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Wednesday, June 10, 1987/Kansan Summer Weekly
Controversy surrounds zoning of Oread
By KRISTEN HAYS
Staff writer
Controversy surrounding the proposed downzoning of part of the Oread neighborhood is heating up, as residents and landowners call for.
Some Oread residents have requested that the 900 and 1000 blocks of Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Tennessee streets be rezoned from RD, residential dormitory, a higher density housing zone, to RM-1, multi-family residential, which permits fewer housing units per lot.
The Oread neighborhood now is zoned RD, the densest zoning allowable in Lawrence. RD zoning permits one housing unit per 800 square feet of lot, and up to six units on a typical Oread lot, which is 5,800 square feet.
Fred Sack, 936 Ohio St., Oread Neighborhood Association board member, said recently that residents in the area favored less dense RM-1 zoning, which would allow one living unit per 3,500 square feet. RM-1 zoning allows duplexes, but not triplexes.
Richard Zinn, Lawrence, a lawyer representing several landowners who oppose the downzoning, said, "Zoning districts are determined to create compatibility and predictability, so purchasers of property will know what they can do with their land after it's purchased. The takings
of land is wrong under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution and imposes penalties
Zinn said further that tension was brought about by the difference between the regulation of property use and the taking of property use.
"The city's appropriation of a property right is not just zoning, but taking of buildings that provide an economic benefit to the property owner," he said.
Henry Hess, who owns property at 936 and 939 Louisiana St., said, "The way I understand it, if one of my places burned down, another house would have to be built. Those houses are owned for apartments and if developers buy them, it would be to my benefit. I'm retired and if I sell, I want to sell for the most money I can."
Zinn said, "The area in question was built for high density and has been so zoned since 1960. Purchases and investments have been based on clear awareness of existing zoning. Measures to change that zoning frustrates the predictability that the zoning is supposed to provide."
Zinn said the Oread neighborhood had been mostly student housing since the end of World War I, a trend that accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s.
pus," he said. "Lawrence has a severe traffic congestion problem, and if students have to live farther away, it would create a worse dislocation problem because they have to drive to school and find parking."
"It's an ideal location for students, right between downtown and cam-
Harlane Papanek, 1003 Tennessee St., said the push for downzoning was not meant to be antagonistic to students living in the area.
"The issue isn't against students at all," Papanek said. "Absentee landlords aren't keeping up their property. For them, it's just as profitable to take rent, do as little maintenance as possible, then sell the lot to developers for $30,000, who tear the house down to put up a fourplex.
"This isn't about rental property. It's about the preservation and restoration of the neighborhood, bringing back the glory it once had."
Papnek also said, "It's important to keep in mind that we're talking about six blocks out of approximately 10 blocks on the entire Oread neighborhood."
Sack said, "Downzoning wouldn't ensure preservation of the old houses, but it would encourage developers to make good what's there, approximately three to four apartments per house.
"We want to keep the neighborhood for mixed use, not just for students. If the developers keep up at the rate they're going, in 20 years this will be
exclusively a student neighborhood.
"It's an aesthetic question too. I have nothing against students, and I like the vitality of students, but they're more compatible in small packages."
Sack said the threat was that owners would let dilapidated buildings deteriorate until the lots were worth more than the houses, then the owners would sell.
"There's no incentive to keep them up." he said.
Zinn said statistics contradicted the assertion that many old houses had been demolished.
"There have been moderate demolitions in the Oread neighborhood because buildings had become uninhabitable," he said.
Sack didn't know what kind of compensation landowners expected if the proposed areas were down-zone.
"I'm a property owner myself, and I feel my property will be worth more money because families will move in and keep it up," he said.
Papanek said, "The problem is that the interests of homeowners are overlooked, whereas rental property owners have more voice."
The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission is conducting a study to evaluate the interests of residents and landowners.
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