Lawrence, Douglas County officials clash on revisions to floodplain planning guide

LAWRENCE — Andie Perdue and a corps of other environmental activists were appalled to learn Baker University was contemplating selling to developers more than 15 acres of open ground across the street from the Baker Wetlands Discovery Center.

Jarring images came to mind of nondescript apartment buildings a stone’s throw from what little remained of a vast wetland ecosystem mingling with the Wakarusa River south of Lawrence. Migrating waterfowl and the many nocturnal residents would find their habitat overwhelmed by day-to-day influences of humans drawing the development noose tighter and tighter around their domain. And, all of this economic activity would emerge in or near a floodplain Lawrence and Douglas County policy guidelines had considered off limits.

“Light pollution. More trash and runoff. Noise,” said Perdue, an advocate of prairie and wetland preservation. “Even for the people visiting the Discovery Center, it would no longer be a peaceful natural space.”

On Tuesday, the Baker University board of trustees agreed to retain ownership of the parcel north of their Discovery Center following “extensive data gathering and deliberation.” Leaked details about the potential sale were met with campus protests in Baldwin City and pointed opposition from regents at Haskell Indian Nations University, which controls a wetlands area incorporated into its Lawrence campus.

The larger environmental challenge associated with the Wakarusa valley, which ties into Baker Wetlands, remained the nearby 177-acre effort by owners of New Boston Crossing to build commercial properties and hundreds of residential units on agriculture land at the junction of the South Lawrence Trafficway and U.S. Highway 59.

About half of New Boston Crossing’s site rests in the floodplain, but the company’s attorneys and consultants have sought to navigate through objections raised at the city, county and federal levels. The Wichita-based company’s idea has been to gain consent for fill-and-build construction on ground elevated by rock and soil to — hypothetically — rise above inevitable flooding. The elevation material would come from digging an 18-acre pond.

Clinton Lake was built decades ago to the west in an effort to control flooding in the Wakarusa valley, but heavy rains continue to feed streams in the region and trigger higher-volume lake releases into the same system that eventually reaches the Kansas River. Major flooding could be expected once a decade or so.

Even if New Boston Crossing’s properties eluded disaster, questions have been raised about consequences of exacerbating the potential of flooding on property downstream or on the other side of the Wakarusa River.

Melinda Ball, an opponent of New Boston Crossing’s project, said it was puzzling a majority of local officials were willing to accept the risk of opening a gate to the floodplain with such a large development.

“Just as important as the ecological things, people need to realize this is a taxpayer issue,” Ball said. “Flooding is the most expensive natural disaster there is. This area is to absorb water and, if that area is removed and the capacity is removed, the water doesn’t just magically disappear.”

Green light, red light

The Lawrence City Commission voted in March to approve eight rezoning requests filed by New Boston Crossing for the controversial development. Six had to be approved by a supermajority of the commission, or a 4-1 margin, because the changes didn’t receive majority backing from the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission.

Bart Littlejohn, the city commissioner currently serving as mayor, said he was swayed by the potential of New Boston Crossing adding to the city’s insufficient stock of single-family homes. The project could bring at least 150 housing lots to the marketplace, he said, in addition to apartments and townhouses.

“We direly need housing. We’ve got a larger population with a dwindling inventory,” Littlejohn said. “I know developers get a bad rap. We do need housing projects.”

Commissioner Amber Sellers, who also endorsed zoning changes, expressed concern the Lawrence City Commission had done little in the past decade to incentivize construction of affordable housing. She shared disappointment the type of affordable homes envisioned by New Boston Crossing might cost more than $300,000, which would be a sum far beyond what families living on a modest income could afford.

Commissioner Brad Finkeldei, who also voted for the zoning changes, said the city’s approach to regulating floodplains was “more restrictive than most communities.”

Vice Mayor Mike Dever, who acknowledged a floodplain wasn’t the best place to build, said nothing would be constructed without New Boston Crossing securing consent from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. New Boston Crossing applied to FEMA for approval of the fill-and-build method, which isn’t without critics.

Commissioner Lisa Larsen stood alone in opposing a majority of the rezoning requests, primarily because she viewed it as folly to encourage builders to dive into the floodplain on the southern edge of the city. She offered support for two of eight zoning adjustments.

In February, the Douglas County Commission voted 2-1 to reject an amendment to the joint city-county comprehensive plan, known as Plan 2040, that would have revised the land-use map regarding floodplains when considering residential and commercial developments. The tweak was intended to accommodate New Boston Crossing’s entrance into the Lawrence retail and housing market.

County Commission Chair Karen Willey said the proposed New Boston Crossing site would be prone of flooding and the threat would grow as the capacity of Clinton Lake to contain floodwater was diminished by layers of silt. Commissioner Patrick Kelly argued the county should support the city’s quest for expansion of housing and business, despite his personal reservation about making use of floodplain to accomplish those goals.

The county’s rejection of the Plan 2040 amendment didn’t kill the project, because the document was considered guidance rather than a legally binding mandate.

Lawrence city planner Sandra Day said the city’s code didn’t forbid building in a floodplain if the developer complied with specific design criteria. The land for the New Boston Crossing was annexed into Lawrence during 2023.

No crystal ball

Philip Struble, president of Landplan Engineering and part of the New Boston Crossing development team, said the project had gone through a series of iterations in a bid to make it palatable. The current vision involved retail spaces, including a gas station, and an array of housing options. Much of the development would be located on ground raised to exclude it from the regulatory floodplain, he said.

He said developers had sought FEMA approval of the elevated construction concept that would allow the property upon completion to be formally excluded from the floodplain’s boundary map.

The developers recently engaged in conversations with Tenants to Homeowners about inclusion of affordable housing in the development, Struble said.

“Lawrence is in need of residential lots,” Struble said. “They are not in need of one particular kind of lot. They’re in need of all of them.”

Thad Holcombe, who worked against the New Boston Crossing development and the Baker Wetland property sale, said it would be a mistake to open the floodplain and the broader valley to housing and commercial development. He said environmental harm would accelerate and permanently damage the ecosystem.

“Growth for its own sake, that’s wrong,” said Earl Bates, who lives about 1 mile southwest of the New Boston Crossing site. “The new Boston Crossing will flood. It will take away from downtown and other business interests. It’s going to clog traffic, pollute the water, air and soil.”

Courtney King, a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University, said she was alarmed city and county officials dismissed assertions land associated with the development previously belonged to Haskell. The four-year tribal university that was founded in the 1880s as a residential boarding school for Native American children.

She urged local government officials to require surveys with ground-penetrating radar to determine whether children that disappeared from Haskell long ago were buried in the area targeted for new housing and businesses.

“Children are buried in the Wakarusa River valley,” she said. “They deserve justice and the city commission must work to right these wrongs.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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