photo by: Bremen Keasey

The office building at 2000 Bluffs Drive is pictured in September 2024.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission on Monday night approved a rezoning request for a portion of a former call center property that developers say will include some affordable housing.

The commission approved a request to rezone just under three acres at 2000 Bluffs Drive from mixed-use to a residential housing district. The property, part of a nearly six-acre site that includes a 50,000-square-foot office building that was formerly the call center for Sallie Mae, was bought in January by a local investment group as the Journal-World reported.

The group plans to add a mix of multifamily housing options on the vast parking lots that make up the eastern portion of the property that the Planning Commission rezoned.

Dean Grob, an engineer with Grob Engineering who was representing the investment group, said that although the developers could have kept the zoning as mixed-use and added housing units, the code required a certain amount of that development to be retail and it would have been “too small” for that. Additionally, Grob said changing the zoning of this site ensured any redevelopment around the Sallie Mae building is not tied to the housing development.

The site was previously considered as a potential location for Lawrence’s City Hall. The idea was presented back in September 2024 because of a lack of space in the current City Hall building at 6 E. Sixth St.; however, the City Commission voted 3-2 in October 2024 to scuttle the plans to purchase the site after lengthy public input that urged commissioners to reconsider moving City Hall from downtown, as the Journal-World reported.

Richard King, one of the owners of the investment group that bought the site, said that although the rezoning request did not include a preliminary site plan, the group has been “trying to figure out a way” to ensure there are affordable housing options on the site. The site has been rezoned as an R-3 residential district, which allows for a mix of multi-unit residential apartments and compact detached housing. King said the group has been exploring a mix of alternative construction options that will allow for some affordable housing, but the first step was to get the rezoning request done.

“It’s been our intention all along to have some part of that (development) to meet the criteria to be affordable housing,” King said.

A couple of public commenters expressed concern about the potential impacts to the neighborhood north of the site, especially about the increased density of the multifamily units.

Planning Commissioner Gary Rexroad said he supported the project, especially because it involved a long-vacant parking lot being used for living space. Planning Commissioner Pedro Borroto also said the plan would “revive” a part of the city that is not currently being used.

Both King and Grob said the group would be back to present a site plan of what the potential development on the new site will become, but King said he hoped the development could “bring some energy” to that area.

“Our idea and hope is to breathe life into that long-vacant space,” King said. “It has been in despair, and we’d like to do something about that.”