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NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware http://forums.larryville.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=61999 |
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Author: | Merrill [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:31 am ] |
Post subject: | NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware |
Agenda item for January 7 2014 - number 3 http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/agenda ... genda.html 1. A new downtown study should be accomplished to prevent helter skelter development in downtown instead promote vibrant and taxpayer friendly economic growth. No to tax dollar handouts. 2. Taxpayers deserve market value for the property WE own = primary stakeholders. ================================================================ Downtown Guidelines: http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/pds/pl ... dlines.pdf From Tom Harper To the editor: Recently we learned of development plans for a seven-story building at 11th and Massachusetts. The corner has been underutilized for years, is ripe for development, represents another opportunity for Lawrence to develop and implement a Downtown Urban Design Plan prior to granting a building permit and tax subsidies that will likely be requested. Such a plan would tell us what and where to build and how to design what we build while protecting historic neighborhoods around the downtown. This intersection is the front door of Lawrence, nestled among three historic buildings. The design of the building should be part of a plan for how we want downtown Lawrence to look and function. Our decisions today will impact future generations to come. The developer states in the Journal-World, “It is going to be a tall building, it has to be a tall building to make it work.” This statement is reason to pause. There are many factors that should be considered by the developer and his architects to create a building that conveys our rich history, the times we live in today and what we can become. I look forward to seeing the design of the proposed building and recommendations from local and state historic preservation professionals. We all have ownership in this development. The demand for apartments and a drug store downtown Lawrence is not sufficient reason to build it. We have to get this right. Let’s develop a comprehensive Downtown Urban Design Plan before this project is approved. ( EXACTLY - RH ) http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/nov/2 ... _to_editor |
Author: | Merrill [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:33 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Downtown Design Guidelines - Need some planning |
By George Smith, Lawrence November 27, 2013 To the editor: Downtown Lawrence is a gem that we should value and nurture. Tom Harper has urged us to think about careful urban design and planning (Public Forum, Nov. 22). Not every new tall building needs be where it is proposed but where it will enhance our towns vitality, commerce, walkability, and visual impact. The planning should come before the proposals. |
Author: | Merrill [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:35 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Downtown Design Guidelines - Need some planning |
Downtown Redevelopment Issues and Opportunities – analyzing where the height, mass and scale of a particular part of downtown could be changed with new or re-development. http://lawrenceks.org/assets/agendas/cc ... f_memo.pdf Downtown Guidelines: http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/pds/pl ... dlines.pdf Tax Dollar Incentives ( Too often Pork Barrel Spending) http://www.lawrenceks.org/economic_development Community Design Manual http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/pds/pl ... ignMan.pdf |
Author: | Merrill [ Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:16 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Downtown Design Guidelines - Planning Ahead |
To: Historic Resources Commission Lawrence/Douglas County Planning Commission From: Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods (LAN) Downtown Redevelopment Subcommittee (Linda Bush, Pinckney; Dickie Heckler, Brook Creek; David Longhurst, Downtown Lawrence; Kirk McClure, Old West Lawrence; Cindy Suenram and K.T. Walsh, East Lawrence) RE: Recommendations, Issues and Opportunities We are pleased to provide comment on the City’s Downtown Redevelopment report, and offer the perspectives of those neighborhoods adjacent to Downtown, workers, owners, consumers and the taxpaying citizens of Lawrence. We emphatically support the City’s Downtown Design Guidelines. Despite recent political pressure to ignore or override these guidelines when they are seen as inconvenient, we believe that adherence to the Downtown Design Guidelines is necessary to insure the retention of the valuable historic character of our Downtown. Further, we believe that any proposed changes to the Downtown Design Guidelines should be preceded by objective research into the possible long-term effects of redevelopment on Downtown vitality and sustainability, and potential impacts to the Downtown Historic District and the adjoining Historic Districts. We support and encourage City engagement of both paid and volunteer stakeholders. |
Author: | Merrill [ Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:29 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware |
Agenda Item Number 3 for January 7,2014 http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/agenda ... genda.html 3. Receive the recommendations from the joint HRC/PC discussions regarding the issues outlined in the 11/29/12 Downtown Redevelopment Issues & Opportunities Memo. Staff Memo & Attachments Staff Memo - 06/20/13 HRC Minutes - 06/20/13 Correspondence Concern: We request that the City engage in strategic planning, and create a Downtown Corridor Study that addresses more than just redevelopment. We believe that the City has an opportunity, now, to consider the following facets of our Downtown: Need for Strategic Planning: • Current vacancy rates of retail, office, and residential properties Downtown • Desired services and products that may be missing but needed Downtown • The viability of shared, incubator and small spaces for startup entrepreneurs • Options for providing affordable housing Downtown • The creation of small play areas with benches and natural, low-maintenance landscaping elements that encourage family-friendly downtown space • Safer pedestrian friendly river access • The creation of a more environmentally sustainable Downtown, to include additional bike parking and safe, well-marked pedestrian crossings; recycling and trash receptacles; planters with edible plants on New Hampshire and Vermont streets; low energy lighting; more open green space and permeable surfaces where possible; |
Author: | Merrill [ Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:34 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware |
Taxpayers deserve market value as fair compensation on their long time investments not a public/private give away. Concern: Over topping structures over City or privately owned parking lots is beneficial, so long as the original benefit district contributors, and City taxpayers, are fairly compensated for the loss of existing infrastructure and land. Any development in or over City-owned parking lots should provide at least as much parking as the parking it removes, with no additional cost to the taxpayers. If privately-owned parking is eliminated, new developments in those areas must be required to create an equal amount of parking, to prevent on-street parking encroachment into adjoining neighborhoods. We recommend that City staff research the creation of a “Parking Bank” in the Downtown area. We support the City’s pursuit of Request for Proposals for redevelopment, wherein the City takes the lead and proactively identifies desired outcomes and designs, and seeks competitive, healthy and sustainable development proposals for Downtown. We do not believe that the City should simply react to whomever comes forward with cash or a random development proposal. Development Proposals |
Author: | Merrill [ Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:47 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware |
Agenda item for January 7 2014 - number 3 http://www.lawrenceks.org/assets/agenda ... genda.html 1. A new downtown study should be accomplished to prevent helter skelter development in downtown instead promote vibrant and taxpayer friendly economic growth. No to tax dollar handouts. 2. Taxpayers deserve market value for the property WE own = primary stakeholders. |
Author: | BestSylvia [ Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:21 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware |
I am pathologically modest when it comes to my own nudity which prevents me from working out in health clubs. |
Author: | Merrill [ Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:30 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware |
A quite interesting presentation by one Michael Duffy of KC Redevelopment which discusses in great detail avenues to control "tax incentives" such as placing caps and where to place the money. Duffy did not come off as fan of developer control. This was on KKFI February 25 http://www.kkfi.org/program-episodes/ta ... ael-duffy/ |
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