Making Lawrence a destination.
That is what city commissioners had on their minds Tuesday night as they moved forward on a pair of issues related to downtown redevelopment and boosting local tourism.
Commissioners unanimously agreed to move ahead on creating a contract with a new nonprofit corporation that will be responsible for marketing the role Douglas County and 40 other area counties played in sparking the U.S. Civil War.
"As I've traveled across the country on business, I've argued with all type of people that the Civil War actually started in Kansas," Commissioner Rob Chestnut said. "I think we ought to make that our main objective."
Downtown may end up playing a role in driving that point home.
After moving ahead on the new tourism agreement, commissioners quickly followed that with a request for staff members to begin looking at how the state could financially help with the redevelopment of portions of downtown.
Specifically, staff members will look at the use of STAR bonds, which is a type of state financing used to help develop attractions that would draw people from outside the state.
"We're all devoted to our downtown, but I something needs to happen with it," Mayor Sue Hack said. "Simply maintaining the status quo, I don't believe is the correct path."
Freedom's Frontier
Commissioners unanimously agreed to transfer tourism marketing responsibilities to Destination Management Inc., a new nonprofit group that has grown out of the area's recent designation as the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area.
Previously the city has contracted with the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau to handle the tourism marketing of the community. But the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has been a part of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, is breaking away from the chamber and will join the new Destination Management Inc. organization.
Convention and Visitors Bureau and chamber leaders and the chair of the new national heritage area all were on hand to urge commissioners to make the change.
Deanell Tacha - a Lawrence resident and U.S. appeals court judge who has led the charge for the area to be designated as a national heritage area - told commissioners that the new group could work on creating Lawrence and the surrounding area as a major draw to tourists interested in learning more about history.
"We can create an amazing destination that will really tell our story," Tacha said. "We can show the rest of the county that this was a place that really had an impact on the development of this nation."
Commissioners were told that the new organization is expected to be operational by Nov. 1. Tacha said the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area Board already has agreed to contract with the new organization. The new city contract will allow a portion of the city's transient guest tax money - taxes paid by hotel visitors - to be transferred to the group to do promotional activity that previously was done by the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The new group is asking for additional city money, however. Judy Billings, the director of the CVB who is slated to become the director of the new organization, asked for $25,000 to help pay for a federally mandated management study that must be submitted to the Department of Interior detailing how the heritage area will be run.
The study - which will be conducted by an arm of National Geographic - is expected to cost about $300,000. The new organization already has begun to raise private funds and to apply for state and private grants to fund the rest. The organization also will be approaching the Douglas County Commission for funding.
STAR bonds
Commissioners told City Manager David Corliss to research how communities like Manhattan, Hutchinson and Wyandotte County have been able to access STAR bonds to create new destination projects such as the Kansas Speedway or a new Flint Hills tourism center that is being built in Manhattan.
The STAR bonds allow the cities to keep the state's portion of the sales tax charged in a specified district to pay for a variety of public improvements designed to boost tourism in the district.
Corliss said he would investigate that and other financing options, and would begin to schedule public meetings to get stakeholder input on the future of downtown.
"I think we'll be getting to the point where the city will be making some key decisions about downtown," Corliss said. "I think it will be a much better process if we can involve lots of people in that discussion."
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