Brick work has started on the exterior of the HERE Kansas apartment and retail project, pictured Tuesday, March 29, 2016, at 1111 Indiana St.

For a third time, the Lawrence City Commission delayed a vote regarding HERE @ Kansas — one that would’ve signaled toward resolution of a parking “mess” at the large apartment and retail development near Kansas University.

Commissioners on Tuesday were asked to provide clarification on the way forward with the project that they outlined in a meeting last week. They were also being asked to confirm changes they wanted to make to the city’s incentives agreement with HERE developers.

Instead, the commission voted unanimously to defer any further discussion on the issue until they received information about how many vehicles could fit in the development’s existing parking garage under city code. In the development’s current plans, the spaces for the parking deck — now being proposed as serviced by human valets — are narrower than what’s allowed by the city for self-park garages.

“This is my last chance to bring it up,” said Mayor Mike Amyx. “I really want us to stop and think about that. If we mess this up it could be ugly for everybody. If we don’t stop and say, ‘OK, let’s paint the lines on the floor,’ we’re not going to know.”

Amyx, growing frustrated, said the City Commission never received that information after a few commissioners asked for it in January.

The City Commission voted unanimously last week to have city staff and developers come back with a plan for the parking that would: eliminate access to the garage from 11th Street; include a vehicle elevator in the garage; dedicate 108 metered on-street spaces solely to retail space in the development; reduce the number of bedrooms that could be filled to 486; and require at least some of the commercial space be filled by the time the development opened.

Commissioners also wanted to add amendments to its revitalization agreement with HERE developers that would, among other things, require the parking garage to be staffed all day, every day by human valets.

Developers’ original plan for an automated parking garage for the site was thwarted when the company building it went bankrupt in October.

City Manager Tom Markus said commissioners’ decision to delay the clarification and seek information about how the garage would look as a self-park deck was “a very different kind of message” to the developers. Markus said he had told developers they didn’t need to be in attendance Tuesday because the city was looking only for a clarification from commissioners.

“It’s a crazy situation we’re placed in, I get that,” Markus said. “But the consequences are, if you lay down the law to such an extent that you force this developer out of there, how long is that going to sit there before someone picks it up and pays pennies on the dollar to take it over? I’m not advocating one way or another, but I want to make sure you understand both sides of this.”

Markus went on to say he had confidence that developers would secure the total number of parking spaces needed to fill the development.

Residents of the Oread Neighborhood, as well as the Douglas County League of Women Voters, asked that the development plan be sent back to the city planning commission for further review.

HERE developers were planning to come back next week with a plan that would be based on the commission’s direction March 22. It’s unsure when that meeting will be scheduled, now that commissioners have asked for additional information.

Vice Mayor Leslie Soden asked Markus to talk with developers about the metered spaces. Under the city’s agreement, developers are to receive the money that goes into the meters to use for meter maintenance. Soden said that decision was “just terrible,” and she wants the city to receive those funds.

In other business, commissioners:

• Voted 3-2 to finalize $7.8 million in industrial revenue bonds for the apartment and retail project at 800 New Hampshire St., the site of the old Pachamamas building. The bonds will provide a sales tax exemption on construction materials, saving developers approximately $317,000. Commissioner Matthew Herbert and Vice Mayor Leslie Soden voted against it, as they did in December when the request for the bond was first brought to the commission.

• Unanimously approved a street mural for the intersection of 10th and New Jersey streets. The intersection will be closed and the mural painted during an all-day “painting party” on April 23, Earth Day.

A final design by Lawrence artists Alicia Kelly and Katy Clagett for the mural that may be applied directly to the intersection of 10th and New Jersey street, pending City Commission approval.

• Voted unanimously to award $100,000 from the affordable housing trust fund to the Lawrence Douglas County Housing Authority for a rental-assistance program aimed at transitioning families out of the Lawrence Community Shelter and into homes.

• Unanimously approved giving a total $150,000 in grants to 15 Lawrence events through a new, tourism-generating grant program. Commissioners voted to approve grants for the Tour of Lawrence and the Downtown Shot Put, as well as full funding for the Free State Festival, after questions about how much city funding those events were already receiving.

• Decided, informally, to discuss during 2017 budget talks how the city should spend its sales tax reserves fund in the future. The sales tax reserve fund, created with the city’s portion of the 1 percent countywide sales tax, is currently used primarily for Parks and Recreation operational expenses. Commissioner Stuart Boley proposed it be a source of funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Other commissioners did not agree with Boley’s request to use some of the sales tax reserves in 2016 for affordable housing, saying those decisions needed to be part of the regular budget process.

• Voted unanimously to send a letter to the Kansas Department of Transportation requesting it maintain access to Kasold Drive and the Farmers Turnpike from Kansas Highway 10 during an anticipated expansion of the west leg of K-10. Frank Male, who owns a business south of K-10, presented his concerns, as well as the concerns of Wakarusa Township, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and other organizations about closing access to Kasold Drive. Douglas County commissioners voted last week to support his request and send their own letter to KDOT.