The city doesn’t enforce zoning laws against Kansas University. That could change in the wake of controversy about KU’s expansion plans for the 1300 block of Ohio Street.

Officials are quietly considering a proposal to create a special “university” zoning district that would give the city a stronger voice in the areas where town meets gown.

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“I think it would become more of an equal-partners relationship, rather than one entity (KU) having all the power,” said Linda Finger, the city’s planning director.

At least one city official says the city can start exercising that voice immediately. Contrary to popular opinion, Commissioner Mike Rundle said, nothing prohibits the city from enforcing its zoning rules on university-owned properties.

Given frustration about the Ohio Street battle, Rundle said, the time to use that authority might have come.

“Those are absolutely legitimate areas for the city to expect that if the university contributes to the problem, it’ll be part of the solution,” Rundle said. “So far, it’s all been on a voluntary basis.”

His colleagues may not be entirely on board with that idea.

“I would not want us to be the bullies in this, either,” Mayor Sue Hack said.

Reggie Robinson, counselor and chief of staff to KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, convened the “good neighbor” group of university, neighborhood and city officials that conceived of the university zoning district.

He generally declined to comment on the concept, saying city officials still haven’t unveiled a report outlining the particulars.

“I’m not sure that we’re all going to agree that it (special zoning) is a concept we’ll all embrace,” he said. “But I think it’s good that we’re talking about it.”

Not enforced

City officials say they can’t remember if the city has ever enforced its zoning with KU, although the university apparently has never been granted a formal exemption.

“It has been our practice and I distinguish between our practice and our policy not to enforce our land-use laws on property titled to the state of Kansas, including the University of Kansas,” Assistant City Manager Dave Corliss said.

He said state law did exempt state construction projects from having to get local building permits and from having to pay zoning fees, but not from complying with the actual zoning laws.

So why hasn’t the city used that power?

“I think it has been a very cognizant decision by the city administration and policy makers in an effort to alleviate town-gown issues,” Finger said. “Maybe the end result hasn’t been what was desired.”

Controversy about KU’s plans to demolish the three Ohio Street houses centered on their location in a historic neighborhood. But Oread Neighborhood residents were just as angry about what they said was the university’s broken promise not to encroach into their neighborhood.

The creation of a special zoning district might make it harder for KU to expand against the wishes of its neighbors. As described by Finger, the zoning would require KU to create careful transitions between campus and neighborhoods.

And if the university wanted to expand its holdings, she said, the zoning would probably require that it rezone entire blocks instead of individual lots, for better planning purposes. And those rezonings would have to be considered by the planning and city commissions.

There is apparently no timeline to publicly unveil the proposal.

Greg Hickam, president of the Oread Neighborhood Assn., likes the idea.

“A move in that direction should help provide some additional protection for properties that are currently residential that the university might have its eye on, or might have its eye on in the future,” Hickam said.

“There currently appears to be very little leverage that the city has with the university,” he said. “As far as I know, the university is completely contained within the city limits, so it seems fair the law be applied equally to the university.”

Sensitive to standards

When the university expands and builds, observers say, the new buildings and their residents have the same effect as any other development new strains on stormwater drainage, parking and traffic. Zoning laws require most developments to plan for those burdens.

City Manager Mike Wildgen said KU has mostly done a good job planning for those challenges, even without the threat of city enforcement.

“Many of the city codes, they’ve been sensitive to those standards,” he said.

Rundle, however, is skeptical.

“There’s no genuine demonstration (on the university’s part) of any desire to be responsive,” he said. “All the listening is done after the university has declared what it’s going to do.”

Robinson sees things differently.

“I’m still optimistic about our ability to work together, even as the Ohio Street controversy continues to sizzle,” he said. “Our overall relationship has been positive. Controversies do not define the relationship.”