the Commission would be up =
against
when doing something like this, but they felt that once policy was set =
and
the Commission has thought through other requests, the Commission would =
be
able to formulate what other things would work in situations that were
similar. The DLI urged the City Commission to support this request.
Vice Mayor Dunfield said one of the questions that might be raised from =
a
policy point of view, if your talking about one location, then why =
wouldn't
they be talking about other crosswalk locations as similarly =
appropriate.
He asked Martin if she had thoughts about that question.
Martin said no. Right now, the policy only allowed for certain corners =
in
the downtown area. She realized that allowing this request to take =
place at
a crosswalk downtown could create requests from others who had similar
ideas. She said in developing a policy, to keep the current policy in =
mind
as it was at those intersections.=20
Mayor Hack said this policy was established in 1995 and was reviewed in
1999. She asked how many vendors were downtown.
Wildgen said one.
Commissioner Kennedy said in 1999 the Commission reviewed this policy =
for a
larger cart.
Wildgen said at one time, he thought that was one of the issues. =
Another
issue would be if someone wanted to sell shoes in front of a shoe =
store. He
said at what point was it okay to sell a certain product. If the =
Commission
wanted to just add flowers to this policy, they could add flowers and =
the
Commission could review other ideas at another time.
Commissioner Rundle asked if it was Commission review that occurred or =
did
this issue go through DLI.
Commissioner Kennedy said there was something that came up that was =
reviewed
by the Commission in 1999.
Commissioner Rundle said it would not hurt to review this issue and =
come up
with some type of process.
Mayor Hack said in order to allow this use, the City Commission would =
need
to change the policy.
Wildgen said yes, and it would also make sense to codify the policy.
Mayor Hack said this proposed location would not be in the way or =
affect
someone from walking in that area. She concurred with Martin that =
anything
that enhances the ambience of downtown makes that character enjoyable.
Commissioner Henry supported the idea.
Commissioner Rundle said if there were no specific variance processes, =
the
Commission would need to modify the policy.
Vice Mayor Dunfield asked if the idea was to add this one location at =
this
time to the allowed locations and if there were future applications, =
the
Commission would take those up on an individual basis. =20
Mayor Hack said they would also need to add flowers to what could be =
sold in
the code.
Corliss said the policy stated only one location per intersection would =
be
considered. The amendment to the code would allow for the Prairie =
Patch
location.
Commissioner Rundle said this issue was confusing because the policy
stated the northwest corner and he thought the northeast corner was =
being
used. He said if DLI wanted to come forward with recommendations to =
this
policy that would be helpful to the Commission.
Moved by Rundle, seconded by Dunfield, to direct staff to amend the =
City
administrative policy governing the use of right-of-way for licensed
pushcart vendors in the downtown area to include: adding an additional =
sale
location in front of 821 Massachusetts; authorizing the sale of =
flowers; and
directed staff to prepare an ordinance codifying the revised =
administrative
policy. Motion carried unanimously.
(35)=20
Sheila Stogsdill, Assistant Planning Director, presented the
Use-Permitted-Upon Review request for a proposed overnight homeless =
shelter
by Lawrence Open Shelter. She said in the Planning Commission minutes =
there
had been a motion to approve the requested Open Shelter, at 944 =
Kentucky
with a series of conditions which reflected staff's conditions and the
Planning Commission's discussions added some specific language to =
address
issues that had been brought up at the public hearing, specifically =
that the
primary entrance should be on the east side of the building, that there
should be a mechanism for one year to report to the City Commission, =
and
have some responsibility for the shelter to enforce "no loitering" in =
the
immediate area of the building. =20
The Planning Commission voted 4-4 with on abstention, which then was =
deemed
a recommendation for denial so this issued came before the Commission =
with a
recommendation of denial. In addition to the recommendation for =
denial,
there was also a valid protest petition from property owners within the
notice area. She said staff had also received protest petitions from 8
additional property owners that were on Tennessee, Kentucky or Vermont
beyond the 200-foot notice list. There were a total of 15 petitions
received.
Those two actions together, the protest petition and the recommendation =
of
denial from the Planning Commission would require a supermajority vote =
by
this Governing Body in order to approve this request.
Mayor Hack asked if Stogsdill indicated that one of the conditions was =
an
annual review.
Stogsdill said yes, that was a recommendation in the Planning =
Commission
minutes.
Lisa Davis, graduate student at the K.U. School of Social Welfare, said =
the
reason why she was there was because before moving to Kansas, she =
worked in
Colorado for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. She worked as a =
Case
Manager with people that had substance abuse issues and with the =
chronically
mental ill. She also worked in shelters and residential facilities
extensively for the past 10 years in community mental health centers. =
She
wanted to address this issue because she felt strongly about this =
issue.
One of the concerns of the public about the homeless was the idea of =
the
homeless being dangerous or threatening. As a single female, she =
worked for
"Street Outreach" at night and never felt threatened. When it comes to =
the
issue of dangerousness, it was the people who were homeless who were at
risk. People who were homeless have significant risk of death from =
chronic
illnesses because they could not receive health care. These people =
were
also at risk of being assaulted. Crime against the homeless was =
actually
more prevalent than crime by the homeless against the housed. Twenty =
to
twenty-five percent of the chronically homeless were mentally ill. =
These
people were terribly victimized and vulnerable. =20
She worked at a board and care that the coalition purchased and they =
did not
do breathalyzers and she did not have any problems. When she had =
worked in
facilities that had zero tolerance for people who had been drinking, =
there
was more conflict because people were losing a place to stay. When =
someone
came in that was obviously intoxicated, you either call the =
Detoxification
Center or they slept it off. One of the huge factors about not using
breathalyzers and having a 24-hour shelter was that people would have a =
safe
place to get clean and sober. Nobody was going to get clean and sober =
from
sleeping outside because that situation was too oppressive. If people =
were
in a safe secure place where they had staff who could help them secure
disability benefits, get a job, and have a place to take a shower in =
the
morning, they would be able to get clean and sober and get back on =
their
feet into the community. If the shelter were open 24 hours a day, =
there
would be less loitering.
One statistic that was telling for her was that twice as many people =
who
were homeless and apply for disability benefits get denied as those who =
were
housed and this was simply from having a lack of an address to receive =
their
mail. When she worked "Street Outreach" a significant amount of these
people had disabilities. =20
Commissioner Rundle said Davis mentioned the homeless having a place to =
stay
and making that bridge to become clean and sober and getting a job, he
asked, from her experience, were there services in those shelters to =
help
that bridge to become clean and sober. =20
Davis said working as a case manager, the first thing that needed to be
accomplished was to get someone housed because not having a home was =
too
depressing for someone to get sober. She believed in stages of change, =
when
people were in the denial stage or pre-contemplative stage, and they =
were
living under a bridge, it was going to be really hard to work with them =
to
get them motivated to get clean and sober when they don't see any other
hope.
Commissioner Kennedy asked if that homeless shelter was located in a
residential neighborhood.
Davis said the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless bought a facility =
that
was going to close down because the owner was running that facility
fraudulently. The coalition turned that facility into a facility for =
people
who had come out of a hospital for psychiatric or mental health =
problems. =20
Lois Schneider, Lawrence, lived diagonally across the street from the
Drop-In Center. She also managed some properties that were also =
diagonally
across the street and housed women. She wanted to address this issue
because 70% of the students at K.U. were young women from small towns. =
One
of her tenants was staying in one of the properties she was managing =
for
another year and she wanted to because she worked downtown. This =
tenant
would have to walk back in forth by the shelter during the time frame =
where
people begin to gather to go in when it opens. Schneider was concerned
about her safety. She said previous to the Drop-In Center, she had =
never
seen groups of people hanging out in the alleys behind Kentucky and
Mississippi drinking. She now sees that everyday and especially saw =
that
last summer. She believed this was the wrong location for this type of
shelter. There were already increased problems in Oread as a result of =
the
Drop-In Center. =20
She said this Commission and past Commissions had spent a great deal of =
time
trying to help the Oread Neighborhood which was mostly single-family =
and
tenants. These Commissions had done everything they could do to =
preserve
the Oread neighborhood. Also, these Commissions had gone out of the =
way to
deny a proposed mall in this area. If the City Commission allowed this
variance for the Homeless Shelter, it would be a problem. =20
Kathy Wright, Licensed Master Social Worker for the Lawrence Open =
Shelter,
said the LOS believed that all people deserve the basic necessities of =
life
and the community in which they lived. One of the things she heard =
quite
often was what percentage of those people would get rehabilitated. It =
was
important to understand that the LOS was not trying to duplicate =
services
that were already present in this community, but they were trying to
supplement what was already present.
She has already begun what she hoped to be a series of dialogues with =
the
Salvation Army. They had a working relationship with Bert Nash. She =
said
it wasn't that they were trying to develop their own rehabilitative
services. Although their shelter, in essence, because of the way their
policies were developed and how it was staffed, was rehabilitative in
nature. =20
Many of the people that the LOS handles have hit upon some bad luck and
these folks would be relatively easy to move toward some type of =
housing
situation. But in every community, 3% to 5% of your population was =
going to
have chronic problems whether it be mental health, substance abuse, or =
other
problems. These were the last of the people to be cut as far as our
welfare dollars were concerned. This was one of the reasons there was =
an
increase in homelessness throughout the country. It was true that a
percentage of the people that they would work with would not get well =
and
that was reality. She said as a community, we have the responsibility =
to
make decisions about how these people would be treated. She said this =
would
be a minority of the people that would be seen at the LOS. =20
She talked about the staffing of LOS. She was a licensed Master Social
Worker and a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor and had been working =
in
this field for over two decades. Her father also worked in this field =
and
his father helped community members on a voluntary basis who had severe
alcohol problems. =20
She staffed the summer shelter for the LOS. That shelter was staffed =
with
individuals who either had advanced degrees in helping services or they
themselves were living in some sort of life of recovery. When we talk =
about
actually working towards rehabilitation for that other 85% or 97% that =
would
get well, those people had opportunities to work through what was =
called an
"engagement" or offering hope which were the first stages of change. =20
She also talked about the myths of the people who stay at the LOS. =
They
found that 74% of the people who stay at the shelter during the summer =
had
lived in Lawrence for at least a year. 30% had been residents of =
Lawrence
since youth so we're not talking about transient people that get an =
email
and decided to get the services of Douglas County. =20
She said LOS would have training for anyone who was interested in =
helping at
the Lawrence Public Library from noon to 5:00 p.m., on Saturday, April =
5th,
for volunteers and staff. They would be taught not only the general =
rules
and policies among which there was a huge emphasis on neighbor =
relations,
but they would also be learning how to respond to a crisis and how to
provide supportive counseling, non-confrontational management, when to =
call
law enforcement, substance abuse issues, emergency medical care, =
community
resources and referral sources, and mandated reporting which also =
brings up
another point of they were not trying to house or aid and abet =
dangerous
people. They would be the first to call 911 if they felt their staff =
or
anyone in the neighborhood was at risk. She said if a neighborhood was
already having problems with the Drop-In Center, what they were in need =
of
was additional services, not less. What they were offering to do was =
to be
another set of eyes. All night long, she would have at least two people
staffed there and prior to lights out, if they saw people in the park =
that
were potential guests, they would address them. Those people who were =
not
being respectful, knew that they were going to lose their privilege at =
the
shelter. Those people who were not responding to their interventions =
and
were being disruptive, they would call 911. =20
Wright said she was proud of their Board of Directors, which consisted =
of
medical doctors, attorneys, psychologist, former directors of Bert Nash =
and
DCCCA. =20
She said a group of people on their board had been dedicated at looking =
for
sites for over a year and this proposed location was the best site they
could find. LOS thought this site was considered to be on the fringes =
of a
neighborhood. There were ways for guests to come in the back entrance =
and
it would not be visible to the general public. There were also closed =
in
courts for their smoking privileges. Part of their policy was that =
they did
not allow the guest to come and go. =20
The LOS was given some recommendations for site improvements and they
followed through with those recommendations and received estimates on
sprinklers, a written contract agreement with the Drop-In Center to use
their handicapped bathroom so they were complying with everything they =
were
asked to do. =20
Finally, she discussed the endorsements they had received. They =
recently
received a FEMA Grant and had been talking with the Community =
Development
Block Grant (CDBG) staff. They were acknowledged by Julie King from =
the
Boulder Shelter and the LOS had done quite a bit of consulting with her =
in
designing their policies. There was a favorable article that was =
written
about the LOS from the Neighborhood Association following their summer
shelter at St. John's. =20
She mentioned about a person who had lived in that neighborhood for =
most of
her life. This person said during the summer while the LOS was located =
at
St. John's, it was the first time in her life that she remembered =
walking
down that one particular tract where they were located and there was
absolutely no litter. The reason for that was because the LOS had =
stressed
so much to their guests that people were skeptical about them being =
there so
they needed to be careful and pickup after themselves and not do =
anything to
scare people. Not only did they pick up after themselves, but also =
they
picked up after other people. She knew this was a small thing, but to =
her
it was her biggest victory. Not only did the LOS minimize negative =
impact,
they actually had a positive impact. =20
At a neighborhood meeting at the end of their summer shelter, they were =
not
only there to discuss residents and guests, but to show the community =
that
an open shelter concept could work. She asked the Commission for the
opportunity to try and make what was already there better and she was =
not
asking to add to problems.
Saunney Scott, Board Member, LOS, said one of the comments that they =
heard
quite often was that they needed to have a unified effort and not have
different organizations. The LOS was one of 7 agencies in Lawrence
expecting to be linked up by a computer program known as "The Homeless
Information Management System." This would hopefully be funded through =
the
U.S. Department of Housing and Development. She said this system would
enable the agencies to share information and facilitate assisting =
persons
who were homeless in locating resources that would provide more =
substantial
housing. She said the LOS was committed to working with other agencies =
and
to hopefully alleviate some of the homeless concerns in the community.
Eileen Schartz, Practitioners Panel, said the LOS was cooperating with =
other
agencies such as the Salvation Army, DCCCA, and Bert Nash and they were =
all
working together to solve the problems of the homeless. She said they =
felt
they had been supported in that the United Way through the FEMA Grant =
voted
to fund them even knowing that their future was still uncertain. They =
had
already received a check pending approval. They attended a meeting =
where
they wanted to apply for a CDBG Grant asking for help in making the =
changes
that the City has asked them to make for code reasons. They asked them =
to
come back and reapply, but since they did not have a permanent =
location,
they did not want to invest that kind of money at this time. They were
working on other grants and they were getting a lot of support from the
community. Once again, they were trying to help that neighborhood.
Doug McNally, Director of Operations, Restart Shelter, which was the =
second
largest homeless shelter in the metropolitan/Kansas City area, spoke =
about a
few issues that were parallel to what Lawrence was experiencing. He =
said
their overnight shelter housed about 100 people every night, which were
roughly 3200 unique individuals every year. The reason why this =
shelter was
successful was because it was highly structured and there were =
definitive
rules that take place, for example: they don't even come into the
neighborhood until 4:00 p.m. He said they were then admitted to the
shelter, they eat and go to bed and then they were up and out by 7:00 =
a.m.
the next morning at which point they go to work or homeless Drop-In =
Center
in Kansas City.=20
He said they were in a multi-use neighborhood and within a block of =
Restart
there were 2 dozen single and multi-family houses and some light =
industry.
For the 7 years that he has been the Director of Restart, it was an
amazingly benign environment. There were several dynamics that work =
there.
The people who utilize their services protect Restart Shelter and what =
they
have available to them perhaps more than the staff or volunteers that =
work
for them because they know that was a place they could go and be safe, =
warm,
and have opportunity. He said they had highly structured rules and a =
Case
Manager on duty until midnight. This was not a case of enabling, it =
was a
case of providing a service for people who, for what ever reason, need =
that
service and they try to assist them to move into independent living at =
some
point. =20
He spoke to the concern about the increase in homelessness. He found =
in
those 7 years as a Director of Restart Shelter, that the number of =
single
men has gone down about 26% and the number of women and children who =
were
now needing housing has gone up by almost 1300%. They had to close =
down two
wings in their building from servicing single people and turn them into
housing for single parents with families. He said the whole =
demographic has
changed in the past 3 or 4 years. =20
McNally said in Kansas City they work on a community basis. They had
resources that were always available to them. They had professional =
mental
health persons that were available every night in case of a crisis or =
simply
to do a diagnosis on someone and turn them on to the kind of help they =
could
get. They had physician assistants who come there and were able to =
provide
some medical care for folks who would not normally be able to get it. =
He
said if you were not housed and had no place to call home, then it was
highly likely that your health care or mental health needs were not =
going to
be met.
After talking with his staff this week, they had one act of minimal =
violence
maybe every 3 months and that ranges from shoving to loud words. The
dynamic that works for him was the fact that the people that come to
Restart, cherish Restart and need Restart. Because of that, they were
interested in making sure order was maintained. They also had an
extraordinary good relationship with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police
Department. He said the Police Department brought people to Restart. =
He
said Restart did not do breathalyzers on the guests and you could come =
to
Restart if you were impaired from either alcohol or drugs as long as =
you
keep the peace of the house. =20
Commissioner Rundle asked if McNally looked at the details of the =
Lawrence
Open Shelter and compared their structure with the service array they =
were
connected with.
McNally said yes. They had a meeting to discuss the policies and =
procedures
that were conducted at the LOS. These policies and procedures follow =
in
most regards to the same policies they had and the same basic rules of =
the
house that they had. The protocols were going to be much the same =
anywhere
you have a successful shelter and what he has seen of the LOS, it =
looked
like it would work well.
Gary Miller, Bert Nash Community Health Center, discussed the services =
he
would provide once the LOS was opened. He was a Case Manager, =
advocate, and
also an educator on homeless to a community. His plan was to provide =
mental
health services access for the LOS guests. He would also help those =
who
were not mentally ill and help link them to other resources in the =
community
in which they could move from homelessness to self sufficiency to =
permanent
housing. That's what he saw the main goal as, which was to move =
people
from homelessness to permanent housing. Also, he was trained in adult
diagnoses, which was providing drug and alcohol treatment for those who =
were
mentally ill.
He commended the LOS because he has been able to see from day one at =
how
they evolved. He said this was a community response to a community =
problem.
David Lord, member of the Board of LOS, said he was contacted by a =
person
who lived in the Oread Neighborhood who could not attend this City
Commission meeting, but she wanted to express her position concerning =
this
issue.
He read a letter to the Commission: "I moved to the Oread neighborhood =
two
years ago. One reason I chose to do so is that I wanted to be able to =
walk
just a few blocks to our wonderful and unique downtown Lawrence. =
Downtown
is usually where I go when I need a break from grading papers. (Yes, I =
am a
teacher.) I window shop and sometimes purchase items, but most often I =
pick
up a text and walk to one of the downtown coffee houses to combine my =
break
with work. Or, I take those papers needing grading to one of our many
restaurants and work while I wait for my meal.
When I walk home those early evenings, many of our City's homeless, I
notice, are walking through the Oread neighborhood with nowhere to go.
Further, my neighbors have noticed that the shrubbery around my =
apartment
building is one of the places some of our City's homeless sleep. When =
I
drive to work on winter mornings, I see groups of homeless people =
walking
hurriedly to Links, or somewhere else they hope to eat, bathe, and get =
warm.
Obviously then, the question is not whether or not the proposed shelter =
for
all homeless would draw the homeless into our neighborhood. The =
homeless
are without doubt already here. The real question is, simply, how are =
we
going to treat them.=20
The truth is that the Oread neighborhood already houses its homeless-in =
one
way or another-and has done so for some time. If it is also true that
civilizations are judged by how they treat their disadvantaged, and =
indeed
it is so, I know our Commission members will want to vote =
compassionately.
Our neighborhood, our town, and our homes could only benefit from =
providing
the proposed shelter for all those who have basic needs."
Elizabeth Smith, Board member of LOS, said she did not think she needed =
to
convince the Commission that Lawrence did have a need to help the =
homeless.
She said 5 people had died on the streets of Lawrence in the last 3 =
years.
The LOS Board and staff had all the qualifications and resources =
necessary
to address this need. She was the only person on the Board that did =
not
have any professional credentials. Her interest was personal so she =
wanted
to make a personal statement. =20
She lived in Lawrence all her life and her heart was in the heart of =
this
City. She would never put her name behind something that would cause
problems in this community. The LOS was a community answer to a =
community
need and they were there to solve problems, not create them. She did =
not
know how to address the fears of the neighbors in Oread except to say,
please watch the LOS operate to see how they do.
Loring Henderson, Treasurer of the Board of LOS, said there were 3 =
support
statements from citizens that were not able to get their statements =
into the
record.=20
One statement was from Mike Coran, a former officer of the Coalition of
Homeless Concerns and a citizen of Lawrence who has worked with the =
homeless
both as a volunteer professionally would like to add his support to the
efforts now underway, to establish a shelter where homeless individuals
might take refuge even it they were under the influence. Our community
needed a safe place where the homeless with severe substance abuse =
problems
could find shelter and structure. Please approve this Open Shelter and
encourage a strong connect with appropriate services.
Another statement from Fr. Charles, St. John's the Evangelist Catholic
Church, said his experience with the LOS and board members had been =
positive
and the operation of a temporary shelter at St. John's gym during =
emergency
times of the year was a learning experience both for operating an open
shelter and for working with the neighborhood. He was well aware of =
the
difficulties that could be encountered in operating an Open Shelter. =
He
also knew that the Lawrence Open Shelter's workers and Board did an
excellent job in addressing these difficulties. It was his hope that =
the
present proposal would be approved. =20
Lastly, a statement from Pat Newton, Principal of the Lawrence Catholic
Schools, said this past summer and last Christmas their school gym was =
used
by the Lawrence Open Shelter as an overnight homeless shelter. It was =
a
successful undertaking and the Shelter was run by an efficient and =
caring
staff and they were professional in their preparation. After visiting =
the
Shelter and the people seeking help it was obvious to him that Lawrence
needed this type of shelter on a year round basis. He fully supported =
the
Open Shelter in seeking a permanent location. =20
Lew Hinshaw, Associate Pastor, Congregational Church, supported the =
opening
of the LOS. His experience has been with meeting with the homeless to
address some of their needs and there was a need for another shelter to
expand the opportunities for people to live off the street rather than =
on
the street. This proposal was one way to meet that increased need in =
our
community and he urged the City Commission to approve this request.
Dudley Crow, Board Member, Lawrence Open Shelter, said most of us agree =
that
most of them would not like to address this issue, but the fact remains =
that
it was a compelling problem throughout the Country. Every community of =
any
size has a homeless population and they deal with it in different ways. =
=20
He said what they found this summer from the neighbors was that they =
were
making their neighborhood safer because they had at least, on the =
average,
22 people in the summer shelter and their facilities would accommodate =
20
people.=20
The Supreme Court made a decision approximately 18 years ago that =
people
that were mentally ill could not be held against their will, so they =
all
left. Since that time, the cities had to deal with the homeless. Many =
of
the people that the LOS deals with were mentally ill.=20
They believe there would be certain savings in terms of ambulance runs =
and
emergency room usage. He said there was a misconception that they were
running a warehouse. The question becomes, how would Lawrence address =
these
problems. Ours was more than an emotional solution, it was a logical
solution.
Charles Novogradac, Lawrence, said it was embarrassing standing there =
as a
neighbor after listening to all those good intentioned social workers =
and
church people and speaking out against this homeless shelter in his
neighborhood. He was not going to argue that this was something that =
needed
to be done and that society should do it and bear part of the burden. =
What
he was going to argue was that Oread Neighborhood was going to bear a
disproportional large burden. =20
He goes by Link and the Drop-In Center on his way to his residence =
noticing
broken beer and whisky bottles and panhandlers occasionally accosted =
him.
Across the street from his house was a wooded area where people go =
during
the summertime to drink. He said this was not a problem, but he =
worried
because he had things stolen off his porch and in his back yard and =
last
year his car windows were broken out. He perceives that the =
neighborhood
was declining. =20
He did not know if this proposal would make things better. He said =
with
Link and now the Drop-In Center at that location, what professional =
would
want to rent the building next door. He said they had a cascading set =
of
uses so that the character of the neighborhood would be changing and it
would be more like a homeless oriented neighborhood and less like a =
family
neighborhood. He did not have any children in his house and they were =
on a
block where half the people resided in their own houses and the other =
half
were students. He said they could go the route of student ghetto again =
or a
neighborhood where they had families and children. If he had children, =
he
would seriously be concerned about letting them walk downtown and =
accosting
broken bottles and panhandlers. =20
When he sells his house, was a family going to want to buy his house? =
He
said, probably not, it would be someone who would want to make it
multi-family, student dwellings. He said Oread was burdened already =
and
there did not need to be a concentration of this type of use, further
burdening Oread. =20
Phillip Hemphill, Lawrence, said he lived in Lawrence for 29 years. =
The
person who bought the property that the LOS wishes to rent was bought
approximately 6 years ago. At that time, he talked to that person and =
that
person indicated that he bought the property for protection for the
neighborhood because he wanted to control what went into that building =
as a
tenant. After a period of time, he ended up renting it to the Drop-In
Center and it has been a neighborhood nightmare ever since. The =
Drop-In
Center has run-off all the other viable tenants in that building. =
Although
not directly related to LOS, the Drop-In Center has caused in the
neighborhood substantial increase in crime because he sees it.
He said as for LOS, there wasn't anyone with a half-heart that doesn't =
want
to help the homeless, but that really wasn't the point. The point was =
this
was a land-use issue as pointed out by the Planning Commission and not =
so
much a compassion issue for the homeless. The Planning Commission =
stated
that this was an adverse impact to the neighborhood. It basically =
turns
this area into a 24 hour a day center for the homeless. The Drop-In =
Center
would provide guests for the LOS. In addition, the LOS would be taking =
in
the worst of the worst. These were the folks that the Salvation Army
because of the breathalyzer test or for other reasons.
He asked the LOS, if they take in a person at night, and this person =
gets
unruly and was asked to leave and it isn't a situation where the police =
were
not going to be called, what happens? He said if they kick out someone =
who
was already mad and angry, who was liable? Once they cross that =
property
line was LOS responsible? =20
The Planning Commission talked about the density of the neighborhood =
and the
fact that this was a high density college neighborhood mixed with =
family,
students, apartments and so on. Also, you have 2 preschools within 200 =
feet
of the Drop-In Center and LOS, First Christian Church and Plymouth =
Church. =20
He said they basically would be taking the worst of the worst and they =
did
not do any legal screening in terms of identification or running a =
criminal
background check in order for their guests to stay at LOS. This sets =
up a
perfect situation for a person to hide if you did not need to give a =
valid
identification. He was against the LOS moving into this neighborhood, =
but
he was not against helping the homeless. =20
Deborah Milks, resident of the Oread Neighborhood, said she would like =
to
help the homeless and would like to challenge the City to step in and =
help
with this issue, but regardless, the perception of having a homeless =
shelter
in their neighborhood was going to have a negative affect.
Samantha Finke, Senior, University of Kansas, supported the LOS. She =
said
since her freshman year at KU she had volunteered at various agencies =
in
Lawrence that served the homeless residents and over time she had got =
to
know some of the homeless. The LOS was needed in this community. She
volunteered at homeless shelters across the country such as, New York,
Florida, Kansas City, Colorado and felt that this community has ignored =
its
homeless residents. She encouraged anyone who has stereotyped the =
homeless
as being dangerous to volunteer at the agencies in town because those
perceptions would subside immediately. =20
Dr. Jim Schneider, Clinical Psychologist, said for nearly fifteen years =
he
was a staff psychologist at a large medical center. Their psychiatric
hospital had an alcohol/drug treatment ward in which he was a staff
psychologist. During those years, he was a staff psychologist to the
admitting ward and did admission procedures and assessments. He also =
was a
staff psychologist on the general psych ward and a director of a =
transition
unit, which moved patients from the structured environment of the =
hospital
to out placement in the community and worked with landlords to make =
that
transition. He said the largest problem they had was when people went =
off
their medication. People who have severe mental illness start feeling =
well
while on medication, but once were off that medication, problems began. =
=20
He said locally he was a member of the Housing Study Group in the early
1990's and afterwards the study group recommended the Housing Advisory
Council, which he was a member and chairman. He has sat in on the
Practitioner Panel meetings and had been at homeless shelter formation
meetings. =20
He said a community was judged by how it treats the poorest. The =
Lawrence
community was not treating them. One finding from the 1995 Social =
Services
Need Assessment was that one of the biggest needs was to have access to
services and to have coordination among agencies. There was a major =
lack of
coordination among the agencies and the treatment of the homeless and =
that
had severe consequences not only for the community, but the homeless. =
They
actually don't get the treatment they need. =20
When the city moved the homeless out of the hovels along the river in =
the
year 2000, some of them had been there for more than 6 years. He asked =
how
come the community still had people living in hovels during the biggest
economic boom in the country. He said the way the community delivers
services to the homeless is so disconnected that the City inadvertently
maintains people who are homeless. Services were structured such that =
the
homeless were maintained in homelessness, but they were not helped out. =
He
said recently when the Salvation Army did a study on the people staying =
in
their homeless shelter thirty people had been there for more than three
years and ten of them had made the shelter their permanent home every =
night
since 1999. The Salvation Army instituted not a maintenance change, =
but a
rehabilitative change. He said that was what an open shelter lacks; =
there
was no pull into rehabilitation. What the Salvation Army did was =
after 3
nights, they asked the homeless person to visit a counselor and start a =
life
improving class. As a result, three weeks after they started that =
simple
therapeutic pull into rehabilitation, 7 people received permanent full =
time
jobs. He said what an open shelter would do would be to undercut what =
the
Salvation Army was finally starting to do which was connecting services =
with
rehabilitation. He said the City needed to start a task force to make =
those
rehabilitation pulls. He said death in the street for the homeless, 2 =
or 3
of those deaths were due to toxic levels of alcohol, those people did =
not
freeze to death, they died because they drank too much alcohol and it =
wasn't
during the winter months. He said why? Because like the people living =
by
the river for six years, they could find a place to get food during the =
day,
and left to live on hovels at night. That's what he meant by enabling,
people were allowed to stick in homelessness. He said the homeless =
should be
placed in a rehabilitative program. You simply don't feed them or give =
them
a place without having a therapeutic pull and an open shelter did not =
do
that. =20
The LOS Director admitted that they were not going to deal with
rehabilitation. He proposed that the City Commission work closer with =
the
Salvation Army to get them more into rehabilitation. He said the City
Commission should not put in a competing program that undermines the
rehabilitation efforts of the Salvation Army. Each homeless person =
that
came into a gateway program like a shelter or food dispensing program =
should
be given an intake procedure. Their medical needs should be looked at =
by an
M.D. and not by a volunteer with clipboard and a check off sheet. He =
said
that was not adequate medical assessment of needs. There should be an
adequate assessment of psychiatric needs. He said a person like this =
needed
proper medication to stay stabilized and there needed to be a follow =
up. He
said on clinical grounds he feels very deeply about this issue. He =
urged
the City Commission not to undercut the Salvation Army's small start =
for
rehabilitation. =20
Janet Gerstner, Lawrence, was a volunteer at LINK and was a supporter =
of the
Community Drop-In Center. She had seen improvements occurring in the =
Oread
Neighborhood regarding the homeless. She said there was a need to help =
the
homeless and she supported LINK and other services. It seemed like =
Oread
was possibly scraping by and managing when they had LINK in the
neighborhood. The Community Drop-In Center came in and as typical in =
Oread,
there was not much discussion about it or opposition. She wanted to =
think
that there were no problems that came along with that. She thought the
Community Drop-In Center was a good thing. Unfortunately, she found =
out
that there were a lot of problems. As part of working with the shelter =
and
trying to get the word out about their plans to come in the =
neighborhood,
she had distributed flyers about a meeting they held for the neighbors. =
In
the process of doing that, it has invited a tremendous amount of =
feedback
coming her way. She said there were a lot of problems that had come =
along
with the Community Drop-In Center and they were seeing escalating =
problems
over the past 2 years.
She asked would the homeless shelter bring more problems? She did not =
know.
She said they needed to back up and asked questions about how the =
Community
Drop-In Center was functioning, what were the policies, and how was it
working out at this location. The clients had doubled recently, and =
there
was certainly a need, but as those numbers had doubled, they were =
finding a
growing population there on the streets and a lot more concerns from =
the
neighborhood.
She said everyone in this neighborhood seemed to have different =
opinions on
this issue. Personally, she supported the idea of a shelter and it was
clear that there was a dramatic need. She said this was an opportunity =
for
the community to pull together and admit that there was a big issue =
with the
homeless. She said the City Commission had an opportunity to lead the =
City
into a community wide commitment to address the homeless problem. =
Part of
the solution might be to identify appropriate locations for a full =
range of
services. She has tremendous admiration for the LOS volunteers. She =
tried
to disassociate herself from all the different hats she wears with this
issue and looked at this as a land use issue. She believed that this =
type
of service in a residential neighborhood was not an appropriate land =
use. =20
Gerstner said if there was a community wide commitment, perhaps led by =
our
City Commission, to try and address these problems it might be possible =
that
she would entertain supporting a permit at this site for 6 months or a =
year,
where it was a temporary situation toward working at a real solution to
these problems. Also, pulling together representatives from these =
different
groups and building support across the community. =20
Peter Zacharies, Lawrence, described what it was like to be in the =
Oread
Neighborhood on a daily basis. He did not have a solution to the =
homeless
problem and he thought it was a much bigger problem than the Lawrence =
City
Commission could take on.
He said about six weeks ago, his daughter was accosted by a drunken =
homeless
person in front of her apartment who later tried to break into her
apartment, while she was home. The police were called and arrived =
shortly
after he passed out on her porch.
He said on numerous occasions he had encouraged drunken homeless people =
from
congregating in his backyard. He had received numerous physical =
threats and
an arson threat from the homeless. He said there was a route used by =
the
homeless to get to the liquor store on 9th Street. =20
He also owned a business downtown, and the last two weeks he had been
panhandled four times on Massachusetts Street and this was bad for =
business.
He asked the City Commission to deny the request for any homeless =
shelter
facility in the downtown area. He asked the Commission to make it =
possible
for his daughter to be able to walk to her own apartment safely.
Candice Davis, President of Oread Neighborhood Association, said the =
Oread
Neighborhood had mixed feelings about the LOS. She said everyone =
agreed
that there was a need for homeless shelter, but there was not agreement =
for
what type of shelter, the type of support services that were needed, or =
the
location. She said the Oread Neighborhood was a compassionate =
neighborhood.
She said everyone was supportive in asking the City to play a more =
active
role in helping the community adequately and appropriately address the =
need
of a shelter. She said the Oread Neighborhood was already over =
burdened
with many difficult problems that include: rambunctious students, =
halfway
houses, KU encroachment problems, blight enforcement, parking, and a =
dense
population that compounded many existing problems. Problems existed =
with
the present location of the Community Drop In Center that impacted the
neighborhood in a negative way. The present location of the Community
Drop-In Center and the proposed LOS location were inadequate to =
accommodate
the present needs that exist right now. The Community Drop In Center =
had
already doubled its service population.=20
She was a social worker and had concerns about the adequacy of services =
that
would be provided by the LOS. She said it was important to have a
comprehensive array of services available to the homeless. She was in =
favor
of providing temporary shelter services at this location until a more
appropriate location could be found. She would like to see the =
homeless
shelter services gain a greater broad base support from the City and
community. She thought some type of summit could be proposed by the =
City
to meet with all agencies already addressing and working on these =
issues or
perhaps they could have an opportunity to consolidate services, gather
ideas, and energize public support. =20
A member of the public said she had three major concerns about the LOS. =
The
first concern was that it sounded as if the community did not have a =
shelter
when in fact the community did have a shelter. The Salvation Army was =
a
place for the homeless to stay. =20
The second concern was that the Salvation Army would not allow people =
who
were intoxicated to stay in the shelter. If people needed treatment =
then
treatment should be the priority. She said we did not need to provide =
the
homeless food and shelter, but treatment. She worked with a homeless =
person
who told her that Lawrence was a well known among transient homeless =
people
because Lawrence offered many services to the homeless except for =
treatment.
She said the third concern was that she would like to see a community =
wide
effort as to what the community could do about the homeless. =20
Finally, her last concern was there were a lot of services available =
for
people who were mentally ill and also for people who are alcoholics. =
She
would like to see assessments, a community wide effort to deal with the
homeless, treatment services that would be considered an inherent part =
of
any kind of services for homeless people, and for the City to look into =
what
other funding was available.
Mayor Hack agreed that the community needed a concerted community =
effort and
a task force. She said this would be in the imminent future in which =
they
would be gathering names of people who have expressed an interest in =
that
idea.
She said the Homeless Information Management System was very helpful =
for the
Commissioners to be aware of. The Lawrence community was a =
compassionate
community and sometimes the community did not know what to do or how to
coordinate all that the community could do for the people. She =
sympathized
with the neighbors and realized at this particular time the location =
might
not be the best location, but it was the only adequate location the
community had at this point. =20
She said the Commission had come a long way since talk began of an open
shelter. She would not be in support if it were simply an open shelter
because then the community would be housing people and not helping =
them.
She believed that the community needed to help the citizen get to a =
better
place and that this particular open shelter would have connections with
rehabilitation and counseling services. She did not see this as
undercutting the Salvation Army, but in fact it being the first step =
toward
working with the Salvation Army. The goal of the task force would make =
sure
people understood how to access services and the coordination among the
agencies. She appreciated the willingness of the LOS to work with =
staff in
regards to the condition that there would be a review after one year. =
She
supported the LOS with a condition of an annual review.
Commissioner Rundle said staff recommended approval and the LOS did =
have a
small track record of success. He said there was clearly a need for an =
open
shelter. He recognized that there were split opinions in regards to =
the
Planning Commission; the Oread Neighborhood; community representatives; =
and,
the people who work with the homeless. To make a responsible decision =
the
Commission had to recognize the need to bring the full compliment of
services to get people out of homelessness. He approved of the LOS on =
a
temporary basis. He did not think by opening the LOS that it would be
considered competing with the Salvation Army. Pledge cards had become =
a big
issue during the campaign season and the Commission needed to take that =
type
of model to heart. The Commission needed to step up and take the lead =
in
bringing a long term solution that did not split the community so =
within a
year from now, the Commission had a plan in place that has a broad base
majority support in the community. =20
He said the City Commission also needed to commit to the neighborhoods =
to
ensure their health and safety. All of the supporters needed to be =
actively
involved in creating a solution. Law enforcement needed to be trained =
in
regards to how they were going to deal with the homeless and the give =
them
training with the mental health community. =20
He particularly wanted to address Mr. Hemphill, Mr. Novogradac and =
others
who were very concerned and had legitimate concerns and our commitment =
had
to be to them first and foremost. He said we needed to make sure =
whatever
solution they come up with was not on their backs. He said his =
support
was very guarded and responsible and he was committed to see this =
through to
a better solution.
Commissioner Kennedy said staff approved this issue, but the Planning
Commission did not. He always went along with the Planning =
Commission's
recommendation and they did not bring him a positive recommendation. =
As a
City Commissioner, approximately three months ago, the Commission told =
the
LOS to proceed with a development of their proposal for service at this
location. This location, according to the Planning Commission, did not =
meet
the policies under the zoning codes. He voted for this location =
initially
because of his compassion for the homeless. Knowing that they didn't =
follow
the policy and the Planning Commission did not bring a positive
recommendation, then they were going against the policy. He has always
stayed on course as a Commissioner and followed the Planning =
Commission. =20
Vice Mayor Dunfield said everyone that had spoken had made a credible,
compassionate, and caring case for his or her position. The overriding
sentiment heard for this particular location for this shelter was that =
they
did need a coordinated comprehensive effort led by the City to come to =
grips
with the issue of homelessness. He said the City needed a Task Force =
like
the Mayor mentioned. He said there was a very credible case to be made =
for
saying that having the additional service might help take people off =
the
street in this location and having another set of eyes on the street, =
would
help police some of the problems that the neighborhood was =
experiencing. He
said it needed to be a temporary decision and monitored by a task =
force.
Staff could put together data needed regarding models from other cities =
and
what other opportunities that could be seen from other places as well =
as a
collection of names from those who wanted to serve on that task force =
so the
Commission could figure out how to compose it. He supported, on a =
temporary
basis, the LOS opening at this location with the understanding that the =
City
needed to address this issue in a much more comprehensive way than we =
have
up until now.
Commissioner Henry said this was a very difficult and emotional issue. =
He
found himself being pulled one way and then the other as he listened to
everyone's concerns. He was listening to neighborhood concerns, people =
who
had been in the position of helping have the homeless and having them
illustrate to him with personal anecdotes how the help they given the
homeless, they believed, resulted in less disruption in neighborhoods =
rather
than more. He also listened to Dr. Schneider who had indicated that =
the
Salvation Army had adjusted its policy and this adjustment seemed to be
working. Last time the Commission discussed this issue, he emphasized =
the
need to provide for this type of a shelter more than just a maintenance
program. There should be therapeutic programs and other programs =
offered.
If this shelter was approved for one year and reviewed then the =
Commission
needed to put together a task force to help get these people into
responsible positions. He was in support of a one-year trial period =
for the
LOS.
Mayor Hack said the Commission's action was to deny the request, she =
asked
if they Commission needed a motion to deny the request.
Corliss said the requirement was if the Commission wanted to go against =
the
recommendation from the Planning Commission, it would require a super
majority vote or four votes to approve the Open Shelter's UPR.
Commissioner Rundle said UPR's had a five-year time limit. He asked if =
this
could be a 1-year UPR.
Sheila Stogsdill, Assistant Planning Director, said yes. She was going =
to
suggest that Condition No. 5 be modified. If the Commission wanted =
this UPR
to be a one year approval, the applicants needed to come back to the =
City
and go through some process to extend it and the Commission could =
determine
whether that was an extension that was granted by this body or if they
needed to go back through the Planning Commission.
Commissioner Rundle asked if there would be a conflict if the =
Commission did
that.
Sheila Stogsdill said there was no five-year time limit in the code, it =
was
a standard time limit.
Mayor Hack asked if Stogsdill recommended that the Commission delete =
the
sentence, "the UPR will expire in 2004" and leave the part that said, =
"the
Planning office would review and forward a report to the Commission =
every
year."
Stogsdill said what she heard Mayor Hack say was that there seemed to =
be
some support to approve this for one-year. She said that was different =
from
a report coming back in one year.
Commissioner Rundle said when Commissioner Henry said "trial", to him =
that
meant this could carry on into the future. He knew it was a burden on =
LOS,
but he thought they needed to come back and visit this issue if the
Commission had not come up with a long-term solution.
Mayor Hack said the suggestion was to change the last sentence to "the =
UPR
will expire in 2004."
Stogsdill said yes. She said the Commission could clarify that if they =
want
the extension to come back to the City Commission or the Planning
Commission. There was a timing mechanism that if it went back to the
Planning Commission they would need to start earlier.
Vice Mayor Dunfield thought it needed to come back to the City =
Commission
because in terms of trying to come up with a more comprehensive =
approach to
the issues that would be happening through the City Commission and not =
the
Planning Commission.
Moved by Henry, seconded by Dunfield, to approve the UPR (UPR-01-01-03)
subject to a revised condition No. 5, which should read, "The UPR will
expire in March 2004 (1-year time limit). Prior to March 31, 2004 the
applicant/owner will need to request and obtain approval of an =
extension
from the City Commission in order to continue operating the shelter at =
this
location.
Aye: Dunfield, Hack, Henry, and Rundle. Nay: Kennedy. Motion =
carried.
(36) =20
Moved by Hack, seconded by Kennedy, to recess for 5 minutes.
Mayor Hack reminded citizens that there would be a one-hour limitation =
on
public comment that would be preceded by a 15-minute presentation from =
the
applicant concerning the rezoning of 6th Street. =20
Moved by Hack, seconded by Kennedy, to extend the meeting to 11:15 p.m.
Motion carried unanimously. =20
Bryan Dyer, Planner, presented the staff report on the rezoning of =
property
located north of 6th Street and west of Wakarusa Drive. He said there =
were
4 rezoning proposals and a preliminary development plan proposal. All =
5
proposals received a positive staff recommendation for approval as well =
as a
recommendation of approval from the Planning Commission. =20
He presented the Commission with a diagram of the proposed locations. =
He
said the PCD has been published and in place right now which was PCD-2. =
The
POD-1 areas were conditional zonings. Those zonings had been approved, =
but
they were still waiting on a Preliminary Development Plan before they =
were
published. Essentially, they were zoned office at this time. The =
PRD-2
area had been partly published which was the detention pond for the =
PCD-2
and the remainder was still pending based upon Preliminary Development =
Plan
approval and then they had the office area. This office area was at =
the
corner of Congressional and 6th Street and had been published and was =
in
place.
Dyer addressed the map and discussed all of the different zoned areas. =
He
said it would end up with a slight reduction in the commercial zoning =
that
was out there right now. =20
Todd Thompson, attorney for the applicant, said the issue was to =
rearrange
the zoning to accommodate a different development plan. The approved
development plan showed three buildings on the site. The proposed
development plan had one building and that was the fundamental reason =
they
were there which was to rearrange the zoning to accommodate the revised =
plan
that moved all commercial under one roof. He said the similarities =
between
the two plans were in the amount of commercial acreage in this quadrant =
was
virtually the same, the amount of commercial square footage, and the =
amount
of traffic generated by the two plans were virtually identical. There =
were
numerous differences in terms of the landscaping and layout.
Ray Frankenburg, Site Engineer for the proposed Wal-mart project, said =
the
rezoning was needed in order to situate the building further back and =
get
extra zoning for the commercial so it was back off the highway. This
allowed them to twist the building so it was no longer flat and =
parallel
with 6th Street. It allowed for more distance off the highway and to =
lower
the parking lot by moving it back for a 4-foot retaining wall. =20
The width of the building had been reduced. The approved building was =
590
feet across and the proposed building was 510 feet across. They had =
also
eliminated two of the commercial out parcels. There would be two =
office
parcels. =20
The traffic flow had been redone for the proposed plan. On the =
existing
plan the traffic comes off of Congressional Drive and leads to the =
front of
the store. On the proposed plan, traffic would be taken off of
Congressional Drive onto an S-curve to bring it to the south end of the
parking lot. This would allow traffic to filter into the parking lot =
in an
even manner. The proposed plan offers an efficient traffic flow and
enhanced the use of Congressional Drive in the future as opposed to =
making
Wakarusa and Overland Drive as the main entrance. =20
The landscape was better on this proposed plan. The old plan had 86 =
trees
provided and the new plan offers 233 trees provided all around the =
site.
The City requirement on a plan of this type is 48 open space trees. =
There
was also more green area provided on this plan around the store and in =
the
access to the store than there was on the old plan and they were also
specifying 3-inch caliper trees. =20
Regarding the aesthetics of this plan, this would be a quick brick build=
ing
and they had added awnings along the front. He said the garden area =
was now
made out of rod iron, steel fencing with the quick brick columns. He =
said
the front of the building would be broken up. The vestibules come out =
away
from the building instead of a flat front of a building. In the rear =
of the
building, they hid their truck docks behind an appendage and would put =
in a
13-foot wall to hide the trucks while they were parked on the dock. =20
The size of the building was basically the same as well as was the =
traffic.
When this was approved before, the traffic study from the original =
approved
plan until now had approximately 8 or 10 more cars per hour, during the =
peak
hours. In essence, when this plan was reviewed by staff and KDOT, the =
same
recommendation came about which was that the traffic was in essence the =
same
and the temporary improvements would handle that traffic. The =
temporary
improvements would be the addition of a right turn lane off of 6th =
Street to
handle their right turning traffic coming to the site and the addition =
of a
left turn lane so that they could stack on Wakarusa Drive before some
improvements were constructed. =20
He said staff recommended approval and they would like to request City
Commission approval.
Thompson said the Planning Commission suggested some conditions be =
placed on
the plan and some of those conditions were fine with the applicant. =
One of
those conditions had to do with improvements at Harvard Road and =
Wakarusa
and that the store not be allowed to open until those improvements were
done. Another condition was that the West 6th Street improvements had =
to be
completed before the store could open and those two conditions were not
acceptable to the applicant. The applicant had agreed to sign a =
no-protest
agreement to participate in the benefit district for the improvements =
at
Harvard Road to help pay for whatever improvements ultimately were
determined to be appropriate. The suggestion that the improvements had =
to
be a signal and in place before the store could open was not acceptable =
to
the applicant and the same was true for the requirement that the
improvements on West 6th Street had to be completed before the store =
could
open.
The approval that was made 18 months ago included some temporary
improvements and what had changed with regard to those temporary =
traffic
improvements was that Wal-mart had agreed to pay for a right-turn lane =
on
6th Street, if KDOT approved, which would allow the right turning =
traffic a
place to pull over and have its own lane at the intersection of 6th and
Wakarusa. He said they had the same amount of traffic that was =
currently
approved, they would add a right-turn lane on 6th Street, agree to help =
pay
for improvements to the Harvard Road intersection and that was all
acceptable to the applicant.
He prepared a list for the Commission that showed some of the =
differences
between the existing plan and their proposed plan. He noted, in the =
first
column, that the right turn lane was something Wal-mart was going to =
add
that they did not have right now. The no-protest agreement for Harvard =
was
a gain. The additional landscaping and berms and the lowered parking =
lot
that was hidden from 6th Street, the architectural enhancements, the
substantial increase in the number of trees, the loading dock appendage =
and
wall to hide the trucks, a condition that no storage containers be =
stored on
the site for over 72 hours were acceptable conditions to the applicant.
Also, the landscaping and architectural features would be added to the =
plan
which made them mandatory at that point and the additional peak hour =
traffic
was basically the same. =20
The sales tax dollars were probably going to be approximately the same =
as
the existing plan as well as the real estate tax dollars. Wal-mart
anticipated hiring between 300 to 350 people for this store. Eighty =
percent
of those positions were full-time. One hundred percent of those people
would qualify for the medical care plan at Wal-mart as well as =
participate
in both the profit sharing plan and the 401K Plan. =20
He asked the City Commission to agree with staff that this request =
should be
approved and agree with most of everything that the Planning Commission
recommended, except the two conditions, which make the opening of the =
store
dependent upon things that were totally out of their control. He said =
they
did not know what would happen on Harvard Road. He said they were more
optimistic about 6th Street. They met with KDOT and talked to them =
about
reversing the order. Their plan right now was to start on the west end =
by
the by-pass and build east and they talked to KDOT about building from =
the
east to the west. Everyone he had talked to believed the sooner the =
6th and
Wakarusa intersection was done, the better. He said Wal-mart was =
willing to
step up to the plate and pay for engineering costs to flip the order so =
that
the City did not incur any expense in doing that based upon the
conversations they had with KDOT. =20
He asked the City Commission to approve the amendments to these =
rezonings
and the new plan, eliminate the two conditions about the improvements =
to
Harvard Road and West 6th having to be done before the store could =
open, and
in light of the fact that there was no additional traffic being =
generated
from this plan of any significance over the other plan to allow them to
proceed with the temporary improvements that were already approved in =
which
would be used if the approved development plan gets built. He asked =
the
Commission to let them proceed without those two conditions.
Commissioner Kennedy asked how many square feet was changing on the
commercial property itself.
Thompson said it was less than 4,000 square feet. The approved square
footage was 154,100 and the requested square footage, which did include =
the
appendage for hiding the docks was 157,966.
Jeff Moran, Lawrence, said we meet again to talk about the same parcel, =
but
for the first time, to talk about Wal-mart as opposed to the Home Depot =
or
another home improvement store which had once been suggested. He said
rather than constantly comparing this site to the plans that they had
before, to clear your minds and think about this "de novo" as if this =
were a
plan being offered to you from out of the blue for the first time for =
what
we want to do at this intersection. It made sense to treat it this way
because otherwise you've really been backed into this step by step. =20
At earlier meetings everyone was operating upon the representation that =
this
was to be a home improvement store and every person who spoke in favor =
at
the public meetings, every Commissioner that spoke in favor at the =
public
meetings, spoke in terms of the need for a home improvement store. In =
fact
this Commission took steps to pass a restriction that would in fact =
prevent
a Wal-mart or other large retailer that was not a home improvement =
store
from moving into this area and it was on this basis that the Commission
moved a head with this vote and it was on this basis that it was =
continued
forward. However, it was not the case that this was going to be a home
improvement store. He asked Finger if she was going to clarify her
instructions to the City Commission concerning this issue.
Finger said she would talk to the Commission about the minutes. In =
2001,
when the City Commission had addressed this item, she was asked if they
should also restrict variety stores. Her response was that back when =
the
code was written, a variety store was something small like Woolworth's. =
She
said we did not have anything in the code currently that dealt with =
discount
stores and that was what a variety store has come to today.
Moran said that was in the context of the City Commission discussing =
how to
prevent a Wal-mart type store from moving into this area and the =
Commission
added to the list of restricted uses "department store", naturally =
thinking
this included Wal-mart. He said Finger said that they did not need to =
get
rid of "variety store" because it won't be a problem. As it turned =
out, it
did fit under "variety store" if nothing else. =20
Finger disagreed. If you go to the standard industrial code and look =
at the
definition of "general merchandise" it fell under category Major Group =
53 -
Department store was a subcategory of that which was 53-11. Variety =
store
was another subcategory 53-31 and then there was a miscellaneous =
general
merchandise. The fact was there was no category currently for what has
evolved to a "big box" discount store of that size which was why they =
were
rewriting these, but "department store" as the code was written =
referred
specifically to having to carry men and women's apparel, either a major
household appliance or another home furnishing, normally was arranged =
in
departments, the accounting system was on a departmental basis, had its =
own
charge accounts, delivers merchandise and maintains open stock, and had =
over
50 employees. If you compare and contrast that with a variety store =
which
was primarily engaged in retail sale of a variety of merchandise in =
popular
price ranges, the sales were on cash and carry, generally not complete =
lines
of merchandise, not departmentalized, did not have their own credit =
cards,
and they did not deliver merchandise. You could see that Wal-mart has
developed into a blend of all of those and they did not have a category =
for
Wal-mart.
Moran said this was obviously a problem with the code, but more =
broadly, a
problem for the City's policy because the City was not attempting to =
prevent
a store like this from moving in and the City needed to work out some =
way of
voting, to continue preventing this. =20
He asked the Commission to start out thinking of this from the starting
line. He said pretend there was no zoning, because the zoning the City
created was for the home improvement store. Perhaps the City needed to
think of a new way to zone this area so a Wal-mart was not allowed in, =
the
way City originally intended. =20
He asked what were the consequences if we did not have a home =
improvement
store anymore? The most obvious consequence was that we were not going =
to
be a two Wal-mart city. You could not say you needed to build this =
store in
order to prevent retail leakage to other cities. It was not the case =
that
we were losing Wal-mart dollars to Topeka or Kansas City as we might =
had
been lose home improvement store dollars.
The second issue was where was the revenue from this going to come. He =
said
there would not be more Wal-mart shoppers all of a sudden. Instead, =
this
Wal-mart would cannibalize dollars from existing stores and existing
Wal-marts. He asked what was the likely affect of this? Certainly no =
rise
in tax revenues and secondly the closing of the first Wal-mart store on
south Iowa Street. =20
You could not do a search for an empty Wal-mart store without coming =
across
dozens and dozens of place on the web that state Wal-mart was the =
single
largest creator of empty retail space in the nation, which was 25 =
million
square feet. There were approximately 398 empty Wal-mart stores across =
this
nation, 7 in Colorado alone.=20
He said to give you a sense of what likely happened when you have and =
older
Wal-mart and a newer Wal-mart he addressed an article from the Salt =
Lake
Tribune. The Salt Lake Tribune noted that of the last 6 super stores =
that
opened in Utah, all of them that opened near existing Wal-marts led to =
the
shutting down of the existing Wal-marts. He said New Mexico was home =
to 8
Wal-mart empty carcasses and Aurora, Colorado, has two empty Wal-marts. =
He
said this was not going to lead to greater and greater retail sales in
Lawrence, Kansas. He said this was another reason why he wanted the =
City
Commission to step back from this and see that we did not need to be =
locked
into this.
He said the next issue was where did this fit into the City plan or =
Master
Plan. He said people interpret Horizon 2020 a few different ways. One
issue that was clear from Horizon 2020 was that a "big box" retail =
store of
this type did not belong in a community retail store, even if the =
square
footage or acreage fits. The second issue that you would note, was =
that
although this might fit, strictly speaking under the acreage limit, it
absolutely rams the square footage to the upper limit allowable under
Horizon 2020 for this area. This was not even taking into account the
undeveloped northeast corner, which was still waiting to be done. =20
Further, this was not simply any intersection, or not just another
commercial node, but an area where there was a high school, natatorium, =
and
close to a lot of residences right across from 6th Street. He thought =
it
would be poor legacy for the members of this Commission to move forward =
on
this type of plan where you had been led in thinking one thing "home
improvement store", but left with another which was a Wal-mart at a =
corner
where it never belonged and an empty Wal-mart in the place that =
Lawrence
once had one and where it did belong.
He said in the end, there were a few ideas that could be done about =
this
issue. One idea would be to turn down this proposal, which would be a =
fine
start. Another idea would be to change the zoning and actually even if =
the
Commission turned down the proposal, it would be worth while to change =
the
zoning for this area so that you could prevent further "big box" stores =
from
relocating there. It was certainly not the case that 150,000 square =
feet of
various retail was going to be the equivalent of 150,000 square feet =
from
Wal-mart. A Wal-mart store would also lead more traffic and more =
intense
usage. At the very least, if you're just going to be concerned about =
the
traffic itself, you could follow the Planning Commission and tie the
building permit to the completion of the road improvements, 6th Street =
and
the Harvard and Wakarusa area. =20
He thought it would be much better for everyone if the legacy of this =
City
Commission was that they drew the line at this intersection and that =
they
stayed with the City's clear and sensible comprehensive plan.
Craig Stoppel, West Lawrence Neighborhood Association, said the purpose =
of
this association was to maintain and improve the quality of their
neighborhood which was generally within the City of Lawrence, west of
Wakarusa. This was the same area that the proposed Wal-mart was to be
located. =20
Six members of the West Lawrence Neighborhood Association had put =
together a
series of statements that cover many of the objections they had to the
proposed rezoning at 6th and Wakarusa. During the past month, they had =
dug
deep into several aspects that were not considered by the Planning
Commission particularly in the areas of streets and traffic. In =
addition
the Commission needed to consider the depth of opposition to the =
proposed
rezoning in this area. =20
Gwen Klingenberg, Lawrence, presented maps to the City Commission =
concerning
traffic issues at 6th and Wakarusa. =20
She quoted Ray Frankenberg, Buescher-Frankenberg Associates, from the =
March
5, 2003, Planning Commission minutes. "The existing traffic problems =
were
not created by the applicant and would have to be addressed regardless =
of
this project." The problem was that this was the new proposal for 6th =
and
Wakarusa. They were looking at seven lanes on 6th Street and six lanes =
on
6th and Wakarusa. They were told by Chris Huffman, KDOT, that no more
lanes would fit into this location to make any difference. =20
She said Thompson stated that there was going to be another right-turn =
lane
on Wakarusa, but after talking with Huffman and the Planning =
Department, she
was informed that right turn would be at Congressional so there seemed =
to be
a discrepancy.
She also talked to Terese Gorman, City Engineer, who informed her that =
there
was no signalization being put in at Champion Lane and if Champion Lane =
did
not go north, there would be no signalization at that corner.
She said Steve Birchfield, Dillon's Store, felt that after talking with =
City
engineers that business wouldn't be affected because the traffic would =
go
north on Wakarusa to 6th Street, west to Congressional and down to =
Harvard.
She said Frankenberg had said that Highway 40 was not a neighborhood =
street.
However, Congressional, Queens, and Fenceline were all going to go into
neighborhoods. She said the medians were used to control traffic, but =
make
it impossible to shop and get home from the southeast corner of 6th and
Wakarusa. When the traffic for Wal-mart was busy, traveling across =
Wakarusa
would be null and void. She said Chris Huffman who was the Corridor
management administrator at KDOT said that it would be virtually =
impossible
to turn left onto Wakarusa or 6th Street and traffic would have to go =
east
to Monterey Way or west to Congressional Drive and south. Traffic from =
the
south would need to travel to Harvard to Congressional to get to the
businesses in the center because there would be no left turn off of 6th
Street. =20
She said Congressional Drive needed a traffic study before any more =
moves
were made dealing with the 6th Street proposal, especially since a =
Wal-mart
would increase the traffic through Congressional Drive. The City's
Engineering Division said that traffic would go east and not down
Congressional. =20
On a KDOT report it said that it was observed that the potential for
generated traffic was much higher to the south of the intersection than =
to
the north because the majority of the Lawrence metropolitan area exists =
to
the south of 6th Street, thus a greater traffic demand on the south =
side of
the intersection. Therefore, traffic from Wal-mart via Congressional =
Drive
would likely go south at Congressional Drive. =20
On that same KDOT report, it stated that cut-through traffic in the
southwest quadrant of the intersection was observed as some eastbound =
to
southbound drivers maneuvered through the southwest quadrant to avoid =
the
signal, which was Congressional Drive. =20
She said a revised traffic study for Wal-mart showed that existing plus =
site
generated traffic volumes. She said there were 43 right turning =
movements
off of 6th onto Congressional Drive in peak hours with the number =
expected
to increase to 90 cars in the year 2018. Even Wal-mart traffic study =
shows
236 cars on Congressional Drive south of 6th. =20
In another traffic study done by KDOT in September 2001, it mentioned =
that
it was likely that even if traffic projections and assignments in this =
study
proved somewhat conservative, the intersection would experience =
significant
operational challenges under future developed conditions if arterial =
flow
was not preserved. =20
She said at a neighborhood meeting Wal-mart was asked why not build at =
K-10.
Wal-mart's response was that it would take several years before they =
could
move to K-10. The construction sequence was from Hwy 40 to K-10 into =
town.
The water lines would be put into place first all the way from K-10 =
into
town. =20
She asked the City Commission to reconsider Wal-mart being moved to =
K-10
because 6th Street would be done there first. She said the pumping =
station
for the City sewer was nearby and there was a sewer line to east of St.
Margaret's Church. She wanted the Commission to consider all of the =
traffic
at 6th and Wakarusa and that it was not fully studied. No traffic =
studies
had been done at Congressional Drive, Queens Road, or Fenceline. No =
one
seemed to know where south of 6th street, where the streets go. No =
traffic
study had been done considering new development and she reiterated =
Huffman's
statement concerning operational challenges under future developed
conditions if arterial flow was not preserved. The possible relocation =
of
Wal-mart to K-10 had not been fully investigated. She asked for more
traffic and corridor studies before this issue was voted on. She said =
based
on these studies it showed increased traffic to the point where KDOT =
had to
add lanes to both Wakarusa and 6th Street and the lack of studies for
Congressional Drive, Queens Road, and Fenceline Road. She asked the
Commission to turn down Wal-mart's request or at least ask for further
study.=20
Paula Pepin, Lawrence, said she had become involved in this issue =
because of
safety concerns for children. The proposed Wal-mart would create =
increased
traffic in their neighborhood in a number of ways. She asked Huffman =
how he
thought traffic would be affected in their neighborhood. Huffman said
traffic "Traffic control and prediction was an art, it was not an =
science,
much of it was just guess work." =20
She said if congestion occurred at the corner of 6th and Wakarusa and
traffic backs up, the traffic would come into their neighborhoods. She =
said
Huffman stated repeatedly that there was just so much traffic that 6th
Street would be able to hold and at some point, that would break down =
and
people should expect traffic in their neighborhood. Huffman also said =
that
they should expect the dynamics of their neighborhood to change
dramatically. =20
She said concerning the West 6th Street Access Management Plan, it was =
her
understanding that KDOT had originally recommended along 6th Street =
that
there would only be one break into the neighborhoods on George Williams =
Way.
The other option would be a half mile break so there would have been a =
break
at Branchwood and then again at George Williams Way. She said what =
they
were ending up with was quarter mile breaks, which would be at =
Branchwood,
Stoneridge, Congressional, and George Williams Way, so it was putting =
that
more traffic into the neighborhoods. She said Huffman said this was =
under
the impression that it was done to allow for more commercial nodes at =
the
intersections. Her concern was, were they looking at more arterial =
flow on
6th Street and protecting the neighborhood from traffic or were they =
looking
at how much commercialization they could have along the intersections =
of
those corners.
She said on the other side of Harvard and Wakarusa, they had traffic
problems and they eventually placed traffic calming devices in those =
areas.
She said Wakarusa could hardly handle the traffic that it had. If =
there was
a perception by people that all the traffic to Wal-mart was going to =
come
down 6th from the east that was inaccurate. She said there would be a =
ton
of traffic from the south part of the City, up Wakarusa. There were no
lights between 6th Street all the way down to Clinton Parkway and there =
were
new businesses all along that area. She did not know how much more =
traffic
could be put on Wakarusa.=20
She wanted to make sure that the Commission considered the children =
when
addressing this issue. If the Commission could not say "no" to this =
issue,
then at least consider more studies on Wakarusa, Harvard, and =
Congressional
to make sure they could keep their roads safe their children.
John Stratton, West Lawrence Neighborhood Association, said he was =
neither
anti-business nor particularly anti Wal-mart. He did support planned =
growth
and responsible corporate citizenship. He specifically wanted to make =
a few
remarks about potential local environmental degradation at the 6th and
Wakarusa site, if Wal-mart was unable to build a super center at that
location. He believed these issues would impact directly the character =
of
the neighborhood in West Lawrence Association which was in fact one of =
the
issues that needed to be considered when taking into account a rezoning
request such as this one. =20
The current Wal-mart site at 31st and Iowa was in a non-residential =
area.
Behind this business, which contained several stores, the agricultural
fields were frequently littered with discarded plastic bags and other
refuse, rarely cleaned up until recently. Perhaps one might speculate, =
as a
result of increased public interest "in" and awareness "of" Wal-marts
request to build a new store this time near a residential area. Some =
of
this litter might be the result of the Wal-mart recycling center or by
irresponsible shoppers, but in his mind, there could be little doubt =
that
Wal-mart's presence at that location contributed to the problem. =
Whatever
its cause, it was in fact unsightly and presented a form of land =
pollution
that might be introduced into an existing neighborhood if the super =
center
was built. He asked would this affect the neighborhood character? In =
his
opinion the answer was "yes" negatively. =20
At Free State High School he attended a meeting that was sponsored by
Wal-mart and again, he raised the issue about the significant amount of
litter at the current site. He was informed that this would not be a
significant issue at the new super center site if approved, because in =
part
the company would "plant more trees and add berms" for the purpose, one
speculated, of hiding litter or producing convenient barriers for it to
collect in manageable drifts. Further inquiry, at that particular =
meeting,
led to the response "you just don't like Wal-mart." Frankly, he =
considered
this remark to represent a dodge by Wal-mart in addressing an important
neighborhood concern. =20
Yet other forms of potential environmental degradation in their =
neighborhood
besides excessive litter include, light pollution from large light =
poles in
the parking lot, noise pollution, increased air pollution from traffic =
that
would by all accounts increase dramatically at the intersection of 6th =
and
Wakarusa and the generation of other pollutants as a result of parking =
lot
run-off particularly of petroleum products and by-products. =20
In sum, potential for environmental degradation in the West Lawrence
Neighborhood was not insignificant and would have a direct and =
undesirable
effect on the character of the West Lawrence Neighborhood. =20
Wal-mart consistently portrays itself in its advertising campaign as a
caring and participative member of our community U.S.A. Paul Harvey, =
the
radio commentator, finds that if a Wal-mart located in your vicinity =
"you
couldn't have a better neighbor", but he begged to differ. For these
reasons and other reasons that the Commission had heard or would hear =
about,
he respectfully requested that the City Commission deny the proposal =
for
rezoning. It was his opinion that this particular development had no =
place
in this residential neighborhood or in any other neighborhoods in =
Lawrence,
west, east, north or south.
Jeanne Newman, Lawrence, began to understand the importance of this =
issue to
her neighborhood after Wal-mart sponsored a meeting at Quail Run =
Elementary
on October 11, 2002. On October 13, 2002, she drafted a petition =
against
the proposed super center or any "big box" for that matter. On October =
24,
2002, she gave 10-15 copies to 9 different people. In two evenings =
they
were able to collect over 400 signatures and delivered these signatures =
to
the Planning Commission on October 16, 2002. The bottom line was that =
use
as a big box like this was inconsistent with their neighborhood and it =
was
something they did not want. Since submitting those 400 signatures, =
she
had collected over 100 more signatures. She said approximately 96% of =
the
people they approached for signatures signed the petition.
She presented a map to the City Commission depicting the results of =
where
the signatures came from. =20
She said as she looked at notes from Commission meetings, Journal World
articles, discussions she had with representatives from Wal-mart and =
her
observations, the bottom line was there was so many inconsistencies of
information from day one until today. For example: On March 25th she =
made
a reference to the Planning Commission that if they put a Wal-mart at =
that
location, that future Planning and City Commissioners would be =
inundated
with commercial zoning in that area. She said Planning Commissioner =
Bateman
said that they would not need to rezone if they allowed Wal-mart in =
that
space. She said Bryan Dyer, City Long-range Planner said if a Wal-mart =
were
built, it would almost certainly increase interest to build more retail =
at
that intersection because "big box" retailers generally like to build =
in the
same area. She also said Dyer quoted that if the store was built it was =
safe
to say that it would create a lot of pressure for large commercial
development on the northeast corner. That property would have lots of
interest from lots of commercial users.
On the October 11th meeting at Quail Run, Wal-mart projected those 820 =
cars
per hour, in peak shopping hours. On March 5th, they proposed 300 cars =
in
an out in peak hours over 200 fewer and tonight, Thompson said the =
number of
cars per hour where identical.
Also on October 11th she asked a real estate agent what other areas =
they
considered and more specifically, why didn't they chose 6th and the
trafficway. The real estate agent said the City told them that the
trafficway would not be ready for building for 6 - 10 years, but from =
KDOT,
they understood that water and infrastructure would be ready in 2 - 3 =
years.
She asked why the City and KDOT were not in agreement with this =
information.
Another inconsistency when talking with the real estate agent for =
Wal-mart
about ramifications of strip centers versus super centers, she was told =
that
a series of smaller stores would generate 1,500 cars per hour. She
conducted her own study of both centers at 6th and Wakarusa combined =
which
were the Hereford House to J.B. Stouts and Mariscos to Dillons, but she =
did
not include McDonald's. At the peak hour at 5:45 p.m., 32 cars at =
Hallmark
and Razzy's area, 51 cars at Dillons, and 121 cars at the Hereford =
House to
J.B. Stouts, adding up to 204 cars. This figure was not close to what
Wal-mart suggested.
As a member of West Lawrence Neighborhood, they were not a group of
professionals who do this for a living, but a group of concerned =
citizens
trying to understand the impact of this proposal on their neighborhood. =
The
numbers and fact were continually inconsistent and do not jive with the
numbers they had came up with in their own research given the little =
time
they had to research. She said they were trying to understand how this
proposal has essentially taken only 5 months to get to this point. =
Other
large regional retail in our City had taken nearly 3 years. She asked =
the
City Commission what was the hurry? If this proposal received a "yes" =
vote
from the Commission, why would that happen. The only reason she could =
come
up with was that it would generate tax revenue. =20
If they had Wal-mart as an anchor for the 50 acres of shopping at K-10,
Wal-mart created its own regional retail area. She said the =
infrastructure
was basically there. Wal-mart won't have to wait for 10 years and it =
was
only =BE of a mile away from their proposed site location. When =
homeowners
would buy their homes in this area that would be developed residential, =
they
would know that they would be buying next to regional retail, but they =
never
knew that in their area. A super store at this location would =
ultimately
create a huge tax revenue for this City. =20
Ideally, the Commission would vote "no" for this proposal, but if they =
could
not, she asked that they please table this issue to provide more time =
for
them to investigate the accuracies and inaccuracies, iron out
inconsistencies, prove that this was an inconsistent use of their
neighborhood, and show Wal-mart that they would truly welcome them at =
6th
and the trafficway.
Alan Cowles, President, West Lawrence Neighborhood Association, as he =
looked
5 years into the future, he saw very large residential districts in all
directions from 6th and Wakarusa and it made no sense to put a major
regional shopping center right in the middle. =20
He said Lawrence and Columbia, Missouri, were two cities of similar =
size and
Douglas County similar in size and composition to Boone County, =
Missouri.
He said Columbia had no less than 5 Wal-marts of various types. =20
He pointed out that they had covered most of the criteria for =
evaluation of
zoning. He said the Commission had a choice of adopting a plan before =
it
had been fully studied or waiting and studying this plan to find out =
what
its consequences were. This was a choice between a giant business
headquartered in another State and Lawrence's family run and owned
businesses. It was a choice between creating an insoluble traffic =
problem
on 6th Street and controlling development to avoid the problem, =
building
un-needed retail space and using what we had, and placing a giant store =
in
the center of a residential area. In making this choice, he asked the =
City
Commission to consider the following: 1) Was it fair to put Lawrence's
owned family run businesses out of business for the sake of a giant
out-of-state corporation? 2) Was it fair to leave the residents of =
Lawrence
with more empty and blighted retail space instead of using what we =
have? 3)
Was it fair to turn 6th Street into another 23rd Street when you could
control development to avoid the problem? 4) Was it fair to our =
citizens to
forget the promises of Horizon 2020? 5) Was it fair to turn our =
residential
streets into small highways? 5) Was it fair to risk the lives of our
children on those streets? He asked the City Commission not to vote =
for the
rezoning, but for the vast majority of the citizens of Lawrence, deny =
this
rezoning request, or if they could not deny the request, at least, =
delay it
until the many unanswered questions could be studied.
Kirk McClure, Lawrence, talked about the economic impact that this
development would have on the community as a whole. The Planning =
Commission
has ignored its obligation to monitor the growth of commercial space in =
the
community. The commercial chapter obligated them to do this and they =
had
failed. Specifically in December of 1999, the Planning Commission =
passed a
resolution stopping the work of monitoring commercial space. Horizon =
2020
also mandated that developers of major commercial areas would generate =
their
own economic analysis. Wal-mart's initial application of October 2002,
submitted an economic analysis and it had a mistake. The mistake was =
that
they had not adjusted the retail spending for inflation. They admitted =
to
that mistake and they had not submitted a revised economic analysis and =
he
had taken the liberty to correct that analysis for them.
In 1990 to 1998, spending in this community grew by 27% and retail =
space
grew by 37%. They were already getting into a dangerous problem of =
being
over built. In 1998 to 2001, spending grew by 1.7%, but the retail =
space
grew by 11.3%, which was 6 times the rate at which it could be =
supported.
To put that into scale, in 1998 to 2001, they added 549,000 square feet =
of
space, yet they only had enough increase in spending to support 84,000
square feet, which meant they had roughly 465,000 square feet of =
surplus
commercial space. The impact of these results was that they had vacant =
and
blighted space throughout the town. He said this was hurting our own
investment in our own downtown.
McClure said they had built an $800,000 parking garage. One half of =
that
payment of that parking garage was to be from the new development of =
the 900
block of New Hampshire. We all know that it was falling well behind =
and
developer had offered publicly that he was unable to provide the leases
necessary to go ahead with that development and the large measure for =
the
reason for that was because they had a surplus of space. =20
The economic impact of the 160,000 square feet that Wal-mart wanted to =
add
only exacerbated a problem that was already out of control. Right now =
we
need to stop building at this scale of commercial space. =20
Jonathan Earle, Lawrence, discussed the nature of the employer that =
wanted
to be build another store in Lawrence. He said even when viewing fair =
wage
alliances as fool hardy, but he did not, we're not talking about
Serological's or Home Depot. He said Wal-Mart was a corporation that =
was
widely known and recognized as an anti-union business. The wages =
Wal-Mart
paid were very low and that was one of the reasons why they became the
world's largest retailer. He said Wal-Mart offered a much-vaunted =
medical
health insurance program, but it was well documented that it was =
difficult
to afford the medical plan when being paid the wages Wal-Mart offered. =
He
said Wal-mart was currently involved in protracted lawsuits in several
states where at least employees suggest that it might be company policy =
to
have employers clock out and then continue working at the stores for =
free.
He said Wal-Mart was not a good neighbor or citizen and another =
Wal-Mart
would not be good for Lawrence. Approving the super center would no =
doubt
enrich a handful of developers and executives, and it would impoverish =
each
Lawrence citizen as well. =20
Sally Cloar moved to Lawrence two years ago. She chose to move to
Lawrence because the City had a plan that she liked. She did not =
support a
big box development at 6th and Wakarusa. She had seen this happen in =
other
cities and the results were pitiful. She said Horizon 2020 was a =
wonderful
document and she urged the City Commission to follow the Horizon 2020
guidelines. She was a stockholder in Wal-mart and she wanted them to =
do
well, but lets have them do well at the K-10 bypass.
Kimberly Anderson, Quail Run Neighborhood Association, said her
concern was that the proposal would create traffic and safety hazards =
for
their children and particularly for the young and inexperienced drivers =
that
attended Free State High School. She respectfully reminded the
Commissioners that this area was not originally zoned for "big box" =
retail
development, but for smaller community commercial development that =
would
serve the surrounding neighborhoods. They would like to see the area =
return
to its original zoning. They questioned the wisdom and fairness of a =
plan
that would establish a large regional commercial center at this =
location.
They also urged the Commission to take their time and study the =
long-range
impacts of the proposal, including the new and growing evidence of the
discrepancies in the current traffic projections. She felt confident =
that
this area could be developed in a manner that would provide revenue for =
the
landowners and developers, but protected the school and the surrounding
residential areas.=20
Jim Turrentine, Lawrence, urged the Commission to prevent extra
traffic that would cause traffic fatalities and lives being lost. Over
development at 6th and Wakarusa would take the lives of Free State =
students
because of traffic fatalities. He urged the Commission to prevent
conversion of over 50 small businesses that employed 300 people being =
paid
15 dollars an hour to one large business-serving people at minimum =
wage.
Money going to Wal-Mart was only taxed once on the way out of town. He
asked the Commission to keep our money circulating in healthy Lawrence =
and
to make a motion to table this item to the next City Commission =
meeting. =20
Vice Mayor Dunfield said the Commission's experiment at trying to
set a time limit was probably not working as intended. One of the =
things
that they were hoping to do was not to go to the buzzer system where =
they
allowed each person a certain amount of time and cut them off when that
buzzer went off because that was a harsh situation. He said it sounded =
like
there were 4 more people who signed up to speak. He said the =
Commission
would ask these 4 people to speak briefly it that was acceptable.
Moved by Rundle, seconded by Dunfield, to extend the meeting until
11:30 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. =20
David Schauner, Lawrence, said democracy was a clumsy and ugly
process for decision-making. As Winston Churchill said it was not =
perfect,
but it was the best system that we have yet been able to devise. =
Everyone
who worked for the City was in service to the community. He said they =
had
heard factual and sometimes, emotional presentations of people who =
would be
impacted by this proposal at 6th and Wakarusa. He said development =
should
serve the community and not that the community serve the development. =
It
was clear that the community did not want to be served by the =
particular
development proposed at 6th and Wakarusa. Despite the fact that =
democracy
was not a pretty business, democracy did work and the voice of the =
people
should be heard. He asked the Commission to listen to the =
recommendations
of the speakers and at a minimum table this matter until further =
information
could be gathered regarding neighborhood impact and traffic congestion =
and
determine whether the timetable for the completion of utilities at 6th =
and
the trafficway would in fact be about the same timetable as the =
development
of this corner's KDOT, 6th Street Improvement Project.
He said Wal-Mart was the world's largest employer and it was one of
the world's largest landowners. The delay of a year or two in the =
grand
corporate scheme of this huge multi-billion operation was essentially
minuscule to Wal-Mart's bottom line, but to the people who live at 6th =
and
Wakarusa, on in the neighborhoods of Quail Run or West Lawrence, this =
would
impact their single largest investment of their entire life. He was =
not
talking about money, but their children. The decision about Wal-Mart =
might
not make life better or worse, but the Commission owed it to those
taxpayers, the best consideration for this proposal. He said without
faulting the Planning Commission, he believed more thought and =
discussion
needed to happen before that area was paved over and a decision was =
made
which would simply be unfixable. Once that development went in, he =
could
assure us that the end result of approving this particular project was
essentially the beginning of the march towards the trafficway with =
further
development. He said the Commission owed it to themselves to make =
the
right decision. He asked the Commission to table the matter until =
further
consideration could be given to the proposal.
Sihka Bresken asked what the environmental impacts of the
development would be if they took out all the trees and landscape and
dropped a giant concrete box in this area. When she came to this town =
one
of the main issues that made her decide to stay here for awhile was the
small town atmosphere and that there wasn't this corporate consumerism
rampaging about in this town. When we ignore the local artist and =
business
people and their unique ways of conducting business and risk being run =
out
of business by corporate consumerism, she wondered how many people =
would
have that same thought to stay in this town. =20
T.J. Bruegger, Lawrence, said he loved this town and had a lot of
friends here. He was concerned about these major corporate global
businesses moving into Lawrence and destroying the atmosphere in =
Lawrence.
Steve Menke, Lawrence, was concerned about the proposed traffic way
in his neighborhood. He thought Congressional would be a by-pass. He =
did
not have scientific information, but there was a common sense about =
this
because he drove through 6th and Wakarusa twice a day and the way the
traffic signals were set up, you get a free pass if you take 6th Street
rather than turning on Wakarusa. He said in his opinion this was the =
major
way people enter that whole neighborhood, south of 6th Street and west =
of
Wakarusa. If they add on top of that the major exit from the new "big =
box"
development, that was putting another temptation in peoples minds that
rather than going down 6th Street, to go to Congressional and then to
Harvard especially if a traffic light was placed at 6th and =
Congressional.
He said at the Planning Commission meetings there were people
talking passionately about traffic. The conclusion at the Planning
Commission meeting was a compromise. The development should not be in =
place
until the traffic signaling and the development of 6th Street were =
complete.
He said the major impact of the proposed plan should be delayed until =
there
was the infrastructure to handle it. He asked the Commission to table =
the
proposal until additional studies were complete.
Jason Fizell, member of the Board of Zoning Appeals, Executive
Director Kaw Valley Heritage Alliance, said Wal-Mart was attempting to
placate and cover up the real problems with the proposal and also, the =
way
the debate had been framed by the applicants in that this was just a =
small
change. He said the Commission could stop the proposal from happening. =
He
was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and in the Chamber Directory =
they
were listed as a department store and not a variety store. =20
When talking about square footage we were talking about putting them
over the upper edge of what we list as a neighborhood community center =
in
the comprehensive plan. Also, they needed approval of rezoning and =
this was
the issue tonight and they needed to go through the legal procedure and =
the
Commission could vote against this. =20
In terms of State statutes, their development right on this property
was not vested until they pull a permit and that obviously was not
happening. They did not have the right to build whatever they wanted. =
He
said this was a political decision. =20
Todd Thompson said this was not the maximum square footage and they
were not changing the square footage material at all. He said there =
was
68,000 square feet left for the other corner as the staff report =
indicated.
He said there was a reference to the traffic numbers. Some of the
people, who were going by right now, if there was a store there, would =
pull
in and shop at the store. That was called passer-by traffic, which was =
not
new traffic, but during peak hours would pull in and use the store. =
The
number of approximately 400 cars was the new additional traffic that =
would
be created by the store. The 600 cars were the number prior to any
adjustments for passer-by traffic. The reality was that this plan =
change
was not going to substantially increase traffic over what the approved
development plan would generate. The Commission's choice right now was
which plan was in the best interest of the community. He said the
developers believed the new plan was superior to the existing plan. =
There
was a reference made to Columbia, Missouri indicating that identical =
towns
might have more than one Wal-mart and that was exactly what this town =
would
have after this proposal gets approved.
He said another comment was no facts, no figures, just emotional,
which was a very telling and accurate remark. He said the City had not =
been
presented with facts and figures that justify insisting on the first =
plan
and rejecting the proposed new plan. There have not been any facts and
figures that suggest it was in the best interest to keep the existing =
plan
in place and refuse the new plan. On the contrary, the facts and =
figures
indicated that the proposed plan was far superior to the existing =
approved
plan. =20
He said KDOT had looked at these traffic issues and the traffic that
would be added by building this store would be adequate. He encouraged =
the
Commission to approve this plan and allow this project to be the =
impetus
toward advancing getting 6th and Wakarusa fixed as soon as possible. =
He
said if the Commission voted against the request, the result would be =
the
existing approved development plan stayed in place. If the Commission =
votes
for the new proposed plan then all of the enhancements were gained. He
asked the Commission to approve the request without the two conditions =
tying
to Harvard Road and to the west 6th improvements to be completed.=20
Moved by Kennedy, seconded by Dunfield, to extend the meeting until
11:45 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. =20
Commissioner Kennedy said the Commission adopted a plan for 6th and
Wakarusa, which was the exact plan that was adopted six years ago. =
This was
dual left turn lanes, dual straight lanes at that intersection knowing =
that
this City would be growing in that direction and that it would be impact=
ed
by the traffic that would happen at that intersection both from the =
school
and all other commercial development at the other two quadrants. He =
said
the Commission wanted to ensure that they had the specific island =
locations
so that there was access to the existing strip centers at that =
location. He
said KDOT took over authority for the improvements of the entire road =
and
the intersection because they wanted to be able to cut-off these access
points. He said the approved development plan came from the Planning
Commission in 2001. =20
He said at that time, they still knew that traffic was going to be
generated by the commercial and residential development in the =
Northwest
Development Plan. The Planning Commission took a look at traffic =
counts,
entrance, and development of that area and was a 9 - 0 vote from the
Planning Commission that they approved the "big box" and the proposed
development.
Bryan Dyer said there had been multiple plans presented for this
corner. The plan that was approved came before the City Commission =
from the
Planning Commission with a unanimous approval in the fall of 2001, but =
the
City Commission had seen other plans that had come with a =
recommendation for
denial from both the Planning Commission and staff. =20
Commissioner Kennedy said the plan that was before the Commission
now, was recommended by staff for approval. He said this buffering and =
new
plan would reduce the potential for access traffic at the intersection,
which brought this request in compliance with Horizon 2020 guidelines. =
He
said the traffic was the same on both plans. =20
Commissioner Kennedy talked about some downtown competition that was
happening in Lawrence. Last week the City Commission observed a new =
plan
for improvements at 8th and New Hampshire Street. This was a =
development
that was occurring by individual investors knowing that our downtown =
was a
vibrant and designated place to shop. =20
Finally, he always followed the Planning Commission's recommendation
which all of these rezonings had positive recommendations, along with
positive recommendations from staff. He said there were also positive
recommendations from our community and by adopting this plan, the City
Commission would meet one of their major goals, which was economic
development.=20
He said in these hard times that this country was going through,
this was a hard time to pass up some type of development that comes to =
town
without it costing the City additional funding. He said we needed the =
sales
and property taxes, but most of all the jobs that would be created. He
supported the proposal.=20
Vice Mayor Dunfield said in 1997 he was in Leadership Lawrence. He
learned two things to note from the President of the Chamber of =
Commerce at
the time. One of which retail development was not primary economic
development, it was not creating new money for our City, but spreading =
it
around in a slightly different way. Another thing he learned, perhaps =
more
relevant to this discussion was that by 1997, everyone including our =
Chamber
of Commerce agreed that we had done a great thing 20 years ago when we
prevented the building of a cornfield mall in Lawrence. That =
discussion was
similar to the discussion about a "big box" retail at this location. =
He
could claim, in all honesty, not to be anti Wal-mart because he also =
voted
against the previous "big box" store proposal for this same location. =20
In 1983 the conventional wisdom among retailers was that enclosed
malls was the future of retail and that anybody who tried to deny that
enclosed shopping malls were the future of retail, simply did not know =
what
they were talking about and was going to get left behind in the dust of
history. Twenty years later, enclosed shopping malls were no longer =
the
retail future and what we were seeing instead was that "big box" =
retailers
clustered together in power centers were the current conventional =
wisdom as
to the way that retail was done in the present day. He thought they =
were at
a similar type of decision point that they were at 20 years ago with an
enclosed shopping mall. =20
When they talked about "big box" retail, there could be no question
that Wal-mart Super Center was a regional shopping facility and not a
community store. It was also quite clear that Wal-mart was a =
department
store and this City Commission specifically said we do not want a =
department
store at this location because of the concerns about the impact it =
would
have on our downtown and other retailing. =20
If the Commission allowed this store to be built at his location, it
seemed to him that it would be hard for the Commission to say they =
would not
allow other "big box" stores in similar locations. Essentially, they =
would
be throwing out the whole notion of the distinction between regional
shopping centers and community shopping centers and we might as well =
start
all over with writing Horizon 2020 as far as how we look at shopping =
and
retail in our community because to him, the distinctions would have =
been
completely lost. For those reasons and just as those reasons 20 years =
ago
for denying that shopping mall were the community impacts that mall =
would
have and the reason for denying this proposal similarly, was because of =
the
negative community impacts of this new approach to regional shopping =
centers
in this location would have on our community. He opposed this =
proposal.
Commissioner Henry had a major concern about this proposal. He said
there was a 3-2 vote from the City Commission. He looked at that =
proposal
on the basis of needing the retail development, sales tax, and the tax =
base
and voted for that proposal on that basis, but the project that was
presented to them at that time was a home improvement store. He never
envisioned this location might be considered a retail department store =
type
of "big box." He said the proposal tonight was for a project that was
larger. He heard a lot from the public about cut-through traffic. He =
did
not support this project.
Mayor Hack said one of the comments was this issue should be tabled
because it came up quickly and it should be moved on to a different
Commission. She disagreed with that comment and thought this was =
something
that the Commission had on their plate for a while. She has been =
provided a
lot of information from City staff, the applicant, and the neighbors =
and she
appreciated that. =20
She concurred with Commissioner Henry about preconceived ideas about
what this area was going to be. One of the things to do was to make =
the
best decision you could based on the information that you have. At =
that
time, it made sense for her to support that plan, but this time it did =
not.
These were two distinct, different proposals. This current plan was =
much
larger than the previous plan. She knew traffic was a problem. =20
Hack said KDOT did concern themselves with the City's major highways
and to a limited extent, what goes on in the neighborhoods. The issue =
for
her other than the size was the impact on the neighbors. She did not
support this plan.
Commissioner Rundle said he thought they could admit that sometimes
the Commission did a good job and sometimes they did not concerning
planning. He was looking for consistency. He said we have to stick to =
our
comprehensive plan so they did not have 30 neighbors come down on a =
zoning
issue. =20
He said economic development was not commercial development. That
was why tax abatements were not applicable to retail. Our =
Comprehensive
Plan did say that this was a neighborhood commercial center and not a
regional center. The traffic numbers might be the same, but we were =
talking
about traffic impacts. He thought it was clear what KDOT had said that
there was concern here that had not been looked at. He was happy to be
joining in with the majority to send this back to the Planning =
Commission or
deny it.
Linda Finger, Planning Director, said the Commission received a
positive recommendation, so the Commission's options were to either =
concur
with the Planning Commission to disagree a the super majority vote of =
4-1 or
greater or defer or table this issue.
David Corliss, Assistant City Manger/Legal Services Director, said
what the Commission had done in the past was if the motion was to deny =
this
request, then they could direct staff or delegate Commissioners to work =
on
revised actual findings of fact and it could be placed on the agenda =
next
week. =20
Mayor Hack said she and the Vice Mayor would work on the findings of
fact.
Moved by Kennedy, seconded by Dunfield, to extend the meeting until
12:00 a.m. Motion carried unanimously. =09
Moved by Dunfield, seconded by Rundle, to deny the following
rezoning requests and preliminary development plan, located north of =
6th &
Wakarusa:
1. Z-01-02-03, an approximate 0.2554 acre area from
Agricultural to PCD-2 (Planned Commercial);
2. Z-01-03-03, an approximate 1.65 acre area from PRD-2
(Planned Residential) to PCD-2 (Planned Commercial);
3. Z-01-04-03, an approximate .03 acre area from PRD-2 (Planned
Residential) to POD-1 (Planned Office); and,
4. Z-01-05-03, an approximate 2.08 acre area from PCD-2
(Planned Commercial) to POD-1 (Planned Office); and
5. PDP-01-01-03, a preliminary development plan for 6th &
Wakarusa containing 157,966 gross square feet for proposed retail
development.
Aye: Dunfield, Hack, Henry, and Rundle. Nay: Kennedy. Motion
carried. (37)
Moved by Rundle, seconded by Henry, to adjourn at 11:50 p.m. Motion
carried unanimously.=20
APPROVED:
=09
______________________
Sue Hack,
Mayor
ATTEST:
_____________________ =20
Frank S. Reeb, City Clerk
CITY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES - MARCH 25, 2003
1. Towing Service Contract - Hillcrest Wrecker & Garage until
Feb 28, 2004.
2. Bid - 6 =BD ton pickups for Finance, Parks & Rec & Public
Works, to Roberts Auto Plaza for $110,557.
3. Bid - 1 compact pickup for the Kaw Plant to Laird Noller for
$17,436.
4. Bid - Yearly mowing contracts for District No. 1 to Cru-Cut
for $15,932, District No. 2 to Grass Roots for $14,740 & District No. =
3, to
Downing Lawn Care for $5,430 (Parks & Rec Dept.)=20
5. Bid - Single ram baler for Public works to Roy Conley & Co.,
for $56,061.=20
6. Bid - 2 condenser units for Holcom Park to Chaney Inc., for
$24,454.
7. Design Contract - Fire Station No. 3, 3708 W 6th to Smalter
& Assoc., for $30,000.
8. Property Purchase - Riverside Business Park & N of N Mich
from Westar Energy for sanitary sewer & pump station improvements for
$20,000.=20
9. Engineering Services Agreement - for Crossgate Dr., N of
Clinton Pkwy to BG Consultants for $19,897.68.=20
10. Contract - Inflow & Infiltration Project for Wastewater
Collection Div., to Institutiform Technologies fro $398,192.
11. Contract Change Order - Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion
Project to Danis Construction for $41,219.
12. Bid Date Set - April 8, 2003 for 2003 Overlay Program, Phase
1.
13. Bid Date Set - April 8, 2003 for rehab projects, 1745
Learnard, 2425 Overlook Cir, 1201 W 22nd Terr, & 1210 Hacienda Ln.
14. Ordinance No. 7629 - 1st Reading, amend 2000 Edition of
Uniform Mechanical Code.
15. Ordinance No. 7630 - 1st Reading, all-way "stop" signs at
intersection of Inverness/Legends/Wakarusa Drives.
16. Ordinance No. 7631 - 1st Reading, all-way "stop" signs at
Kasold & Peterson.
17. Ordinance No. 7632 - 1st Reading, "yield" signs on KS St. at
Utah St.
18. Ordinance No. 7627 - 2nd Reading, annex 2 acres at 1303 E
1600 Rd., (O'Connell Rd.)
19. Resolution No. 6456 - issue bonds for $650,000 for major
trafficways.
20. Resolution No. 6458 - GOB for 2003 KLINK Project, N 3rd,
from Industrial Ln to N City limits, 23rd, Learnard Ave to Harper.=20
21. Resolution No. 6459, KDOT for KLINK Resurfacing, 23rd from
Learnard to Harper & N 3rd, from Industrial Ln. to N City limits.
22. Rezone - (Z-12-42-02) .86 acres, from RS-2 to RMD, SW corner
of W 3rd & Illinois.
23. Rezone - (Z-01-01-03) 2 acres from A to RS-2, O'Connell Rd &
Goodell Ct.
24. Signs of Community Interest - "Friends of the Library"
annual book sale.
25. 2002 Utility System Development Charges Annual Report.
26. Subordination Agreement - 832 Locust, Kiley & Mary Bost.
27. Mortgage Release - 1033 Rhode Island, Sara & George Kapfer.=20
28. Mortgage Release - 1029 Delaware, Mark Kaplan.
29. Mortgage Release - 830 Alabama, John & Jane Hoyt.
30. City Manager's report.
31. Rezone - (Z-12-43-02) .51 acre from RS-1 to RO-1A, 501
Rockledge Rd. (Pulled from the regular agenda)
32. Rezone - (Z-01-06-03) 11.0855 acres from A to PRD02. (Pulled
from the regular agenda)
33. Resolution 6457 - Benefit District - Public Hearing for
Orchards Golf Course.
34. Licensing - Pushcart vendors in downtown area (amendment)
35. UPR - overnight homeless shelter by Lawrence Open Shelter.
36. Area Plan - Oakley Area.
37. Rezones and Prelim Dev Plan Denied - (Z-02-05-02B) 3.995
acres from A to RO-1B, SW corner of W 6th & E of 1100 Rd.; (Z-01-02-03)
.2554 acre from A to PCD-2, N of 6th & W of Wakarusa; (Z-01-03-03) =
1.6505
acres from PRD-2 to PCD-2, N of 6th & W of Wakarusa; (Z-01-04-03) .0301 =
acre
from PRD-2 to POD-1, N of 6th & W of Wakarusa;(Z-01-05-03) 2.0834 acres =
from
PCD-2 to POD-1, N of 6th & W of Wakarusa; and, (PDP-01-01-03) 6th &
Wakarusa, 15.584 acres, N & W of Wakarusa Dr.=20