The design work hasn’t yet begun, but there already is a debate brewing over how the city should select artists for the proposed Ninth Street arts corridor.

Tuesday night, commissioners reviewed a suggestion from a group of East Lawrence residents and other community members that at least 50 percent of all the public artwork for the multimillion-dollar project be awarded to Lawrence-based artists. In addition, the group suggests half of that half reside in East Lawrence.

But several of the city’s arts advisors recommended against the idea, instead saying an impartial jury needs to have the flexibility to pick the best artwork regardless of the geographic location of the artist.

“The selection process really is quite sacred,” Porter Arneill, the city’s new director of arts and culture, told commissioners. “If you put out a (request for proposals) that says it will favor local artists, you will have a lot of artists that won’t even bother applying.”

Some commissioners, though, said they can see the value in putting some requirements on the number of local artists that are part of the project.

Commissioners stopped short of rewriting the current requirements spelled out in a draft work plan that will guide how consultants proceed on the project. But commissioners said they may bring the issue back again in the future.

Commissioners asked whether the City Commission would have veto authority on the artists chosen for the project. Arneill said that is not how the selection process is structured, but he noted the commission does have final authority on approving the overall design of the project. Ultimately, commissioners will need to approve about $3 million in funding for the project to proceed.

“It would be tragic if we had a corridor in one of the coolest neighborhoods in the state of Kansas and we didn’t have any art from artists in that neighborhood,” Mayor Jeremy Farmer told Arneill. “Please relay that sentiment very strongly to the jury.”

The project is planned to stretch from about Massachusetts Street to the Warehouse Arts District in East Lawrence. The proposal calls for Ninth Street to be rebuilt and for the corridor to be infused with public art. The draft work plan calls for design work on the project to begin in September and for a final design to be completed in January, with multiple public meetings in between.

Several East Lawrence residents have expressed concerns the project may end up being more of an entertainment district than an arts corridor. In an effort to combat that concern, commissioners said they were interested in starting the process to create a “conservation overlay district” that would create special development regulations for the corridor.

The city-hired consultant also told the large crowd at City Hall that he absolutely was not interested in creating a design that would turn the corridor into an entertainment district.

“If the city of Lawrence wants this to become an entertainment district, they hired the wrong team,” said Josh Shelton, leader of the consulting firm el dorado inc. “That is not our agenda at all. I’m actually horrified by sanctioned entertainment districts. They don’t sit well with me at all.”

In other news, commissioners:

• Unanimously rejected a request by the organizer of a major youth basketball tournament who wanted to use all eight courts at Rock Chalk Park for a tournament in July.

The Sunflower Showcase was seeking an exemption from a city policy that says at least one of the eight basketball courts at the Rock Chalk Park recreation center must remain open for general public use at all times.

The promise of one open court for public use was a commitment the previous City Commission made while it was going through the controversial process of approving the $10.5 million recreation center. New city commissioners said they had no interest in modifying the policy, especially after many voters have expressed angst about how the city approved the Rock Chalk Park project.

“Somebody said this issue is really about rebuilding trust with the community, and I think that is true,” City Commissioner Leslie Soden said. “This was something that was promised, and we should back that promise up.”

The tournament, which is expected to attract more than 100 teams from about 15 states, still will be allowed to rent the seven other gyms at the center. The tournament is set for July 23 through 26.

• Agreed to hold a study session to discuss issues related to a potential multimillion-dollar police headquarters building at 5:45 p.m. July 20 at City Hall. But commissioners could not agree on how the agenda for that meeting should be structured. Both Soden and Commissioner Stuart Boley said they wanted broader information about how much the community expects to spend on police services over the next 15 to 20 years. Commissioners agreed that individual commissioners should make agenda suggestions to staff members. Commissioners will consider approving an agenda for the study session at their July 7 meeting.