photo by: Google Maps

This aerial photo from Google Maps shows the Rock Chalk Park and the vacant ground to the north of the complex. Part of that vacant ground — north of the area where the trail system is shown — is included in a plan for a new single-family housing development seeking city approval.

A game-changing moment for Lawrence may be coming near the Rock Chalk Park sports complex. No, this one won’t happen on a court, but rather may happen on vacant pasture land near the complex in northwest Lawrence.

Plans have been filed to annex 100 acres of vacant property just north of Rock Chalk Park into the city limits. Why might that be a game-changer? Because Lawrence is short of new lots to build houses on, and the 100 acres could allow for about 400 new homes to be constructed in the city, according to a concept plan filed at City Hall.

But this plan is a bit like my pick-up basketball game: full of ambition but challenged on aim. There is little doubt that the local real estate industry would like to have 400 new home sites drop into the Lawrence market, but the industry most likely would prefer those home sites be located in the Lawrence public school district.

The 100 acres proposed for annexation are just outside the Lawrence school district. The property just north of Rock Chalk Park is in the Perry-Lecompton school district, meaning people in those houses almost could see Free State High from their porches but wouldn’t be sending their kids there.

That fact, though, may not doom the request. After all, not every homeowner has children, and a certain number of parents may like the idea of living in a larger community but sending their children to a smaller school. Perry-Lecompton is a 3A school district, as opposed to Lawrence’s two public high schools at 6A. But the high school is about 12 miles and 20 minutes away, with the elementary school being a few minutes closer. That may sound like a lot to some, but not that much to others. I rode that far on a school bus every day throughout junior high. (Yes, bus riding was my best subject in school, and it built incredible teamwork skills — especially in the area of homework.)

Plus, this zoning would be for the long term, and it is not hard to see how this could work out. Just look to Shawnee in Johnson County. That city has lots of residents who send their kids to the De Soto school district. As growth took off in that portion of Shawnee, the De Soto district responded by building new buildings closer to the growth, with the biggest being Mill Valley High School. That’s in Shawnee but is part of the De Soto school district.

What’s probably less likely is the idea of Lawrence public schools granting lots of exceptions for students living in the Perry-Lecompton district to come to Lawrence schools. With the way school districts get state funding on a per pupil basis, it becomes financially difficult for a district to grant many of those exceptions. You would have the expense of educating those students, but since they aren’t from your district, you generally aren’t getting the state funding for them.

A representative with the development group confirmed it doesn’t have any sort of arrangement worked out with the Lawrence school district to take kids that would be part of the new neighborhood.

“But Perry-Lecompton is very excited to have additional students from that area,” said David Hamby, an engineer with BG Consultants who is representing the development group. “They already are sending over a bus to The Links apartment complex to pick up students.”

Indeed, The Links, the big apartment complex with a golf course next door to Rock Chalk Park, also is in the Perry-Lecompton school district, and evidently has some kids living in it.

The school issue, though, is just one interesting element of the project. This is the first big annexation request since the city and the county passed new regulations making it tougher to build rural residences. A mantra behind that effort was the residential development should largely occur in cities. The rule changes created an expectation that the city of Lawrence would look more favorably on annexing property into the city, especially for residential building lots.

This will be an early test of that idea. The development group — which is led by longtime Lawrence businessmen Michael Garber and Micah Garber — are only proposing single-family residential zoning for the property. In other words, no apartments and no retail developments are planned.

The city also may be put to the test on working with developers when it comes to infrastructure challenges. Hamby told me part of this property is in a drainage district that flows to the north. That is a problem because Lawrence sewer treatment plants are to the south. Hamby said the development is seeking to build a pump station that would pump sewage into an “interceptor sewer line” (it is the coolest sewer phrase I know) that was built largely to serve Rock Chalk Park. Hamby said the line has enough capacity to handle the proposed residential development, but it is an open question whether city officials would change their plans to accommodate the request.

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There’s one other project in the same area worth watching, and it is further along. If you remember, we reported in July that a group led by local developer Steve Schwada had filed plans to actually down-zone about 25 acres of property approved for big-box retail at Sixth and the South Lawrence Trafficway to accommodate single-family development.

That project is across the street from Rock Chalk Park, on the northwest corner of the SLT and Sixth Street interchange. That piece of property is in the Lawrence school district and is already in the city limits It, however, is much smaller than the piece of ground the Garbers are trying to bring into the city.

The Schwada development would accommodate maybe 70 homes. However, it has won a key round of approvals from the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. Lawrence city commissioners are set to hear the project on Tuesday. It also will need some approvals from the Douglas County Commission, but thus far it is on track, given its positive recommendation from the Planning Commission.