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.

The Lawrence City Commission, yet to establish changes it wants to make to the city’s policies that govern financial incentives, on Tuesday will hear from two developers, each seeking a set of subsidies for mixed-use developments.

Commissioners will first hear from former commissioner Bob Schumm, whose Vermont Street project they refused to consider for tax breaks on June 7. Schumm is coming back with a proposal to set aside one of the development’s 11 condominiums to be a low-income household, with the hope it will turn the commission’s vote.

Directly after Schumm’s request, commissioners will decide whether to have city staff study an incentives package for a brewery, restaurant and residential project on Pennsylvania Street in East Lawrence. Liquor executive Matt Williams and Lawrence businessman Adam Williams, under Williams Management LLC, filed the request.

The majority of commissioners have expressed disapproval of offering anything over a 50 percent, 10-year tax abatement for developments. A tax abatement is a partial exemption from taxes on a piece of property. In these cases, the properties’ values would increase with new development, and — if rebates are approved — developers would pay only a portion of taxes on those increased values until the abatement period ended, at which time the city would collect the full amount of taxes on the increased property values.

Schumm’s request is for a larger amount than 50 percent, and Adam and Matt Williams’ could be as well.

Vermont Place

At the June 7 City Commission meeting, a majority of commissioners voted to have city staff work with Schumm to see whether there’s a project he could propose that would be feasible with a maximum 50 percent tax rebate.

Schumm had sought an 85 percent rebate for five years, followed by a 50 percent rebate for five years. Without it, he said, he could not provide 22 underground parking spaces he had planned for the development.

The project, called Vermont Place, is a five-story mix of commercial space, offices and condominiums in a now-vacant lot at 815 Vermont St.

“It doesn’t make sense; it won’t work out,” Schumm said at the meeting. “There’s too much downside to it. It would crash and burn.”

While commissioners didn’t want to hand out a tax rebate over 50 percent, they also wanted the project to offer more “public good,” including affordable housing.

Part of the proposed changes to the city’s financial incentives is a requirement to put a portion of affordable units in residential developments receiving subsidies. Under the proposal, Vermont Place would have to set aside one unit to a low-income household. Schumm said June 7 it would be complicated with a condominium, which would include homeowners’ association fees. But, he said, he would be willing to buy a duplex in Lawrence and offer one of those units as affordable.

After meeting with Rebecca Buford, director of the Lawrence Housing Trust, Schumm is coming back to the commission with a commitment to dedicate one condo as a low- to moderate-income housing unit. With the proposal, Schumm is still seeking an 85 percent rebate for five years.

According to a June 30 memo, City Manager Tom Markus is recommending commissioners vote this time to have city staff analyze the request, even though it exceeds the 50 percent limitation.

Schumm plans to keep the unit affordable in perpetuity. Buford said it would mean offering it at a price deemed affordable for a household earning 70 percent of the median family income. Together, the mortgage, interest, taxes, insurance, a leasing fee and homeowner’s association fee could be no more than 30 percent of the household’s monthly gross income.

In a letter to commissioners, Schumm said the unit would be “heavily discounted,” and that he would offer it for sale at $95,000. The sale price of other units would be raised $10 per square foot.

The city’s newly established Affordable Housing Advisory Board, of which Buford is a part, has stressed the importance of “bringing developers to the table” to talk about the creation of affordable housing. Buford, in a separate letter from Schumm’s, encouraged commissioners to support his proposal.

“We applaud this project for being one of the first to show how affordable housing can be implemented into a development for the benefit of all, and we encourage the City Commission to support projects like these that agree to a mixed-income development,” Buford wrote.

If commissioners vote to move it forward, city staff will look at Schumm’s request to determine whether he needs the tax break in order to finance the project. It will go to the Public Incentives Review Committee for review, and then it will go back to the City Commission for a final vote.

“I don’t know what the city will do,” Schumm told the Journal-World last week. “But I think we can show there is a lot of public good with this project.”

East Lawrence brewery

Affordable housing units also will be part of the other project commissioners will hear about Tuesday: a brewery, restaurant and apartment building in the Warehouse Arts District.

Like Schumm, Adam and Matt Williams are asking for a 10-year tax abatement under the Neighborhood Revitalization Act, as well as industrial revenue bonds. But rather than state the amount of rebate they’re seeking, Williams Management LLC is asking city staff to perform an analysis and determine the level of assistance the project would require.

To have staff do the analysis, commissioners would need to vote Tuesday to move the request forward. Markus is recommending they do, according to a city memo.

When filing plans for the project in December, Matt Williams told the Journal-World the brewery would be “a real family-friendly place.”

“We just want to be a good place where people of all ages can feel comfortable to come and spend some time,” he said.

He and Adam Williams plan to undertake the redevelopment of the old Barteldes Seed Company, built at 826 Pennsylvania St. in the early 1900s. The old warehouse, currently vacant, is located between the Cider Gallery and the newly opened office building at 832 Pennsylvania St.

The renovation plans include the brewery and restaurant on the main level with the addition of two stories on top of it comprising 15 apartment units.

Two units would be permanently set aside for those earning less than 80 percent of Lawrence’s median income, plans show. Rental rates for those units would be set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and a local nonprofit would manage the units.

“By providing affordable housing units within the Eighth and Pennsylvania Redevelopment Zone, the project will attract residents with unique social, economic, political and cultural backgrounds to continue the diverse heritage of the East Lawrence neighborhood,” the incentives request states. “The project will also help address the city’s general policy directive to create affordable housing.”

Besides affordable housing and historic preservation, Williams Management says the project will eliminate blight, create seven full-time jobs and establish sidewalks and 33 new on-street parking spaces.

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