Board approves variances for Brier Creek mobile‑home expansion; developer to install sidewalks and cover any relocation costs

The Lawrence Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved variances on June 16 allowing Coruns Investments (petition 26 LSBO8) to develop the final 13.5‑acre phase of the Brier Creek mobile‑home park under relaxed development standards.

Joe Cauldron, representing Coruns Investments, told the board the proposed phase is the last of the long‑standing park and asked relief from five development standards established in the 2016 ordinance rewrite. He said the company will remove about 20 existing lots to create roughly 2.5 acres of open space for the section and requested the board apply the 8% open‑space requirement to the previously built 60‑acre project, which would reduce the required share for this segment.

"Importantly [the proposal] provides an ability for truly affordable housing for some folks in the community," Cauldron said during his presentation.

Cauldron also requested a reduction of the required minimum separation between mobile dwellings from 25 ft to 10 ft to match existing conditions and meet fire‑safety code, relief from a newly adopted requirement for separate RV/trailer storage areas, and an exemption from an underground safe‑room requirement (20 sq ft per unit) that the developer said is impractical because of a high water table. As alternatives, the petitioner documented an arrangement with the YMCA to shelter residents during severe weather and said every unit will receive a weather‑alert radio and engineered tie‑downs.

Renee Rafa, Lawrence director of public works, said the applicant negotiated the petition down to five variances after discussions with city staff and that the developer agreed to two formal commitments recorded at the hearing: any resident displaced by creation of the green space will have their relocation costs paid by the developer, and perimeter sidewalks will be completed by Dec. 31, 2028 with the administration determining the precise alignment.

"They've whittled [the request] down to five. They've worked really, really hard to meet what the current code requires," Rafa said.

Board members pressed the petitioner on whether removals would leave people without housing; Cauldron and staff repeatedly said no one would be made homeless and that the developer could relocate residents into the new section or otherwise cover costs. The board discussed fire‑safety tradeoffs and the practical difficulty created by applying a 2016 ordinance to a project largely built before that code change.

After questions and public‑record commitments from the petitioner and city staff, the board voted unanimously to grant the requested variances, attaching the two stipulations Rafa recorded: sidewalks to be installed by Dec. 31, 2028 (location to be decided by the administration) and the developer to absorb any cost of displacement attributable to the green‑space creation.

The motion approved relief for: (a) open‑space percentage (variance from the 8% standard for the overall project), (b) reduced unit separation (25 ft → 10 ft), (c) exemption from on‑site recreational‑vehicle storage area requirements, (d) time and location modification for perimeter sidewalks, and (e) exemption from the underground safe‑room requirement with the YMCA arrangement and other mitigation documented. The board recorded the vote as unanimous.