Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Planning Department

 

TO:

David L. Corliss, City Manager

FROM:

Planning Staff

DATE:

October 22, 2014

RE:

920 Missouri St. Project Update

 

Background

920 Missouri Street contains a 3-story Detached Dwelling and an accessory garage on a 9,900 sq. ft. parcel (75’ x 132’).  The property is zoned RM12D and is located within the boundaries of the Oread Neighborhood Plan.  It is not included in a historic district.  The RM12D district permits several types of housing, including duplex (permitted) and Detached Dwelling (with a special use permit).  The maximum dwelling units per acre is 12, which yields two units permitted on the subject property.

 

 

A demolition permit was submitted by Joe Keating on September 23, 2014.  Issuance of a demolition permit is ministerial in nature, requiring notice of the application to be published in the newspaper and a thirty day waiting period from the date of submittal by which to disconnect utilities and ensure that staff reviews any issues associated with the request in an accurate manner.

 

Subsequent to notice of the demolition request, the neighborhood became active in opposing the demolition of the residence and construction of a duplex.  A petition opposing the demolition of the structure was presented to the City Commission on October 14, 2014.

 

Staff has discussed a number of options for the property with the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Keating.  Mr. Keating intends for this property to be a rental property and has reported that the existing house is in need of repair and remodeling.  The options include:

 

  1. Maintain and remodel the structure for use as a rental property.
  2. Maintain the structure and request a special use permit (SUP) to construct a second Detached Dwelling to be constructed.
  3. Demolish the structure and construct a duplex.
  4. Demolish the structure and request a special use permit to construct two new Detached Dwellings on the property.

 

In a meeting with the City Manager, Planning Director, and Historic Resources Administrator on October 20, 2014, pros and cons of all of the options were discussed and the Keatings advised that they desired to accommodate the neighbors’ concerns related to demolishing the existing residence.  They stated they would apply for a special use permit to allow them to demolish the existing accessory garage and replace it with a Detached Dwelling/garage structure.  The existing house would remain and would be repaired if the SUP is approved.  The demolition permit will be held in abeyance while the owners proceed through the SUP process.  Please see the accompanying letter to the SUP application that explains the plan more fully.  The Keatings were given until October 31st to submit the required site plan for the SUP.  The SUP request is tentatively scheduled for the December Planning Commission meeting.

 

The owners have cited in their letter time delays and additional costs to accommodate the desires of the neighborhood.  Because of this, they have requested a waiver of all city fees associated with the new construction and remodel work – permit fees, utility connection fees, SUP fee, etc. Consideration of this request will be a future City Commission item.

 

Discussion

While this specific property appears to be on track to meet the desires of the neighborhood input received, the remaining area is subject to the same development standards and could accommodate demolition and duplex development.

 

This area was the subject of intense discussion during the adoption of the Oread neighborhood Plan process.  Rezoning this part of the neighborhood to an RS district was discussed but was viewed as unreasonable due to the existing pattern of mixed housing types in the neighborhood, its long history of being zoned for the duplex use, and the issue of creating nonconforming properties by changing the zoning to RS. 

 

The data below reflects some of the characteristics of this portion of the Oread Neighborhood (north of the stadium):

 

900 Block Missouri (source: county land use data)

22 total fronting parcels

Approximately 27% (6 of 22 parcels) is owner-occupied

Land use: 19 single-family structures, 2 dwellings converted to apartments, 1 Fourplex structure (same in 2009 and 2006)

 

 

Between 9th St./Mississippi St./Fambrough Dr./Arkansas St. (source: county land use data)

164 total parcels (excluding large-scale apartment complexes)

Approximately 30 owner-occupied parcels (18.2%)

 

Description

Parcels

% of Parcels

Single family residence (detached)

110

67.1%

Dwelling converted to apartments

22

13.4%

Fourplex

9

5.5%

Duplex

8

4.9%

Low Rise (Walk-up) apartment

5

3.0%

Triplex

3

1.8%

Retail store

2

1.2%

Drive-in restaurant

1

0.6%

Education / public admin / health care / other

1

0.6%

Garden apartment complex (1-3 stories)

1

0.6%

Residential highest and best use

1

0.6%

Retail store

1

0.6%

Total

164

100.0%

 

 

During the Oread Neighborhood planning process, an alternative to rezoning the area to RS was to pursue creating a Conservation Overlay District with accompanying design guidelines to address maintaining the character of this part of the Oread neighborhood.  That process is underway with a joint committee of the Planning Commission and Historic Resources Commission but is not expected to be submitted for City Commission consideration until Fall 2015.

 

In draft form, the guidelines provide the following as it relates to this area of the neighborhood:

 

  1. Requires that certain site and architectural design elements be present with any new construction.  Elements such as roof type, porches, window patterns, parking location, etc. are intended to provide a design outcome in keeping with the character of the neighborhood.
  2. Provides for a new housing type in the subject area – the alley dwelling unit – that would be an alternative to duplex development and would be permitted without the need to process a special use permit if the existing Detached Dwelling structure is maintained.  This is viewed as an incentive for adding density to a property without undergoing the special use permit process and with maintaining a more single-family character in the area.

 

Also of note, is that the area north of the stadium was surveyed as part of the Oread Neighborhood North of University of Kansas Memorial Stadium Survey in 2010.  See also the specific survey form for 920 Missouri. 

 

As the Oread Neighborhood Association began to request a revised plan to show the changes in the neighborhood since the 1979 plan, it was identified that the entire neighborhood had not been surveyed for historic resources.  As the neighborhood worked with planning staff to begin the process of a plan revision, they also requested that the City survey the area north of the stadium that had not been surveyed.  The City of Lawrence applied for (October 2008) and received (March 2009) a 2009 Historic Preservation Fund grant from the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office.  The survey was to complete the portion of the Oread Neighborhood that had not been previously surveyed.  (The Oread Neighborhood Plan Update was initiated by the Planning Commission in January of 2009.)

 

Survey Area

The survey area consists of approximately 12 blocks bounded by Indiana Street on the east, Emery Road on the west, 9th Street on the north, and 11th Street on the south. A total of 223 historic resources survey forms were entered into the interactive online database maintained by the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office. Some properties with similar multiple buildings on a single lot were entered on one survey form and some properties with dissimilar multiple buildings on a single lot were entered on separate forms.

 

 

When the survey was completed, it was evaluated for potential historic districts and individual properties that could be individually listed.

 

 

The boundaries proposed by Stan Hernly, who completed the survey, were too gerrymandered to be a proper historic district. There were concentrated blocks that would make historic districts.  The 900 block of Missouri was identified as one of those areas. The survey document was completed in September 2010.

 

By September of 2010, the Oread Neighborhood Plan had been adopted by the City Commission (9/21/2010).  When the plan was written and was going through the draft and adoption process, the survey of the north of stadium area had not been completed and was stated in the Oread Plan that this area was being studied.  (page 2-7)

 

Conclusion

The Oread Design Guidelines are in process and are expected to be presented to the City Commission in late 2015.