KU Endowment seeks annexation of 137 acres near Lawrence airport

KU Endowment has asked Lawrence to annex 136.9 acres immediately east of the Lawrence Regional Airport runway, putting a large tract of land just outside city limits into the city’s development pipeline before any specific project has been named.

The request does not approve a business park, housing district or any other use by itself. Annexation would bring the property into the city boundary and make it easier for Lawrence to plan utilities, streets and services around it, but the property would still move through later land-use decisions before any construction could begin.

City policy requires annexation requests over 10 acres to go first to the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission before the City Commission can act. The city’s annexation policy, adopted July 2, 1996 under City Commission Resolution No. 5810, says annexation is intended to create more uniform boundaries, coordinate infrastructure and services, and guide development in projected growth areas. It also says the city should encourage property owners to consent before development in those areas.

J. Taylor, KU Endowment’s assistant vice president of property, said the land is being considered in an exploratory phase and that its location beside the airport, Interstate 70 and a major research institution gives it strong long-term potential. That combination places the property in one of Lawrence’s most consequential growth corridors, where decisions about roads, drainage, aviation access and land use can shape the city for decades.

The airport itself is already part of that broader planning picture. The Lawrence Regional Airport master plan is meant to serve as a 20-year guide for future facility needs, development priorities and capital improvements. Federal Aviation Administration guidance calls for airports to update master plans about every 10 years, and city materials say the next master-planning process was identified for 2031. The airport also received a $1.3 million grant in 2023 for apron rehabilitation, master-plan updates and a runway-extension feasibility study.

KU Endowment has looked at major development options before. In 2019, it retained Brailsford & Dunlavey to review future uses for several endowment-owned sites near the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. At that time, possibilities included retail, hospitality, entertainment, a research and business park, and housing.

The corridor has also drawn scrutiny before. A 2007 proposal for a roughly 900-acre airport business park near the Lawrence airport drew criticism from the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods over what it said was a lack of information and public involvement. More recently, on Jan. 12, 2021, the City Commission directed staff to seek FAA approval to rename the airport from Lawrence Municipal Airport to Lawrence Regional Airport, a signal of how closely the city links the site to regional growth.

For Lawrence, the annexation request is not the end of the story. It is the opening move in a much larger debate over how much development belongs near the airport, what kind of infrastructure it would require, and how the city balances economic ambitions against the long-term demands of the Kansas River valley.