CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, November 29.1983
Page 7
Downtown
continued from p. 1
after which the City Commission selected Sizerel Realty Co. Inc. from Kenna, La.
SIZELER WAS ASSIGNED the task of planning a redevelopment project for the 700 and 800 blocks of downtown east of Massachusetts Street, in keeping with the city's comprehensive plan. Sizeler was instructed to save many existing storefronts, to integrate the project with the existing downstreet and to add two department stores to the area.
After working with Sizer for seven months, the City Commission approved one of four Sizer redevelopment plans, known as Scheme 1. In addition to the plan that the city wanted Sizer to work on
A month later, the new commission, the third to deal with redevelopment, took office. It consisted of Shontz, David Longhurst, Mike Amvrz, Alexine Antoine and Howard Hill.
THE ELECTION OF the new commission marked the beginning of the end for Sizer. Six months after the election, Sizerel was replaced as developer of record by Town Center Venture Corp., a local government developers organization that only days before the company began considering the company's plan.
With that move — a new company and a new location — the site for redevelopment changed
"It took Iowa City 10 years," he said. "You have to get government involved to build a meaningful shopping center downtown. Once you become involved, you become embroiled in politics."
the future of development now that the City Commission had decided on a plan. He played an important role in the decision.
He also attributed the change in developers to local politics.
"All the delays were caused by a local political election," he said. "People originally in formative years had to wait."
Bruce Heckman, vice president of Robert B. Teska Associates of Evanston, III., spent several months working on the city's comprehensive plan as a consultant.
MOST OF THE political accusations have focused on Longhurst and Amyx, who both rent buildings and own businesses in the area of their town. They were the first to vote against Sizeler.
In a paper on redevelopment called "Learning to Be a Partner," Heckman says, "The 'partners' may be deeply suspicious of each other, and their cautiousness tends to keep the first-stage agreements more general than their equivalents in the private sector."
'Redevelopment was following a straight line. The main reason it became convoluted was the new ideas of the new commission. If the old commission had stayed on, we would have chosen Sizeler.' Barkley Clark.
Former city commissioner
from the 700 and 800 blocks of Massachusetts Street to the 600 block.
Sizerel president Tom Davidson said his firm would not press the issue, but many people involved in redevelopment have said privately that they expect Sizerel will sue the city for replacing the Louisiana company with Town Center.
MANY WHO HAVE been involved with downtown redevelopment say that the new commissioners are responsible for negating the work of the previous commission.
"Redevelopment was following a straight line," said Clark, who was on the City Commission for 12 years before resigning last year. The effort to refurbish the dilapidated was the new ideas of the new commission.
"If the old commission had stayed on, we would have chosen Sizerel."
However, Clark said he was optimistic about
HE GOES ON to say that subsequent negotiations are hamstruck over details, and the negotiations are marred by having to maintain a stable position. The adversarial position, all under public scrutiny.
Heckman said that this happened with Sizerel something that cost the company the edible root of a plant.
"The average cynical developer would say this is typical," he said. "It was particularly frustrating in Lawrence because we bent over backward to try to avoid it."
Gleason said Sizerel was also slow to recognize how serious the city was about making changes in **Scheme 4**, which was "the straw that broke at least some people's hacks."
Gleason said he perceived the Town Center plan as bad and hoped that Sizerel may be able to overcome it.
a assessment that downtown redevelopment takes a long time, saying that it is "never easy to do."
GLEASON ALSO AGREED with Clark's
Steve Jansen, director of the Helen M. Watkins Community Museum, 1047 Massachusetts St., stressed the need for a historical perspective on the situation.
“It’s clear to me that this town has been wrestling with the downtown retail situation
"The present City Commission is dealing with the proliferation of satellite shopping centers. It
You have to get government involved to build a meaningful shopping center downtown. Once you get government involved, you become embroiled in politics.' — Barkley Clark,
Former city commissioner
was so piecemel that no one saw the effect Now, in the 1920s, you realize that allowing those to see was not possible.
PALOS, WHO HAS worked on the project for the planning office for three years, said he was concerned about where redevelopment was headed.
"I think we lost sight of what the community wants. There's lots of confusion in the data."
"We initially wanted to have a design competition, but we found out it's no longer done that way, so we had developer competition. With the addition of Town Center, we were able to have the design competition that we originally intended.
"We are fortunate to have so much interest in downtown redevelopment. It appears to me that we are a lot further along than we were when we started."
Few see a calm future for downtown redevelopment. Most people expect the lawsuits to become reality, particularly as long as local developer Ron Holt and local attorney Lance Burr continue to voice objection to the redevelopment selection process.
BURR, WHO OWNS downtown property, has maintained that taking land by eminent domain is illegal unless the property is blighted. He contends that buildings downtown are not blighted if the shops are occupied and the owners are paying taxes.
City Attorney Gerry Cooley has said that
potential blight is all that is needed to condemn buildings for redevelopment.
Holt owns a building in the 600 block downtown, where the Town Center project would be completed.
Holt has his own, private development project underway along the Kansas River next to City Hall. Steve Clark, who is working with Holt and the University of Missouri, caused by court fights would benefit Holt's fund.
BARKLEY CLARK SAID that Town Center would be the city's last shop downtown. If delays caused the opportunity to falter, he said, development would be back to a cornfield mall.
"It's certainly a divided commission and that's the way the public will see it," he said.
Despite the City Commission's approval of Town Center, former commissioner Binns said that the direct confrontation between Town Center and the merger had probably killed downtown redevelopment.
"The project has its Burts and Holmes." "Clark
plan." "I'll take time, but we've got a reasonable
essay."
Heckman, who has consulted on several
redevelopment projects in other cities, and that the city could expect substantial problems in the
FRANCISCO THINKS THAT the city was divided into two camps by the confrontation.
"The city was fragmented because it wasn't an orderly process. People took up sides," she said.
While there have been countless public hearings and meetings in the last three years, the public has never had a chance to express its opinion in a vote.
Yet sometime in the spring, the city may find itself starting over on another redevelopment plan.
The biggest obstacle for Town Center now is expected to be financing because the City Commission included in its negotiating agreement that it would vote on the financing it would have to pay for.
“It’s very complicated.” Clark said of downtown redevelopment. “It’s infinitely difficult than building in a cornfield. You’re using a square ppg into a round hole downtown.”
Timeline
quested commercial rezoning for the suo urban mall site.
continued from p. 1
*MARCH 1891: The City Commission denies the rezoning request. JVJ abandons plans to develop in Lawrence.
- DECEMBER 1981: Tesla completes its comprehensive downtown plan. The City Commission adds the report to Plan '95, the city's master plan.
- MARCH 1982: The city — now interested in downtown redevelopment — sends out a prospectus asking interested developers to apply for developer selection. Six months later, the commission selected Sizer Realty Co. Inc., Kenner, La., to be developer of record.
*MARCH 23, 1983: The City Commission in principle approves Sizerel's Scheme a downtown proposal and requests that Sizerel address 15 reservations the commission has with the plan.
★ AUGUST 1983: The City Commission votes 3.2 to accept Schedule 4, but Mayor David Longhust asks for a delay because of concern over public support.
*SEPT. 13, 1983: The City Commission delays signing an agreement with Sizeler Longhurst asks that the commission consider any local developers who come forth with a plan.
*OCT. 6, 1983: Town Center Venture Corp.
formed two days earlier, sends a letter to
the city asking for permission to present a plan
- OCT. 13, 1983: Town Center unveils its plan for redevelopment in the 600 block downtown
- OCT. 18, 1983: The City Commission votes 3-2 to again delay its decision on developer selection.
- NOV. 8, 1983: The City Commission votes 3-1-1 to accept Town Center as the new developer for downtown
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