Future of Farmland plant uncertain

County commissioners want 467-acre complex to be redeveloped

A barren fertilizer plant is being looked upon as fertile ground for development of a new industrial park or other use in southeast Lawrence.

Douglas County commissioners quietly are pushing for redevelopment of the former Farmland Industries nitrogen plant along the north side of Kansas Highway 10, just east of town.

Douglas County Commissioners are looking to redevelop the Farmland Industries nitrogen plant on Kansas Highway 10. The plant has been closed since May 2001.

The 467-acre complex, a producer nitrogen fertilizer for a half century, one day could become home to a burgeoning life-sciences research park, an expanded Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds or perhaps a first-of-its-kind open space to help meet the community’s thirst for passive recreational land in an urban environment.

Charles Jones, commission chairman, figures the land could serve one or more of such needs, depending on an evolving market for real estate and community commitment to long-term planning.

But one thing’s for sure, he said: The rusting machinery, idle pumps and empty parking lot can’t sit there for long.

“It’s an entryway to our city, and it’s an ugly entryway to our city,” said Jones, who has been investigating the plant’s legacy at the behest of county and Lawrence city commissioners. “It’s also a potential site for industrial expansion, and we need sites for industrial expansion. …

“I think a fiscally responsible decision would be to put that property back to work, rather than just having it sit out there as an eyesore.”

The plant has been closed since May 2001, a year before Farmland filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and began work to liquidate its assets. The cooperative eventually would sell its other, more modern fertilizer plants.

But the Lawrence complex, opened in 1954, remained an albatross. The plant was the cooperative’s most costly and least efficient, and had been shut down intermittently in the months leading up to the permanent closure because of maintenance problems, explosions and market pressures.

The site also faces its share of environmental issues. Jones said his biggest concern about the site was the presence of nitrates, chromium, lead and other chemicals that would be expected to linger within the land for years after Farmland’s ultimate departure.

Farmland officials insist the property will not be abandoned.

“It will be ready to be sold as development property, in the long run,” said Sherlyn Manson, a spokeswoman for the bankrupt cooperative. “Either we will clean it up or we will ensure, by contract, that the buyer will clean it up.”

City and county commissioners continue to keep tabs on the process, and remain willing to explore possibilities for buying the property should no private investors come forward. Jones has briefed leaders of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce about the possibilities.

In March, city commissioners agreed that the city should not annex the property into the city unless its environmental problems were addressed.