Lawrence City Commission denies incentives for downtown condo project

Former City Commissioner Bob Schumm has filed plans to build a five-story building on a pair of vacant lots in the 800 block of Vermont Street.

Going against an outside consultant’s recommendation, the Lawrence City Commission voted not to provide public incentives for a luxury condominium project downtown.

The commissioners who voted against the incentives — Lisa Larsen, Matthew Herbert and Leslie Soden — said the mixed-use commercial and residential development didn’t provide enough public benefit to warrant incentives.

“I think each of us has to determine what’s the public good,” Larsen said.

Herbert compared the project with similar condominiums in the city such as Hobbs Taylor Lofts and Bella Sera Condominiums, pointing out that those projects were not incentivized. Unlike those projects, the downtown proposal included an affordable housing unit, but Herbert said that the condos weren’t the “workforce housing” the city was looking for.

“Downtown condos are not workforce housing, so I struggle to find the public good,” Herbert said.

The one-bedroom condominium would have been sold for about $95,000 — the market value of the property is estimated at about $246,785 — and designed as an affordable housing unit in perpetuity.

The approximately $9.3 million project would have included twelve condominiums total, as well as commercial and office space at 800-815 Vermont St., which is currently a vacant lot. The five-story project was also have added an underground parking garage with parking spaces for the building’s residents.

Former City Commissioner Bob Schumm has owned at least part of the property since the 1980s, and is behind the development. Schumm planned to use one of the condos as his personal residence.

Soden took particular issue with Schumm’s plans to live in the building.

“When you’re going to live there and occupy probably most of one whole floor, I think that the project does not merit incentives,” Soden said.

The commission’s vote went against various recommendations. The Affordable Housing Advisory Board and the Public Incentives Review Committee both recommended incentives for the project, as did city staff and an outside consultant.

City staff and the consultant based their recommendations on a cost-benefit and “but for” gap analysis, which indicated the incentives agreement would benefit the city financially and that incentives were required for the project to go forward as proposed.

Cost-benefit analysis showed a 1.78 ratio for the city, meaning for every $1 in public incentives, $1.78 of benefit value would be returned. City Manager Tom Markus told commissioners he supported the project and that he thought incentives decisions should be made based on the metrics.

The votes in favor of providing incentives — from Mayor Mike Amyx and Commissioner Stuart Boley — both noted that the project was an investment in downtown. In addition, Boley also cited the additional revenue that would be generated for the city.

“The dollars to me make sense on this one,” Boley said. “We can invest in downtown, we can invest in optimized revenue streams — and the community benefits.”

The developer of the project sought two forms of incentives: Neighborhood Revitalization Act and Industrial Revenue Bonds. Together, the incentives would have had a value of about $1.3 million, according to a city analysis.

Schumm indicated that without the incentives he would likely only go forward with the two ground floors of the project, which will house the commercial and office space.


In other business, the commission:

•Voted to downgrade the high-density zoning on the accessory parking lot that will serve the HERE apartment complex, located on Indiana Street near Memorial Stadium. The addition of the off-site parking lot will address the complex’s parking shortage.

•Heard a request from Lawrence high school students to issue a statement of solidarity with various marginalized groups, including a proclamation of Lawrence as a sanctuary city. City Manager Tom Markus said the request would be reviewed by city staff and come back before the commission at a later date.