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Chancellor asks governor for help with Oread debate
By Lauren Beatty
Kansan staff writer
Just when things in the Oread Neighborhood seemed to be settled, the University of Kansas once again attempted to get permission to tear down a trio of houses it owns on Ohio Street.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway issued a letter June 18 to Gov. Bill Graves asking him to reconsider the University's plan to demolish the homes in favor of a new scholarship hall. The plan was defeated in March by Ramon Powers, state historic preservation officer.
The University and the neighborhood have been locked in a battle over the University's right to raze the properties at 1323, 1329 and 1333 Ohio St. for more than a year. This isn't the first time the University and the city have butted heads in striving for a balance between neighborhood preservation and University expansion.
The beginning
Greg Hickam has lived in the Oread Neighborhood since his birth 44 years ago. His grandparents managed a boarding house in the 1950s for international students. He said the three houses in question used to be functioning homes in the neighborhood and one was even commissioned by Edgar Bailey, inventor of the rock chalk chant. But as the homes aged, they became run down and uninhabitable.
Hickam, president of the Oread Neighborhood Association, said he approached the owners of the properties with a client interested in purchasing one of the homes, but the landlords didn't want to sell the homes individually. Members of the Oread Neighborhood also attempted to put together an investment group, Hickam said.
"Prior to KU buying the homes I know there were two, possibly three, offers," Hickam said. "But when an institution comes in, it skews real estate values. They paid an exhorbant amount for the properties."
Lynn Bretz, director of University Relations, remembers the purchase of the houses differently. She said the city declared the homes to be blighted in February 2000 and the University bought the homes later that year.
The purchase
"The University is approached all the time with offers," she said. "The houses had been sitting there a long time. No one else had stepped forward to purchase them."
Hickam said the Oread Neighborhood was surprised because the University had issued a campus plan in 1997 that declared the end of expansion at the alley between Louisiana and Ohio streets.
"They decided not to honor the commitment or visit with neighbors and that's kind of when our argument began," Hickam said.
The battle
Bretz said building a scholarship hall on the land was always the intent of the University and the 1997 master plan was not set in stone.
"Documents are fluid," she said. "You can't predict what will happen in the future. We moved half a block to capture this property."
When the University announced its plan to construct a scholarship hall, Oread Neighborhood residents protested, saying a massive structure such as a scholarship hall would not blend into the neighborhood. According to Kansas law, the city and the University had to work together to come up with a compromise between keeping the homes as they were and building a modern residence.
Hickam said other houses in other neighborhoods were also destroyed at the hands of the University. There were houses taken down to build Amini Scholarship Hall, the Adams Alumni Center and the parking garage next to the Kansas Union.
Bretz said the University never expanded without permission and always followed city and state laws.
The decision
Because of past tensions and failure to compromise, both sides ultimately agreed to let the state historic preservation officer come in and make the final decision on the Ohio Street properties. Ramon Powers visited Lawrence to listen to scores of residents complain about the University's plan. On March 15, in the final hours before his retirement and the day before spring break started, Powers ruled that the University could not demolish the houses because such an act would encroach upon the historic environment of the Usher House, which appears on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bretz said after a few months of weighing its options, the University decided to ask the governor to reconsider.
The future
Bretz said building a scholarship hall was still the best option for the land. She said problems like neighborhood continuity and parking have been solved.
The governor leaves office in January, and a decision will be made within that six month time period, Kristin Heurtz, a spokeswomen for Gov. Graves, said. This is not the first time the governor has been asked to reconsider a historic society decision.
"In March, the governor overturned a decision made by the Historical Society regarding the Old South Main building at Osawatomie State Hospital," Heuertz said. "The building was listed on the Historical Registry."
Contact Beatty at ibeatty@kansan.com. This story was edited by Jason Royer.