Approval of Previous Minutes —

Meeting minutes from Oct. 30, 2023. Motion to approve by Tim Spencer. Seconded by Jin Feng. Motion passed unanimously.

Unfinished Business —

1. The committee continued discussion about the Gateway District project.
   1. Karla Leeper provided updates on the demolition planning and the resulting impact on neighborhoods.
      1. Nils Gore said that he lives 1 block away from the stadium and has not received any information.
         1. Karla shared that the city oversees the actual communication with residents and that the neighborhood associates are charged with communicating with their constituents. There is an open community meeting today to go over the construction schedule and what neighbors can expect. Another meeting later this month will go over the results of a traffic study. Hopefully, this information will also be available online.
      2. Ward Lyles voiced that it should be KU’s responsibility to communicate widely, as leaving it to the neighborhoods will result in major gaps in communication, especially since there are so many renters in these areas who are unknown to the neighborhoods.
   2. Jin Feng asked Karla if the committee can have access to the studies relating to the project.
      1. Karla will coordinate with Jeff DeWitt to get the requested studies to the committee. She wants to know which studies they would like, since there are many. Some of this information is in the Hunden Report.
         1. The committee will discuss internally which information they would like.
      2. Gustavo Amaral noted that the Hunden Report is too generic and does not provide the information he thinks the committee needs, i.e., benchmarking against other collegiate sports facilities that have been successful in attracting business and transforming their stadiums into commercial centers.
         1. Karla shared that the full Hunden dataset is vast and may provide clarity here. We do need to look at communities of comparable size and proximity to larger metros. We can also get you floorplans. Karla will work with Jeff on getting the full dataset to the committee. Corinne can assist with data management and accessibility.
   3. Ward asked if KU will be utilizing Arrowhead Stadium in KCMO for some football games, and if it is true that KU will make 8-figures playing there. Could we use Arrowhead as our main stadium, instead of investing in the KU one?
      1. Karla shared that we are considering it. Once more detailed planning began, we began to wonder if we could make our deadline for football. It would be resource-intensive to stop construction and prepare for the football season. There are other universities who play one of their games in a professional stadium. Arrowhead couldn’t host all our games, but we could potentially use it at critical points in the construction process. Karla is not convinced on the financial savings of fully switching to Arrowhead, and it would be a big blow to the Lawrence and KU communities.
   4. Tim Spencer asked about discussions regarding parking.
      1. Karla shared that all parking surrounding the stadium will remain throughout Phase 1, but the economic development in Phase 2 will impact parking. The almost-finished traffic study will inform parking solutions, and we will also do a parking study for Phase 1. Phase 2 will likely necessitate additional traffic and parking studies. Karla thinks that Phase 1 will likely involve re-allocating and re-distributing passes hotel shuttle system for conference center, and a park-and-ride system. She thinks that Phase 2 will necessitate a parking deck.
2. The committee discussed the construction of a broad planning committee that would work with university offices during the various phases of the Gateway District project.
   1. Jin shared that there is currently not a committee with KU constituents on it, so we have concluded that we need to construct such a committee.
   2. Whitney Juneau noted that it will be important to establish expectations for such a committee, specifically what the working relationship with admin would be and what the goals would be. She suggested that one priority could be improving the communication aspect of the project, since that is one of the elements that is creating negative reactions. Whitney also wants to know whether Jayhawk Hospitality will be prepared to support the project. She encouraged a focus on improving the project.
      1. The committee can discuss what their priorities are. Certain questions will be fully under KU’s control, while others will be under developers’ control. If hospitality is a concern, the committee can invite Jayhawk Hospitality to speak about their plans.
   3. Corinne Bannon asked whether creating an additional committee would create redundancy.
      1. Jin envisions the new committee taking over P&R’s oversight of the Gateway project. So far this semester, P&R has been entirely focused on the project, but we have additional charges that we need to dedicate time to. An additional committee could entirely focus on the project. Secondly, P&R has constant turnover with terms, so it would be challenging for us to be efficient with focusing on the project.
   4. The committee discussed options for constructing the new committee. P&R members can nominate people and/or we can recruit from all of campus. We will also need to decide to whom the committee reports, University Senate/SenEx or the P&R Committee. Jin will discuss this with the University Senate President and the committee will address the topic again at its next meeting.

New Business —

1. Jason Hornberger provided updates on other major capital strategic planning. He is finish up the Provost’s and Deans’ financial plan alignment within Jayhawks Rising. He is also looking into how KUEA’s new fundraising campaign will fund different capital projects. Jason is encouraging unit leaders to utilize their endowment accounts for their assigned purposes (e.g., not all scholarship funds are being utilized). Another significant building project is the Cancer Center.
   1. The committee will continue with this discussion at its next meeting.