A proposed historic district that includes the Baker Wetlands should not be designated a national landmark of spiritual or religious significance, a federal official ruled.

This month’s decision from the Office of the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places for the National Park Service is another blow to efforts for putting the brakes on plans to complete the South Lawrence Trafficway along a route through the wetlands. The trafficway would connect Iowa Street and Kansas Highway 10 near Noria Road.

“The National Register has determined that Haskell Institute Historic District is not eligible for listing in the National Register as a traditional cultural property :,” said the National Park Service’s letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Opponents of the road have pushed to have the wetlands and nearby Haskell Indian Nations University campus designated as a traditional cultural property. Their hope: Adding spiritual and religious issues to the road’s planning process would raise insurmountable barriers to the highway’s construction.

But the decision by the National Park Service Office confirmed the corps’ conclusion that already had been reached by the Kansas Department of Transportation and the Kansas Historic Preservation Officer.

“It was an issue that needed to be addressed, and it had been addressed, and that will be the end of it,” said Bob Smith, the corps’ trafficway project manager. “We will not address it further.”

Trafficway opponents aren’t giving up.

Bob Eye, an attorney for the Wetlands Preservation Organization, noted that the park service’s letter cautioned that “current documentation lacks sufficient information and justification” for the school property being designated on spiritual or religious grounds.

“Given enough information, it seems, we may have a different outcome,” Eye said. “It’s nice to know that now.”

Reason for the decision

Before making its ruling, the National Park Service reviewed a consultant’s report about the history of Haskell and the wetlands that was prepared for inclusion in the corps’ draft environmental impact statement for completing the trafficway.

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In its statement, the corps concluded that the trafficway should be built along one of two routes: a 32nd Street alignment, through the wetlands, at a cost of $105 million; or a 42nd Street alignment, running south of the Wakarusa River, at a cost of $128.5 million.

Last week, the corps concluded that detrimental effects caused by the 32nd Street route could be mitigated with the inclusion of noise walls on both sides of the highway.

If the area were determined to be a traditional cultural property, Smith said, the corps would have had more work to do.

“When you’re dealing with a traditional cultural property, you’re dealing more with experiences : the spiritual and religious things that have taken place there,” Smith said. “Those would be much more difficult to mitigate for. That is a nonissue now.”

But Eye said he and his clients likely would push for a comprehensive oral history to be compiled for the wetlands, in hopes of reversing the keeper’s ruling.

“I don’t think anybody ever assumed that this was the linchpin (for our case), because it’s one of many considerations,” Eye said. “Frankly, I’m glad that we know what they feel like they need is more information. It’s better to know that and to respond to it.”

The corps is expected to rule by year’s end on which route the trafficway should take.