City undeterred by ruling

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jul 30, 2008 by Tim Hrenchir

By Tim Hrenchir

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Despite a judge's ruling to the contrary, the city of Topeka will keep trying to pave the way for construction of a parking lot near Grace Episcopal Cathedral.

City council members on Tuesday evening voted 6-0-1 to authorize the city attorney's office to appeal a recent ruling against the city in a lawsuit filed by Friends of Bethany Place.

The vote came after Shawnee County District Judge Franklin R. Theis ruled last week that the council violated historic preservation laws last August when it voted 9-0 to approve a permit that would have enabled the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas to build the lot near Grace Cathedral, 701 S.W. 8th.

The agenda for Tuesday's meeting initially contained no proposals regarding the matter, but the council voted 7-0 to add to its agenda a resolution sponsored by city manager Norton Bonaparte directing the city attorney's office to appeal the ruling.

The council, Bonaparte and interim city attorney Braxton Copley discussed the measure behind closed doors in executive session for about 10 minutes before opening the meeting back up to the public and voting on it.

Council members Jack Woelfel, Bill Haynes, Deborah Swank, Brett Blackburn, Jeff Preisner and Richard Harmon voted in favor of the resolution, while Sylvia Ortiz abstained. Lana Kennedy and John Alcala were absent.

The council on Tuesday also heard from 10 people during a public hearing held to obtain input on the proposed 2009 city budget.

The council on July 15 set an upper limit for any potential property tax mill levy increase next year at 2.842 mills, which would amount to an increase of $32.68 for the owner of a $100,000 house. The council is expected to approve the 2009 budget on Aug. 19.

Four of Tuesday's speakers urged the council to continue funding for social service agencies at the current levels or higher.

Bonaparte has proposed continuing all funding the city provides to public service agencies at this year's level except for grants to aid senior citizens, which he suggested Shawnee County could take over. But county commissioners decided without taking a vote Monday that they wouldn't assume responsibility for that $140,000.

Speakers at Tuesday's public hearing also included five people from the local hotel business, who all spoke against a change Bonaparte proposes that would arrange for $300,000 in grants the city provides the Topeka Performing Arts Center to come from the city's transient guest fund instead of its general fund. The city levies the 6 percent bed tax on hotels and other places that provide temporary lodging.

The hotel professionals also expressed objections to Bonaparte's proposal that the city transfer $200,000 from the transient guest tax fund to its general fund, parks and recreation fund, and zoo fund.

The council on Tuesday also:

- Voted 6-1, with Woelfel dissenting, to approve a proposal to use $500,000 in proceeds from a countywide sales tax to help finance a project to extend S.W. Wenger Drive in Central Crossing Commerce Park for one-half mile north from where it currently ends near S.W. 53rd Street to an intersection with S.W. 49th Street. The Joint Economic Development Organization voted in November to provide the $500,000 for the project, for which $897,000 in federal money would also be used.

- Learned from Bonaparte that a proposal to authorize a $397,057 project to build a public parking lot benefiting the College Hill Redevelopment Group -- which had been scheduled Tuesday for first reading -- had been pulled from the agenda so changes could be made.

- Heard Carol Torrence, whom Mayor Bill Bunten is nominating for the Topeka Planning Commission, introduced herself in public comments near the meeting's end. The council would need to approve Torrence's nomination for her to replace Fred Sanders, whose term expired June 30.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached

at (785) 295-1184

or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.