photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence City Commissioners during Tuesday night's commission meeting at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.

As Lawrence voters went to the polls on Election Day, the City Commission approved a few items as part of its consent agenda during a short meeting Tuesday night.

The agenda for the meeting featured no items beyond a vote on the consent agenda — a group of items normally considered routine that can be approved in a single vote.

One of the items passed in that agenda with a 4-0 vote — Commissioner Amber Sellers was absent — approved an ordinance that adopted a Neighborhood Revitalization Act plan that will provide development assistance for the 9 Del Lofts II project at 716 E. Ninth St.

The proposed development in East Lawrence would include six live-work units and 39 one-bedroom units, with a minimum of 24 of those one-bedroom units to be set aside as affordable housing. An attorney representing the developer, Flint Hills Holdings, previously told the Commissioners the project has a “massive” amount of state and federal funds, and the incentive package was similar to some of the construction firm’s previous projects, which include the Poehler Lofts and 9 Del Lofts.

The City Commission voted unanimously in June to approve a tax incentives plan for the project that included issuing industrial revenue bonds for a sales tax exemption on construction cost and a 95% Neighborhood Revitalization Act property tax abatement over 15 years on the valuation increase resulting from the development, as the Journal-World reported.

Following that meeting, the plan was presented to the Douglas County Commission and the Lawrence School Board for them to vote on as well. The County Commission approved the plan in July, while the School Board did so in August. Now that all three bodies approved the plan, the city is now able execute the agreement.

Three other items that were approved Tuesday night were related to the Kansas River Wastewater Treatment Plant: a contract for repairing a digester; another one for replacing part of the plant’s screening system; and an agreement with a contractor for removing and reusing biosolids generated by the plant.

The agreements to repair a digester and to replace part of the plant’s screening system set aside $500,000 and $308,000, respectively. Both those items were budgeted in the 2025 budget, with the funds being allocated from the city’s Water and Wastewater fund.

For the biosolids program, the city received four bids from various firms to help remove and transport the biosolids produced by the plant. According to a city memo, a five-person team unanimously selected Hodges Farms & Dredging LLC to win the bid. The biosolids program removes about 9,000 cubic yards per year, with Hodges Farms & Dredging charging $18.49 per cubic yard. The city budgeted $150,000 for its Biosolids program for next year, but the city memo noted the cost is “dependent upon the amount of biosolids removed and beneficially reused.”