photo by: Cynthia Hernandez/Journal-World

The north entrance of First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway, is seen on Friday, March 22, 2024.

The Lawrence City Commission voted Tuesday night to reject a church’s nomination for the Lawrence Register of Historic Places, expressing concerns over the size of the parcel of land it would apply to and how other nearby properties could be affected.

Commissioners voted unanimously to deny the nomination for First Presbyterian Church at 2415 Clinton Parkway. The church, which was constructed in 1967 and 1968, is already listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the Register of Historic Kansas Places, and in April, the Historic Resources Commission recommended that it be added to the local register, too.

In June, when the item was first in front of the City Commission, the commission voted 4-0 to send the nomination back to the Historic Resources Commission. The City Commission was interested in whether it could consider just the church building instead of the property around it for the historic designation.

But on Tuesday, Lynne Braddock Zollner, the historic resources administrator, said that wouldn’t be possible. Under city code, she said, the City Commission could only accept or reject the nomination or send it back to the HRC again; it could not choose to approve only part of the nomination.

Commissioners said they were denying the nomination because they couldn’t choose to approve just the building or a specific area of the building. Commissioner Mike Dever said he thought including the entire property of the church and a “context area” — the area within a 250-foot radius of the structure — would be extending things too far.

“To have this entire parcel be included feels overly obstructive,” Dever said.

When the commission first considered the nomination, some commissioners expressed concerns about whether the city’s rules for historic properties were being “weaponized” to halt development in the immediate area.

As the Journal-World reported, the church sued in Douglas County District Court in late 2021 after a Dallas-based company proposed developing more than 60 duplexes on property across the street from the church. In the lawsuit, the church did not focus on its status as a historic property; rather, it questioned whether the city code allowed the duplexes to be developed on a single lot and argued that its property would be damaged by additional traffic, parking and drainage issues associated with the development.

Although it was initially dismissed, the suit was revived after an appeal, and a bench trial took place in March. In June, a judge ruled in favor of the city, but representatives for the developers expressed uncertainty about the project if the church were to continue to pursue litigation.

Jeff Southard, who was representing the church at the meeting, pushed back on the idea that the church was attempting to weaponize the historic code. Southard said this would be the first time a church was denied a historical designation by the city on the basis of objections by other property owners, and that the church was not attempting to use any historical designation as a “backdoor” to stop development.

“Historic preservation is not a development death sentence,” Southard said.

Greg Marsil, an attorney who was representing the developer proposing the duplex project, was one of a couple of people involved with other local properties who spoke against the nomination. Marsil claimed the church did not agree to a compromise that would designate just the building or one specific structure that would make the context areas not impact other property owners.

Although the commission denied the nomination, the majority of commissioners seemed to support the idea of the church submitting a different application that would apply to just the building. Randy Larkin, the deputy city attorney for Lawrence, said the church could submit a different application for the building itself or for just a portion of the building.

In other business, the commission received a presentation about the new Brick Streets and Sidewalks Policy and expressed interest in expanding the area where brick sidewalks and streets would be allowed.

Efforts to create a policy for preserving and maintaining brick streets and sidewalks have been in the works since 2013. The initial draft of a brick streets and sidewalks policy was presented to the Historic Resources Commission for the first time in July, as the Journal-World reported.

The policy will allow brick sidewalks and streets that are in good condition to stay as brick, but sidewalks that don’t meet accessibility standards in specific areas of the city will be replaced with the help of the city’s Americans with Disabilities Act Public Right-of-Way Transition Plan passed in July.

The draft includes a “Brick Sidewalk Permissive Map” where brick sidewalks would be allowed, which includes historic areas concentrated around East Lawrence and all the land in the original town site plat boundaries.

Cece Riley, a transportation planner for the city’s Municipal Services and Operations department, outlined the plan and how it would look to prioritize certain projects for replacement as they come up. She also presented recommendations on the policy from other commissions: one from the Multimodal Transportation Commission that would allow any property owner in Lawrence to build a brick sidewalk, and one from the Historic Resources Commission that would expand the map where brick sidewalks are allowed.

The HRC’s recommendation, which the City Commission expressed support for, was to expand the Brick Sidewalk Permissive map to include an area between West Seventh Street and West 10th Street from Michigan Street to Alabama Street and an area between West Third Street and West Fifth Street from Alabama Street to Louisiana Street.

The policy still needs to be voted on by the City Commission at a later date.