photo by: Nick Krug/Journal-World File Photo

An area just southeast of the intersection of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Iowa Street, pictured June 6, 2017, is being proposed as the site for a large-scale shopping center.

Developers say they are continuing to pursue plans for a large shopping center south of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Iowa Street interchange.

Though the shopping center’s developers have deferred the plans previously filed for the project, they say the project is still in the works.

“We’re actively working on it, and we look forward to continuing discussions with the community on the project,” said Chris Challis, development manager at Collett, the North Carolina-based group behind the project.

The plans, filed at City Hall last summer, call for an approximately 585,000-square-foot shopping center that would include large retailers, restaurants and hotel space. Those plans show room for several large retailers and about 15 smaller retailers and restaurants.

Challis said the site access, or how motorists will turn into and out of the shopping center, needs to be resolved before anything proceeds, and that they are still working on traffic studies. He said there is not a timeline for the project at this point, but that it’s being worked on every day.

Sandra Day, the city planner who is overseeing the project, said the main issue is the access, but that there are a number of other questions the developers need to respond to. She said those include management of the flood plain and interior traffic and pedestrian circulation.

Day said that as of yet, the city has not seen any revisions to the plan, but developers are working with the Kansas Department of Transportation to resolve the access question. She said once all questions are resolved, the developer would be able to submit revised drawings.

Another related discussion is the pending lawsuit between the developers and the city. Collett development had a previous shopping center plan for the project rejected and filed a lawsuit in 2016 against the city that claims the Lawrence City Commission used an “improper and illegal bias” in rejecting the proposal.

The commission, on a 4-1 vote, had previously denied zoning and planning changes that would have allowed for the shopping center, saying the city was not yet ready to open up land south of Kansas Highway 10 for development. The city’s response to the lawsuit, filed in April 2016, denied the allegations that it improperly rejected the project.

The lawsuit is still active in Douglas County District Court, and five case management conferences have been held in the two years since the city filed its response. The most recent conference was held last week, and another is scheduled for Sept. 28.

Challis said he could not provide an update on the lawsuit at this time. When asked for an update, City Attorney Toni Wheeler said in an email to the Journal-World that the lawsuit is still pending.