To the editor:

As our community ponders expanding and consolidating city offices, I understand the desire to consider all the possibilities, including moving City Hall from downtown. So, yes, think about it, but our goals and community identity call for keeping City Hall downtown.

The city’s comprehensive plan, Plan 2040, and all previous city plans say that downtown is the “cultural and commercial heart of the region” (Plan 2040, page 5). It is with large decisions — the location of City Hall — when we lean on our plans. Plan 2040’s goals include: “Emphasize Downtown Lawrence as the commercial, office, civic, and cultural center of the city” (page 31); “Maintain and increase the core concentration of residential, retail, office, civic, cultural, and recreational activities in Downtown” (pages 35-36); and “Enhance Downtown Lawrence as an employment destination” (page 58).

Suburban communities, like Lenexa and Overland Park, have had to build what we have — a downtown mixed-use center where people live, work, play and participate without having to drive.

Current City Hall, the old Riverfront Mall, parking garage, the Reuter building, nearby parking lots, and the need to connect the Lawrence Loop right there create the bones for a City Hall campus. We’ve already made huge investments there. Let’s not throw them away.

Massachusetts Street with City Hall at one end and the County Courthouse on the other: What better way to show we are indeed a “place where creativity thrives, sustainability is a way of life, and community pride is contagious” (Plan 2040, page 3).

Thank you,

Bonnie Johnson,

Lawrence