Tuesday’s City Commission meeting features the Lawrence school district’s plan to build new athletic facilities at Lawrence High School and Free State High School.

The proposal has irked Lawrence High’s neighbors, who complain about the prospect of higher traffic, noise and light pollution, drainage issues and the project’s effect on the environment.

They also wonder how the project will be funded.

“The district has made a number of interesting comments on how they are going to pay for this, and to date, we have heard nothing about payment,” said Arly Allen, who lives in the Centennial Neighborhood. He said requests by the Centennial Neighborhood Association for documentation of how the district plans to pay for the projects have been met with refusal.

Funding options explored

The district does not yet know how the project will be funded, but Mary Rodriguez, chief operations officer, said several ideas were being discussed. She said she hoped to have a solution by the time the proposal reaches the school board on Sept. 22.

In January, the board was presented with line-item estimates of the Free State and LHS projects, totaling about $14.5 million. Rodriguez said the district was still negotiating some costs.

“I think, at this point, our task was to find out what options are available so there would not be a tax increase for the public,” she said.

Rodriguez said the district has explored numerous options, including a lease-purchase deal with private financiers and a performance control arrangement, where the savings the district says it will amass will eventually pay for some of the project.

But Allen, like many neighbors, is concerned that the fast-track plans are near-sighted.

“Can you imagine undertaking a project of this size when you don’t know how you’re going to pay for it?”

Rodriguez said the district will continue to identify funding options.

“We certainly plan that whatever is decided is something we can live with, and not overspend or create a problem for the future,” she said.

KU partnership unlikely

While neighbors scramble to persuade the district to rethink its plans, Lawrence attorney Jerry Harper proposed combining the 4,000-seat LHS football stadium with a track stadium that Kansas University may build in the future.

The handful of football games LHS plays wouldn’t conflict much with events at the track stadium, such as the Kansas Relays, Harper said. By contributing school district money to construct the track stadium, both parties’ needs could be met, he said.

“The neighbors are concerned about putting too much stuff in too small a space near the high school,” said Harper, who does not live in the neighborhood. “It seems to me to make perfect sense that the two parties could work together.”

But Harper’s idea may be premature. Jim Marchiony, KU’s associate athletics director, said it would be difficult to meet the needs of both the district and the university, especially for a facility for which no solid plans exist.

“They have needs. We have needs,” he said. “It would be very hard to see how those two would be compatible.”

Superintendent Randy Weseman and Marchiony both said the idea had never been brought up.

“KU has different priorities. The funding sources on this are different. There are complications in putting public money in either land or a project we don’t own,” Weseman said. “I’m all for partnerships, and I’m not saying this couldn’t be discussed, but this has never come up in how we could use our facilities.”

Marchiony said a discussion could be possible, but said it was unlikely. Weseman said the district prefers to keep students on campus as a safety measure.

Weseman hopeful

Weseman said he is hopeful the City Commission will approve the district’s construction plans, despite the neighbors’ strong opposition. He said the commission’s decision has more to do with whether or not the plans are up to code than whether they are good for the neighborhood.

“It’s all a function of satisfying the standards and the code. It’s not a question of do we want it there. It’s a question of are we going to meet the standards and codes of the city,” he said.

Still, he is hopeful the district can come to an agreement with the Centennial neighbors.

“I think the neighbors are genuine in their concerns that their neighborhood could be disrupted. We’re going to do everything we can to mitigate that,” he said.

That might not be enough for neighbors like Allen, who don’t think the district has been totally forthcoming with its plans.

“We are concerned about the behavior of the school district in this matter,” he said. “We do not feel they have been transparent. We do not feel that they have been totally fair with the public.”