City bids for Orchards course

The city has offered to buy Orchards Executive Golf Course 30 acres on the city’s fast-growing west side because officials fear development there would create flooding problems for surrounding neighborhoods.

But Orchards owner Ed White rejected the offer, saying it was “considerably less” than the $750,000 he paid for the land a decade ago. One real estate agent said the land would probably be worth $1 million to $2 million on the open market.

New city regulations may have made the property at 3000 W. 15th St. more attractive to private developers.

White said developers had shown more interest in the Orchards since the Lawrence City Commission this month approved floodplain regulations that don’t burden the property with new requirements.

“I think they (developers) were staying away before because they didn’t know what would happen with the regulations,” White said Friday. “Now I think it has become more attractive to developers.”

City Commissioner David Dunfield used the property as a prime example during his push to adopt more-stringent floodplain regulations than ultimately were approved. He said he didn’t know if the city would increase its offer for the land.

“The city has had an appraisal done,” Dunfield said. “The offer was based on that appraisal. I think it would be very difficult for the city to make an offer that was at variance with the appraisal.”

He says the city, if it acquires the property, intends to leave the nine-hole course open for public golfing. The city already operates the 18-hole Eagle Bend Golf Course.

“The current property owner, I think, is looking at the value of the property based on its development potential,” Dunfield said. “Our current zoning of that property doesn’t allow that development to occur.”

The land is zoned for single-family residences. It has only one platted lot, however, and would have to go through the city-approved subdivision process before development could proceed.

White said in September 2000 that he planned to convert the land into a housing subdivision. The opening of the Eagle Bend course in 1996 made the Orchards unprofitable, he said. City officials at that time declined to purchase the property.

“We’re focused on Eagle Bend,” Assistant City Manager Dave Corliss said then.

The property has a stream running through it but doesn’t appear on Federal Emergency Management Agency maps of the 100-year floodplain. Bryan Dyer, a city planner, said that’s because FEMA doesn’t map smaller streams not because the property isn’t flood-prone.

A rejected proposal for new city floodplain regulations would have forced developers of the site to do expensive hydrologic studies to avoid effects on the floodplain. The commission-approved regulations don’t make such requirements for the Orchards property.

But most city officials believe that residential development at the Orchards would create problems for its neighbors.

“It’s going to increase the flow of stormwater downstream, inevitably,” Dunfield said. “In my view, because of its location and flooding potential, it’s not appropriate for that property to develop.”

Katherine Dinsdale, who lives next to the course at 3001 Oxford Road, is nervous about talk of development.

“We can easily see standing water on the golf course after every little rain,” she said. “I think any homeowner in Lawrence would rather not have this property developed. It could have pretty severe consequences for drainage in this area.”

White said a private developer now had an option to buy the land, though the option expires next week. He said he would like to sell it to the city if he could get the right price.

“I think it would be smart for the city to buy it,” he said. “They could put it in Parks and Recreation and keep it in green space.”