Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday night backed away — at least temporarily — from making a 10-acre donation of land to the local Boys & Girls Club after residents accused the commission of trying to use the donation to garner votes for a proposed $28 million police headquarters building.

“This is a veiled, or unveiled, attempt to soften the tax blow that is at hand,” said Lawrence resident Greg Robinson, referring to the proposed 0.2 percent sales tax that is on the Nov. 4 ballot to fund the police headquarters proposal.

Commissioners were considering a request to donate 10 acres that are part of a 47-acre parcel near the Kansas Turnpike interchange on McDonald Drive. The city has agreed to buy the 47-acre site for $2.25 million for the police headquarters, if voters approve the sales tax in November. The city needs only about 15 acres of the site for the police project and has said it will put the remainder of the site to other uses.

Leaders with the Boys & Girls Club have said they have a desire to build up to a 30,000-square-foot teen center that would greatly expand the capacity of sixth- through eighth-graders the club can serve. Leaders said the McDonald Drive site would work well but noted the club hasn’t yet completed a feasibility study to determine whether it can raise the money to build a center.

Regardless, the club asked the city to make the donation of land now because it would be helpful as consultants approach potential donors. The donation would have been contingent on voters approving the Nov. 4 sales tax question.

On Tuesday, though, commissioners offered their support for the project but not yet their land. Commissioners unanimously agreed to make a statement that the city will assist the Boys & Girls Club to find a location for the teen center, which could include a donation of city land. But commissioners did not promise any particular site and said they would support the project regardless of whether the sales tax question is approved in November.

Commissioner Bob Schumm said he thought it was important to decouple the Boys & Girls Club and police headquarters issues.

“I have a concern that we agreed to ask the public to vote on a police station,” Schumm said. “We did not ask them to vote on a police center and a Boys & Girls Club (facility).”

An off-hand conversation at the end of last week’s meeting, however, left some residents concerned commissioners were pushing the Boys & Girls Club donation through to gain support for the police project. Farmer at last week’s meeting asked that the donation issue be put on this week’s agenda. As the discussion progressed, Schumm made an aside comment to Commissioner Jeremy Farmer that he hoped Boys & Girls Club members would be reminded to go campaign for the police headquarters project. Farmer replied that he thought they would be very supportive of the campaign.

On Tuesday night, Farmer said he was frustrated that people were trying to make the Boys & Girls Club project out to be some quid pro quo arrangement. He noted that the idea of possibly donating property to the Boys & Girls Club had been brought up at a public meeting and reported on several weeks ago.

“The other way this could have come to light is to wait until after the sales tax vote was approved, and then every person would come here and say that we did this under the table,” Farmer said.

In other news, commissioners:

• Unanimously approved new regulations that will make it easier for food trucks to operate in the city limits.

• Delayed taking action on a request by a Chicago-development group to receive an exemption from the city’s parking code for a proposed apartment/retail project across the street from KU’s Memorial Stadium. Commissioners said they wanted more information before making a decision.

• Approved a 15-year, 95-percent property tax rebate for a 43-unit apartment project at 900 Delaware St. The tax rebate proposal did not meet all the guidelines in the city’s financial incentives policy, but commissioners said the fact the apartment project is predominately providing rent-controlled, affordable housing makes it worthy of the incentive.