What would you like to see happen at 701 S. Public Road?

A report from Vicky Uhland

I’m delighted to share this report and a photograph from the awesome Vicky Uhland with some background on the 700 block of S. Public Rd. and a link to a survey to provide input on the property at 701.

What would you like to see happen at 701 S. Public Road in Lafayette? You’ve got until Feb. 25 to fill out a survey letting the city know.

To orient you, this is the dilapidated house at the corner of Public and Kimbark that’s owned by the Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority. There’s a lot of drama associated with the property, dating back to 2018, when LURA approved a resolution to condemn 701 S. Public and acquire it by eminent domain. Here’s the video of the meeting where it happened.

In March 2019, in an executive session not open to the public, LURA negotiated an option to purchase the four lots to the south (705, 707, 709 and 711 S. Public Road). Shortly after that, some of the small business owners in the 700 block reported that the LURA executive director offered them financial incentives to leave (their leases were month-to-month). He showed them plans to raze all of the buildings on the block—including the LURA-owned 701 S. Public—and build a three-story, block-long building that would have retail on the first floor and housing above.

At the July 2019 LURA meeting, I and other residents asked LURA members to address this and share with us their vision for the 700 block. We were told this was all private negotiations and we would have an opportunity to see and comment on development plans during public hearings, after the plans had gone through city review. Typically by the time development plans get to this stage, only small changes are made.

Feeling like we were getting nowhere with LURA, we created a petition urging the board to solicit public input and save the small businesses on the 700 block. 751 people signed the petition, and you can read their comments here.

To its credit, LURA decided to open up the 700 block redevelopment process after that. The board solicited public input for requests for proposals from developers, and scheduled a meeting for the public to review the three plans submitted in the spring of 2020. But covid shut down the meeting, the development plans were eventually scuttled, and LURA terminated its option to purchase 705, 707, 709 and 711 S. Public.

After that, the Deluxe Liquor owners bought their building (709) and 711, which is now home to Rocky Mountain Legal. 705, which has been determined to be landmark-eligible by the Historic Preservation Board, was sold and rented to a functional nutritionist in January. 707 was bought by the owner of a bakery, who announced last year on Nextdoor that he intended to tear down the building and build something new (note: while the owner can do this as long as the new building conforms to city code, it’s not in keeping with our comprehensive plan’s policy to adapt and reuse existing buildings in order to promote sustainability and preserve the downtown character).

Also, at its February 2023 meeting, LURA discussed plans for a new streetscape and landscaping along the sidewalks of the 700 and 800 blocks. You can see the plans here.

So now we circle back to 701 S. Public. With the plan to raze it and redevelop the whole block no longer in play, LURA has decided to sell it. Please take this opportunity to fill out the survey and let LURA know what you’d like to see done with the property. Your voice matters!