Hopes that an abandoned rail corridor can become part of a major hiking and biking trail have led to a request for a building moratorium in a section of eastern Lawrence.

Officials with the Brook Creek, Barker and East Lawrence neighborhood associations are asking the Lawrence City Commission to consider a moratorium on building permits for property within 500 feet of the abandoned Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail corridor that runs just west of Haskell Avenue between 11th and 23rd streets.

They also are asking commissioners to begin an area plan that would determine future uses for the approximately two-mile-long corridor.

“There’s a concern that this trail won’t ever develop if we don’t have a plan,” said Beth Anne Mansur, president of the Brook Creek Neighborhood Assn. “It has been talked about for a long time but, I think, it has just been a low priority. We want to do something to bring it back up again.”

City commissioners are scheduled to discuss the request at their meeting at 6:35 p.m. tonight at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.

No ‘issue’

The trail would connect on the north with a bike path on 15th Street and on the south with an existing trail that runs from 23rd Street to 29th streets along the eastern edge of Haskell Indian Nations University.

Mansur said the moratorium was needed to ensure new development didn’t make it more difficult for the trail project to move forward.

But the moratorium idea is drawing concern from the Lawrence Home Builders Assn.

“I think it is a great idea to plan that corridor,” said Bobbie Flory, executive director of the association. “But I don’t like to see building-permit moratoriums. Generally I don’t support moratoriums unless there’s some sort of health, safety and welfare issue. It doesn’t sound like this has any of those issues.”

Beth Anne Mansur, left, and her daughter, Clarate Heckler, 8, walk along a line of abandoned railroad tracks near 15th and Maryland streets. Mansur is the president of the Brook Creek Neighborhood Assn., which is one of three neighborhood associations seeking a building permit moratorium and an area plan for the vacant Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway corridor in eastern Lawrence. Mansur and her daughter walked the abandoned tracks Monday.

The moratorium, even if approved, isn’t expected to affect a subdivision planned for the southwest corner of 15th Street and Haskell Drive. The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission is scheduled to hear a proposal for the 35-home neighborhood at its Wednesday meeting.

Ownership questioned

Allen Belot is a developer of the planned neighborhood, called Parnell Park Subdivision. He’s happy to see the neighborhood groups trying to push the trail project forward.

“We see the trail as an asset to the community at large,” Belot said. “It would be a great way to link all these neighborhoods together. But there’s some definite hurdles out there.”

In particular, the vacant railroad property is part of a tangled web of legal questions. David Corliss, assistant city manager and director of legal services, said there was confusion about who owns the corridor. The city has hired an area title company, Kansas Secured Title, to investigate whether the railroad still owns the property or if adjacent landowners inherited the property when the railroad abandoned its tracks.

The answer will make a big difference in the future of any trail. If the adjacent landowners own the property, the city would have to negotiate land easements that would allow the trail to run through the corridor. If the railroad still owns the property, it is possible city officials could use federal Rails to Trails legislation to use it. That legislation would allow the city to build the trail through the corridor without paying adjacent property owners for easements.

Corliss said the title company probably would complete its investigation in the next two to three weeks.

6News video: East Lawrence tracks cause zoning concerns

Easement costs

Its findings will affect more than just the trail project. That’s because the rail corridor already is home to a major sewer line that serves thousands of Lawrence residents. If the rail property is found to be owned by adjacent landowners, the city may be forced to pay property owners for a sewer line easement.

Corliss declined to comment on how much money the city could be liable for, but said he didn’t expect it would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“When you look at that corridor, there is very little that can be developed there,” Corliss said. “But it is a concern that needs to be answered. All we’re saying now is that it may or may not be an issue that we have to deal with in the future.”