photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The Ballard Center's home at 708 Elm St. in North Lawrence is pictured Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022.

The fate of a project to expand a North Lawrence social service agency is now in flux — all by a matter of 10 feet.

The Ballard Center has been looking to expand from its current structure at 708 Elm St. to add a new food and clothing pantry space and office wing, using a combination of American Rescue Plan Act dollars from Douglas County and grant and donation funding. But to do so, the agency had to ask for approval from Lawrence’s Board of Zoning Appeals last month to reduce the exterior side setback from 10 feet to zero feet from the property line on the west side of the property. In essence, that variance would have allowed the expansion to be constructed as a detached dwelling separate from the existing building, rather than an attached addition.

It was a request with significant support from members of the surrounding North Lawrence community. About 250 people — all the neighbors near the property, parents of kids who attend the center, pantry clients and the North Lawrence Improvement Association — signed off on a letter of support for the request, and supporters filled nearly every seat in the room as the meeting took place. But the board’s decision was ultimately a split 3-3 vote — in effect, a denial of the application.

“This is really a difficult one, as everybody came and I know that Ballard provides a good service for the community,” board member Peter Shenouda said at the meeting. “But we still have codes we have to follow. There’s five requirements they need to meet.”

Those five variance requirements are that the request arises from unique conditions, that it wouldn’t adversely affect the rights of adjacent property owners, that it would cause unnecessary hardship for the property owner, that it wouldn’t have any adverse affects on general welfare, and that it would not be opposed to the general intent of the chapter of city code.

Board chair Barry Shalinsky, meanwhile, said there are several examples of buildings with the same setback variance within a block of Ballard, illustrating that it was a reasonable request.

According to leaders with the nonprofit, the stakes of that decision are especially high. Ballard Center CEO Kyle Roggenkamp, for example, told the board the additional detached space is needed “desperately.” Ballard therapists have been meeting with children in hallways, he said, and his office is being used more for therapy than it is as an office. Ballard’s human services are supposed to be housed in the new addition, with the existing pantry space converted into confidential office space for those appointments.

And Michelle Chronister, chair of Ballard’s board of directors, stressed that if the variance was denied, construction would have to take place in existing building and would likely cause it to be shut down for an unspecified period of time. Chronister said the doors being temporarily closed would force children from low-income families in crisis away from a stable learning environment, where families are also receiving wrap-around case management services.

That’s an impact that prompted an especially emotional plea for support.

“I cannot impress upon each of you how much each and every day that our doors are open matters,” Chronister told the board. “We were the only child care (and preschool option) open during COVID for a reason, and while our doors were mandated to be closed, we worked tirelessly to try to keep eyes on our children and families. It wasn’t good enough. We had a huge increase in unreported abuse that came to light later.”

Claire Gallagher, the Ballard Center’s pantry director, told the board the extra pantry space proposed in the addition is “desperately needed and barely adequate.” Gallagher urged the board to think about the addition not as simply helping the agency but as “helping the people that Ballard helps.”

In part, Gallagher said the request was important because it would keep the space she oversees in a separate building, which ensures that pantry and emergency service clients — unrelated adults to preschool children in the main building — don’t ever have access to that building.

But not all hope is lost, Roggenkamp told the Journal-World last week. He said the Ballard Center is going to find a way to build the addition without closing, whether that means cutting into the size of the center’s existing playground area or finding another solution. And in fact, Roggenkamp said the architect that’s been working with the agency has been working on an updated proposal that finds a solution without any need for a setback variance.

That proposal will still need some internal review, he said, and then will need to go through the process of getting in front of city planning staff and others for their scrutiny. Roggenkamp said he’s hopeful that a month or two from now, the proposal will be the new plan of action.

Roggenkamp added that the nonprofit doesn’t want to contribute to a narrative that the city or Board of Zoning Appeals are keeping the Ballard Center from doing the work it needs to do. The board is doing important work of its own that should be supported, he said, and it shouldn’t change the two parties’ relationship.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” Roggenkamp said. “The people that we serve are facing obstacles that are a million times more severe and heavy than what we face through (the Board of Zoning Appeals process). If we were to have a negative outlook or want to spread an ounce of negative energy throughout this community because of it, we would be hypocrites the next time we look at a client and say ‘Please believe we’re going to figure it out together.'”

The current situation has put the Ballard Center in a position that’s not all that dissimilar to what its clients face as they navigate crises like battling poverty and addiction, Roggenkamp said. The message to clients is often that there will be roadblocks along the way when working to change their socioeconomic status.

“The second we got that 3-3 tie, everyone in that room was emotionally upset because they put their heart and soul into this,” Roggenkamp said. “Our message to all of our supporters is we’re going to practice what we preach. We’re going to take our own advice, we’re going to figure this out and we’re going to knock it out of the park.”