Developers have appealed the city’s denial of building permits for a Wal-Mart and unnamed restaurant at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive.

6Wak Land Investments LLC, the property owner, and Wal-Mart filed their appeals Friday with the Board of Zoning Appeals, which will hear the cases in October.

In a letter accompanying the appeal, 6Wak partner Bill Newsome wrote 6Wak thought Lawrence Neighborhood Resources Director Victor Torres “made an error of law in his permit denial.”

City officials said little about the appeals, except to acknowledge they had been filed.

Assistant City Manager Dave Corliss will be the official overseeing city staff review of the appeals.

David Guntert, a city planner, said officials did not know what level of public input would be allowed at the zoning board’s hearing.

“We are reviewing that,” he said, “and a final decision hasn’t been made.”

The appeals came a little more than a week after Torres formally rejected the permits. He did so upon the order of Douglas County District Judge Michael Malone, who ruled at the beginning of this month the city never gave a proper response when it withheld the requested permits in May.

Wal-Mart and 6Wak said in their appeals that Torres failed to state specific reasons for the rejections.

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In his Aug. 7 letter to Wal-Mart, Torres wrote: “In light of the city’s zoning ordinance and recent findings of the City Commission, the city finds that your application is denied.”

Torres was apparently referring to a Lawrence City Commission April determination that Wal-Mart is a department store — and thus prohibited from the site under terms of city zoning.

But Wal-Mart and 6Wak said in their appeals that Torres was too vague.

“Please note that because Mr. Torres failed to identify any specific requirements of the zoning ordinance or ‘findings of the City Commission’ … it is impossible for 6Wak and Wal-Mart to explain Mr. Torres’ error,” wrote Timothy Seer, an Overland Park attorney for Wal-Mart.

6Wak and Wal-Mart both asked the city to provide specific information about the denials.

The companies filed separate lawsuits this spring after officials in May refused to grant the permits and the City Commission ordered a building moratorium for the site.

City officials said the restaurant was part of the same plan under which a 132,000-square-foot Wal-Mart also would be built. Wal-Mart, they said, is a department store and thus prohibited from the site by zoning rules. 6Wak said Wal-Mart should be classified as a “variety store,” which would be allowed.

A specific date for the October zoning board hearing has not been scheduled.