Aldi store plan stalls over setback rules in northwest Lawrence

A new Aldi for northwest Lawrence ran into a zoning rule that could delay one of the area’s most closely watched retail additions, a grocery store many residents see as both a convenience and a sign of more price competition on the west side. The proposed store at the northeast corner of Sixth Street and George Williams Way was planned as part of the growing commercial corridor near Rock Chalk Park, the Mercato development and Costco’s coming 166,000-square-foot store.

The Lawrence Board of Zoning Appeals voted 5-0 on May 7 to deny the setback departure the project needed. City planners said the store would have sat about 220 feet back from George Williams Way, with parking between the building and the street, which conflicted with the city’s newer land-use standards. Under the current code, buildings in the relevant district cannot be set back more than 25 feet from the street.

That requirement came from the city’s Land Development Code, adopted Jan. 14, 2025 and effective April 1, 2025. The city has described the overhaul as the most significant update to Lawrence’s land code since 2006. In the mixed corridor district that governed the site before the rewrite, setback rules mainly kept buildings from sitting too close to the street, not too far from it.

Corby Rust of Landplan Engineering said the development team had been working with the property since 2024 and was caught off guard by the maximum setback rule. That timing matters because the site sits in one of west Lawrence’s busiest growth areas, where commercial projects are stacking up around the Sixth Street and George Williams Way intersection and retailers are positioning themselves near Costco’s planned store.

City staff said the variance would not hurt nearby property owners or the public, but planners said setback variances are meant for sites with uniquely difficult conditions. In this case, the slope of the land was part of the reason developers wanted to push the building farther back from George Williams Way and leave parking in front.

The project’s next step is unclear after the denial, though city staff do not necessarily view it as dead. For Aldi to move ahead, the development team would need a new plan that fits the 25-foot maximum setback or find another path through the city’s land-use process. For shoppers in northwest Lawrence, the decision keeps a promised grocery option tied up in the technical rules that now shape one of the city’s fastest-changing retail corridors.