To the editor:

Last Tuesday, Feb. 19, a very important and potentially far-reaching question came before the City Commission. This should be of great concern to every citizen in Lawrence and Douglas County. A developer wants to shoehorn 42 new houses into the land west of Iowa Street and immediately south of Oxford Road. He is required by the new development code standards to devote at least 20 percent of his land to open ground uses. He asked the city to use adjacent public lands (Quarry Park) for his private development to help satisfy that requirement. Commissioners are now pondering this question, and it is expected to be considered by the Planning Commission in their March meeting.

If the commissions decide in this one instance that a private developer can use public land, they will have set a dangerous precedent. In fairness, every development afterward will also be able to demand adjacent public land for their open space requirement. We think the public should let commissioners know that we do not approve of any land giveaways.

Bill Kalinich, Susan Brosseau,
Lawrence