Salvation Army wins OK to relocate shelter

Brook Creek neighborhood remains wary

The Salvation Army received approval Tuesday to build a new homeless shelter in East Lawrence, despite opposition from residents of the neighborhood where it will be.

“It’s a very difficult decision,” Mayor Mike Rundle said as commissioners voted unanimously to approve the proposed site plan. “This is a family neighborhood that has been slowly chipped away.”

Commissioners said they were limited to a technical review of the proposal because zoning for the property — on the west side of Haskell Avenue, between Lynn and Homewood streets — allows a shelter to be built there.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Beth Anne Mansur, president of the Brook Creek Neighborhood Assn., which opposed the project. “We’ll have to live with it, see how it works out.”

Officials with the Salvation Army said there wasn’t a timeline for building the shelter. Public fund-raising for the project — expected to cost $4 million — has not begun.

‘Just takes one’

The shelter is part of a larger, 34,000-square-foot Salvation Army center that would be twice as large as the current headquarters at 946 N.H.

The homeless shelter would include temporary sleeping quarters for families, women and men seeking employment and permanent housing.

The center also would house a food bank, rooms for classwork and case-management services, a gymnasium, dining areas and a chapel for the Army’s church services.

Robert Taylor, left, and Natasha Hulme sit outside the Salvation Army, 946 N.H., waiting for the overnight shelter to open. The Lawrence City Commission decided Tuesday to approve a new Salvation Army shelter in the Brook Creek neighborhood, although the plan drew vocal opposition from residents there.

City planners recommended approval of the site plan, saying the proposal conformed to the property’s industrial zoning.

But neighbors opposed the proposal, saying they feared for their property values, the increased risk of flooding caused by the new buildings and, most of all, children who live in the neighborhood and attend programs at nearby East Heights, Pelathe Community Resource Center and the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence.

“We are not saying all homeless people are unstable,” Mansur told commissioners, “but it only takes one to cause a problem.”

Neighborhood activists presented a petition they said contained 255 signatures of residents opposed to the plan.

‘A safe place’

There was backing for the proposal from some advocates for the homeless.

“I’m rating this as a quality program for the community,” said Jim Schneider, a clinical psychologist who serves on the city’s Task Force on Homeless Services. “It’s certainly part of the homelessness solution in Lawrence.”

text 6News video: Salvation Army to find new home in East Lawrencetext Salvation Army seeks OK for project (5-25-04)text Salvation Army shelter plan ready for City Commission (4-8-04)

Salvation Army administrator Rich Forney attended the meeting, but did not speak after suffering a stroke earlier in the month.

“Lawrence homeless individuals deserve a safe place while they start getting back on their feet,” Forney said in a letter to commissioners.

Downtown effects

The commission’s decision seems likely to produce at least a small change in the look of downtown.

Pepperjax Grill, for example, was refused a license to serve beer earlier this year because of its location across the street from the Salvation Army — city code generally prohibits alcohol sales so near a church. Other bars and restaurants downtown had to get a waiver from the requirement to serve alcoholic drinks.

“I would assume that once the church relocates, those businesses would be free to reapply” for licenses, Commissioner Sue Hack said after the vote.

Moving the shelter also will take it out of the downtown orbit of other agencies that serve the homeless, including Lawrence Open Shelter — which takes drunken homeless persons not served by the Salvation Army — the Community Drop-In Center and Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen.

“The shelter should not be moved so far from downtown,” Mansur said.

Hack said, however, that other social services were located in East Lawrence and throughout town.

“We have services all over the community, in churches and in social service leagues,” she said. “That will continue to be the case.”

¢ Jan. 31, 2001: The Salvation Army formally unveils plans for a homeless shelter at 15th Street and Haskell Avenue.¢ Jan. 31, 2001: Brook Creek Neighborhood Assn. members, at a meeting with Salvation Army officials, overwhelmingly declare their opposition to the proposal.¢ Feb. 8, 2001: The Housing and Neighborhood Development advisory committee approves spending $200,000 to prepare a new site for the proposed shelter — but declines to endorse the site itself.¢ April 2001: Salvation Army officials take Brook Creek Neighborhood residents to Independence, Mo., to view a community center similar to the one proposed for here.¢ Late 2001-2002: Salvation Army officials say they’ve pulled back from the proposal and begin looking again for a site.¢ Oct. 15, 2003: Army officials announce a revived plan for a community center — including a homeless shelter — for the west side of Haskell Avenue, between Lynn and Homewood streets. The new site is just a few blocks south of the earlier proposed site.¢ Nov. 12, 2003: Brook Creek Neighborhood Assn. members, at a meeting with Salvation Army officials, overwhelmingly declare their opposition to the proposal. They prepare letters to national Salvation Army officials to ask that another site be chosen.¢ Jan. 3: Barker Neighborhood Assn. members meet to declare their opposition to the proposal.¢ April 7: The Salvation Army submits its proposed site plan for the Haskell Avenue site to the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department.¢ Tuesday: The Lawrence City Commission approves the proposal.