Fe Sa tis Mba cies all-day sbi Fs be ays csv dc PUBLIC NOTICE PAGE 12 O N E FOR THE ROA NOTE: This article appeared in the Lawrence Daily Journal-World on the Doth of July, one day before the last public hearing on the Haskell Loop. The Commission voted 4-1 for the road at that point, Mr. Mibeck dissent- By Mayor Barkley Clark ing. It is one of only two pieces known to exist, favoring construction of the roadway. The other resides in the Ae Haskell Loop is not a new idea suddenly man- areas for redevelopment without providing adequate ufactured by the prior City Commission. It appears substitute housing for those displaced by the project. as an integral part of the 1964 Comprehensive Plan, Under recently -enacted federal law, every person who as well as the 1971 Transportation Plan prepared for is forced to move because of a major public improve~ the city by the Planning and Development Department ment funded federally must be given up to 15,000 dol- of the Kansas Highway Commission. Under a grant lars to buy a safe and comfortable replacement home, from HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Devel- It is true that some houses along the proposed right- opment), and with the encouragement of the East of-way, particularly on Pennsylvania, will have to be Lawrence Improvement Association, the Oblinger - removed for the roadway, But the number is rel- Smith consulting firm prepared a careful route align- atively small and virtually every house is substandard ment study; this study was published in January, 1975, 1” terms of the minimum housing code. and is available for inspection at City Hall. The Lawrence Community Development Director and his staff have spent literally hundereds of hours working on the project to date. The people I have talked to agreed that removal of most of these houses is a positive benefit to the area. Each resident living in one of these houses is provid- ed with up to $15,000 for replacement housing, not to mention an automatic $200 "dislocation allowance" and reasonable movingexpenses. In fact, relocation costs are a major part of the Haskell Loop budget. Kyle Andregg,-our talented community development director, reports that he is receiving excellent re- sponses in relocating those people living on the right- of-way. The Haskell Loop is really misnamed. Only a small part goes along Haskell, and it is nota “loop” at all, but a wide, two-lane roadway running from Ith and Haskell northwesterly to tie into the new bridges at 6th and Massachusetts... Contrary to the ideas held by some people, the road will not be a big four -lane Los Angeles freeway. It will be a two-lane road, something like Conneticut Street, recently improved by the City. The speed limit will probably be thirty miles per hour, certainly no greater than thirty-five. To some extent, it will be a limited-access road; = proposed access points are 7th, 9th, and llth Streets. | All of the people relocated thus far have moved to much better housing than they left and all areappar- ently satisfied with the program. In fact, brought up There are two promary purposes behind the road: (1) to provide a thoroughfare which will remove high- volume traffic from residential streets in East Law- rence; and (2) to serve as a buffer between residential | areas to the south and west, and the industrial uses ; to the north aml east, including the railroad tracks. As the Oblinger-Smith study points out, reducing the scope of these two problems will make the residen- tial neighborhoods of East Lawrence better places in which to live. The road should attract new develop= ment and residents into the area. These are major goals of both the East Lawrence Improvement Assoc - jation and the Far East Lawrence Improvement Association. Once K-10 is completed as a four-lane highway all the way into Kansas City (contracts have already been let for most of the K-10 project), the need will be even greater to provide an efficient cor= — ridor to take traffic across town to the new bridges at 6th and Mass. Once the Haskell Loop is completed, it will also pro~ vide substantial benefits for those living in Far East Lawrence. who desire an efficient way to get down- E town. In addition, city truck traffic going west from Be 5 ; the new city garage at llth & Haskell will be attracted : & away from residential streets. All the planners who i i? re have looked at the project since 1964 have agreed that ; Be oie cabeaabatpenedis to LUE MAO: Coe eee the city of Lawrence. I feel strongly that we should to code, and purchased by individuals who were re- move ahead with right-of-way acquisition so that the located from Pennsylvania Street. The City Comm-= roadway can be built within a few years instead of fission has not yet heard one complaint concerning the later in time, when costs will have soared higher. relocation efforts of the staff. A project such as the Haskell Loop could have creat- Some people have suggested that funds used for the ed serious relocation problems not many years ago. Haskell Loop project would be better spent for hous= files of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, courtesyof Mr. AlHack. Maybe we'll print his picture next time} bably be paid out of "urban highway" funds which are © earmarked for highway construction, and cannot be used for any other purpose. Second, even though we could theoretically use all our Community Develop - ment funds for housing rehabilitation, there is prob- ably a practical limit to how much rehab the com-=- munity can "digest" all at once. Lawrence has never been involved in rehab until very recently. Our limited experience suggests that many people liv~ ing in substandard homes are reluctant to rehabilitate their homes if this involves borrowing any maey (even at very low interest rates) or enforcement of the housing code. Rehab loans have been available in East Lawrence for some time, but the takers have been very few. The City will probably not give out free rehab grants from Community Development funds without requiring that part of the rehab cost be financed by a subsidized loan. It is by feeling that a simple "give-away" would be an unwise use of tax funds, and that a combination loan-grant program is” the best way to proceed. ; In any case, this Commission is committed to rehab- ilitation in older parts of Lawrence and we willbe | spending a great chunk of our Community Development funds for that purpose. But this is a new program and should be launched ona scale that is reasonable and s workable. Better to have a good rehab program on a smaller scale than a massive program which falls — flat because it is not properly planned. After the $600,000 for the Haskell Loop right-of-way acqui- sition is spent over the next three years, my guess is that the rehab program will be well enough underway | that we can begin to channel all subsequent Community Development funds into rehab. In conclusion, I should like to emphasize that the Has- kell Loop is only one element in an over-all effort by the City to improve East and North Lawrence. The : down-zoning of residential lots in these areas so that people can rehabilitate their homes is another tool. So is the designation of new parks at llth and Haskell, 19th and Haskell, and on Lyons Street in North Law- rence. So is the completion of Conneticut Street and - the new stop light at Second and Locust. So is the * continuing work on the Brook Creek drainage channel. ~ So is the completion of the Mud Creek project. And _ So are the general revenue sharing funds which have been distributed to neighborhood associations in East _ and North Lawrence. The city staff has already spent a great deal of time and overhead expense in working on the Haskell Loop project. Unlike the garage situation, this taxpayer money would be down the drain if the unanimous de- cesion of the prior City Commission were suddenly reversed, There comes a point at which the city staff gets de - moralized, and city government gets paralyzed, when decisions once made are reversed by a constantly changing City Commission, There were many "urban renewal" projects which ing rehabilitation, There are two answers to this. oman Seon ASK AOR took a mindless "bulldozer" approach and cleared First, the actual roadway construction costs will pro- ' : TRS (Advertisement) es @ Dirt destroys carpets. Drycleaning carpets gets them P, really clean. Look at the little tag on the back of your r or Le oriental carpet, it says "dryclean only”. 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