Opponents who have been battling Kansas University’s proposed demolition of three houses on Ohio Street said Thursday they would not sue to overturn Gov. Bill Graves’ decision to allow the razings.

But in a letter to KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, members of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance and Oread Neighborhood Assn. said they expected the neighborhood to have a “meaningful” voice in the design of two scholarship halls planned to replace the houses.

“We expect a clear outline of the design process and the neighborhood’s involvement in it before it begins,” said the letter signed by Pat Kehde of the Preservation Alliance and Candice Davis of the Oread Neighborhood.

KU officials were pleased by the announcement.

“This is a positive step for all of us,” Lynn Bretz, KU spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We are confident that the new structures will complement and enhance the neighborhood.”

KU wants to tear down three dilapidated, century-old houses on Ohio Street to make way for scholarship halls. But the university had been prevented from doing so because of a state preservation officer’s ruling in March that the demolition would harm the historic value of nearby Usher House, 1425 Tenn.

That house, now being used by Beta Theta Pi fraternity, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway in June appealed the state preservation officer’s ruling to Graves.

Graves decided in the university’s favor on Sept. 3. Opponents had 30 days from that date to file suit to overturn the decision.

Though the law allows nearly anyone to file that suit, Oread and the Preservation Alliance were seen as the only likely litigants.

Kehde told the Journal-World that at least two prospective buyers still hope to move the homes from Ohio Street before they’re torn down.

“This (announcement) does not preclude moving the houses,” she said.

University officials did not comment on that possibility, nor have they offered a demolition timeline. They can tear the houses down at any time.

The university did pledge to restore damaged relationships between KU and its surrounding neighborhoods.

“We want to be good neighbors in Lawrence,” Bretz said.