According to the submitted plans, the building will be remodeled to include room for strength and cardio areas, fitness studios, a group fitness area, and men’s and women’s locker rooms with steam rooms.

Yes, tennis also will be a part of the facility. The plans show four indoor courts and the six outdoor courts that currently are on the site. I think there currently are five indoor courts at the facility, but it looks like one will be eliminated to make way for some of the additional amenities. The expansion of the facility, which is being designed by Lawrence-based architect Paul Werner, doesn’t call for enlarging the footprint of the building. Instead, a mezzanine level will be added to the building.

There is vacant land to the west of the property — it used to house the softball fields as part of Sport 2 Sport — but the project isn’t proposing to develop that property. City planners also are making a point to note that the property shouldn’t be developed in the future. The vacant ground is directly below the dam of Yankee Tank lake. Genesis purchased the property as part of the tennis center deal, but it has expressed no desire to develop the land. Instead, it proposes to use the area as overflow parking for the facility.

Genesis is seeking approval of a special use permit at tonight’s Planning Commission meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. If approved by the Planning Commission, the project also will have to win approval from the Lawrence City Commission before it can proceed.

I have put a call into the folks at Genesis — which has Lawrence fitness centers at 3201 Mesa Way and 2339 Iowa — to get more information, but haven’t heard back from them.

Central Soy Foods has been around since 1978, but was bought by a group led by Lawrence businessman David Millstein in 2003. Millstein previously told me the company produces about 2,000 pounds of tofu and tempeh — a soy product that uses mushroom spores — per week. It sells the products primarily in grocery stores around the Kansas City region. The company has been looking for new production space since summer, mainly because the company’s current production facility isn’t very efficient, Millstein said.

Planning commissioners were scheduled to take action on the rezoning request at their October meeting, but they balked in order to give members of the neighborhood more time to learn about the project.

The site likely will end up housing more than just a tofu facility. A concept plan for the property shows a pair of 2,400 square-foot buildings being constructed on the site. One would be for the Central Soy Foods production plant. The other would be for Optimal Living, a company that cooks and delivers healthy meals for a variety of customers. The plan also calls for the existing greenhouses to remain. As we previously have reported, a nonprofit called the Sunrise Project hopes to use a portion of the site for demonstration gardens and other projects that demonstrate the importance of locally grown foods and issues of sustainability.

Millstein also has been working with other smaller companies that could use the greenhouse and growing space. That could be everything from vegetable producers to more specialty growers. A company called Seeds from Italy, a Lawrence-based company that imports the Franchi Seeds of Italian vegetable, herb and flower seeds, has expressed an interest in having a small facility at the site.

Several neighbors of the site have written letters of support for the project. They like the idea of agriculturally based businesses at the location better than they like the idea of a dense housing development on the approximately three-acre site. But neighbors have expressed concern about the types of uses that could be built on industrially zoned property, if the agriculture ventures fail.

Planning staff members are recommending that a special provision be added to the property to alleviate some of those concerns. The condition would require any future developments to have their site plans approved by the City Commission. Normally, site plan approvals are handled administratively. The City Commission approval will guarantee that neighbors have a public forum to voice any concerns over future development of the property. But it doesn’t really provide any assurances that certain types of industrial uses won’t be allowed on the property. Site plan approvals aren’t about saying no to certain types of uses — zoning dictates that — but rather is about ensuring that technical details like access points, landscaping, lighting and such are handled appropriately.

Planning commissioners at their meeting tonight will make a recommendation on whether to change the zoning from residential to the city’s limited industrial category. City commissioners, though, will have the final say on the zoning issue. The matter likely will come to the commission in the next couple of weeks.

Town Talk column