School district seeks to buy large property along 23rd Street; parade of trash trucks through East Lawrence may end

Perhaps you have noticed the Journal-World recently reported the Lawrence school district is on the cusp of buying some property. As is often the case with governments, they are tight-lipped about property acquisition until such deals are ready to be finalized. But fear not, I rescued my Magnum P.I. shirt from the burn pile and did a little investigating. It sure appears the school district is set to buy a nearly 8-acre piece of property along 23rd Street near Haskell Indian Nations University.

A request was recently filed at Lawrence City Hall seeking to rezone the property at 711 E. 23rd St. that is currently owned by Douglas County. It is the site the county previously used to house its snowplows and other public works equipment. It is just east of Haskell Indian Nations University. The rezoning request stated the Lawrence school district “is in the process of purchasing” the property from the county.

No, don’t expect Lawrence’s next new school to be built along 23rd Street. Instead, the school district is seeking to have the property rezoned from a general governmental use to industrial zoning. No, the school district does not have a plan to start making industrial-sized widgets, although let’s keep that idea in reserve pending further changes to the school finance formula. Rather, the rezoning request states the district may want to store “fleet vehicles” on the site, which would require the change in zoning.

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Rochelle Valverde, the J-W reporter who covers the school district, tells me district officials have been considering options for running the district’s school bus service, which currently is run by a contractor. Even if the district doesn’t want to fully run the bus service — which district officials seemed to caution against — the 23rd Street site would provide enough room to store school buses. Having the buses stored on school district property rather than on a site owned by a third party, perhaps could save the district some money.

In case you have forgotten, the county no longer needs the property because it built a multimillion dollar public works facility near the Douglas County Jail. What will be interesting to figure out is how Douglas County goes about selling this property. I talked with Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug, and he confirmed the county and school district have reached a “verbal agreement that still needs to be publicly vetted.”

One part of the vetting process, he said, is an examination of state statutes that dictate how public governments can sell property. He said it is still being determined whether the county will have to put the property up for sale and sell it to the highest bidder. UPDATE: Weinaug told me this afternoon that the two parties do know that they don’t have to put the properties up for bid to other buyers. But there are other details about the proposed agreement that are still being researched.

Weinaug said the current plan is for the school district to take over the county site and for the county to take over the school district’s current facilities and operations center, which is at the northeast corner of Second and Maine streets, caddy-corner from Lawrence Memorial Hospital. As we have reported, the county is interested in that site because it is near where the county hopes to build a Crisis Intervention Center to serve those with mental health needs.

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Weinaug said as part of the deal, there would be some money changing hands between the two government entities. He didn’t provide any of those financial details, but they would become public before the two entities finalized any deal.

Whether the 23rd Street property has any value to other buyers is unknown. It is a large site along a heavily traveled thoroughfare. It is tough to know whether there would be any retail, apartment or other developers that would pay top dollar for the property. Weinaug said one thing pointing in favor of the school district being the best user for the site is that the district will be able to use many of the existing buildings on the property, which wouldn’t be the case with other types of development on the site.

I suppose it is worth asking whether there may be other parties interested in the school district property at Second and Maine, too. With it being so close to the hospital, there may be medical users interested in the site.

The county property on 23rd Street has an appraised value of $1.16 million, according to county records. The school district property at Second and Maine has an appraised value of $369,000, according to county records.

In other news and notes from around town:

• There is another piece of government property that you should look for changes on in the future. The large piece of city-owned land at 11th Street and Haskell Avenue will be losing its main user. The property currently houses all the city’s trash trucks.

But as we have reported, the city has plans for a new trash truck facility — in city parlance it is solid waste, not trash, although I’m not sure who is checking to determine how solid my trash is. The new facility is slated for about 10 acres of property near the Kmart distribution center in northern Lawrence.

Plans for that project are entering a new stage. In late 2015, the city completed renovations at the site — 2201 Kresge Road — to house the Household Hazardous Waste Drop-off program. That’s the program where you can drop off paint, batteries and other such things that shouldn’t go in the trash. My understanding is the program now is operating at the Kresge site. We’ll send a reporter and photographer out there at some point to give you a tour of the new facility. The program previously operated at the county public work site on 23rd Street.

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Now, city officials want to start work on phase II of the project. That involves new office space, shop space and other things needed to move the approximately 70 trash trucks from the 11th and Haskell site.

The city currently is accepting proposals from design firms to oversee the project, which includes renovating an existing 6,500 square-foot maintenance shop, and adding a 9,000 square-foot building to house office, locker rooms and a conference space for the solid waste division.

But don’t look for the trash truck to move right away. The city is contemplating a 2017 construction of the facility. But at some point, the daily parade of trash trucks through East Lawrence will come to an end. As far as what the city proposes to do with the 11th and Haskell site once the trash trucks are gone, there has been talk about the city’s street maintenance division taking over the space, but no word yet on whether that is the official plan.