Wichita ? The sale of parkland to a friend of then-Mayor Bob Knight has raised the ire of park advocates who contend the sale was not properly publicized.

On April 1 — the same day Wichita residents were voting for a new mayor and two new council members — the departing City Council sold a three-acre parcel of Planeview Park.

The sale was not advertised, nor did the city take bids, the Wichita Eagle reported Thursday.

The city accepted an offer by David Norris, who ran Knight’s campaign for governor. On the agenda, the action was listed only as sale of vacant land instead of as parkland.

Knight said the city agreed to sell the land to keep Norris from moving his plumbing supply company to another community. He said he had no conflict of interest because he had nothing to gain from the deal.

Now two nonprofit groups that donated time and money to improve the park are protesting the loss of more open space in one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

“Parkland is sacred in other communities. You don’t touch it, ever,” said Debra Foster, head of Greenways Alliance, a nonprofit group that raises money for Wichita’s parks. “Here, I can’t believe the parks are up for grabs if the right deal comes along.”

The land is part of the 116-acre Planeview Park and is wedged between the fire department’s training center and Interstate 35. Norris paid the appraised value, about $33,000.

The land isn’t much of a park, said Phil Lambke, the council member who represents the area.

“We are not selling that much ground,” he said. “It isn’t going to affect that area much at all. We get some money out of it. That is what we ought to be doing, I think.”

Members of Project Beauty and the Greenways Alliance contend the land being sold is an open space, with grass and wildflowers. The park department recently planted 40 trees on the land. Project Beauty donated a bench that was positioned to provide a view of the city’s skyline.

Rosemary Weber, a member of the Greenways Alliance, said she spent 10 years to get a bike path built in Planeview Park.

John Philbrick, the city’s property manager, said the groups had a chance to protest in January and February when the land was being rezoned for industrial purposes. No one opposed the zoning change.

The Planeview neighborhood was built by the federal government during World War II to provide temporary housing for aircraft workers.

At the close of the war, the federal government deeded the land to the city of Wichita.