Kansas University is threatening to sue the city over a proposed “university” zoning district that would give Lawrence officials more power over campus expansion into surrounding neighborhoods.

In a June 6 letter to City Manager Mike Wildgen, Lawrence attorney Jane Eldredge said state law didn’t allow the city to make any rules governing a state agency like KU. Eldredge, hired to represent the university, urged Wildgen to withdraw the proposal before taking it to the general public.

If the zoning proposal proceeds, she wrote, “the university will have no choice but to enter what likely will be a protracted legal battle.”

The threat angered Lawrence City Commissioner Mike Rundle on Tuesday. He said KU officials were trying to end discussion of the proposal before it even started.

“This letter seemed sort of pre-emptive in nature, which seems fairly typical of the university — to chop things off at the knees if at all possible,” Rundle said.

No enforcement

City officials say they can’t remember if the city has ever enforced its zoning rules with KU, though 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 last year when the university zoning issue was first raised.

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.

Discussion of the special university district grew during the course of the battle over KU’s decision to demolish three century-old houses in the 1300 block of Ohio Street. Those houses eventually were torn down despite fierce opposition from neighbors who said KU had broken a promise not to encroach on their neighborhood.

KU brought neighbors into the process of designing a new scholarship hall where the houses stood. Neighborhood advocates have continued to pursue the zoning.

¢ Letter from Mike Wildgen to Jane Eldredge¢ Letter from Jane Eldredge to City Manager Mike Wildgen

“It is certainly a big priority for the neighborhoods that are adjacent to the university,” said Caleb Morse, president of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods.

“It really brings the planning process into public view — and that’s where neighborhoods have suffered in the recent past,” Morse said. “While neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by changes, there’s no forum for them to be heard.”

Critical issues

Lynn Bretz, a university spokeswoman, said Tuesday that KU wasn’t trying to pre-empt the discussion. The problem, she said, is that the university has not been consulted about the creation of the zoning proposal.

“There’s a couple of critical issues that need to be worked out,” Bretz said.

But Eldredge’s letter indicated KU believed there was nothing to discuss. Only the Kansas Board of Regents has authority to regulate the university’s growth, Eldredge wrote.

“For a local unit of government to attempt to usurp or limit this authority is unacceptable,” Eldredge said.

Wildgen on Monday responded with a letter inviting the university to participate in upcoming public meetings on the zoning proposal.

Wildgen wrote if the commission approved the code, “it will be because such regulation is legally appropriate and the balanced interests of both the university and the Lawrence community are best served by such regulation.”

The proposed code revisions will be made public June 23; “listening meetings” with the public are planned for July, with possible City Commission approval slated for October.