Largest-ever Habitat project awaiting approval by city

Plan honoring volunteer would include 16 homes in North Lawrence

For 15 years, Clay Comfort helped build homes for low-income Lawrence families. Now, some homes may be built in his honor.

“It couldn’t be a better way to remember Clay,” said his widow, Ardis Comfort. “I don’t think he would believe it. He would be so pleased.”

Clay Comfort, a longtime Habitat for Humanity volunteer and former board president, died of lymphoma in 2004. Now the local Habitat chapter is finalizing plans for Comfort neighborhood, a 16-unit subdivision proposed for the east end of Walnut Street in North Lawrence.

It would be the local Habitat chapter’s biggest undertaking to date.

On Friday the project’s engineers submitted what they hope will be the final street, storm sewer and water line plans for the site. They hope to have a response from the city within two weeks.

It was the third time the agency has submitted plans for the site. That’s not an unusual amount of back-and-forth, said project engineer Chris Storm of Landplan Engineering.

Jean Lilley, left, executive director of Lawrence Habitat for Humanity, and Ardis Comfort, widow of former Habitat volunteer Clay Comfort, look over some ground near Walnut Street in North Lawrence, where the local Habitat chapter plans to build a 16-unit neighborhood.

Still, Jean Lilley, executive director of Lawrence Habitat for Humanity, said the approval process had taken longer than expected. She said the agency would have to begin building and raising money as soon as plans are approved. Under the terms of a $130,000 grant that’s paying for part of the project, seven homes must be built by June 2007.

“We feel like we need to get started very soon here so we can get started on construction of the houses, because we do need to fundraise for all seven of those homes,” she said. “It’s really going to strain our program here.”

In the best-case scenario, construction of the homes would begin in April, Lilley said. Under Habitat’s guidelines, eligible families are those who earn between 30 percent and 60 percent of the median income, adjusted for family size.

Douglas County’s median household income in 1999 was $37,547, according to U.S. Census figures.

The local Habitat chapter has built 58 homes for low-income families since it began in 1989. The agency requires eligible homeowners to help build their future homes.

Comfort, who died at age 74, served for 34 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He reached the rank of major general and moved to Lawrence in 1989 upon retirement.

He served as president of the local Habitat chapter’s board from 2000 to 2003.