Report advises $5M investment in green space

City commission to discuss plan this week; county will follow

If the community wants to preserve critical pieces of open space for future generations, it needs to spend upward of $5 million between now and 2015.

Members of the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board are scheduled to deliver a report to city commissioners Tuesday detailing the need for an investment in several open space projects – ranging from a new pedestrian bridge across the Kansas River to preserving scarce pieces of native prairie.

“I think everyone has visited places, unlike Lawrence, that are a lot of buildings and pavement but not much natural space,” said RoxAnne Miller, executive director of the Lawrence-based Kansas Land Trust and a member of the economic development board. “That’s what we don’t want to have happen here.”

The report recommends that the community spend $2.35 million between now and 2015 for four specific open space projects, and reserve another $2.65 million for future, undetermined open space purchases.

The open space effort would be done in conjunction with a program to increase the amount of industrial park locations in the county. The economic development board is estimating that upward of $20 million will need to be spent by 2015 to build at least one new industrial park. The board said $5 million would be a fair amount to use for open space purposes because that’s roughly how much the community would have to invest in a $20 million business park. The remaining $15 million would be directly paid back through land sales to industrial tenants.

The report, though, doesn’t discuss how to fund either the open space or industrial projects. Miller said before specific funding options are discussed, there needs to be a consensus from the city and county commissions that they like the general plans.

Thus far, several city commissioners have said they’re open to the idea, though they said there would be much work to sell the idea to the general public.

“On first blush, I think open space is important to the livability of the city,” said City Commissioner David Schauner. “Once ground is developed, it really is gone forever in terms of open space.

“And you know, I suspect when the city first bought South Park, there were a lot of people who maybe didn’t think it was a good idea. But there’s a lot of people today who think it was a great idea.”

Mayor Boog Highberger, who also is on the economic development board, said he hoped that by combining open space and economic development efforts it would make it easier for both types of projects to win community support in the future.

“That’s important because both types of projects are crucial for our future,” Highberger said.

The idea of combining open space and industrial projects has been around since a group of community members representing development and environmental interests began meeting in 2001 under the name ECO 2. The group at one time had explored putting a countywide sales tax on the ballot, but never moved forward with the idea because there were questions about whether the public would support the new tax.

Mike Maddox, chairman of the economic development board, said there would still be plenty of questions from the public about how to fund this effort, but he’s glad the community is exploring it.

“I don’t think anybody is real supportive of raising taxes to do it, so it is going to be challenging,” Maddox said. “But the time to start planning for this is now.”

City commissioners will discuss the report at their 6:35 p.m. meeting on Tuesday at City Hall. Douglas County Commissioners also will receive the report in the near future.

Project list

Here’s a look at the four open space projects the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board is recommending for funding by 2015:

¢ Kansas River pedestrian bridge: The bridge would cross the river at approximately North Eighth and Oak streets in North Lawrence. It would connect to trails along the Kansas River and city trails that would lead all the way to the Wakarusa River. The entire bridge and trail project is estimated to cost $5 million. The report recommends funding at least $1.5 million to get the project started.

¢ Black Jack Battlefield preservation: The report recommends $300,000 go toward paying for land costs and restoring native prairies at the battlefield site, which is east of Baldwin near U.S. Highway 56.

¢ Baldwin Woods preservation: Another $300,000 would be devoted to purchasing a conservation easement to ensure that development doesn’t occur on 100 acres of high-quality forest land immediately west of Kansas University’s Breidenthal Biological Reserve near County Road 1055 north of Baldwin.

¢ Native prairie preservation. The report recommends $250,000 to preserve pieces of native prairie that still exist in the county. A specific location hasn’t been finalized, but RoxAnne Miller said environmentalists were in negotiations to purchase 150 acres of property near Lone Star Lake that could be a location for a small native prairie park and information center.