Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on May 3, 2016.

After public discontent over the use of economic development incentives by the city, changes to policies governing how incentives are handed out to developers are set to move forward.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will vote on whether to adopt changes to the city’s incentives policy, which include stricter guidelines for their use and, in some circumstances, a financial analysis to determine whether they are indeed needed.

Vice Mayor Leslie Soden said it’s important that projects receiving incentives have a “very obvious community benefit,” such as permanent full-time jobs or affordable housing.

“The past commissioners handed out incentives and would call temporary construction jobs job creation, so I found that very frustrating,” Soden said. “And then the incentives they were handing out were for luxury types of housing, and I found that really concerning as well. I don’t think we should be subsidizing luxury housing.”

Soden, along with city commissioners Stuart Boley and Matthew Herbert, were all elected last year after campaigning on the notion that previous commissioners were overusing financial incentives for economic development.

The City Commission began discussing the city’s policy for economic development incentives in June 2015, and city staff, three advisory boards and the county also provided recommendations.

After considering input from the commission, the three boards and the county, the city staff finalized its recommended policies. The recommended policies for projects seeking economic incentives include:

• No economic development incentive will be granted to an applicant who owns any financial interest in any real property within the state of Kansas with delinquent taxes or debts. That includes delinquent special assessments, ad valorem taxes, federal or state tax liens, or any debts, responsibilities, or other obligations owed to the city.

• For residential projects, a portion of the units must be designated as affordable housing. Affordable housing requirements for residential projects with 4-49 units will be at least 10 percent. For projects with 50 or more units, the requirement is 15 percent. All affordable housing policies shall apply for at least the term of the incentive period. The city strongly encourages the applicant to maintain units designated as affordable housing even after the incentive period.

• The applicant will pay fees that will help cover the cost of analyzing the incentives request. Fees vary based on which incentives are being requested. For instance, the application fee for a Neighborhood Revitalization Area is $500. The applicant is also responsible for paying all expenses incurred by the city for professional services pertaining to the project regardless of whether the project is approved.

• For certain NRA, transportation development district and community improvement district requests, applicants must undergo a “but for” analysis that proves the project would be financially incapable of moving forward without the incentives. A but for analysis is not required if the project creates jobs or affordable housing as a primary component of the project.

• Applicants will have to indicate the public benefit of their project. A checklist will be provided at the beginning of the application where the applicant can indicate the public benefits the project will provide. Examples of potential public benefit include economic development, enhancement of downtown, infill development, affordable housing and environmentally sustainable elements.

The City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.