University Daily Kansan / Wednesday. April 22, 1987
Commission takes no action on mall
Information on contract with JVJ, status of Urban Renewal Agency needed
By TODD COHEN
Staff writer
Amid calls for quick action, the Lawrence City Commission last night took no action on a proposed 600-block downtown mall that was rejected by voters in the April 7 city elections.
Instead, after almost two hours of discussion, commissioners gave City Manager Buford Watson and his staff a warning about their next week is commission meeting.
New mayor Mike Amyx said the commission needed more information before it could act on the mail, specifically the city's contract with the Urban Renewal Agency or status of the Urban Renewal Agency, a mall-related citizen committee.
In the April 7 election, voters rejected the mail by a 3-to-1 margin on a three-question referendum.
Although the referendum was nonbinding, or advisory, the commissioners have said they will abide by the vote and stop the 3-year-old project.
The commissioners said last night that the city probably should void its developer-of-record contract with Jacobs, Visconsi & Jacobs of Cleveland before it takes any action about future downtown development.
But Watson said he didn't know how the city could void the agreement and that he needed more time to seek legal advice. The contract, signed in 1983, gave JVJ an exclusive right to shop at a downtown mall in the 600 block.
Commissioner Bob Schumm said, "If the commission wants to move in a different direction than the 600-block proposal, then the city needs to dissolve this contract."
Commissioners were scheduled to discuss the future of the URA, a five-member committee created by the city to collect citizen comment and help JVJ develop the 600-block mall.
In a letter to commissioners, Joel Jacobs, URA chairman, asked them to let the URA continue meeting and working on downtown development. When the commission created the 600-block proposal, it took its work to the 600-block proposal.
The URA and its three subcommittees, which were to issue reports on the mail project next week, suspended meetings after the election.
But Commissioner Mike Rundle expressed doubt that the entire URA board thought as Jacobs did Pete Curran, a URA member, said the URA had not met and Jacobs had not consulted all members of the URA or the committees.
After discussing several options, ranging from disbanding the URA to changing its charter, commissioners decided to consider reviving the Downtown Improvement Committee, a citizen committee that worked with the city's first developer-of-record, Sizerel Realty of Louisiana.
In other action, commissioners:
■ Approved the site plan for construction of a movie theater in the 20th Street. The theater, when completed in late November, will have 1,405 seats and six screens.
In other action, commissioners:
■ Received the report of the Mayor's Study Committee on Drug Abuse, and voted to make the committee permanent. Commissioners also adopted Lawrence High School representative Diane Cook's request that KU and high school representatives he added to the committee.
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