Smart growth or no growth?

One year ago this week, the Progressive Lawrence Campaign swept three candidates onto the five-member Lawrence City Commission with the promise of applying “smart-growth” principles to city issues. But critics derided the candidates — Commissioners Boog Highberger, Mike Rundle and David Schauner — as “no-growth” partisans.

Who was right?

A year later, the answer is very much in the eye of the beholder.

Commissioners and their defenders say they’ve approved plenty of residential development projects, as well as tax abatements to help two Lawrence companies — Prosoco Inc. and Amarr Garage Doors — expand.

“If you look at the actions we’ve taken over the last year, I think you’ll see a higher rate of residential development (approvals) than most city commissions,” Highberger said last week. “The pace doesn’t seem to slow down.”

But developers and builders complain the development process is getting more cumbersome. Commissioners want to see traffic-impact planning, as well as bicycle and pedestrian paths, included in plans. And the Planning Commission review process, they say, has become more difficult to wade through.

“Although some of the seemingly constant new requirements for development are helpful, many are not and only make the end result more costly with little gain,” said Bobbie Flory, executive director of the Lawrence Home Builders Assn.

But Rundle, in line to become mayor April 6, is impatient with questions of smart growth versus no growth.

“That is a question that comes from people who are not connected with reality,” he said. “Growth is simply a fact. We’re very fortunate that we can plan on it continuing to be a fact. It’s simply a matter of choosing how we grow.”

Wal-Mart

To be sure, the commission’s actions in its first year didn’t entirely revolve around issues of Lawrence’s growth. Commissioners haven’t been able to keep their fingers away from any of the city’s hot buttons.

Within the next month, for example, the commission is expected to consider a proposal to ban smoking in public places. Commissioners also are expected to give approval to a resolution critical of the federal Patriot Act, an anti-terror law critics say gives authorities unconstitutional investigative powers.

But other issues during the first year have landed smack in the middle of the city’s long-standing growth wars.

The commission, for example, has refused to issue building permits for a proposed Wal-Mart at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive. That refusal has sparked six lawsuits against City Hall with a seventh expected within weeks; so far, the legal bill to taxpayers has climbed above $100,000.

“I think resisting improper development plans at Sixth and Wakarusa — I don’t like to state a negative as an accomplishment, but in this case it has been,” Highberger said.

The city’s stance on Wal-Mart draws praise from representatives of several Lawrence institutions.

“They’ve actually started to comply with the plan that’s in Horizon 2020,” said David Geyer, president of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods.

Maria Martin, director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., agreed.

“I think this commission realizes that you need to grow, but you need to grow in a way that’s sensible for the entire community — and I think that’s good for downtown,” she said.

Others worry the battle shows the commission is unconcerned about private property rights.

“With this City Commission, process means nothing and binding approvals mean nothing,” said Bill Newsome, co-owner of the land where Wal-Mart wants to build. “Anyone who owns property in Lawrence should be very concerned about what’s going on in this case.”

‘We will suffer’

Larry McElwain, president of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, generally praised the City Commission and noted: “They have not committed a worse-case scenario.”

But he also expressed concern about the future.

“If they do things to make it harder to attract businesses, we will suffer,” McElwain said.

“I think that (commissioners) are connecting the dots as to why we need to expand the tax base to provide the services that we need,” he said. “We need new businesses which bring new money and more importantly, new jobs.”

Schauner said commissioners understand such concerns, but they aren’t interested in attracting just any jobs.

“I don’t think the city is well-served in the long run unless it attracts quality jobs that represent real growth, real value-added growth for the city,” Schauner said. “If we can’t attract jobs for people to afford living in Lawrence, we haven’t done a real good job of economic activity.”

He added: “I don’t think it’s a matter of, ‘Do we want to grow?’ It’s a matter of ‘Do we want to grow at any cost?’ I don’t think that’s a good long-term policy.”

McElwain said he was optimistic.

“The chamber and its leadership has accepted the challenge of working with this commission,” he said. “They need to hear our voice, and they have shown a willingness to do that.”

Flory, the home builders association director, echoed the comment.

“Although I don’t agree with all decisions made by this commission,” she said, “I have no doubt that each commissioner is motivated by their desire to see Lawrence continue to be a desirable community.”

Schauner, like Rundle, resists the smart growth-no growth question.

“I think it’s a myth the commission is anti-business,” he said last week. “I think the commission is pro appropriate, wise, smart growth. It’s intended to be long-lasting and adding to the real value of the community.”