From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 29, 1988:

After a debate lasting about 2 1/2 hours, a request to downzone a large portion of the Oread neighborhood was defeated this week. The Lawrence City Commission voted 3-2, with commissioners Dennis Constance and Mike Rundle opposed, to concur with a recommendation from the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission rejecting a request for mandatory downzoning of 119 Oread lots in favor of a voluntary downzoning plan. The Oread Neighborhood Association had been requesting a zoning change for several years in an attempt to stem a tide of new apartment development.

A proposal to build a shopping center along the Kansas River won the city commission’s unanimous support. Mayor Bob Schumm was authorized by commissioners to give a letter to the developers stating that officials supported the basic project concept and were willing to work out remaining details in time to sign a lease agreement next week. The East Coast-based Chelsea Group had proposed building a 150,000-square-foot factory outlet shopping center, tentatively called the Kansas River Plaza, just east of city hall on city-owned land now occupied by old Bowersock Mills & Power Co. warehouses.

Ground was broken this week for a new $12 million building on the Kansas University campus. The four-story Robert Dole Human Development Center, to be located on the north side of Sunnyside Avenue, was to be ready for occupancy in 1990, KU officials said.