The parcel at 1501 Learnard Ave. is shown in this undated aerial photograph from the Douglas County Geographic Information Systems Property Viewer.

A rezoning request narrowly passed by the Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday sparked debate among neighbors and commissioners about whether an industrial project should be allowed in a residential neighborhood.

With the commission’s 3-2 vote of approval to rezone the area from residential to “light industrial,” Sunrise Project — a nonprofit that hosts programs promoting healthy eating and environmental sustainability — will be allowed to locate its operation on a 3-acre lot at 1501 Learnard Ave. It also opens up the potential for Central Soy Foods to relocate its tofu and tempeh production plant to the property.

Emily Hampton, executive director of Sunrise Project, said she and David Millstein, a Lawrence businessman who leads Central Soy Foods, have received an “outpouring of support” about their combined efforts. Yet, a few residents of the Barker neighborhood, as well as two commissioners, had concerns about the tofu production operation — and about the potential for other industrial projects to take over the property in the future.

“I think the Sunrise (Project) part of it, I think what they do is wonderful; I’ve gone to their fundraisers before,” Commissioner Lisa Larsen said. “However, this intensifies the use of the property from what it was, and that really concerns me — the potential.”

The land near 15th and New York streets previously belonged to the Sunrise Garden Center, which, according to city documents, was built in 1926 and annexed to the city in 1956. Because the surrounding area was zoned as residential, the garden center was considered a nonconforming use.

Sunrise Garden Center closed in late 2013 and has remained vacant.

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According to a project report compiled by city planner Mary Miller, there is a party interested in constructing a 2,000-square-foot seed house at the location. The remaining property would likely be converted to gardens.

The city received a handful of letters of support for the project from nearby residents, and the rezoning got a unanimous recommendation of approval from the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission.

The rezoning was placed on the City Commission’s consent agenda, but Larsen pulled it off for discussion.

“I’m concerned whether this is really a good idea to change zoning to this extreme, smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood,” Larsen said.

Commissioner Matthew Herbert, as well as some neighbors who spoke Tuesday, agreed with her concerns.

“I would argue that putting a factory in a neighborhood changes the character of that neighborhood,” said Jane Gibson, a resident of the Barker Neighborhood. “The quality of life in our neighborhood would be altered.”

But others who spoke Tuesday argued Central Soy Foods, currently located off Haskell Avenue, was too small to qualify as a factory.

“I sure wouldn’t call it a factory,” said Dennis Brown, president of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance. “It’s a very low-intensity use where it is right now.”

The debate about the facility will likely be continued at City Hall.

Scott McCullough, city planning director, said the rezoning would not give Millstein authority to move forward with the production plant.

Instead, any plans for the tofu and tempeh production facility or the seed house would have to go through the process to obtain a special-use permit. That process requires a public hearing and approval from the planning commission and the City Commission.

“That’s where we get to look at the scope and scale of it and mitigate impacts such as truck traffic, noise and smell,” McCullough said. “There are future decisions that need to be made on this property.”

He also noted the type of manufacturing and production permitted with the “light industrial” zoning allowed for facilities only with fewer than 20 employees.

More so than the tofu production facility, Herbert voiced concern with what the property could become in the future, when the Sunrise Project or Central Soy Foods no longer inhabits it.

The type of zoning allows a list of permitted uses, including administrative and professional offices, retail sales, fast order food, light wholesale storage and distribution, a neighborhood religious institution and a telecommunication tower, among other things.

“I think all of us have a pretty good intention of what we want that property to be, but realistically, when it gets to the point of that property turning over, the five of us may not be here,” Herbert said. “We have to make policy not for Sunrise Green but what we want that ground to be.”

Mayor Mike Amyx said Larsen’s and Herbert’s concerns could be mitigated by putting restrictions on the project when it comes before the commission to receive a special-use permit.

A vote of 4-1 would have been required to deny the rezoning and the planning commission’s recommendation.

It passed 3-2, with a stipulation that city staff determines whether it could remove a piece of the rezoning that would allow the property to be used for a telecommunication tower.

Hampton told the Journal-World in late November that if the rezoning were approved, renovations at the site would begin in early 2016 and Sunrise Project could start offering programming at the location by the summer.

It’s unsure when Central Soy Food would apply for a special-use permit to relocate its production facility. Millstein was not reachable by phone Wednesday.