photo by: Bremen Keasey

Jeff DeWitt, KU's CFO, presented the Lawrence City Commission Tuesday night more details about phase two of the university's Gateway Project. The commission approved the establishment of two tax incentive districts, paving the way for further discussions to keep the project going.

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday approved another key step to allow the second phase of an approximately $300 million redevelopment project around KU’s football stadium to move forward.

The commission voted to create two taxing districts, a STAR Bond district and a tax increment financing district, for the second phase of the KU’s Gateway project, which calls for a 162-room hotel, 443 beds of student housing, 43,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space, and approximately 1,000 parking spaces that will be located in a mix of underground parking garages and new surface parking lots. Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the TIF district space, and they voted 4-1 to approve the boundaries for the STAR Bond district, with Commisisoner Amber Sellers as the lone no vote.

Jeff DeWitt, the chief financial officer for the University of Kansas, gave a presentation to the commissioners ahead of a pair of public hearings on the districts. DeWitt said KU and the city had been working together to set up agreements between the two to ensure the projects will “complement, not compete” with each other.

“We want this to lift Lawrence, not just KU,” DeWitt said.

The discussion between the two parties led to a memorandum of understanding and a key recommendation from City Manager Craig Owens. In a city memo, Owens had said the project “represents a generational investment” from the university and its partners. He also said the STAR Bond district would essentially funnel millions of dollars of state money into Lawrence for projects that expand KU’s long-term assets in a way that is “highly beneficial to the City of Lawrence, including its tax base and the vitality of our economy.”

In the memorandum of understanding, KU and its development partners offered to pay nearly $20 million for other city projects. KU or the KU Endowment Association is offering to provide the city at least $4 million worth of land to be used for affordable housing projects, and the private developer of a proposed hotel and student housing complex is offering to cover $14.5 million in city costs to improve the Ninth Street corridor and stormwater systems near the football stadium, as the Journal-World reported.

Heather Blanck, KU’s vice chancellor for strategic growth initiatives and real estate, previously told the Journal-World that although the city and the university have not finalized a particular piece of land that could be used for affordable housing, a draft memorandum of understanding with the city has proposed a 19-acre site just north of Rock Chalk Park Drive and just east of Kansas Highway 10. The site is owned by the KU Endowment Association, but if the site isn’t deemed suitable, DeWitt told commissioners they would work to find an alternative option.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority submitted a comment to the commission voicing its support for the project. It said that the $4 million donation for affordable housing would be “more than twice the average amount” the Affordable Housing Trust can provide for affordable housing.

As for the Ninth Street project, KU’s development partner would commit to help the city pay for a portion of the costs for an already-approved project to improve stormwater management in the neighborhoods near the stadium.

KU officials have touted the Gateway project and its convention center that will include a 1,000-seat banquet hall as a major economic development driver for all of Lawrence, and particularly downtown. DeWitt mentioned that adding a hotel in this phase next to the convention center makes it more likely the center will host more events and more likely that it will bring in visitors from around the country.

The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Lawrence Inc. and Explore Lawrence sent in written public comment supporting the project, highlighting its economic potential. Andrew Holt, the director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., told the commission Tuesday night that if there were a meaningful link between the Gateway Project and downtown Lawrence, it could be a “game-changer.”

Several people spoke against the project as well, including some who live in the nearby neighborhoods who felt they had not been heard during the development process. Katy Nitcher, who lives in Old West Lawrence, said she felt neighborhoods are “getting talked at” and expressed concerns about the potential for excess noise from concerts. She said she hoped the neighborhoods could have more involvement because they “will bear the burden.”

Commissioner Brad Finkeldei emphasized that Tuesday’s vote was not the final say on the matter. There will be other votes to finalize the STAR Bond district in July and August, and a third taxing district — a Community Improvement District — that would create a new 2% special sales tax for all purchases made at the stadium and on the KU campus would still have to be approved later.

But Finkeldei said that approving the tax districts on Tuesday would allow the city and university to execute a “full-blown development agreement” that would solidify the details in the memorandum of understanding. Finkeldei noted there could be $120 million in state funds coming in as part of the development, and this phase two will lead to bringing in more visitors — and more dollars — from conventions.

Mayor Mike Dever said he wanted to move forward with approving the districts. Dever noted that KU has a “unique position” by being able to get around some of the restrictions for land use as a university, and he said the project was a good opportunity to strengthen the city’s relationship with KU.

“It’s important we really focus on KU as a partner,” Dever said. “This puts us in a position to do that more effectively.”

In other business, commissioners:

• Approved a rezoning request and preliminary development plan for an affordable housing development along Tennessee Street.

Those approvals will rezone about 0.26 acres of land on 909 and 913 Tennessee St., allow a reduced amount of required off-street parking and replace the lot with a three-story residential building that will have six units for temporary supportive housing.

The proposal was put forward by the Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church Hope Project, which has a four-unit building at 913 Tennessee St. that serves the same purpose.

The proposal was unanimously recommended for approval by both the Historic Resources Commission and the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. The project received $300,000 from the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund in 2024, as the Journal-World reported.

• Approve a request to rezone a residential area in west Lawrence to allow for small-scale commercial development near a proposed affordable housing project.

The rezoning will change approximately one acre of land on the southeast corner of K-10 and Bob Billings Parkway from residential to mixed-use zoning as part of a larger redevelopment project in the area. That project is from Tenants to Homeowners, a local community land trust that works to provide affordable housing. It would construct 120 units of affordable housing on 14 acres of vacant land.

The housing development, for which the City Commission approved the zoning on April 1, would include a variety of housing options: multi-story apartment buildings, row-house-style buildings and duplexes.

This rezoning request, which the Planning Commission recommended for approval in March, would allow “neighborhood-scale commercial uses” in the northern portion of the project, according to a city memo. There are no specific plans yet for that type of development, but Rebecca Buford, the executive director of Tenants to Homeowners, told the Planning Commission in February that the idea was to add a coffee shop or similar amenity there.

The Tenants to Homeowners project received $1.3 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund in 2024, as the Journal-World reported.