photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The vacant property at 5275 W. Sixth Street is pictured on Feb. 10, 2025.

The Lawrence City Commission at its meeting next week will consider a property tax abatement for a proposed senior housing development that would add affordable housing in West Lawrence.

On Tuesday, the commission will hold a public hearing and consider whether to provide Resource Housing Group Inc. a 10-year, 65% property tax abatement for the Peaks of Lawrence development — a 42-unit, mixed-income housing project for people who are at least 55 years old, which is being proposed for 5272 W. Sixth St. The 3-acre property is just west of Wakarusa Drive and currently has an old farmhouse on it. Plans for the project were filed earlier this year, as the Journal-World reported.

The project would include 21 one-bedroom, one-bath units; 21 two-bedroom, two-bath units and amenities like a common room and fitness room. Thirty-four of those units would be set aside as affordable housing, according to a city memo.

The applicant, an Atlanta-based nonprofit housing corporation, had already received other financial support. The memo said the city had already approved a sales tax exemption on construction materials for the project, and that it would also be receiving a low-income housing tax credit from the Kansas Housing Resources Commission. The request for the property tax abatement comes after a “financing gap” from higher construction costs and interest rates “cause(d) the project to be infeasible,” according to a city memo.

City staff and financial consultants at Baker Tilly performed a cost-benefit analysis, which found that the project would meet the criteria for the tax abatement and that the affordable units included in the plan were “likely to have an impact on retaining residents that might otherwise have to find housing outside the community.”

If the tax abatement is approved, the city estimates it will forgo $756,561 in property tax revenue. The revenue that will be forgone from the sales tax exemption on construction materials is estimated at $32,359.

In other business, commissioners will:

• Consider approving a final development plan for a 14-lot residential project near Kasold Drive.

The project, known as Fall Creek Villas, would consist of 14 duplexes and a private drive on the southwest corner of Kasold and Tomahawk drives. A preliminary development plan for the project was approved by the City Commission in December 2023, as the Journal-World reported.

At that time, neighbors in the surrounding area expressed concerns about how the development could affect stormwater flooding in the area. As a condition of their vote on the preliminary plan, the commissioners said a final development plan would have to come back before them for one more approval. A city memo noted that the project underwent additional stormwater analysis and now has a slightly different lot configuration. It also noted that the project included a specially designed retaining wall.

• Receive the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report and an audit from RSM US LLP, a Kansas City, Mo.-based accounting firm.

The financial report comprises the city’s financial statements and reports the financial activities and related balances at the end of the fiscal year. The independent auditor’s report, meanwhile, found that the city’s financial statements “present fairly” the financial position of the city and are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Commissioners will review the report as part of a work session and will not take any action on it.