Results from a new Lawrence Chamber of Commerce survey show significant concern about the city’s “no-growth” politics, its planning process and an unfriendly business environment.

But words from Albert Neutel may do more to tell just how upset some industrial and technology-related businesses are with the community.

“If somebody would come to me today and ask if I could recommend them moving their business to Lawrence, I honestly would have to say no,” said Neutel, chairman for The Reuter Organ Co. “I just can’t imagine why anyone should put up with this nonsense. I find it so unfriendly, I just can’t emphasize it enough.”

Chamber officials began releasing results of their first Business Retention Survey last week and are scheduled to make a presentation to city commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting.

The city’s local “no-growth” politics were cited as the community’s top barrier to future growth, followed by the city’s stringent planning and permitting process, and a generally unfriendly business environment. In a separate but similar question, businesses ranked local politics and an unfriendly business environment as the community’s top two weaknesses.

“It was a definite trend,” Lynn Parman, the chamber’s vice president of economic development, said about concerns of government and an unwelcoming attitude. “I went out and talked to lots of people and so many of them were telling me the same thing.”

The survey, though, didn’t target all businesses or all types of businesses. Parman, beginning in October and finishing in June, interviewed 51 businesses that were primarily in the industrial and technology sectors. Between them, they employed about 6,600 employees, or about 13 percent of the total number of people who work in Douglas County.

“For the most part, these are businesses that could choose to locate anywhere in the U.S. and they choose to be in Lawrence,” Parman said. “So, we want to know why and what we need to do to keep them in Lawrence.”

Seeking consistency

The survey attempted to delve deeper into why some businesses were unhappy with local government. Community planning efforts were the No. 1 complaint, with 46 percent of respondents ranking them as below average or poor.

Specifically, respondents said the planning process was inconsistent and often lacked common sense.

Neutel, whose company built a new manufacturing facility two years ago in northern Lawrence, said that was definitely his top complaint with the city.

He cited the example of a dispute his company had with city officials over the width of his driveway. Neutel said the driveway needed to be wider than normal to allow for large semi-trucks to be able to back up to the building.

City officials insisted that the widest the code allowed was 30 feet. Eventually, Reuter was allowed to build a 37-foot-wide driveway, about three feet narrower than Neutel wanted, but only if an island was placed in the middle of it, which Neutel said still made it difficult for trucks to navigate.

“We had to fight them to get that,” Neutel said. “There is just no common sense to these things.”

Neutel said he also had become increasingly concerned about the possibility of a living-wage ordinance, although only 4 percent of other survey respondents mentioned it as a future barrier to growth.

Neutel said he was concerned enough about the business environment in Lawrence, that if he could turn back time he may have made a different decision two years ago when he chose to keep the company in Lawrence.

“I really have my doubts that we would still be here,” Neutel said. “If I knew then what I know now, it is clear that we could have gone to a much friendlier community and one much better for business.”

City response

The survey results aren’t surprising to city officials, Mayor David Dunfield said. The city conducted an image survey in late 2002. As part of the survey, 29 anonymous community leaders were interviewed about city services. Many of the same concerns were voiced by that group.

Dunfield said the city took the concerns seriously and had started to make improvements. He said planning officials were near the end of a process to rewrite the city’s zoning and subdivision codes, which he said were badly out of date.

“I think that is a legitimate point,” Dunfield said about planning inconsistencies. “Our zoning and subdivision regulations have been patched together for years now, and once we’re done rewriting them, it will give us more consistency and clarity.”

Dunfield said the city also was in the process of adding a staff member to the Planning Department to help it meet growing demand.

But Dunfield also said the survey results had to be put into perspective.

“Certainly local politics is always going to be something that businesses find to be a nuisance,” Dunfield said. “I think that is true in any community, but it is a part of doing business.”

Dunfield also said he thought the large amount of public participation in local government was what some businesses found frustrating, but he said he believed that also was one of the reasons why Lawrence has a strong quality of life. Quality of life was ranked by survey respondents as the third greatest community strength.

It also is unclear whether concerns about an unfriendly business climate are widespread. The city’s image survey conducted a scientific survey of 1,700 city residents, and respondents generally found no problem with the community’s attitude toward businesses.

Dunfield said the city also routinely did well in outside rankings, specifically citing a recent Forbes magazine study that ranked Lawrence as the seventh best small city in the country for business and careers.

“That Forbes ranking sort of contradicts the perception that we’re unfriendly,” Dunfield said.

He also said he didn’t understand how businesses thought the city was participating in “no-growth” politics.

“I would just say look at our growth,” Dunfield said. “If we’re a no-growth city, we’re not doing a very good job at it. We’re failing miserably.

“We heard a lot of that rhetoric about an anti-growth City Commission during the campaign. This City Commission just needs to be given a chance to show what it is really about.”

Next steps

The survey by the chamber is scheduled to be done annually, Parman said. She said the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board would study the results and likely create a committee to make recommendations or start programs on its own to address concerns.

For example, she said the chamber already was planning an October awards event that will recognize outstanding businesses. She said the committee also may study the feasibility of the city creating a business ombudsman that would be a link between city government and businesses.

Economic development board members at a meeting Tuesday said they planned to take the survey results seriously, and they hoped they would create a community discussion.

“The message needs to go out to our elected officials that we’re serious about addressing these issues,” said Shirley Martin-Smith, a board member, owner of a Lawrence employment agency and former mayor. “We need to let them know that this is fresh information and we won’t let it go stale.”