City of Lawrence

Cultural District Task Force

July 30, 2013 minutes

MEMBERS PRESENT:	Commissioner Bob Schumm, Grace Peterson, KT Walsh, Susan Tate, Brenda Nunez, Cindy Maude, Mandy Enfield
MEMBERS ABSENT:	Mike Logan and Jacki Becker
STAFF PRESENT:	Diane Stoddard, Tommy Bohler, Megan Gilliland
PUBLIC PRESENT:	Fred Conboy, Sonia Smith and Christina Phelps from Destination Management, Inc. (CVB and Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area) and several citizens

Commissioner Schumm called the meeting to order. Cindy Maude moved to approve the July 15, 2013 minutes, seconded by Mandy Enfield. The minutes were unanimously approved.

Commissioner Schumm welcomed the guests. Introductions were made.

Fred Conboy introduced the organization, Destination Management, Inc. He mentioned the 1863 Lawrence effort, which has been a collaborative effort to promote Lawrence’s history around the important events of 1863. Christina Phelps, Director of the Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau, indicated that the main goal was economic impact of the City of Lawrence and the budget is comprised of the transient guest tax (bed tax), and the overarching goal is to bring visitors and tourism to Lawrence by selling Lawrence as a destination. She shared the Lawrence Visitor’s Guide, which features the arts in Lawrence and is widely distributed with 46,000 copies annually. She also brought a Lawrence brochure specifically focused on the arts, entitled “Art in the Open”. She also mentioned other newsletter and “e blasts” that are sent out monthly. She also mentioned the face to face activity with the Visitors’ Center, which sees 10,000 visitors annually. She reported that Christina Metz Howard, the CVB’s communication coordinator, attends the monthly arts roundtable meetings and they engage in ongoing networking. The CVB has identified feeder cities (Oklahoma City and Denver, Colorado), which feed visitors to Lawrence and they also promote Lawrence out-of-state. She mentioned that yesterday, the editor from Midwest Living was in Lawrence and she shared information on the arts assets in Lawrence. She mentioned continuing to brand the arts focus for Lawrence.

KT Walsh thanked the CVB for advertising in various publications and also suggested that the map include the three historic districts in east Lawrence. Susan Tate asked about the process of branding the cultural identity for the city. Ms. Phelps responded that she presents to her board, but currently doesn’t bring the branding items to outside groups. However, she thought that it would be a good idea to work collaboratively on this. Ms. Maude agreed that there should be one joint focus on the arts in Lawrence to maximize the limited funding on the effort. Megan Gilliland, the City’s Communication Coordinator, reported that the City has not undertaken a larger branding program for the City. She stated that such a program would involve many groups. Ms. Maude stated that she thought there shouldn’t be a disconnect between the efforts, such as if there were banners placed leading to the Poehler area, those banners should tie in with the larger strategy. Ms. Phelps agreed with those comments and indicated she would be willing to work with any group on that effort. Commissioner Schumm asked if the CVB had resources to help with this effort. Ms. Phelps clarified that there is a budget for annual publications, but not a budget to do a larger branding campaign. Ms. Walsh stated that the Cultural Arts Commission should be engaged in any branding exercise related to the cultural district.

Mr. Conboy also mentioned that there is $350,000 in annual federal funding that comes to the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage area and these funds could be utilized as leverage for additional sustainable funding for this effort. Ms. Smith stated these funds are utilized in a large number of counties that encompass the area in eastern Kansas and western Missouri.

Ms. Tate made a recommendation that zoning be entirely off the agenda and isn’t the charge of this group. Ms. Walsh added she did not want to get into changing zoning but she thought it would be important that east Lawrence be involved in these discussions if zoning changes would come up in the future. Ms. Tate was concerned if the group got into zoning issues it would struggle with getting the work done that is the charge of the task force. There was a discussion about live/work opportunities. Ms. Walsh stated that she wanted there to be confirmation in the report stating that mostly residential areas are in a certain location and mostly commercial areas are in another location. Ms. Maude asked if a statement could be made that the Cultural District Task Force’s recommendations all fall within the current zoning. Ms. Peterson clarified that anyone could request a zoning change in the future. Ms. Walsh stated that she liked Ms. Maude’s suggested statement. There was consensus on making a statement in the Task Force’s report that says the group’s recommendations assume that all current zoning and plans would remain in place.

There was discussion about 9^th Street being a logical corridor as a path, rather than 8^th Street. Ms. Walsh suggested to take this concept to the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association at its meeting on Monday. Ms. Tate asked about whether there were any other items that were needing feedback from either the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association or Cultural Arts Commission. She suggested lighting, sidewalks, etc. also be discussed by those groups. It was also discussed to ask these groups what sorts of things are important considerations for the Task Force. Ms. Walsh suggested the group look at the City Repair website out of Portland, Oregon.

It was suggested that the group get any changes to the draft outline to Ms. Stoddard so that she and Mr. Bohler could make changes to the outline prior to the next meeting.

Ms. Enfield shared an idea that Bob Nugent shared about possibly using an out of service bus and perhaps a bus might be an idea for the arts area. Ms. Tate also shared that the grant that the City and the Arts Center and Callahan Creek applied for through the State of Kansas was still in play and a decision would be made in August.

The next meeting was set for August 13 and it was decided the meeting would be at 3:30 and run until 5 pm. Agenda items will be: Discussion on draft report and reports on ideas from other communities, along with a report from East Lawrence. The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission meeting will be held on August 14.

The meeting adjourned at 5:15 pm.