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 Post subject: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware
PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:31 am 
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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


Last edited by Merrill on Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:46 am, edited 4 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Downtown Design Guidelines - Need some planning
PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:33 am 
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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.


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 Post subject: Re: Downtown Design Guidelines - Need some planning
PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 2:35 am 
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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


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 Post subject: Re: Downtown Design Guidelines - Planning Ahead
PostPosted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:16 am 
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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.


Last edited by Merrill on Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:41 am, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware
PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:29 am 
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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;


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 Post subject: Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware
PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:34 am 
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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


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 Post subject: Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware
PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:47 am 
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Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:59 am
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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.


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 Post subject: Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware
PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:21 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 4:38 pm
Posts: 128
I am pathologically modest when it comes to my own nudity which prevents me from working out in health clubs.

:circles:


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 Post subject: Re: NEW Downtown Guidelines - taxpayers beware
PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:30 pm 
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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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