Mike Rundle ended his one-year term as mayor Tuesday with a call for renewed unity to head off the city’s evolution into an “Anywhere, USA, bedroom community of urban sprawl.”

“We have been divided as a community by many issues in the past, whether it is the idea that we are unfriendly to business and or unfriendly to citizens with alternative points of view,” Rundle said in a State of the City address broadcast before Tuesday’s city commission meeting.

“It is time to identify and focus instead on our strengths as a community and the goals for our future,” he said.

The State of the City speech is given annually by Lawrence’s outgoing mayor.

Rundle also said planning should begin to transform Lawrence from a good city to a great one. He said the city hadn’t harnessed all the “brain power” in town to help that process.

“We need to study cities throughout the country, and even the world, so that we may create new ideas of what we can become,” he said. “We can build a consensus that narrows these ideals to a community focus and translate that into a detailed strategic plan and put those plans into action with clear goals and timetables.”

Rundle praised the work of ECO2, the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce task force studying options for identifying and purchasing industrial and open space areas, as an example of the city’s neighborhood, environmental and business communities coming together.

“Diverse interests gather around a common table take ownership of, participate in and have taken responsibility for the success of issues that are important to the entire community,” Rundle said.