Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday will consider approving a policy on affordable housing incentives, and they’ll discuss a proposal from the chamber of commerce suggesting that city voters directly elect the mayor.
Some projects receive funding through the city’s affordable housing trust fund, which comes from a special city sales tax. Lawrence voters in November 2024 approved doubling the affordable housing sales tax to one penny for every $20 spent in town. The funds have supported numerous projects over the past several years.
The affordable housing incentive policy sets standards and eligibility requirements for developers and projects that are seeking city funding.
The policy lays out details such as definitions of affordability; various types of incentives the city will consider providing for projects; how long housing units must remain affordable as opposed to being rented at market rates; accessibility and design expectations, and much more.
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Commissioners will consider approving the draft policy on Tuesday. See the complete draft at this link.
If adopted, city staff would finalize processes and forms, and the policy would go into effect in January 2027.
Ahead of the policy draft, the commissioners will hear a report on the now-complete affordable housing study.
Consultants told the commission during a preliminary report last month that the city needs more of all types of housing units on the market in the next decade in order to increase affordability.
Mayor election proposal from Chamber
Commissioners will also hear a request from representatives of the The Chamber of Lawrence Kansas to put a question on voters’ ballots to determine whether the city should have a directly elected mayor.
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The mayor position is currently a one-year term that essentially rotates among commissioners who received the most votes in their elections. Typically, following a city election, commissioners choose the person who received the most votes as the vice mayor, and the following year, the person who received the second most votes is chosen as the new vice mayor while the vice mayor advances to mayor.
Bonnie Lowe, president and CEO of the chamber, submitted a letter to the commission requesting a discussion of a proposal to have city voters directly elect a mayor by changing the city’s form of government.
Originally, the chamber was asking the commission to put the question on voters’ November ballots, but a follow-up letter from Lowe states that “It has become clear that the question of whether Lawrence should adopt a Directly Elected Mayor form of government will require — and would benefit from — continued community engagement and discussion beyond the upcoming election.”
Voters in 2024 narrowly rejected a change to the form of government that would have established a directly elected mayor but also would have created commission districts and increased the number of total commissioners from five to seven. (Read more about that in this article and the articles at this link.)
Tuesday’s agenda item is asking the commission to receive the request and consider asking staff to place it on a future commission meeting agenda for further discussion if commissioners so choose.
Meeting info
The meeting will begin at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, July 21 at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.
The commission accepts written public comment emailed to [email protected] until noon the day of meetings. The commission also hears live public comment during meetings, both in person and virtually.
City commission meetings are no longer livestreamed on YouTube. In order to watch the meeting online remotely, attendees must join via Zoom at this link, which also allows participants to provide public comment virtually. Meeting recordings are uploaded to the city’s YouTube channel the next day.
See the commission’s complete meeting agenda at this link.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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