These houses at 1031 and 1029 Mississippi St. will be demolished to make room for a parking lot for the use of HERE Kansas apartment tenants. The lot will be owned by the University of Kansas Endowment Association and leased to HERE.

No further review will be required to demolish two houses in the Oread Neighborhood as part of the recently approved parking plan for the HERE apartment complex, despite neighborhood guidelines that are nearing approval.

Because of the houses’ age and location — one is more than 100 years old — the Oread Neighborhood Design Guidelines, if they had been in effect, would have required that the demolition request be reviewed by the city’s Historic Resources Commission.

The guidelines have already been approved by the HRC and the Planning Commission and were reviewed by the City Commission at its work session last week, but because they have not been finalized, they weren’t in effect when HERE’s parking proposal came before the commission Tuesday.

“They haven’t been fully adopted, so the project is not subject to that requirement at this time,” said city planner Sandra Day. “Had those design guidelines been adopted, then yes, it would have been subject to that requirement.”

The houses are located at 1029 and 1031 Mississippi St., and both are now vacant, as is a third, smaller house located just west of the property at 1029 Mississippi St. Both of the larger houses have been split up into apartments, and between them the structures house about a dozen apartment units, Day said. Adjacent to the properties is an old tennis court that is owned by the University of Kansas Endowment Association and has long been used as a parking lot.

A smaller house sits west of the property at 1029 Mississippi St. Both houses, as well as one at 1031 Mississippi St., will be demolished.

None of the houses appear to have been well maintained — the siding has already been stripped off two of the structures. Despite their condition, had the guidelines been in effect, the HRC review would have looked at several factors.

When deciding whether to approve a demolition, the HRC considers whether a structure has historical significance or other defining features that contribute to the neighborhood, according to Tracy Quillin, a historian on the HRC. Speaking in general, Quillin said that demolition isn’t something that is “taken lightly” by the HRC.

“Demolition is never a positive thing, because when something is gone you can’t replace it,” Quillin said. “If something was built 100 years ago, you’re not going to find the craftsmen and the masons and woodworkers who can replace that structure.”

The design of the surface lot, however, will try to adhere to characteristics of the Oread Neighborhood. Early designs of the parking lot call for a retaining wall that would be in line with where the front of the houses are now and follow the style of other such walls in the neighborhood. There will also be some green space and landscaping. Residents will be able to drive through the lot in order to access the alley behind Mississippi Street.

Candice Davis, a member of the Oread Residents Association, is somewhat resigned to the necessity of taking down the homes. Davis said that if overlay districts that are part of the new guidelines had been in place, the process would have been longer, but she didn’t know whether the result would have been different.

“With our overlay district, structures cannot be torn down easily,” Davis said. “Part of the overlay will also help eliminating the ability to combine lots, too. It would help save situations like this from happening, to some extent.”

The new parking lot will be the combination of parcels currently occupied by the multi-dwelling houses and the old tennis court parking lot. Now that the proposal has been approved by the City Commission, Davis is more concerned with making sure the parking lot — which had to be zoned at a higher density in order to serve HERE tenants — does not become another multistory apartment building in the future.

“My concern now is more about the greater good of the area,” Davis said. Although the parking plan calls for specific notation in the city’s comprehensive plan that the property would only allow for a surface parking lot despite it being zoned high-density, she said she wasn’t convinced future commissions would adhere to that.

Once the arrangements are final, KU Endowment will own the entire property and lease the lot to HERE for use by its tenants. The developer for the HERE project has purchased the property at 1029 Mississippi St., and will transfer it to KU Endowment as part of the lease agreement. In addition to the existing lot, KU Endowment owns the property at 1031 Mississippi St.

The city has yet to receive the demolition permit application for the properties, according to Barry Walthall, building codes administrator with the city. Once the application is received, there is a 30-day waiting period before the owners can tear down the properties.