All or nothing.

The Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday is expected to pass a resolution that would put developers of the defunct Farmland fertilizer plant on notice: They won’t get city services if they develop the good parts of the property while leaving the public to pay for environmental cleanup on the rest of the site.

“I would think a properly planned project … is going to want city utilities at some point,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said.

Officials don’t want Farmland sticking taxpayers with the bill for cleaning up years of pollution at the 467-acre property east of Lawrence, something commissioners fear could happen if the cooperative sells off relatively uncontaminated areas around the plant for private development of homes, businesses or anything else.

“It would be possible to cherry-pick the good assets, and leave the bad assets without an entity to oversee those environmental concerns,” said Assistant City Manager Dave Corliss.

The resolution commits City Hall to refusing to annex or extend city services to those good parts of the property unless the environmental issues are dealt with on the remaining portions.

“It’s a fairly important piece of land,” Mayor David Dunfield said. “This is a way the city and county have come up with to ensure the whole property gets redeveloped together.”

The problems, officials say: “heavy” nitrate contamination in filtration ponds at the northern end of the site; presence of hexavalent chromium near the center of the plant; and a potential for asbestos issues throughout the plant itself.

Officials say they’re not worried about scaring off developers with the all-or-nothing requirement.

County seeks Farmland study (1-29-04) Industrial, open use urged for Farmland property (1-22-04) 6News video: Farmland clean-up may be paid for by KDHE (11-18-03) Spring cleanup to boost Farmland project (11-6-03) Auction to clear way for Farmland plant sale (10-23-03) Housing proposed near Farmland (9-17-03)

“We want to see it redeveloped,” said Douglas County Commission Chairman Charles Jones, who has taken the lead among city and county officials on the issue. “The best way to do that is develop it as a parcel, instead of leaving the liabilities on a smaller and smaller footprint.”

Farmland officials have maintained that the Kansas City, Mo.-based cooperative had no intention of turning over an environmental mess to the public. Farmland has posted a $482,750 bond to cover the expected costs of the future cleanup.

But city and county officials have concerns, just the same.

Douglas County commissioners in November sent a letter to Rod Bremby, Kansas Department of Health and Environment secretary, calling for the department to “ensure that adequate resources will be available to complete remediation and that remediation costs will not become a taxpayer burden.”

Such assurances, commissioners said, should come after the department determines how much it will cost to clean up the chemical mess.

Removing nitrates, chromium and lead from the property is expected to require “some decades before the problem is resolved,” commissioners said in their letter.

The Lawrence City Commission will consider the resolution at its next meeting, 6:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.