March 27, 2007

 

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 Amyx presiding and members Hack, Highberger, Rundle, and Schauner present.  

Mayor Amyx recognized the “Boys and Girls Club Youth of Year Award” recipient Stephen Webb.

With Commission approval Mayor Amyx presented the Foundation Award to Community Wireless Communications-Freenet.

With Commission approval Mayor Amyx proclaimed Saturday, March 31, 2007 as “Dance Across Lawrence Day”; and April 2 – 7, 2007 as “Lawrence Pride Week.”  

Commissioner Rundle said Lawrence was recognized in 2005 and 2006 as one of America’s five star top business opportunity metros.  That recognition was based on seven studies that were rankings conducted over an entire twelve month period by the Research Department of Expansion Management Magazine and it was awarded the top twenty percent of 362 metro areas that were studied.  There were a variety of criteria which included government influences on the business climate and finally, the metro’s reputation among prominent corporate site location consultants. 

Again, last week the City Commission was taken to task in the Journal World for their negative impact on the economic development and given an “F”.  He said he could not believe the City Commission would be recognized as a five star business opportunity metro if the Lawrence City Commission flunked the Government Influences on Business Climate.  He said he hoped that lie would quit appearing in the newspaper and recognized the City Commission was trying to get community partners for economic development and certainly they had been working hard to identify problems and make City Hall work better in this area.                    

CONSENT AGENDA

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to approve the City Commission meeting minutes of March 6, 2007.  Motion carried unanimously.

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to receive the Neighborhood Resources Advisory Committee meeting minutes of January 11, 2007, January 25, 2007, and February 22, 2007; the Community Commission on Homelessness meeting minutes of January 9, 2007; the Board of Electrical Examiners and Appeals meeting minutes of November 11, 2006; the Mechanical Code Board of Appeals meeting minutes of February 23, 2007; and the Hospital Board meeting minutes of January 17, 2007.  Motion carried unanimously. 
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to approve claims to 781 vendors in the amount of $2,370,884.63 and payroll from March 4, 2007 to March 17, 2007, in the amount of $1,693,943.04.  Motion carried unanimously.     
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to approve the Drinking Establishment Licenses for the Jazzhaus of Lawrence, 926 ½ Massachusetts; Maceli’s, 1031 New Hampshire; Axis, 831 Iowa; Krause Dining, 917 Delaware; Club 508, 508 Locust; Royal Peking Restaurant, 711 West 23rd; and the Caterer Licenses for Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire; and, Maceli’s, 1 Riverfront Plaza.  Motion carried unanimously.   

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to concur with the recommendation of the Mayor and appoint Robert Farha to the Citizen Advisory Board, to a term which will expire March 1, 2010; reappoint Russell Brickell and Tim Kaufman to the Electrical Board of Appeals to additional terms which will expire March 31, 2010; reappoint Anne Marvin to the Historic Resources Commission to an additional term which will expire March 1, 2010; appoint Michael Monroe to the Lawrence Alliance to a term which will expire November 30, 2008; appoint Vern Norwood to the Neighborhood Resources Advisory Committee to a term which will expire September 30, 2009; appoint Gerald Pees, M.D., to the Public Health Board to a term which will expire March 31, 2009; appoint Branden Bell to the Special Alcohol Fund Advisory Board to a term which will expire April 30, 2008; and reappoint Bob Hagen to the Traffic Safety Commission to an additional term which will expire April 30, 2010.  Motion carried unanimously.

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with Airport Development Group for $54,500 for engineering services for runway safety improvements pending a grant offer from FAA.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                  (1)   
As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to set a bid opening date of May 1, 2007 for runway safety improvements at Lawrence Municipal Airport.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                        (2)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with Mayer Specialty Services, LLC for $216,674.85 to complete the 2007 Sanitary Sewer Manhole Rehabilitation Project.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                               (3) 

The City Commission reviewed the bids for thermal imaging cameras for the Fire/Medical Department.  The bids were:

                        BIDDER                                                          BID AMOUNT           

                        Conrad Fire Equipment                                  $28,687.50

                        Hays Fire Equipment Sales & Service           $31,221.90

                        Grand Forks Fire Equipment Co.                   $04,485.00

 

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to award the bid to Conrad Fire Equipment, in the amount of $28,687.50.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                                          (4)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to authorize the City Manager to enter into lease agreements for approximately 320 acres of farm land south of the Wakarusa River with Shuck Farms and Norman and Ralph Leary (150 acres) for $121 per acre.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                (5)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to authorize the City Manager to enter into a lease agreement for approximately 20 acres of farm land located near pump station No. 48 with Shuck Farms for $50 per acre.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                                  (6)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to approve the additional funding for upgrading streetlights on Kasold for $29,850.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                                      (7)

The City Commission reviewed the bids for a car wash service for all City Departments. The bids were:

SECTION 1 – CAR WASH

 

Zarco 66

 

   Car wash – regular

2.00

   Car wash – heavy duty

2.80

   Self service

No bid

   Vacuum

1.00

Henry Enterprises – Raco Car Washes

 

   Car wash – regular

4.00

   Car wash – heavy duty

5.00

   Self service

4.00

   Vacuum

.75

Fast Eddy’s Car Wash

 

   Car wash – regular

4.00

   Car wash – heavy duty

No bid

   Self service

No bid

   Vacuum

No bid

SECTION 2 – DETAILING

 

Custom Highline

 

   Exterior wash

3.50

   Full service wash

5.50

   Full detail

85.00

   Complete interior wipe down

7.50

   Wash & scrub floor mats

1.00 ea

   Special cleaning (body fluids, etc.)

20.00 hr

The Auto Plaza Car Wash

 

   Exterior wash

 

        Cars

6.99

        Vans / SUVs / Pickups

7.49

   Full service wash

 

        Cars

9.99

        Vans / SUVs / Pickups

12.99

   Hand Wash

 

        Cars / Vans / SUVs / Pickups

12.99

        Dual Rear Wheeled Pickups

28.95

   Full detail

 

        Cars

124.95

        Pickup Single Axle

159.95

        Vans / SUV

169.95

        Dual Rear Wheeled Pickups

189.95

   Complete interior wipe down

10.00

   Wash & scrub floor mats

 

        Vinyl

2.25

        Cloth

6.00

   Special cleaning (body fluids, etc.)

By Estimate

   Floor scrub

20.00

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to award the car wash bid to Zarco 66, Inc. and the detailing service bid to Custom Highline, in an amount not to exceed $14,000.  Motion carried unanimously.                                             (8)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to authorize the City Manager to issue a change order to MV Transportation, Inc., to increase service hours for the “T” Lift Paratransit Service for $10,218.  Motion carried unanimously.      (9) 

The City Commission reviewed the bids for one mini packer refuse truck for the Public Works Department.  The bids were:

                        BIDDER                                                          BID AMOUNT           

                        Roy Conley & Company                                 $73,505

                        KCR International                                            $74.944

                        American Equipment (bid 1)                           $75,825

                        American Equipment (bid 2)                           $77,959

                        Corbin Equipment                                           No Bid

                        Westfall Odell Truck Sales                             No Bid

 

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to award the bid to Roy Conley & Company, in the amount of $73,505.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                                       (10)

The City Commission reviewed the bids for one rear load refuse truck for the Public Works Department.  The bids were:

                        BIDDER                                                          BID AMOUNT           

                        Roy Conley & Company                                 $159,147

                        Burnup Equipment Co.                                   $164,770

                        Burnup Equipment Co.                                   $165,732

                        Burnup Equipment Co.                                   $162,482

                        McNeilus Truck E Manufacturing                    $173,472

                        McNeilus Truck E Manufacturing                    $175,958

                        KCR International                                            No Bid

                        Corbin Equipment                                           No Bid

                        Westfall Odell Truck Sales                             No Bid

 

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to award the bid to Roy Conley & Company, in the amount of $159,147.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                                     (11)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to approve the purchase of 2,236 bicycle helmets for the Fire/Medical Department Wheeled Sports Program from Helmets R Us Inc., for $17,043.60.  Motion carried unanimously.                       (12)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to place on first reading, joint City Ordinance No. 8092, and County Resolution No.    , amending Horizon 2002, Chapter 5 – Residential Land Use, to replace Figure 5-1 with the Neighborhood Concept.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                               (13)

Ordinance No. 8082, establishing penalties for the violation of City firearm possession ordinance, was read as second time.   As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to adopt the ordinance.  Aye:  Amyx, Hack, Highberger, Rundle, and Schauner.   Nay: None.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                       (14)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to concur with the Planning Commission’s recommendations to approve the Final Plat (PF-01-02-07) for Diamondhead, located at the SE Quadrant of South Lawrence Trafficway and Sixth Street (U.S. Hwy 40); and accept the dedication of easements and rights-of-way subject to the following conditions:

1.                   Provision of a revised Final Plat to include the following changes per staff

approval:

a.         Inset of ROW on GWW between Lot 1 and Lot 4 is not necessary,

b.         Note access restrictions to GWW for Lot 3, Block 1 in general notes and show graphically

c.         Revised easement along Ken Ridge Drive to note for use as  UE and PE

d.         Show full boundary width and dimension of access easement across (east/west) Lot 5, Block 1 (commercial parcel)

e.         Extend cross access to Ken Ridge Drive through Lot 5, Block 1.

f.          Show corner right-of-way dedication on north side of Ken Ridge Drive for future traffic calming improvement.

2.         Per the approval of the City Stormwater Engineer add the following notes to the face of the Final Plat:

a.         “Tract ‘A’ will be privately-owned and maintained.  The developer is responsible for establishing ownership and maintenance of same via individual owner maintenance.”

b.         “The drainage easement in the southwest corner of Lot 1, Block 2 will be privately-owned and maintained. The developer is responsible for establishing ownership and maintenance of same via individual owner maintenance” 

3.         Execution of an agreement not to protest the formation of a benefit district for street, Stormwater, water and gas line relocation, and geometric improvements for George Williams Way including the intersection at W. 6th Street south to and including Ken Ridge Drive.

4.         Provision of an executed encroachment agreement with Southern Star regarding development across the gas line and within exclusive easement.

5.         Submission and approval of public improvement plans prior to the recording of the Final Plat.

6.         Provision of a revised master street tree plan per City Staff approval to amend the types of species as noted in the review comments previously provided.

7.         Provision of the following fees and recording documentation:

a.         Copy of paid property tax receipt;

b.         Recording fees made payable to the Douglas County Register of Deeds;

c.         Provision of a master street tree plan.

 

Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                        (15)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to concur with the Planning Commission’s recommendations to adopt the findings of fact and approve the request for rezoning (Z-01-01-07) of a tract of land approximately .91 acre, from PCD-2 (Planned Commercial Development) to RM 24 (Multi-Dwellng Residential).  The property is located at the SE Quadrant of South Lawrence Trafficway and Sixth Street (U.S. Hwy 40); and, direct staff to prepare the appropriate ordinance, subject to the recording of a final plat.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                       (16)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to place on first reading, Ordinance No. 8093, enacting a Neighborhood Revitalization Plan and designating a Neighborhood Revitalization District.  Motion carried unanimously.                            (17)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to approve the Developer Agreement between the City of Lawrence and Cinco Hombres.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                        (18) 

CITY MANAGER’S REPORT:

During the City Manager’s Report, David Corliss said staff continued their efforts to keep track of in-house engineering and design work.  A memo outlined some of staff’s recent efforts in Utilities, Public Works, and Parks and Recreation Departments. 

Also, the City had received notification from the appropriate federal authorities concerning the 2007 CDBG and HOME funding allocations.  He said overall, the federal funding received by the City had decreased since 2001.  Staff had not seen a corresponding decrease in need or the number or dollar amount of applications from agencies for CDBG and HOME funding.

Corliss also reported that Cliff Galante, Public Transit Administrator was appointed to the State Transportation Planning Group.

Finally, the Lawrence Police Department received an Outstanding Achievement Award from KDOT for the Traffic Unit’s enforcement efforts during the “2006 Click It or Ticket” campaign.                                                                                                                                   (19)

REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS: 

Conduct public hearing on proposed special assessment benefit district for the improvement of Williamsburg Drive. There is no City financial participation in the improvements to this private street.

 

Mayor Amyx called a public hearing on the proposed special assessment benefit district for the improvement of Williamsburg Drive.

Chuck Soules, Public Works Director, said last year staff was approached by the Williamsburg Homeowners’ Association for assistance in street repair, including curb and gutter replacement.  After discussions, it was decided that a benefit district could be formed to include the Williamsburg area with the mill and overlay maintenance contract to provide the neighborhood with the best pricing.  Since those streets were private, the City had received access easements in order to do that work.

The cost of the project would be financed 100% by the Williamsburg Homeowners’ Association, including inspection and financing cost (0% city), and the City would carry the cost initially, but the project would be paid through a benefit district process.      

Commissioner Schauner said there were discussions a couple of weeks ago about upgrading the quality of asphalt material used on City streets.  He asked if staff made a decision about updating the quality and if so, would that quality asphalt apply to this project.

Soules said yes and it would provide a longer lasting product.

Commissioner Rundle asked about the State standards.

Soules said the State was working on designing mixes for each project depending on the soil, load needed and other complicating factors.  He said staff had discussed those standards with contractors and the Kansas Department of Transportation and in order to implement those standards, contractor would need to make a big step in plant production capacities.  He said municipalities did not have the quantity of asphalt needed for a highway project.       

Commissioner Schauner asked how close the City was in terms of quantity to get to that step. 

Soules said the City was quite far from that point. 

Mayor Amyx called for public comment.

Graham Kreicker, Lawrence, and a homeowner on Williamsburg Place, said he wanted to complement Soules on the excellent cooperation Soules had given to their property owners association.  He said although the City was concentrating on asphalt, Soules told them early on they could expect a higher quality, concrete mix, eliminating river rock, for a much better performance of their curbs than the curbs that were failing at the present time after only 14 years.

He said he hoped the City Commission would give serious consideration in favor of approval to this project.  He also wanted to complement the City Commission for their efforts in streamlining the City’s zoning and planning requirements.         

It was moved by Hack, seconded by Schauner, to close the public hearing.  Motion carried unanimously.                                               

Moved by Hack, seconded by Schauner, to adopt Resolution No. 6710, ordering the construction of public improvements of street, curb and gutter repair, and maintenance work, including sealing cracks and mill and overlay work, for Williamsburg Court and Williamsburg Place and other necessary and appropriate improvements.  Motion carried unanimously.      (20)

Conduct public hearing on the following landmark designations:  

 

a)         L-10-02-2006: Public hearing for consideration of placing the structure located at 925 Vermont Street on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places.  

b)         L-11-03-2006: Public hearing for consideration of placing the structure located at 621 Connecticut Street on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places.

c)        L-12-04-2006: Public hearing for consideration of placing the structure located at 1646 Massachusetts Street on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places.  

 

Mayor Amyx called a public hearing to discuss the consideration of three landmark designations to the Lawrence Register of Historic Places. 

Lynn Zollner, Historic Resources Administrator, presented the staff report.  She said she was going to present three landmark nominations for Plymouth Congregational Church, the Auto Fisher House and the Edward House. 

The first property was Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 925 Vermont, which qualified for designation of a landmark under criteria 145N6.  The property had recently been listed in the register of Kansas Historic Places.  The property was designed by John Haskell who was a famous state architect for the State of Kansas and was built in 1870.  The Historic Resources Commission held a public hearing on this property and approved the nomination unanimously and approved an associated environs definition.  She said the large area was the 500 foot boundary for the Register of Kansas nomination and was the 500 foot environs definition.  The smaller area was the 250 foot environs area associated with the Lawrence Register nomination. 

The next property was the Otto Fisher House, located at 621 Connecticut Street and that property qualified for designation under criteria 3 and 4.  The property was being nominated for its association with Otto Fisher and also with its architectural significance as part of a smaller type common house that was very prevalent in Lawrence during that time period, built sometime between 1885 and 1889.  The Historic Resources Commission held a public hearing and voted unanimously to nominate the property to the Lawrence Register and also did an associated environs definition. 

The last property was located at 646 Massachusetts Street, which was the Edwards House House and it had been recently listed on the Register of Kansas Historic Places and qualified for designation of a Lawrence Landmark under criteria 486.  She said this property was being nominated solely for its architectural significance as an example of a Queen Anne style house in Lawrence.  The Historic Resources Commission voted unanimously to nominate the property to the Lawrence Register and the associated environs. 

Mayor Amyx opened the public hearing.

Dennis Brown, President, Lawrence Preservation Alliance, said the LPA strongly supported the nominations of all three properties to the Lawrence Register.  He said they noted the Plymouth Congregational Church and the Edward House House were already on the state register and in a sense, catching up on a local level. 

He said Zollner did a great job explaining the great qualities of each of the three structures, but he wanted to add a few things.  He said as far as Plymouth Congregational Church, the LPA Board would like to congratulate and thank a previous LPA president, Betty Alderson, who did a great job writing and researching the nomination for that structure.  People who were not familiar with preservation activities might not be aware the act of researching and writing a nomination was very labor intensive, particularly for a volunteer.

He said as far as the Edward House structure, it was a striking Queen Anne, that was on a very visible corner, 17th and Massachusetts Street.  He said that structure had a very high degree of structural detailing that had been extremely well preserved over the years by a succession of owners.  He said one of thing in the extensive nomination that interested him was the nomination not only included the house, but a detached garage, a cistern and a root cellar, which really showed the owners of that property, over the years, had really taken care and kept that structure in the condition it was originally and thought it was very commendable.

He said as far as the Otto Fisher House, modern people from Lawrence might actually know more about his daughter, Freda Fisher Roe, who wrote wonderful newspaper articles for the Lawrence Journal World about Lawrence history and really focused on the early built environment and how structures, many structures that no longer existed, were used by early citizens and later on those columns were compiled into a book, Wonderful Old Lawrence.

He said this particular structure was part of a great little hidden block on the west side of the block, the east side was commercial and the commercial properties were very good neighbors to the single family residents across the street.  He said it was a perimeter street of East Lawrence and for that reason LPA felt like it was vulnerable.  They felt the East Lawrence Neighborhood, in terms of its single family housing stock, were currently vulnerable and they were working with East Lawrence leaders to identify other important architectural resources within that neighborhood for inclusion in historic registers over the next year or two.  The owners of this particular house came to their Preservation Alliance and were first on the list and thought it was a great nomination, but also felt there were others to follow and they would pursue it. 

Bill Barnes, Lawrence, said he owned 628 and 630 Rhode Island and built those structures brand new.  He said the Fisher House was run down and needed a lot of work.  He asked who paid to bring that structure up to a condition where it was maintained properly and did not look trashy.  He asked the City Commission to drive by that structure to look at the condition. 

K.T. Walsh, East Lawrence Neighborhood Association Historic Preservation Sub Committee, said the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association and sub committee completely supported all those nominations, especially 621 Connecticut.  She said as Brown stated, that was a block that was threatened by downtown development and right on the edge of an existing historic district. 

She said in reply to Barne’s question about 621 Connecticut, like so many in East Lawrence, they did not have disposable income to hire a carpenter or call a plumber and there was no money available from the City to help.  She said it would be nice if there was more money, but there was not.

Mayor Amyx said in response to Barne’s question, it was the responsibility of the property owner and the City of Lawrence that properties did not get into those types of conditions. 

Christie Brandt, owner of the property on 621 Connecticut, said she owned the house with her husband since 1973 and completed large project on the house every year since they owned that structure.  She said it did not have peeling paint, the roof was almost re-roofed, they rebuilt the porch three times, and tried to keep the house in the tone that it was built.   She said they had maintained the structure the best they could as low income artists and hoped they never had to give it up because that was their home, they loved the neighborhood, and tried to do their part as good neighbors.  She said they were hoping they would be nominated for the Historic Register and when they were, they were going to apply to the state register.

Moved by Schauner, seconded by            Rundle, to close the public hearing.  Motion carried unanimously. 

Commissioner Highberger said he supported all the nominations and thought that Brandt and Walsh’s comments supported the need to proceed with looking at other Neighborhood Revitalization Act districts as soon as they could give a property owner, like the owner of the Fisher House, a means to finance improvements, without having to bear an additional tax burden.  

Moved by Highberger, seconded by Rundle, to direct staff to prepare the appropriate ordinances for landmark designation for 925 Vermont Street; 621 Connecticut; and 1646 Massachusetts.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                   (21)   

Receive Commission direction on proposed submission to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) concerning possible safety project for Iowa street (left turn lane) near Stratford and University Drive. 

 

Chuck Soules, Public Works Director, presented the staff report.  The history of the project was the following:

3/31/06

Federal-Aid Safety projects submitted to KDOT

10/2/06

Traffic Safety Commission (TSC) considered/recommended the establishment of a no-left turn on Iowa at Orchard Lane, Oxford Road, Stratford Road and University Drive.

10/17/06

TSC recommendation presented to the City Commission.  City Commission sent item back to the TSC to hold a public hearing.

11/6/06

TSC reconsidered the left-turn restriction on Iowa and recommended a restriction between certain hours.

1/4/07

Received KDOT approval for three projects meeting the program requirements (city to select one)

         Construct left-turn lane on 9th at Avalon

         Construct roundabout at 19th and Naismith

         Construct roundabout on McDonald Drive and direct southbound traffic under 6th Street to merge into southbound Iowa.

1/9/07

City Commission received TSC second recommendation.  City Commission did not approve the recommendation and asked staff to look at options for providing a left-turn lane.

2/27/07

Met with KDOT to discuss center turn lane on Iowa.

3/15/07

Held public meeting to discuss center turn lane on Iowa from Harvard Road to University Drive.

 

He said overall, he thought the majority of people thought the left turn lane was a good idea.  He said there were some concerns with additional traffic on Stratford, University and Oxford and concerns about cut through traffic. 

He said he received an e-mail from a person that would like to see the project extended to include Terrace Road, but the problem was on the west side, it fell off sharply and on the east side the turn lane needed to be extended or widen the road where there was a large hill. 

He said the project included widening Iowa approximately 8 feet, along with curb and gutter replacement.  The lane width would be 11 feet wide and it has not been determined whether the widening would be on both sides, four feet on each side because widening on one side would be less expensive.  He said more right-of-way existed on the west side.  The preliminary estimated cost was 1.2 million and if KDOT approved the project, KDOT might provide up to half of the project cost.    

Mayor Amyx asked if the City Commission proceeded with this project and sent the project to KDOT for approval, what year would the project be considered.

Soules said late 2008 into 2009.

Commissioner Highberger said this project had a lot of similarities of what was done on 6th Street between Maine and Tennessee.  He asked if they had any data on traffic speeds or changes on traffic counts on the side streets from that project. 

Soules said he had the anecdotal evidence, but not the physical evidence.

Commissioner Highberger said everything he heard said the neighbors were satisfied and had not seen a dramatic increase in cuts through traffic.

Soules said he had not had any negative comment.

Commissioner Highberger said he would be interested to see what those11 foot lanes did to traffic speeds in that area.  He asked if there was a way to go to 10.5 foot lanes on Iowa.

Soules said staff could take a look at that idea. 

Commissioner Schauner asked if staff had any information about the destination of left turning vehicles on that stretch of road.

Soules said there was not any type of destination study, but they did have left turn movements and the traffic volumes for those areas. 

Commissioner Schauner said Commissioner Highberger’s question made him ask because the 6th Street left turn lane did not provide a left turn opportunity to go to as an attractive location, in terms of volume of traffic, as KU did and he did not think those were apples to apples comparison on 6th Street and Iowa.  He said destination information was the piece of information that would be helpful about the left turning improvements. 

Soules said the project included placing sidewalks on the east side and replacing the sidewalks on the west side if widening the west side.  He said staff needed Commission direction because staff needed to respond back to KDOT this week. 

Commissioner Schauner asked what other costs factors were there other than striping and sidewalk work.

Soules said curb and gutter and whatever base that could be squeeze in because as it narrowed, it was harder to do something with that base.  Also, re-striping might be significant depending on the condition of the road and if KDOT participated it might be time for mill and overlay.  

Commissioner Schauner said the reason he asked about the cost factors, was because   this project was estimated to be about $700,000.

Soules said that was the amount KDOT provided for the other projects.

Commissioner Schauner said not much money would be spent building the left turn lane.

Soules said building that left turn lane might be a little more.  He said the estimate he gave was compared to that center turn lane on west 6th from Hy-Vee to Folks Road. 

Mayor Amyx said this project could be upwards to one million dollars, depending on how much room was needed and how much work had to be done. 

Bill Mitchell, Lawrence, said his letter pointed that KDOT would be a good source of free money, but a bad source of local traffic plans.  He said he witnessed the three failed plans and other plans in the past.  Also, City engineers should not be so seduced by free money that local traffic issues were forgotten and finally, the long term solution required facing up to the root problem which was vehicular traffic cutting through a neighborhood to and from KU because of the long ignored constriction east of the grand new gateway to KU which the City and KU should cooperate on opening up.  He said if the City failed to relieve the bottleneck, then Lawrence would be laughingly famous not only for its bridge to no where, but for the Malott Gateway to congestion. 

He said paying lip service to neighborhoods did nothing to protect those neighbors and dreaming about new urbanism and walk able neighborhoods south of the Wakarusa and ignoring old urbanism, walk able neighborhoods in the heart of the City was pretty foolish.  He said this neighborhood west of the campus was of enormous value to the City and to KU as a stable, peaceful, residential neighborhood to the value of campus and did not provide speedway access to the school. 

He said Commissioners had lamented the poor planning that brought down one City Manager, inadequate sewers, substandard roads etc.  He said the Commission now had an opportunity to cease lamentation and do planning ahead and stop reacting on short notice and thought two weeks for thoughtful consideration of a million dollar project was questionable and get out of the old mold of short sighted solutions with long term repercussions to build a band-aid turn lane now would reduce any incentive, if the Commission could drum up any incentive, to get KU to help solve the problem.  If the allure of free money was irresistible, he suggested widening 15th Street and Naismith.  He said the comparison to 6th Street was an apples to oranges comparison because 6th Street was not two blocks from KU. 

Bill Skepnek, Lawrence, said he wrote a letter to the City Commission about his concerns to this issue.  He said the first time he talked about this street he was about 35 years old and had little kids and was more excited about the problem than he was at the age of 54.  He said even though they did not have any small children anymore, they should be just as concerned.

He said he heard Soules suggest the majority of people favor a turning lane and he did not know if that was true or not.  He said the only way they would know if the majority of people favored on way or another was to have a vote.  He said it might be the majority of people Soules talked to, favored a turning lane.  He said the majority of people he talked to, did not. 

He said the unsolved problem of the cut through traffic through the university that he witnessed for two decades now and others in the neighborhood longer, that this problem was now pitting neighborhoods against each other and people within neighborhoods against each other.  He said he appreciated the safety issue and had his heart in his throat turning left onto University Drive with someone speeding up getting ready to change lanes and the car behind him might not react quickly enough and plow into the back of him.  He said there were a lot of traffic accidents at that location and everyone knew it was dangerous. 

He said he went to the meeting at Hillcrest and some people west of Iowa were in favor of a turn lane, south bound, on Iowa going east.  He asked why people on the west side of Iowa have any interest in a turn lane to help people who were going south bound turn east.  He said it was not counterintuitive, but not when traveling Iowa certain times of the day and in the evening traffic backed all the way up from 15th to University Drive and beyond University Drive.  He said he had turned on Stratford to get home because it was backed up to Stratford.  He said what the people on the west side were worried about was as traffic was south bound on Iowa, it backed so far up that people who were impatient and did not want to wait to get down to 15th Street to go west were cutting through their neighborhoods, on the west side of Iowa, to avoid the snarl at the bottom of the hill.  He said it did make sense from their perspective if they could get a few cars turning left earlier to go through campus or to get to campus through their neighborhood, that might reduce the snarl at the bottom of the hill and make a fewer cars go west.  He said that made sense, but was not fair or the right thing to do. 

He said he had been involved in traffic issues in their neighborhood for 20 years and the first time he got involved, the idea from City staff was they would turn University and Stratford into one way streets and he thanked the lord they got that beat. He said a few years ago when St. Lawrence Center was intensifying the development of its campus, which was a nice part of their neighborhood, a number of people in the neighborhood were concerned because of the increase in parking and increase in use of the St. Lawrence Center would increase traffic in their neighborhood. He said they were involved then and remembered meeting with staff at the time and meeting with various people that understood there was a problem with the east/west corridor into KU and understood there was a problem with the north/south corridor through KU and the neighborhood would deal with it, but it had not happened and was not going to happen.  He said when trying to solve the problem with something like a center turning lane, they created bad habits and made them permanent and part of infrastructure which was bad planning.

He urged the Commission to take a serious look and figure out how to deal with this issue with the City and KU staff.  He said he had no objection to having a turn lane on Iowa.  If the turn lane was truly a safety element that enabled people to make a protected turn, but that was not what it was.  He said it was something that enabled people to escape the morass of 15th and Iowa. 

He urged the Commission to resist the allure of free money and a quick fix and look more deeply and finally force KU to be a good neighbor with the City of Lawrence which was an important part of this issue. 

Eric Barton, Co-President of the West Hills Homes Association, said the West Hills Home Association had about 87 single family homes running from the north side of the University, all of Stratford, from West Campus Road to Sunset, which was the eastern edge of Water Tower Park and some of Sunset, Avalon, West Hills Parkway, Oxford, Cambridge was the boundaries of their association as well as Greek Houses. 

He said he would take issue with representation that the majority of people favor a left turn lane.  He said the association had not taken a formal, comprehensive or scientific survey of their membership, but had solicited comment and reported the comment he had received, some of which was copied to Soules, had been unanimously against the left turn lane.  He said the primary concern was the increased cut through traffic to the University. 

He said when he moved into the neighborhood 2 ½ years ago, someone told him that if he thought it was a good idea to turn left onto Stratford.  He said that was not a good idea because it was dangerous and he should find another way.  He said some of the left turn traffic right now onto University onto Stratford was actually discouraged by the existing traffic conditions because people who know it was dangerous would not do it.  He said a left turn lane was constructed, left turn traffic would be encouraged traffic onto those roads.  There might be a safety benefit from that left turn lane because the risk of rear end accidents were reduced, but he said they were trading one safety risk for another and were alleviating the risk of rear end auto to auto accidents on Iowa and creating a real risk of auto to human or auto to children risks on Stratford and University.  He said there were a lot of children in the neighborhood and young kids and college kids who were not very good walkers.   He said there would be a lot more cut through traffic because it would be easier to do. 

The one idea that made sense was to widen Iowa as would be done with the left turn lane, but instead of a center left turn lane, create a barrier in the middle of Iowa that prevented left turns onto Oxford, Stratford and University and also prevent left turns from those streets onto Iowa.  He said some people would not like it, but it would alleviate traffic congestion and safety risks caused by left turns and obviously no increased cut through traffic with the left turn lane.  He said all of those ideas were worthy of consideration, but the left turn lane was not the best solution for the real safety risk that existed.  He said he applauded the City Commission and Soules for looking at the issue of safety on Iowa and thought it was a legitimate issue.  Again, he said he did not think the left turn lane was the best solution.

Bill Barnes, Lawrence, said he felt like the City had no choice but to widen that street and that street should have been widened 40 years ago to have that turn lane.  He said that widened street was needed, but what was needed most was a bypass around the City 20 years ago and would relieve a lot of the traffic in that area. 

He said between 4:00 and 6:00, there was a chance every night there was going to be a wreck at that location.  He said the people creating that situation were the people who lived on those streets turning in.  He said he felt the City did not have any choice but to take advantage of that money to take care of that concern.   He said it was necessary for the people living in that area to have a place to turn in and it would relieve the traffic a great deal. 

Tony Walton, University Drive, said this was an issue that needed to be addressed.  He said the safety factors on Iowa were very clear.  He said he lived in West Hills Neighborhood and there were four ways to get from Iowa Street to his house.  He said he could go up 15th Street and go through University, turn on University or Stratford and go around through Emery Road and so forth.  He said he could turn and come back on Harvard and come into Sunset Street which was a mess in itself.  He said none of those ways were very satisfactory.  He said the 15th Street access dropped off at the bottom of the hill at Naismith and 15th and through Jayhawk Bookstore and that corner was a mess.  He said University Drive and Stratford were both dangerous for left hand turn or being T-boned.  He said they did not want to have the increased traffic when kids were going to school and anything that restricted left hand turns off of Iowa would force additional traffic past Hillcrest School which was undesirable and was easy to hit kids around Hillcrest School. 

He said he was generally in favor of having better left hand turns off of Iowa Street.  He said he agreed with Skepnek and Mitchell there needed to be a broader process that solved a number of problems rather than doing it as a piecemeal fashion.  He said doing something was fairly imperative and getting the University involved was desirable.  He said the current access to that area off of Iowa was nowhere near any good and needed to be worked on.

Ray Davis, Lawrence, said he and his wife lived on the corner of West Hills Parkway and Stratford Road.  He said two relevant points were if approaching Iowa from either Stratford or University going west, the problem of that intersection was only partially an issue of a turn out.  If approaching Iowa going from the east, there were problems with people turning at that location and also with people entering onto Iowa.  He said the students who were a little more unfamiliar with the traffic pattern would come up to Iowa and sit there for a significant period of time and take significant risks to try to get on Iowa to go north or south. 

He said the second point, the kids in the neighborhood were an issue.  He said that afternoon around 4:15 or 4:30 he was on Stratford Road going east and the phenomenon in their neighborhood was the students did not use the sidewalks and walk down the middle of the street.  He said when he approached, those students totally disregarded his presence so he slowed down to a stop for them to walk by, then he proceeded.  He said hopefully, that kind of behavior would change, but that phenomenon had always been there for almost 30 years they had been in the neighborhood.

He said the last point was on the destination issue.  If spending a little bit of time on the corner of West Campus Road and Stratford when the choice for someone who came to that intersection was to turn south on West Campus Road down to the stop sign or to the University or Chi Omega Fountain or turn left and go down by the football stadium and egress, he would say those choices were almost equal.  He said people came down University and Stratford to avoid having to go down to 9th Street, turn right on 9th and take 35 more seconds to get where ever they needed to go.  He said if paying a bit of attention to the behavior of that intersection, a good number of people were cutting through the neighborhood to get to the University, but a good number were cutting through to go downtown. 

Faye Watson, Crescent Road resident, said this issue had been discussed many times and hoped they were possibly getting to a consensus of what might occur and what might be best.  She said she disagreed that they were pitting neighbor against neighbor and neighborhood against neighborhood on this issue.  She said this was an issue that had to be addressed and could not put it off any longer.  The continuity of having a center protected turn lane on Iowa to continue from Hillcrest to 15th Street was vital.  She said they could not have a street with a turn lane and then hit an intersection and there was none then all of the sudden a turn lane popped up again.  She said the protected left turn from 15th and Iowa was not adequate so they back up the hill.  If there was a left turn all the way down, it would relieve some of that congestion. 

She said they were talking more about safety rather than how it impacted the neighborhoods.  The University was there when the homes were built and was not near as large as it was today and did not have 2,300 kids crossing from the dormitories and walking and driving.  She said a lot of those things had occurred and they were stuck in that neighborhood.  She said they had nowhere else to turn to besides to the City Commission to help them.  She said she could not get to her house from 4:00 pm to 5:45 pm.  She said she tried going through 19th and 21st and go around town, come up 9th Street and back down Iowa to get to her house.  She said a left turn lane would really help. 

She said regarding people not wanting a turn lane was an issue to the neighborhood.  She said their Neighborhood Association attended the Traffic Safety Commission and got their reaction, came back to the City Commission on January 9th and had the KDOT meeting on March 15th.  She said they have discussed this issue many times and understood where Skepnek and Mitchell were coming from, but they had to look at what they had to do with Iowa Street.  She said people were going to cut through, but maybe be a little safer in doing so. 

She said they had their neighborhood association of about 80 residences in the University Heights Neighborhood Association.  She said they had 55 people who voted unanimously to see if they could get something done on the turn lane for Iowa.  She said she did not know Skepnek was still so adamant about not having that turn lane.  She said she remembered 20 years ago when he appeared before the City Commission and said the neighborhood did not want the turn lane, but the majority of their neighborhood did not know about it.  She said they needed to get the traffic safety issue done and then decide what to do. 

She said they had so many problems with KU and could not solve it.  She said 20 years ago 15th and Engel was the most dangerous intersection in town and it was still sitting there with no light or stop.  She said those who get across come down Engel and Crescent Road and all around.  She said she would like to move forward and knew it took a long time, but she said she was amazed that they could not get anything done until the summer of 2009 or 2010.  She thought there had to be a capital improvement program that could solve part of the problem.  Something needed to be done to move the traffic that came down 23rd and out from Highway 59 and continued on through.  

Siyuan Han, resident on Stratford, said obviously there were two different types of opinions.  He said one of the previous speakers commented this issue was pitting neighborhood against neighborhood, but the previous speaker did not agree, but it was a fact.  He said he was against the left turn lane onto Iowa.  There were several problems elaborated about that left turn.  The first problem was that it might reduce accidents on Iowa, but increase accidents on Stratford, which was even more dangerous.  He said even at this time in the section of their street was also used as a parking lot for KU students because it allowed curb side parking.  He said it created a problem because it blocked the view backing up from their driveways onto Stratford and was very difficult to see traffic in either direction.  He encouraged City staff to do more investigation of the feasibility study to see how much traffic would be headed into Stratford.  He said last week on Stratford there was not much traffic because students were gone but starting Monday the traffic increased several fold because the students were driving and the City cops rarely monitor their streets to enforce the speed limits.  He said rarely they stop at a stop sign and created a large hassle to the residents on Stratford. 

He said secondly this problem had to be solved by solving the root cause of the problem because 15th Street east of Iowa was too narrow.  He said it had to be widened in order to solve this problem and the University should determine they had the responsibility to do that.  He said if the University did not take responsibility, the City should not give the University a break to shift the burden to the neighbors when the University did nothing to address their own problem.  He urged City staff to do traffic counts when school was open, during winter and summer breaks so he could see some hard data and concrete fact.  He said he understood there was a safety issue involved, but it was not the right solution to shift the safety issue from one place to another without solving the root cause of the problem.

Judy Bower, resident on University Drive, said she agreed with the comments made by Mitchell and Skepnek.  She said she was a member of University Heights Neighborhood Association because she lived right beside the secret sidewalk that divided them from the West Hills Neighborhood Association.  She said she supported those comments because they needed a strategic plan for traffic in this area and was a much larger issue than just putting a turn lane in Iowa.  She said that area was very dangerous and she never made the left hand turn, but turned at Harvard or 15th.  She said it needed to be addressed and did not think a turn lane was a solution. 

She said her house was right in front of the stop sign at Engel and University and 50% of the people ran that stop sign.  She said not only did they have young people in the neighborhood, but also had older residents that cut through the secret sidewalk and traverse the roads in their neighborhood. 

Betty Lichtwardt, resident on Terrace Road, said she would like to make a different comment on the need for traffic studies.  She said the City Commission was probably tired of being asked to make more studies, but this situation seemed to be a city wide problem.  This was the major route through the center of the City and was going to become an even greater intensive traffic area when Highway 59 was widened.  She said lacking an eastern bypass, which this City had needed for years and year; it had become a major route from the turnpike to other parts including Highway 59.  She suggested the left turn lane might become a major liability because of the expected increase in traffic unless the City did something to alleviate the general traffic which was coming from outside the City and utilizing Iowa Street as a thoroughfare.  She said they were dealing with local traffic with the left turn lane, but the traffic safety issue was primarily due to the fact that Iowa Street was a route for heavy general traffic and desperately needed a truck route that did not go down the center of the City the way it did with Iowa Street.  She said if the left turn lane filled up so that traffic spilled out beyond that left turn lane and had some trucks come into that area, the left turn lane would not help especially if the traffic increased to a point with the widening Highway 59.  She said she was not talking against or for the left turn lane, but suggesting an eastern bypass was needed to alleviate the traffic on Iowa. 

Mayor Amyx said when looking at that state highway that would continue to get busier and divided those two neighborhoods, he asked Soules if it was smart to add a left turn lane on that stretch of roadway that took on residential and highway traffic and what would Soules recommend to put into place to make that work.

Soules said he understood those concerns and had seen traffic on 15th Street backed up.  He said Corliss mentioned discussing a dual left turn lane.  He said he did not know how much right-of-way there was on 15th Street leading to campus, but it was mentioned, at one point, making improvements at 15th and Emery.  He said that project never went anywhere and staff was aware that intersection was an option.  He said in looking at traffic and turning movement volumes in those neighborhoods, it was not untypical of a residential street.  He said staff needed to take another look at that area.

He said this project was previously approved by KDOT as a way to improve the safety issue and alleviate accidents on their highways.  He said the neighborhood issues were real. 

Mayor Amyx said assuming the protected left hand turn lane would take care of those accidents on Iowa Street, what steps needed to be taken for the neighborhoods on the east side of the roadway and the University to take care of those problems.

Soules said it would be would be beneficial to have a revision of what they had for residential and a traffic analysis of the entire area.

Corliss said one thing that would be valuable would be strong consensus from the Commission and neighborhood to the appropriate traffic level in the neighborhood and the City Commission’s ultimate decision about what was an acceptable level of traffic.  He said every neighborhood had some level of cut-through traffic. 

Soules said the level of traffic was not determined at this point.  He said one neighborhood had 80 homes which was an average of 800 trips a day.  He said the volume that was seen was not untypical of what was seen.  He said there were numerous streets that had cut through issues.  He said staff would need to be available to stop traffic and write down plate numbers in order to determine if that traffic went through or stopped in the neighborhood.  

Commissioner Schauner said if taking a broader look at this issue, he asked if it included looking at the bracketing intersections of 9th and Iowa south to 15th and Iowa recognizing both had significant difficulties in their current structure.  He said the work that had been done at 31st and Iowa and 6th and Wakarusa with respect to double lefts which moved a significantly larger volume of traffic in a safer way would be things to consider for both of those intersections.  He said roughly three years ago there was a capital improvement project to make significant improvements to 15th and Iowa, but as he recalled, that never made it on any final list of approved projects, in part because of the neighbors who lived on the north east corner of that intersection expressed the impact it would have on their backyards.

Soules said the improvements at 31st and Iowa and 6th and Wakarusa were commercial areas and had huge right-of-way issues.  He said because they were commercial areas, they were more willing but we’re still paying for the right-of-way.  He said at 15th and Iowa they had the huge hill and would be significant. 

Commissioner Schauner said the comment about increasing traffic on the widened 59 Highway to the south, made it more likely, despite KDOT’s caution to the contrary, thee would be significantly more traffic on 59 Highway moving north to south or vice versa.  He said taking a broader look at those bracket intersections and turning movements between them would make, from a policy sense, a better long term solution than some stop gap measure in the middle.  He said the intersection west of Schwartz on 6th Street, he suspected there were some of the same concerns about traffic cutting through their neighborhood and the solution at that intersection was to block vehicular traffic at that location.  He said they might not want to do that with this state highway at that particular location. 

Vice Mayor Hack asked how long it had been since that corridor had been looked at.

Soules said a study was conducted in 1993.

Vice Mayor Hack asked if 9th to 15th Street, were the boundaries of the corridor study.

Corliss said there were some improvements to 15th Street in the mid to late 1990’s where the intersection of 15th and Engel had been a struggle for vehicular and pedestrian safety.  He said he was sure there were studies conducted at that location, but he did not know about the comprehensiveness.

Soules said the study went from 9th to 15th and Iowa to West Campus Road. 

Vice Mayor Hack said it might be time to update those traffic numbers. 

Commissioner Highberger said in looking at the map, the main crash problem was not on the driveways entering onto Iowa, but further down by the intersections. 

Soules said it was more at those intersections.

Commissioner Highberger asked if most of those traffic accidents were rear ends.

Soules said yes.

Commissioner Rundle said in every transportation discussion, they always focused on some problems that were unforeseen, not planned, or sometimes ignored things that were coming.  In this case, the entire area needed to be looked at rather than solve one little piece of that area and let the rest go.  He said 15th Street was addressed, but always stated once off of Iowa it was the University’s problem.  He said the City and University needed to cooperate in addressing that issue and figure out how to make that happen.  He said with people speeding through Stratford and University Drive, the City could construct speed humps, rather than thinking it was up to the neighborhoods to pay those costs.    

Vice Mayor Hack said she agreed this project was one small piece of a much larger corridor.  The last thing the Commission would want to do was solve a problem by creating something that was larger. She said they were dealing with not only a state highway, which was largely KDOT influenced, but they were also dealing with a neighborhood that was not designed to handle 25,000 students coming through with his or her own car. 

She agreed with Commissioner Rundle, the City needed to partner with KU with this mutual problem for safety of the state highway and neighborhoods.  She said the traffic counts needed to be updated and move forward on a corridor plan rather than a stop gap measure. 

Commissioner Schauner said Mitchell made a comment that if the turning lane was constructed, it might be a disincentive in making the kind of changes needed on the bracket ends of that stretch of road.  He said a couple years ago the speed limit was raised on Iowa and the result was faster traffic.  He said he appreciated making a left turn southbound off of Iowa was a fairly risky proposition, but the thing they had not spent a lot of time talking about was the risk of coming westbound off of University and Stratford Streets.  He said cutting into that traffic to go south was very difficult and young drivers were more willing to take that risk and were not helping that issue by putting the turning lane in. 

He said he supported updating the study and could not see spending anyone’s money for a project that would not serve as an improvement in the entire area.  He said he hoped they moved with great speed to update the study of that stretch and perhaps the hard decision was how to make 9th and 15th Streets a more user friendly intersection and neighborhood. 

Commissioner Highberger said this City Commission has wrestled with this decision for over a year or more and the neighborhood had wrestled with this issue for at least 20 years.  He said he would like to have more information before making a decision and was not sure if there was hard data.  He said a left turn lane would ultimately be part of the solution in concert with other solutions, but he was not confident to rely on that now.

He said he was somewhat skeptical widening 15th Street into campus would have a major difference, but could have some affect on the intersection, but not on the accident rates on that stretch of the road. 

He said he had concern about people getting in and out of driveways on this road and the City Commission needed to address that issue even though the accident rates did not seem high.

He said the other solution proposed was a median on this stretch, but they basically rejected the idea because of what it would do on Hillcrest and people trying to get in and out of their neighborhoods.  He said he did not see the clear answer and hopefully the City Commission could receive some traffic data to lead the City Commission in making a wise decision at some point in the future. 

Mayor Amyx said the City Commission had two responsibilities.  The first responsibility was for the safety to the public on Iowa Street.  He said there was data that indicated a number of rear end accidents on the Iowa Street corridor.  He said if a protected left turn lane was not constructed the number of accidents would continue to go up.

He said the second responsibility was to the neighborhoods on the west and east sides of the streets.  He said the Commission needed to ask staff to come up with valid data and to work with the University to come up with a good way to address concerns of the neighborhood. 

He said he planned on supporting submission of the project application and hoped to work with haste in finding the levels of service that was acceptable to the neighborhood and build models around that neighborhood’s expectation.

Commissioner Rundle said he would only support this issue if they were making a commitment with that lead time of a couple of years to be doing that work in earnest to figure out what needed to happen at 15th and Engel Road.  He said he would rather get the whole area mapped out and figure out where speed bumps were needed on Stratford and other areas and then go after the resources needed.

Mayor Amyx said he thought that was a great idea but the lead time gave them more than enough time to come up with a comprehensive look at those roadways.  He said after performing all of those studies, if they did not make the application at this time, he doubted the City would get another opportunity to ask KDOT to help with funding, if it was recommended the left turn lane be constructed.

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to not authorize the submission to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) for a safety project for Iowa Street (left turn lane) near Stratford and University Drive and direct staff to update the 1993 Iowa Street study (from 9th to 15th Street) and bring back the updated study information as soon as practical.  Aye:  Hack, Highberger, Rundle, and Schauner.  Nay:  Amyx.  Motion carried. 

 

 

Receive request from Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods concerning rental registration ordinance.

 

Mayor Amyx noted he was a landlord but would be participating in the discussion on this item. 

Vice Mayor Hack said she was also a landlord and would also participate in the discussion.  

Candice Davis, Vice President of the ONA (Oread Neighborhood Association), and a LAN (Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods) Representative, said she was also a landlord and could sympathize to some extent, but supported the idea of the expansion of the rental registration program.   

She said the goal of rental registration was to raise the maintenance standards of rental property thus improving the safety and living conditions.  Rental registration would have a positive impact on an entire neighborhood and help prevent property deterioration and ultimately the demolition of some the City’s beautiful older homes.  She said rental registration would involve landlords paying a one time fee every year for each unit the landlord rented.

She said the main point of rental registration was that registration already existed in the community in single-family zoned neighborhoods.  However, in multi-family zoned neighborhoods where the density was much higher, she suggested there was an increased risk of harm to tenants, that type of zoned neighborhood did not have that registration.  She said her concern was how could the community protect one part of the community, but not provide the same protection for another part of the community that had higher density.

She said Lawrence landlords were running a business and as a business those landlords should meet basic and minimum safety standards for their tenants.  A rental registration would largely support itself and pay for most of the increased staff that would be required by Neighborhood Resources.  Rental registration would provide more jobs.

She said 85 percent of tenant complaints, according to Brian Jimenez, Enforcement Manager, came from the multi-family zoned areas that presently did not have rental registration.  She said that indicated to her there was a benefit from the program because a reduced level of complaints would be seen.  She said a landlord indicated the students would live in those multi-family zoned areas could be educated, but as someone who had lived in the Oread neighborhood for ten years, it would be a frustrating effort and would be totally ineffective.  She said LAN and ONA believed that rental registration in multi-family zoned areas was a logical and reasonable request.  They believed Neighborhood Resources could formulate an effective plan that was gradually implemented over several years.               

David Corliss, City Manager, said Jimenez had done a good job outlining what a possible program might look like, comparing it to the City’s existing program and pointing out a number of policy issues and staff would be involved in crafting any type of ordinance.  It was valuable information and LAN requested that information, but he wanted to make it clear that staff had not been directed by the City Commission to draft an ordinance.  He said there was a successful ordinance on the books regarding rental registration in single-family zoned districts, but staff had not drafted an ordinance that included other property beyond that type of single-family zoning.  

Martin Moore, appearing as President of the Lawrence Apartment Association, said their association was in favor of the preservation structures and safety of their occupants along with the citizens of Lawrence.  He said they were not certain there was a safety problem or a problem with the preservation of apartments.  It seemed this was a shotgun approach to a situation they were not sure existed.  If the inspection program was expanded to include all multi-family housing, hundreds of thousands of dollars would ultimately be passed on to their tenants and was a layer of bureaucracy that might not be needed.   There would be a lot of time and money involved with the landlords and their employees participating in those inspections. 

Again, he said they were all in favor of safety and the preservation of structures, but they had not seen any evidence of a widespread problem and would be something that would penalize every apartment owner and unit in the City.     

Judy Green, property owner, landlord, property manager, said she lived in Lawrence for 35 years and currently had several properties that fell under the current rental registration program.  She said she was opposed to the current rental registration program when it was initiated for two reasons. 

First, the program was discriminatory against her as being an owner of property in a single-family neighborhood.  On one hand if she was going to be subjected to the properties of the ordinance, than everyone should be.  On the other hand it discriminated against the tenants for friends that wanted to live in her single-family neighborhood on her property and could not do so because they could not have more than three unrelated people.  She said those tenants were being discriminated against by telling them where those tenants could and could not live.

At the time when the single-family neighborhoods were discussed, people who were opposed to that rental registration felt there were plenty of ordinances and avenues already in place to address the problems the rental registration program was aimed at.  She said now there was a proposal to expand that program to include high density neighborhoods.  If the goal was in providing safe rental property, she was all for that type of safety because bad and messy rental property made all landlords look bad.  She said the tools to enforce the unsafe conditions and any other problems that arise with rental properties were already there to act upon.  The tenants had the responsibility if they felt uncomfortable because it was unsafe that there was a way to address that issue as opposed to blanketing another layer of bureaucracy.  She said the good landlords were doing what they were doing what was needed. The landlords that did not care would not do it whether there was a law telling them to do it or not.  She said the City had things in place that were enforceable to provide safe, reasonable, and affordable housing for the community.  She said she was opposed to the expansion of the program and she would like to see the restrictions that were already in place removed so they could open up the neighborhoods to the people that wanted to live in those homes.                    

Betty Alderson, Lawrence, said she knew what it was like before the City had some restrictions on occupants in single-family neighborhoods.  She said they were losing their single-family neighborhoods because four students living in a house was not a family and did not interact as a family and did not behave as a family and it created neighborhood problems, but some of those problems had been alleviated.  She said when this issue was first discussed, many people wanted to see rental registration city-wide in all rental properties, but they were advised it was better to take a small step to see how it worked. 

She said she was asked by some young people living in multi-family zoned areas to be included because of the conditions they were living in were not safe.  Those young people did not want to complain because they would be kicked out of where they lived, but they were also afraid they were living in a fire trap and to this day, that was still a concern of some students.  She said in the current ordinance, most of the violations were related to health and safety which no one wanted to have existing.  She was in favor of extending the rental registration ordinance. 

Phil Collison, President of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, but speaking on this matter as a resident of the community, said they had no position on this issue because it was so new.  He said they did have a landlord watch committee that could tell good stories about landlord tenant relations.  He said he supported the current rental registration and supported its expansion.  It would preserve housing stock and increase the tax base.  He said it was probably the few landlords that would be seriously impacted by this ordinance.  He said he read that Urbana, Illinois just passed their first rental registration law and they were the last Big 10 college town to adopt that law.  He said Lawrence was in the mainstream by having those rental registrations. 

He said speaking for himself, he would like to look at where they had been and how has the current rental registration law impacted tenants and, moving forward, he suggested figuring out a way to reward those good landlords that did not have violations and/or penalize those landlords with multiple violations within a certain timeframe.           

Gwen Klingenberg, President of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, said there were a number of single family homes, not just large multiple complexes that were in RM Districts that had been converted to rental property.  This expansion would help protect a lot of the affordable housing stock.  She said with the Neighborhood Revitalization Act being discussed that could help people buy back the single family homes that were converted and return them to single-family homes as long as they existed because we had a major problem of demolition by neglect.  There were some landlords that did not fix up their rental properties which allowed those structures to be torn down when located in an historical neighborhood.  The biggest issue was the safety and health issues for the occupants that lived in substandard rental property.  As president, she supported LAN’s recommendation.    

Marilyn Roy, Lawrence, said she also supported the expansion of this plan.  She said the community needed to address the issue of affordable housing and rental registration and expanding the rental registration plan was one good way to do it.  She said having those inspections and penalizing the landlords who violated rental registration laws would help bring up the standards for rental properties in this community.  She urged the City Commission to consider the expansion seriously.

Tom Harper, Lawrence, said he and his wife owned a rental property in the Oread neighborhood that would be impacted by this new rental registration, but he supported that program.  He said this debate happened several years ago when the City Commission decided rental registration was a good idea for single-family zoned areas.  He said he did not think there had been any huge problems with that registration process and the Enforcement Manager would be able to speak to the success of that program.  He applauded Neighborhood Resources and the City for taking the risk to do the right thing, now taking the risk for multi-family zoned areas.  He said this was too big of a net to cast all at once and trusted the City to cast that net gradually. 

He said when driving through the Oread area it was not hard to see some properties that were dangerous.  He said there was a lot of good stuff happening in that area, but there were also people who owned property in that area that were simply being neglectful.  He said there were two categories of landlords, absentee landlords who were doing a lot of damage because they were not present and relied on their tenants or property management company that did not step up to the plate to take care of business. 

The other category was landlords that just did not care and those landlords might be in town, but had that attitude of demolition by neglect which was less prevalent now.  He said in the 70’s and 80’s that was how all the four plexes were brought in to Oread by that attitude.

He said there were also landlords who could benefit from this program because those landlords were not aware their homes were not safe.  He said those landlords were not bad people, they just were not aware that, for instance, a GFCI by the bathroom sink was a good idea.  Also, there were people who owned property that were aware their homes needed some improvements, but needed a little push from a City inspector.  He asked if those things were a hardship and he hoped not, he hoped it was the right thing to do.  If it was a hardship, he wondered if those landlords should be in that type of business and maybe it was time to sell if those landlords could not take care of their properties and keep their tenants safe.  He said because someone would buy that property and make it right because they see that property as an investment.

He said a lot of tenants did not utilize the complaint driven system in place for a number of reasons.  He said he would hate to see something awful happen just because there was a mistake made.  He said rental registration was an easy way of ensuring safety. 

He said one issue of concern was the new City Commission and that they would need to do that dance again, but he would like to see some type of commitment from this City Commission about proceeding forward regardless of who was on the Commission next month.

Commissioner Schauner said when this matter was discussed at the LAN meeting, Harper raised a question about when code enforcement came in to do an inspection, what code would they use as the benchmark for passing or failing a property.  He asked if Harper gave any more thought to that question as a landlord or concerned citizen.

Harper said he assumed it would be the same code being used now for single-family.

Brian Jimenez, Codes Enforcement Manager, said the City currently has adopted the 1997 Uniform Housing Code, but the City could be looking at adopting the International Property Maintenance Code.

Commissioner Schauner said Harper raised the question that if a person had a property built 30 or 40 years ago, at what level could it be expected to be brought up to, in order to satisfy current code.

Corliss said those were basic life safety codes and not construction codes.  Those codes reflected the need to make sure the dwelling was safe from an electrical, heating, mechanical, egress, sanitary conditions standpoints.

Jimenez said a good example was in a lot of older homes the rise and run of a stairway or the handrail was not up to code by current standards and staff was not telling the property owners to change their staircase.  He said it was all the life safety issues such as smoke detectors, egress from windows especially in basements, electrical, mechanical and structural.  He said if staff found conditions that had prohibited locations such as furnaces and water heaters, staff noted that and it would need to be made as safe as possible and when change out occurred, it would need to be brought up to code.                 

Mayor Amyx asked if this inspection would replace any of the fire department inspections.

Jimenez said that was a good point because when getting to three levels, which a lot of those units were, certain fire codes came into place and they would definitely want to have a working relationship on those situations, for example, third floor required ladder egress attached to the building and there were fire alarm regulations in the fire code.  He said he did not want to speak for the fire department, but through normal business conversations, the fire department did some type of enforcement on those structures.  He said he could not say the fire department could guarantee they had identified everything out there.  He said he was sure there were some things that were not looked at.

He said with multi-family, specifically older homes that had been added on and broken up, it was a little bit different than single-family inspection and there could possibly be more issues to look at.

Harper said the bar that was being discussed was quite minimal and he found it a stretch to debate this issue and to state it was such a hardship that we shouldn’t go ahead and proceed.  He said it was basic safety and how could anyone argue with that.              

Brandy Sutton, Landlord and Attorney that represented landlords, said the bottom line was they needed to talk facts.  She said 85% of the complaints might be about multi-family dwellings, but we also live in a City where 55% of the City was made up of rental housing.  Only approximately 10% of that was single-family residential housing.  If it wasn’t 85% of complaints from multi-family, she would wonder why they needed to look at the registration of single-family houses.  She said they were talking about those houses not meeting basic safety standards.  Every house that was rented out had to meet basic safety standards.  If a house did not meet those basic standards, then they need to contact the Enforcement Manager.  She said the City had the authority to inspect a property they believed not to be up to code. 

As for the fear that tenants were vulnerable and were going to be exploited, the Kansas Residential Landlord Tenant Act addressed that issue back in 1972 when it was adopted.  If a person complained to a governmental authority about the lack of standards of housing and that person’s landlord took retaliatory action, that person was entitled to one and one half times the damages.  She said the next word would be “Well those people cannot afford attorneys.”  She said Kansas Student Legal Services did an excellent job of following up on landlords who were not following code.  Douglas County Legal Aid was also there to assist in that type of issue.

She said she did not think anyone was arguing that they should not have the minimum basis of safety, but the City Commission was talking about licensing 55% of the residents in the City of Lawrence which would cost money.  It would cost twenty-five dollars per unit, administrative cost to the landlord, and time cost to the landlord which the tenant would end up paying for.  She said the City was already talking about problems with affordable housing and this registration would make it more difficult and would increase that already high rent in Lawrence.  It was simply a regressive tax they were putting on people who could not afford to own their own homes and who were looking for affordable and safe housing in Lawrence.  She said the system was already in place and most people were educated and the student senate did an excellent job in informing tenants of their rights.

She said concerning the issue of demolition by neglect, this licensing was not going to stop that demolition by neglect and she did not understand why demolition by neglect was associated with licensing all the rentals in Lawrence.

She said there were major infrastructure issues in Lawrence and asked why create another system to deal with a problem, when there was already a system in place.                    

KT Walsh, Lawrence, said the City Commission might want to look at the Manhattan, Kansas ordinance.  She said Manhattan had an ordinance in place for at least 10 years that if someone called their City to report a violation and the inspector determined there was a violation, until that violation was taken care of, the tenant paid money into an escrow account and the landlord did not get rent, until the violations were taken care of.  Their ordinance proved to be a very powerful tool in Manhattan.

Commissioner Highberger said he did not know how that was legal under state law.

Walsh said she would urge someone to call Manhattan.

Bill Barnes, Lawrence, said he was a landlord and a general contractor for 30 years in Lawrence and had apartment complexes, rental houses, and one older property in North Lawrence in which that structure was completely rewired and new heating and air conditioning was added, but the issue that needed to be addressed was the mold problem.  He said North Lawrence and East Lawrence houses, as many others, had more violations, one of which was mold, which was very serious in those houses.  Those homes had electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning problems because most of those utilities were outdated and cost more money because they used more electricity and gas.  He said if the City was going to start inspecting people that owned property like this, he suggested inspecting all houses in Lawrence.  He guaranteed that there was not a house in town that was over 10 years old that could pass the codes today.  He said the City Commission would be adopting new laws, but they were not enforcing the existing laws.

James Dunn, Lawrence, said he would like to know the status of the appeal of the current ordinance before the 10th Circuit Court in Denver and would be more comfortable if an expansion of the ordinance was reviewed and considered.

Matt Hoy, attorney representing the Lawrence Apartment Association, said the Lawrence Apartment Association was an organization of over two dozen apartment owners in the community and it was a relatively large organization and an organization of apartment owners.  He said many of the comments heard dealt almost exclusively with those issues that were confronted by tenants and structures that were converted from single family homes.  They were older homes in older neighborhoods and were not constructed to current code or any code, for that matter.  He said that was a significant substantial distinction from the apartment complexes that had been built in the community over the past several years or even prior decades those apartments were built to code.  He said those complexes were built to code with safety in mind.  The Apartments Association endorsed the idea of safety and was important for apartment owners, tenants, and for the community.  He said this proposal really cast too wide of a net.  They were capturing within the solution innocent people and landlords who had not created the problem and rather than punishing all to solve the solution, it would make more sense to identify specifically what it was that needed to be addressed.  He said they needed to clarify what the problems were the tenants were experiencing, then from that point, analyze what they had currently within their tool box to enforce those violations.  He said if they were ill equipped in the tool box, then those tools needed sharpening and create those tools they needed to specifically enforce the violations that were the problem rather than casting the wide net, capturing everyone, and punishing everyone for the violations of a few.  He said that was akin to knowing 10% of the people who drove, speed, so let us assess a speeding assessment on all drivers rather than policing and punishing those people who did speed.

In conclusion, the Apartments Association was not in favor of the proposal and urged the City Commission not to endorse it. 

Judy Green said it would be a mistake to dismiss the rule of the tenant responsibility in the equation as to whether to expand the program or not.  She felt the tenants had a responsibility to report the conditions.  She said if a person looked at rental property that was not acceptable and would report that property, it diminished the amount of the substandard rental properties and those properties would be filtered out.  People would not rent those places normally so the landlords would either need to improve or get out of the business and sell to someone who wanted to make it a better property.  She thought there was a huge amount of tenant responsibility involved in providing safe and maintenance free housing that was affordable.

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to extend the meeting to 10:30.  Motion carried unanimously.

Paulette Tuig, Tuckaway Management, said she was opposed to the proposed rental registration ordinance.  She said they were a business and had responsibility and did not want to pass costs on to the tenants because Lawrence needed affordable housing. 

She said they conducted four or five inspections each year and as a large complex, it was their responsibility to keep those units to code.  She said she did not know how the City of Lawrence would tackle this proposed ordinance because there would be staffing issues that would be a nightmare.          

Commissioner Rundle asked how much of the costs would be offset by the registration fees. 

Corliss said that was a good policy question for the City Commission to provide some direction to staff on what extent did the City want to try and recover costs for the administration of the program with a fee.  He said with fees, the City could not use it as a revenue source because the fee had to roughly approximate the cost of providing the program.  The staff memo that staff drafted tried to get at that issue.   The City Commission could clearly establish a fee that would pay for the cost of a program, but that fee would probably be more substantial than what was being discussed at this time, but the cost did not necessarily need to be more when the cost could be calibrated accordingly.  He said it was premature to determine exactly what that cost would be.  The staffing levels would be, depending upon a number of policy issues, the frequency of inspection, and hopefully some way to use technology to automate the process so a lot of the paperwork could be handled that would be helpful to the landlord industry and also to City staff in processing that information and using the City’s resources to do as much as possible to be physically available in the apartment to do the inspections and try to minimize some of the administrative friction of the missed inspections or the property owner that would not let staff enter.  Again, it was premature to guess at the fee, but the City Commission could give staff direction so that it would be cost neutral, but that might have a consequence of a substantial fee.           

Mayor Amyx asked if the fee would be discussed, at budget time, because those staff positions needed to be added to implement this program.

Corliss said additional staff was definitely needed to take on a program of that size and it would be best to figure out the fee during the budget process and needed to be done during the budget process if it was not revenue neutral.  He said the City did not have additional resources to hire staff that would not be completely compensated from a fee.  

Commissioner Schauner asked if Jimenez had spoken to the people in Wyandotte County about how their program worked, whether the program had glitches, and how the program had been accepted by the business community.  

Jimenez said their program had been in tact for approximately 10 years.  He said he contracted Wyandotte County because their numbers closely paralleled Lawrence’s numbers.  He said one thing that was important to remember was that staff’s memo was not a proposal, but strictly a couple of scenarios.  He said from a professional standpoint, he personally did not think 100% inspections of multi-family should be focused on.  He said Wyandotte County did a percentage based on the number of units on one parcel of property.  For example, the larger complexes were typically the newer complexes and a took a percentage of those units and were not inspecting all of those units in a three year period.  He said the inspection process could be modeled numerous ways.

Commissioner Schauner asked what had been the administrative experience with running the Wyandotte County program and how had the program been received by those in the business of providing rental units in Wyandotte County.

Jimenez said he spoke with the program manager on five different occasions to receive background information.  He said Wyandotte’s experience was probably no different from when this City incorporated its rental housing program five years ago.  He said Wyandotte’s staffing level were probably where that staffing needed to be.  He said currently clerical wise, City staff shared one administration support person divided by four divisions and therefore, inspectors did a vast majority of their own clerical work which took away from other responsibilities.  He said Wyandotte’s program had succeeded and licensed approximately 16,500 properties by inspecting a very specific percentage of units and Wyandotte was not inspecting the large complexes as frequently as a piece of property that had four units or less. 

He said Wyandotte used different software than Lawrence and from contacting other jurisdictions about that software, that software was identified by the Matrix as potential software the City might incorporate down the road.   

Vice Mayor Hack said there had always been conversations about demolition by neglect and it hurt everyone because it ruined some of this City’s core neighborhoods and older homes which obviously had value and the history and story to hang on to as well.  She asked if they were looking at preservation of neighborhoods and hanging on to housing stock and not renting to four, five or six kids quite as profitable.  She said demolition by neglect and basic safety issues were being discussed.  She said it was very comforting to know if an apartment or unit was in good shape and if those apartments and units were not in good shape so the landlord could address those issues. 

She asked if tenant’s rights and responsibility were being addressed because that was an issue that needed to be discussed as well.  She said she wanted to make sure they did not cast too wide a net.  She said the Commission certainly was not in favor of creating unsafe places for people to live.  She said she wanted to further this conversation because she did not want to see neighborhoods fall apart and housing stock fall by the way side because those houses were being neglected and it was the landlord’s responsibility. 

She said she did not know if those apartment complexes that were five years old going through inspections continually, needed to be included.  She said she wanted to make sure the City Commission did not create a monster of bureaucracy that was not needed and could not afford.   She said she would like to have some conversation about what they were trying to solve and if there were things in place to solve this issue and if not, how could they come up with a solution. 

Commissioner Highberger said this was a fairly reasonable proposal.  He said a hard question he had a hard time answering over the last four years was since he lived in a multi-family district why his apartment was not inspected.  He said if they were going to be in the business of inspecting rental properties all rental properties should be inspected.  He said this issue was not just about students and a lot of it had to do with the poor.  He said if one was poor and trying to rent an apartment, those people did not have options that other people had.  He said he understood this proposal would not create more affordable housing.  He said housing costs would not be lowered, but he did not think affordable housing could be created by allowing substandard housing.  This basic inspection program would take care of a lot of safety and health concerns and those concerns were there because the City received complaints.  He said addressing this issue in a proactive way was better in the long term. 

He said there needed to be a conversation between all the stakeholders so they did not do inspections that were unreasonable and did not create any unintended consequences.  He said he supported the concept and thought they should move forward.

Commissioner Schauner said this was a request asking the City to consider expanding the present rental registration program to a city wide program that protected all zoned neighborhoods regardless of density.  He said if in fact they were looking at extending that program on a health, safety and welfare basis, it seemed like a difficult argument to argue against.  He said he found it interesting that Wyandotte County took a different position in newly constructed properties that because of their numbers might be inspected less than every unit used basis which might be worth some consideration such as an age and size matrix that could be used to minimize some of that issue for those newer apartment complexes. 

He said it seemed discriminatory to inspect only the properties in single family zoned neighborhoods and he did not know if that was discriminatory or not, but it seemed what was good for the single family neighborhood ought to be good for the multi family neighborhood as well and agreed to move forward on this proposal.

Commissioner Rundle said the fact this issue was still a problem would move the Commission to do something.  He said he was not sure if this proposal was exactly the right thing to do and heard from someone who he thought would be allied with people proposing this who thought there were other ways to go about this issue.  He said they heard people tonight say they thought there were tools that existed.  He said he would like to hear how they would use the tools to solve this problem or would it keep on going. 

He said everyone seemed to acknowledge there were good landlords and bad and nothing had ever been done that was effective to eliminate that mix.  He said particularly around the university those people who were the most neglectful end up getting a giant reward at the end because the University would buy their property at some outrageously high cost and something needed to be done to stop rewarding that. 

It sounded clear they did not need to have this major budgetary impact if mitigated somewhat by following the example of Wyandotte County and not inspecting every unit every year. 

He said clearly the landlord tenant act and all those protections were in place, but people fall through the cracks.  He said those situations occurred generally when it was the poorest, most vulnerable who lived in the worst conditions who risk getting put out on the street and the tools were there, but did not work in practice as well as it should in theory.  He said he would like to see the Commission move forward with something, but was not sure what that something was.

Commissioner Schauner said they were trying to “solve a problem” but they had not, with great detail, described that problem other than minimum health safety and welfare standards they were trying to raise the bar for in rentals, whether it was single family or multifamily zoned.  He said he would not want anyone listening or anyone present to believe they were going to fix that problem.  He said what they could hope to do was increase the number of rental units that were above the standard that many of them were currently in.  He said his own experience as an attorney he visited with clients on a regular basis and had a lot of legal options.  What he knew for a fact after 30 years of practice was the law could do everything, but could not do many of them very quickly.  He said if he was a tenant and had a problem with his landlord, there might be a lot of tools in the toolbox, but by the time the matter got to whatever legal processes were required, that tenant might well be out or might have the electricity or gas turned off.  He said there were a lot of things that could happen well before a court or other agency could take action to make things better for that person.  He said he thought they needed to recognize the law could do a lot of things and had a lot of tools and could make them as sharp as they wanted, but anyone who practiced law could tell them that none of those things happen as quickly as they liked. 

Mayor Amyx said no one wanted to have anyone living in substandard housing.  He said there were a couple of problems.  One problem was the older properties and converted houses in Oread and some of the older neighborhoods in town versus the new buildings.  He said before he could support one way or another, their needed to be a distinction between those two. 

He said he needed to understand the revenue neutral issue.  He said the City would need to front the money for this program and then collect the money back.

Corliss said that was a good assumption and it would depend upon how the city would phase certain things in.

Mayor Amyx said assuming they would do it under the information provided by staff the City would need to front $315,000.

Corliss said it would be phased in over time.  He said they would also have to have cost recovery and if the program would recover the fees.

Mayor Amyx suggested that between now and when they take this issue up during budget time, to ask Commissioners to get their comments to staff.

Commissioner Schauner said in looking at Jimenez’s memo, he talked about the Wyandotte County program, the fee was $18.50 per unit and $18.50 per building.  He said for a duplex they would be charged $37.00 for the two units and $18.50 for the building for a total of $55.50 if that were done per year, which was less than $5 a month.  He said if the budget to run a rental was failing on a $5 per month basis there might be something else really wrong with that operation.  He said they ought not blow this out of proportion that it was going to be a bank busting fee for either landlords or tenants even if the fee was passed on.  He said clearly more conversation was needed and detected unanimous support going through with something and the details might be varied with respect to more newly constructed multi-family. 

Commissioner Highberger said he thought it would be reasonable to phase in the inspection on newly construction at 5 or 6 years.  He said those details could be worked out later. 

Vice Mayor Hack said the Commission needed to have a discussion on what they were trying to solve and how they could go about that in the most efficient way with landlords and tenants. 

She said she would like to have some additional educational efforts in terms of tenant rights and landlord responsibilities and rights as well because she thought there was a misnomer that all the rights were on one side or another depending on the perspective they came from and it might be helpful as well.  

Commissioner Schauner said rather than waiting until the budget process started, the Commission should try to schedule a study session between now and when the budget discussions occurred. 

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to receive the request and establish this item as part of the 2008 budget study sessions.  Motion carried unanimously.

Moved by Highberger, seconded by Rundle, to extend the meeting to 11:00 p.m.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                       (23) 

Receive presentation from Maria Stockett concerning pesticide free park initiatives.

Marie Stockett, Coordinator of the Pesticide-Free Parks Project, said she wanted to start off by congratulating Parks and Rec for doing a wonderful job with maintaining the current 34 pesticide free parks in Lawrence.  She said the department no longer used category 1 and 2 pesticides which were considered the most toxic and the notification signs had drastically improved. 

She said she wanted to bring to attention that Lawrence received national attention for pesticide free park effort.  She said in a Time Magazine article that ran in July of 2005 entitled “How Green Is My Town” Lawrence, Kansas was one of five cities that were recognized.  Lawrence, Kansas was specifically recognized for the pesticide free parks effort.  She said the other four cities that were highlighted were San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Charlotte, North Carolina. 

She said with her experience with the Pesticide Free Parks Project and Pesticide Free   Volunteer Program in Lawrence, she was invited to speak at a national pesticide forum held in Washington D.C. last May that was sponsored by a national pesticide awareness organization called Beyond Pesticides.  She said there were attendees from all over the nation, even as far away as Alaska and representation from Canada.  The attendees were interested to know what was going on in Lawrence, Kansas with pesticide free parks. 

The recommendation for the pesticide free parks was to add the remaining 18 parks that were currently being maintained with pesticides and move them to the pesticide free parks program.  She said there were numerous reasons to go forward with this program the first reason was tremendous community support for pesticide free parks in Lawrence. 

The Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, including individual neighborhood associations that supported the Pesticide Free Parks which were Old West Lawrence, East Lawrence, Pinckney, Brookcreek, Breezedale, and Oread, had lent their support.  She said other groups include the Jayhawk Audubon Society, Wakarusa Sierra Club and Animal Outreach of Kansas.  She said all three of those groups lent their support with a volunteer effort to maintain Watson Park.  She said the City of Lawrence’s own Recycling and Resource Conservation Advisory Board also endorsed the effort. 

There was also area physician support for the program.  Dr. Catherine Veal, who worked as a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics for the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and also worked with the pediatric investigator for the Mid America pediatric environmental specialty health unit and sent a letter to the Commission in support of the effort about two years ago.  She said more community support were the number of volunteers that came forward to help with the pilot project.   

She said the successful two year pilot project was another reason to add the rest of the parks.  She said two years ago in front of the Commission, Director of Parks and Recreation, Fred DeVictor, said to the Commission that his department chose Watson Park as a pilot project park because it would be the most difficult to maintain and if it could be done in Watson Park without pesticides, it could be done anywhere in the City. 

She said she had two costs sheets that outlined their estimates for pesticide free parks and according to the figures from the pilot project, costs of maintaining the park without pesticides were very comparable to maintaining it with pesticides. 

She said she wanted to discuss the concerns using the pesticide RoundUp.  She said there were a lot of negative effects of glyphosate use and in the presentation packet had three articles pertaining to RoundUp.  She said she would refer to “The Hazards of the World’s Most Common Herbicide” which ran in the Mother Earth News which was a well respected and long running periodical that was based in Topeka, Kansas.  She said symptoms of exposure to glyphosate included eye irritation, blurred vision, skin rashes, burning or itchy skin, nausea, sore throat, difficulty breathing, headache, nose bleeds and dizziness.  She said glyphosate herbicides and herbicides containing glyphosate cause genetic damage to human and animal cells.  She said studies of farmers and other people exposed to glyphosate herbicides linked the exposure to increased risks of cancer, miscarriage and attention deficit disorder.  She said laboratory evidence indicated that glyphosate herbicide could reduce protection of sex hormones.  Application of glyphosate herbicides increased the severity of a variety of plant diseases and caused more off target damage incidents than all other herbicides.  She said glyphosate herbicides caused genetic damage and harm to the immune system in fish and in frogs cause genetic damage and abnormal development.  She said there were negative effects of using RoundUp and it was her understanding that RoundUp was the herbicide that was most used by the Parks and Recreation Department.  She said she was really concerned because in a memo in 2006 Parks and Recreation said that RoundUp was considered safe for the applicator and was concerned about such claims because not only did it put the City at risk legally, but they also put the people who used the herbicides at risk because they were not being given adequate information as well as the community as a whole.  She said she wanted to point out that according to federal law; it was illegal for pesticide manufacturers to put on their pesticide labels that they were safe when used as directed.  She said the City was putting itself at risk legally as well as putting other people in harms way. 

She said the next recommendation was to designate playground and picnic areas as pesticide free zones.  She listed the buffer zone policies for four cities.  Another recommendation was to improve public notification.  She said they still recommend 24 hours notice before pesticides were applied.  Specifically, a citizen came to her concerned because she rode her bike along the levee and on more than one occasion she went out for her bike trip with no signs that pesticides would be applied.  On her return trip coming back, she was forced to ride beside pesticide drift which was a serious problem because pesticides were not meant to be inhaled by human beings and if there had been adequate notice previous to the application, she would have made a different decision those days. 

She said after pesticide application, they still recommend signs be kept in place for 7 days.  The current 24 hour of leaving the signs in place did not give the pesticides enough time to break down and that in some cases there were pesticides that in the process of breaking down they turn into more toxic substances, so to extend the length of period that signs were left up was a good idea.

She said the next recommendation was to make the pesticide record available and up to date.  Almost two years ago the Commission directed Parks and Rec to maintain a pesticide record and make it available to the public.  She said to her knowledge this still had not been done and that concerned her because any citizen should have access to the information the park they plan to visit.  They needed to have information about what pesticides had been applied in that park, when they had been applied and where. 

The next recommendation was to landscape with native plants to provide food for wildlife.  She said there should be an emphasis on perennial native plants for several reasons.  They were hearty, drought resistant, and disease resistant and were perennial.  They save water, reduce labor costs and landscaping costs.  She said because perennials were so hearty, they were really good to have in flower beds because they could out compete with weeds and cut down weed invasion.  Native plants also reflected and promoted Kansas history and were a community that was very proud of their history and the use of native plants in landscaping fit very well into those values. 

The City’s parks were basically the City’s green spaces and in green spaces lived wildlife.  She said native plants provided excellent shelter and food for wildlife as well as fruit bearing female trees would be a great addition to the parks because they provided food for wildlife.  She said also there was a trend in the urban areas to only plant with male trees and when they had an urban space where there were only male trees, they produce pollen which elevated the pollen levels and degraded the air quality and aggravated conditions like asthma and allergies. 

She said volunteers were very interested in incorporating butterfly gardens and monarch way stations in the public parks.  She said there was an absolutely gorgeous and beautiful example of a butterfly garden at Folley Hall at the KU West Campus that was part of the Kansas Biological Survey and she asked the Commission to encourage Parks and Rec to go visit that site.  She said a butterfly garden would be a jewel in any of the City Parks.

She said they asked the City improve pesticide free park signage.  She brought an example that was easy to read and got the point across.  She thought it would raise the awareness there were so many pesticide free parks and did not think that most people knew there were 34 pesticide free parks in the City. 

She also asked that the City invest in staff education, tools and technology.  She said there were many educational opportunities regarding pesticide free maintenance.  One was the Kansas Native Plant Society sponsored an annual tour in Lawrence and the tour highlighted native landscapes over the City.   She said another educational opportunity passed on to Parks and Rec was national teleconference training with a nationally known natural turf expert by the name of Chip Osborn.  For years he was responsibility for maintaining the green spaces and pesticide free sports fields in his town of Marblehead, Massachusetts.  The cost to participate in three part training was only $45 for city officials. 

She said they also recommend the city create weeding jobs which would be instead of investing money to buying pesticides and using pesticides to take those resources and invest them in providing job opportunities where people maintain their parks without pesticides.  She said some ideas they had was to create a jobs for teens program or create some seasonal positions or create one or two full time positions.  She said another idea was to contract the work out to local lawn care companies who were knowledgeable about pesticide free maintenance.

She said their last recommendation was to adopt City wide pesticide standards.  She said the standards that Parks and Rec were developing and using were really wonderful and thought it would be a good idea if those standards were broadened to encompass all City departments and City agencies that used pesticides.  She said those standards included maintaining a pesticide record and making it available to the public, notification when pesticides were used and would also include ceasing the use of category 1 and 2 pesticides. 

She said because the Commission did not discuss pesticide free parks in 2006, she wanted the Commission to know the pesticide free park project did make up some recommendations for last year and she was afraid those recommendations were buried in some memos and there was a lot of valuable information in last year’s recommendations from volunteers that did pesticide free maintenance and a lot of good advice how to maintain without pesticides. 

Commissioner Rundle asked if RoundUp was a category 1 or 2 pesticide. 

Stockett said RoundUp was considered category 1.

Mayor Amyx thanked Stockett and everyone making the project a success.  The Commission would consider those recommendations Stockett presented during the budget process in two or three weeks.   

Commissioner Rundle said at the time the Commission looked at this project two years ago, he thought there was convincing evidence the project was both feasible and cost effective.  The weeding job suggestion exemplifies the difference in the two, the conventional approach and the pesticide free approach.  The conventional approach had high cost of inputs of chemicals and the pesticide free approach had a higher cost of labor inputs, but in many cases costs were lower with pesticide free parks.  He said he found in talking with other communities some community’s staff and people in that community embraced the project enthusiastically and some communities who were implementing the program were successful, but did not have enthusiastic participation of staff. He said enthusiastic participation could not legislated, but based on the fact the program could be cost effective and because there was such wide spread support, the Commission needed to direct to staff to get behind this project and make it happen. 

Commissioner Highberger said he appreciated the work everyone put into the program and would like to see the program keep moving forward.

Commissioner Schauner said he would like a report from Mark Hecker, Superintendent of Parks and Maintenance, on how this project was working, where the problems had been and what was needed to make the system better as part of moving forward to expand it to the rest of the parks.  He said it was clearly an idea whose time has come and we needed to figure out how to make it in a way where they could educate and reeducate City employees as well as the citizens of the community to make a safer place for kids to play in.  He looked forward to a conversation with Hecker at a future meeting on those topics. 

Stockett said she understood some of the items were budgetary related, but some of the items were policy issues.  She asked if there would be any decisions on policy issues such as uniform city wide pesticide standard. 

Vice Mayor Hack said the City Commission needed to have that conversation because they took parts of the project and did not discuss the entire project.  She said she wanted to talk with the Parks and Rec staff to define success in the program and what their perspective was as well.  She believed they needed to have that conversation and if it became the policy, then it went on the agenda as a policy and was treated as such. 

Corliss said the project had both policy and budget items.  He said staff had on their list, last year, that as the volunteer program was implemented and when getting into spring of 2007 with the idea that would begin the preparation for the 2008 budget, staff would provide a status report.  Staff would also have responses about how they could seek to implement the items that were being discussed as well on some of the policy issues. 

He said there were multiple departments involved in this project, for example, on the levee, the Public Works Department maintained the levee and the City was going to get some troubling financial news about the levee in a few weeks as far as recertifying the levee and how much that would cost.  He said staff would discuss maintenance of the levee and the Corps of Engineer had significant concerns about the City’s use of the levee as a recreation trail and staff wanted to fight to keep that as a trail.  He said they needed to include all those different departments in those discussions as well. 

Commissioner Rundle said it would be helpful for the Commission to discuss with Corliss and divide those issues out and then talk to staff about which, if any, could start earlier.

Corliss said the direction he was receiving from the City Commission was to have another meeting where the Commission would receive a report from staff on implementing the project and the Commission would then give staff direction on the budget aspects of that project and then the policy aspects of that project.   

Moved by Schauner, seconded by            Hack, receive the presentation from Maria Stockett concerning pesticide free park initiatives. Motion carried unanimously.                                            (24)

Receive from attorney concerning planned Kansas Turnpike Authority interchange near Tonganoxie

 

Price Banks, Attorney, presented the report.  He said he was working with a group of citizens in southern Leavenworth County who were being impacted by the proposed Turnpike interchange.  He started working with the group last fall and it occurred to him that while this interchange in Leavenworth County had suddenly came on board, an interchange had been proposed on the East side of Lawrence since 1967.  He said in looking at Transportation 2025, they again saw the recommendation for a connection between K-10 and the Kansas Turnpike.  He said that connection was not specific and did not necessarily need to be in the location shown on the map.  The Leavenworth County proposal was certainly driven by commercial and industrial development.  He said it would open up land for development and had not been anything in the news releases or articles about the efficient movement of people and goods.  The original proposal on the east side of Lawrence was to move people and goods from the heavy industrial area north of the Turnpike in order to access either Kansas City or points west without having to drive through the City of Lawrence.  The current proposal that the Turnpike authority was moving forward on and Leavenworth County officials had been pushing runs along County Road 1 to the south boundary of Leavenworth County and then through the City of Eudora out to connect with K-10.  It was a coagulated route and probably not a very good one for 18 wheelers or hazardous material; it crossed two bridges and two sets of railroad tracks. 

They were present to urge the Commission to study the matter further and ultimately urge the Turnpike Authority to give another thought to the location of that interchange.  He saw a quote in an earlier newspaper that said it was a lousy idea for Lawrence and thought the location of it was probably not a good idea for Leavenworth County and if it were to be located another place, it could serve Leavenworth County and the City of Lawrence and complete the long plan, circumferential route, for the City of Lawrence. 

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to extend the meeting to 11:15.  Motion carried unanimously.

Jan Burnhart, a resident of Leavenworth County, said she was the land owner who was going to get the toll booth interchange.  She said they were opposed to the interchange for the last couple of years because they wanted to keep it the way it was.  She said this was a proposed transportation issue and developmental corridor.  She said it was their belief this was a special interest project that would bring a lot of development in their area which they personally did not want and had been told they were in the same position Johnson County was possibly 25 years ago.  She knew that Leavenworth County Commission was going to recoup the sales tax money through bringing development out to the area being commercial, industrial, residential, no one knew for sure.  On the other side of County Road 1 there were over 2,000 acres of land, some of which was being advertised for auto assemblies or manufacturing or things like that.  She said the premise was they wanted to keep it a rural area and farm area and not bring the development out there.  She said development would come because that was how the money would be recouped that was spent for this project. 

Bob Schumm, Lawrence, said he was going to give them a historical perspective on their road system.  He said on December 13, 1988 both the City and the County signed an interlocal agreement for the circumferential loop around Lawrence which was to solve a number of transportation issues on an east/west - north/south basis.  He said that document was signed by the chairman of the Douglas County Commission and by himself as Mayor of the City of Lawrence.  He said the interlocal agreement called for a circumferential loop system.  It was to start at 6th and Massachusetts, travel out to K-10, which was County Road 13 at that time, with improvements all the way so it could handle an additional traffic load, much of which had been completed on that leg.  The other leg was to start at the Kansas Turnpike, go south and back east to Iowa Street which had been completed and continue on around to Noria Road on the east.  The eastern parkway was to start in front of a building at 6th and Mass, go to 7th Street and out 7th and connect at Noria Road to complete the loop.  He said additionally there was talk of an east/west major arterial, bypass, or highway from connecting K-10 to the Kansas Turnpike.  This agreement really was an all inclusive document that was the how to do it.  It was the compromise of the community that gave everyone a little bit of equity in the transportation plan and addressed things like access points, land use policies, parks and open spaces, bike and hike trails and much more.  It was a very inclusive document that lots of important people and lots of players got to have their say in.  He said it was filed with the Register of Deeds of Douglas County, the Secretary of State in the State of Kansas, signed by the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Transportation at the time; it had full documentation. 

He said Resolution No. 5265 from the City of Lawrence, authorized the City Manager to apply for funds for the road system through KDOT and system enhancement programs or the KDOT Economic Development Program which he signed and then, County Chairman, Mike Amyx.  He said on November 6, 1990 there was a public vote on bond issuance and two ballot questions were asked and they were both passed by 56 to 44 margin.  He said this system passed public muster as well with a vote.

On September 25, 1991 there was a proposal sent to the federal government for transportation funds and one part stated that as part of the eastern parkway corridor study, the County and City would explore what they were referring to as Phase 3 of the Lawrence Circumferential Plan.  Phase 3 would consist of a connection between the eastern parkway and US-70, the Kansas Turnpike, onto a connection with US-24 north of Lawrence.  This involved a four lane road with a bridge approach and a new four lane bridge over the Kansas River.  Phase 3 had an estimated cost in 1994 of $24.3 million.  At that point, they, as a community, had agreed to secure and look at that road system as well. 

He said at that time, they had a fairly unique plan that was well represented in the community and was approved by the community, but the plan fell apart and there was no group in the community pushing for a comprehensive plan.  He would say if he had to grade the transportation quality of this community, meaning the entire county, they would get an “F” in moving from east to west and west to east and “F” moving north to south and south to north.  It took a lot of time to move across the community because they did not have the road systems they should.  He said there were 15 stoplights between Wakarusa and Clinton Parkway out to Harper and 23rd Street. 

He said now they had an opportunity as a community to ask KTA to look at reworking the intersection where it was more beneficial to Douglas County and helped the greater population than what it was being asked to be located right now.  He said this could start and re- energize their transportation development.  It was a failure right now and had not seen much initiative to try and complete this particular program that had been agreed upon and voted by the community.  He asked the Commission to give it some consideration and see if they could start to look at and improve the system. 

Vice Mayor Hack asked if he had presented this information to the County or planned to present that information.

Schumm said no, because this City Commission meeting was a good place as any to start.  He said it seemed there should be genuine interest on both political bodies to see if they could improve on what they had. 

Mayor Amyx asked if the other part of that bond vote was to finish 31st Street as required for the southern loop. 

Schumm said he did not remember.

Moved by Rundle, seconded by Schauner, to receive the letter. Motion carried unanimously.

Vice Mayor Hack asked Sheila Stogsdill, Acting Planning Director, where the update to Transportation 2025 stood.

Stogsdill said the update was due this fall to the Federal Government and staff was in the process of trying to hire a transportation consultant to help complete that update on time.  The Planning Commission had recommended there be an eastern connection over the river included in the transportation improvement program and KDOT and FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) indicated in their review they needed to remove that from the tip because there was no financing committed to the plan, and that plan needed to be financially constrained.  She said it was an idea that clearly had discussion at the Planning Commission level and would be one of the various scenarios that would be modeled through the long range transportation planning process that would go through this summer.            

Commissioner Schauner suggested Shumm take this matter to the County as well because the County would shoulder a lot of expense, much of that revenue coming from the City of Lawrence in improving that bridge across the river which the KTA proposal would require.  He said he attended the KTA meeting when this issue was discussed many months ago and he came away from that meeting feeling that KTA had a strong commitment to that route and it would take a fair amount of nudging to get KTA moved off of that position.  

He said it was him that stated it was a lousy idea for Lawrence, because a road that far away from Lawrence tended to serve Johnson County, but it did not do much to serve Lawrence and he rather that road come closer to Lawrence and serve Lawrence’s, circumferential needs as well as the east/west traveling public out of Johnson County.     

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Hack, to extend the meeting.  Motion carried unanimously.   

 

 

PUBLIC COMMENT

Betty Alderson, Lawrence, said she had some comments she was going to make about the Iowa Street situation.  She said traffic congestion was being discussed, but that was not the only place that congestion happened from 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon.  She said there was traffic backed up from Massachusetts to Iowa from 4:00 at 6:00 almost every day, but the Commission was constrained by tax payers who did not want to pay any more taxes.  She said those things could not be done without money.  She said there was a lot of cut through traffic on her street every day as students did not want to wait for the signal light to get to Lawrence High School.  She said they were not talking about University students there, but their own kids who lived down the street.  She said she thought they had a similar proposal coming up for a part of 19th Street that was an issue of acquiring property where they did not have enough right-of-way.

Betty Lichtwardt said they, as a community, had not done anything about it because they thought there was plenty of time.  She said it had gotten to a point where there really was no time. 

She said based on what she knew about the situation in Tonganoxie, it was something that was going to cost them dearly.  She said they did not have the money to support it and did not have the planning for it.  They were hoping to develop a particular area of ground that was owned by an entrepreneur who purchased that ground.  She thought it was about 2 miles from Tonganoxie and was a large tract of land.  She said a lot of the incentive for the turnpike had been to develop a property based on speculation and it had been a political situation that had developed more than a community planning situation that was needed.  In the case of Lawrence, they had dropped the ball and the eastern bypass was something the community had planned for and something they needed.   She said it was something the people in the Chamber of Commerce pointed out if they wanted to develop economically any area; it had to be close to the turnpike so the obvious answer was to connect Highway 10 to the turnpike.  She said when this issue with Tonganoxie came up it seemed Lawrence would get a new interest in pushing for the turnpike, but not so.  To her, it was a tragic case of apathy and she was making an appeal to the City Commission to look into it sincerely and see if there could be renewed interest in the eastern bypass. 

Steve Braswell, Pinckney Neighborhood Association, asked if an e-mail went out advising Westar on the routing of the power lines at the hospital. 

Chuck Soules, Public Works Director, said he drafted a memo addressing the Commission’s direction from the last Commission meeting.  He said staff had two options to discuss with the Alabama Street residents and if that did not work out, staff would start on the east side of Maine, going down approximately 200 feet beyond the trees, crossing back over to the hospital’s property and proceeding north. 

He said he understood another option became apparent which was the Mississippi Street option.  He said before staff sent out letter to property owners, staff wanted to receive City Commission direction. 

David Corliss, City Manager, said staff’s understanding was to try the Alabama Street route to see if those property owners had significant concerns and it was his understanding if those property owners did have concerns, then the zigzag route would be pursued.  Also, the City Commission was not expecting that issue to be an agenda item again.

Mayor Amyx said Braswell request that Westar be contacted concerning 4th and Mississippi to 3rd and back to the west.  He said the additional cost estimates were at $60,000 - $70,000 plus the man hours to rebuild that system.

Braswell said he appreciated everyone looking into this issue.  He said when he asked about the Mississippi to 3rd Street approach, that approach was brought up by Westar and his asking was to take one more look at that approach.  He said they accomplished their goal of saving some of those oak trees

He said if there was a tree ordinance in existence addressing trees on public property, they might have been able to start the discussion months ago rather than going against a timetable. 

He said several times it was explained that Westar’s charge from the utility commission was how to look at those types of projects and he would like to see an on going discussion. 

Chad Lewis, Westar Energy, said he echoed Braswell’s comment that Westar would be interested in participating in any tree ordinance that came up.  He said they were not popular when it came to cutting trees, but did it for the right reasons, for safety and reliability.  He said they could not do a lot about 50 – 80 year old oak trees as far as planning ahead.  He said when moving forward and the City acquired more right-of-way, he encouraged people to plant short growing trees in their right-of-way. 

Commissioner Schauner said the City of Topeka was in some conversations with Westar about a replant program after there had been a clear cut and he would like to have those conversations between the City of Lawrence and Westar.

Lewis said the City of Topeka was moving forward with that program and hoped it went well.  The one distinction in Topeka was the difference between transmission line and a distribution line.  He said there was not a lot of tolerance on those transmission lines and that was part of the problem in Topeka when there were high power lines going down Gage Boulevard and there was not an option for a different route or to trim those trees.  He said the point was well taken and in the best interest of both parties to consider that as they moved forward.                                                                                                                           (25) 

FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS:

04/10/07

●     Seating of new City Commission

 

04/17/07

●     Lawrence Community Shelter UPR

 

TBD

 

●     Salvation Army Site Plan and Rezoning;

●     Retail Marketing Analysis Code provisions

●     Consideration of Preliminary Development Plan for Mercato development, north of West 6th Street, west of George Williams Way extended

●     Direct staff concerning proposed special assessment benefit districts for the improvement of George Williams Way north and south of West 6th Street, including intersection improvements – TBD per applicant’s request

●     Direct staff concerning sanitary sewer improvements serving property west of Queens Road, north of West 6th Street (Baldwin Creek gravity line from pump station no. 45 to 48) – TBD per applicant’s request

 

COMMISSION ITEMS:

Commissioner Rundle said he would commit the proposals on the traffic ordinance to a memo and give it to staff so they could analyze it and refer it to Traffic Safety Commission.  He said he wanted an opportunity to discuss the retail marketing analysis before he left the Commission.  He said that requirement of performing an analysis of retail impact was first brought up in 1989 as part of the Western Development Plan as it was being developed.  He said the development plan was not finished before the first corner of Wakarusa and 6th Street was rezoned even though the Commission and public pleaded with people to do that.  Eventually it became part of the Comprehensive Plan, but became a political football.  At one point the Planning Commission wanted to remove the plan from the Comprehensive Plan and the City Commission said “no”, but they still had been spending the last 8 years trying to figure out implementation. 

He said the process as it continued was revolved on political issues rather than good, sound reasoning and discussion.  He said he had been critical of the retail study that had been discussed over the months and years recently and felt the consultant validated those concerns.  He said he was alarmed, rather than critically thinking about it, there was at least one suggestion when it was discovered by that study, the City had capacity for more retail than the City’s comprehensive plan and someone suggested changing the comprehensive plan.  He said it was a real shame that more of the Commissioners were not at the session on commercial development that was part of their charrette.  He said he thought those people were highly thought of and called the best firm possible for helping the City develop the parallel code.  The primary presenter during that session was asked about that consultant study and his comment was not to ever hire that person again.  He thought he raised all the points that had been brought up but he also demonstrated why they needed to take more care in those decisions.  His research, which he gave the sources for, said that their commercial businesses, the “Moms and Pops” in Lawrence, were already at risk.  He showed what earnings they were making per square foot and they really needed to be making to be healthy.  He said he did hope that whatever Commission came after and whenever this was placed back on the agenda, that people would take it seriously and move it forward. 

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to adjourn at 11:40 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.                                                             APPROVED:

                                                                        _____________________________

Mike Amyx, Mayor

ATTEST:

 

___________________________________                                                                       

Frank S. Reeb, City Clerk

 


CITY COMMISSION MEETING OF MARCH 27, 2007

 

1.                Engineering Services – Runway Safety Improvements to Airport Development Group for $54,500.

 

2.                Bid Date Set – Runway Safety Improvements, Lawrence Municipal Airport, May 1, 2007. 

 

3.                2007 Sanitary Sewer Manhole Rehab Project to Mayer Specialty Service for $216,674.85.  

 

4.                Bid – Thermal imaging for Fire/Med Dept to Conrad Fire Equipment for $28,687.50.

 

5.                Lease Agreements- 320 acres, farm land, S of Wakarusa River with Shuck Farms for 121 per acre.

 

6.                Lease Agreement – 20 acres near pump station no. 48, to Shuck Farms for $50 per acre.

 

7.                Additional Funding – Upgrading streetlights for Kasold, $29,850.

 

8.                Bid – Car wash Zarco 66 & detailing service to Custom Highline, not to exceed $14,000. 

 

9.                Change Order – MV Transportation, service hours for “T” Lift Para transit for $10,218.

 

10.            Bid - Mini Packer Refuse Truck for Public Works to Roy Conley & Co for $73,505.

 

11.            Bid – Rear Load Refuse Truck for Public Works to Roy Conley & Co. for $159,147.

 

12.            Bicycle Helmets – Fire/Med Wheeled Sports Program from Helmets R Us for $17,043.60.

 

13.            Ordinance No. 8092 – 1st Read, amend Horizon 2020 to replace Figure 5-1 with Neighborhood Concept.

 

14.            Ordinance No. 8082 – 2nd Read, penalties for violation of City firearm possession.

 

15.            Final Plat (PF-01-02-07) Diamondhead, SE ¼ of S Lawrence Trafficway & 6th.

 

16.            Rezone (Z-01-01-07) .91 acre, PCD-2 to RM 24, SE ¼ of S Lawrence Trafficway & 6th.

 

17.            Ordinance No. 8093 – 1st Read, Neighborhood Revitalization Plan & District.

 

18.            Developer Agreement – Cit of Lawrence & Cinco Hombres.

 

19.            City Manager’s Report.

 

20.            Resolution No. 6710 – benefit district order construction of Williamsburg Ct & Pl.  

 

21.            Landmark Designation – 925 Vt, 621 Conn & 1646 Mass.

 

22.            Safety Project for Iowa (left turn lane) Stratford & University Dr submission to KDOT.

 

23.            Rental registration discussion.

 

24.            Program Improvement Info for 2008 Budget consideration.

 

25.            Planned KTA interchange near Tonganoxie.