Two competing mall developers both got the commercial zoning they wanted from the Topeka City Commission. The approval was a major hurdle for developers who had requested the commercial zoning more than a year earlier on adjoining tracts at 21st and Wanamaker in southwest Topeka. Commercial zoning for 60 acres owned by Sam Coen on the northwest corner of the intersection was approved for Melvin Simon and Associates, Indianapolis. Sixty acres owned by Donald and Phil Shideler at Interstate 470 and Wanamaker Road also were rezoned for commercial development. Jacobs-Kahan Co. of Chicago had an option on that property. The vote gave developers two years to build. After that, the land was to revert to its previous agricultural zoning.

The 1982 local races for the Kansas Legislature would not be any “picnic,” local Democratic leader David Berkowitz warned party members. “It’s going to be a hard and dirty race,” he said. Democrats facing re-election were House members Jessie Branson, Betty Jo Charlton and John Solbach. Berkowitz predicted victory for all three but only after “difficult campaigns.”