CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending January 20, 2012

2011 Residential Lot Inventory

The attached report provides an update on the status of available lots for new residential construction as of December 31, 2011. Analysis shows that while the supply of available residential lots remained relatively steady over 2011, demand slowed substantially for single family homes. This had the effect of extending the inventory of development-ready lots (lots with infrastructure in place) available in newer subdivisions from 8 years in 2010 to 11 years in 2011. 

Public meeting to discuss possibility of relocating Transit offices to Santa Fe Depot

The city is hosting a public meeting on Wednesday, February 1 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Santa Fe Station, 413 E. 7^th Street, to discuss the possibility of moving the Transit offices and downtown hub to the Santa Fe Station. The attached notice provides an overview of the proposal.

City participates in WorkWell, KS, program

The City of Lawrence has been invited to be a Lawrence Champion in WorkWell KS, a statewide initiative funded by the Kansas Health Foundation and coordinated by the Wichita Business Coalition on Health Care.  As a Champion the City will commit to complete a worksite assessment and Human Resources staff will take part in a worksite wellness training session where they will receive feedback on the assessment results and get training on building a successful worksite wellness strategy.  www.workwellks.com . The invitation came following the involvement of Lori Carnahan, Human Resources Manager, with the WorkWell Lawrence initiative a micro-grant whose participants are charged with designing and implementing a “results-oriented” community wellness initiative aimed at supporting employer efforts to promote healthier eating and increased physical activity through people, programs and policies.

In December, the City CHAMP Wellness Committee held the kick off of the newest addition to the City’s wellness programming.  The WellCare Clinic, located at 1130 West 4^th Street, Suite 1020 on the campus of Lawrence Memorial Hospital has been opened to employees and participants of the City’s healthcare plan to provide one on one consultation by a qualified health professional in order to examine and take steps to improve personal lifestyle habits that affect overall health.  The clinic is also open for employees and retirees on the plan to receive minor episodic acute care. A total of 400 employees, retirees and dependents attended December biometric screenings.  Fifty six follow up well care advisor visits and eleven acute care visits were conducted in the first two weeks following the December 19 opening of the clinic.

Inventory of City Owned Properties

Staff from the City Attorney’s Office, GIS and the City Manager’s Office have been working on an inventory of property that is titled to the City of Lawrence.  Each tract of land titled to the City of Lawrence, that has its own unique parcel identification number, is listed on the attached spreadsheet - approximately 355 parcels.  Staff added brief descriptions and categories to the list.  A hyperlink is also available to the Douglas County Appraiser’s Office which has additional parcel information.  From this data, GIS Coordinator Micah Seybold created the attached map with color categories for the various City uses of each property.