Offer of free land to city of Topeka seeks to put 'Elevation Parkway' on road to reality

Henry McClure and Dana Anderson are offering free land to the city of Topeka to try to revive efforts to develop a thoroughfare they believe would better enable residents to drive into town from the southwest.

McClure said this past week he hoped the city government would accept the offer from their company, Jayhawks LLC, to donate as much of the property it owns at the southwest corner of S.W. 37th and Gage Boulevard as the city would need to serve as right of way for a so-called Elevation Parkway, a name that city officials have used to describe the project since 1995.

The thoroughfare would run from that intersection southwest to S.W. 41st and Wanamaker Road. The name Elevation Parkway refers to a rise in elevation that occurs in the area where it would be built.

McClure said its presence would give motorists another option for traveling from southwest Topeka to the heart of the city while reducing the need for such drivers to use heavily trafficked S.W. 29th Street. In 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available, S.W. 29th and Fairlawn Road tied for first in traffic accidents among Topeka intersections.

The city will consider the offer, deputy city manager Doug Gerber said this past week.

McClure appeared before the Topeka City Council on Tuesday, telling its members and city manager Jim Colson that he came to “give you some land.”

Since the 1990s, city leaders have discussed building an Elevation Parkway connecting S.W. 37th and Gage with S.W. 41st and Wanamaker. The city currently has no money earmarked for such a project.

The council voted in 1997 to proceed with the first phase of the project, but only if Shawnee County paid a third of the cost. County commissioners then rejected that idea.

The council in 2007 approved a five-year Capital Improvement Plan that included funding for an Elevation Parkway, but that funding wasn’t part of the next CIP the council approved in 2009.

Elevation Parkway isn’t among projects funded in the CIP approved last year for 2016 through 2020 by the city’s governing body, consisting of the nine council members and Mayor Larry Wolgast.

Still, Gerber noted that the parkway project is on the city’s CIP “unfunded list.” That list includes 32 different projects.

“We appreciate Mr. McClure reaching out to us, and the council will evaluate the offer as part of the annual CIP process,” Gerber said.

The city’s governing body plans in March to consider approving the city’s CIP for 2017 through 2021.

McClure, who lives in Topeka, was part of a project carried out to develop Central Topeka’s College Hill business district about a decade ago before he was bought out by his partners.

Anderson lives in Lawrence and is vice chairman-emeritus of Macerich. The company was described as the nation’s third-largest mall owner by market value in a Los Angeles Times article published last year at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-macerich-simon-20150310-story.html.

Anderson has been with Macerich since 1966. He was involved decades ago with development efforts in Topeka, McClure said.

“When I’ve got guys like Dana Anderson wanting to make investments back in Topeka, not only is Henry McClure lucky but the city of Topeka has got access to his relationships and his funding,” McClure said.

McClure wrote Tuesday in a four-sentence letter to Colson that Jayhawks LLC, recently bought 18 acres just north of Blackburn Nursery, 4014 S.W. Gage. The purchase was made from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

McClure wrote: “In the spirit of good will and in the name of economic development, Jayhawks, LLC would like to donate right of way for the future road project at 37th and Gage. Connecting Gage to Wanamaker at 37th and 41st has been an idea in this community for 20 years and it is time to move that project ahead.”

McClure’s letter added that the company’s partners have nearly 100 years of real estate experience between them “and are looking forward to making good things happen in Topeka and at 37th and Gage.”

McClure said in an interview with The Topeka Capital-Journal this past week that he hopes to help “jump-start” the Elevation Parkway project and give the Topeka community a boost economically.

He acknowledged he hopes to make money as a result of the proposed parkway’s being built next to property he owns.

McClure suggested the presence of the parkway also would help encourage development in the Lauren’s Bay area west of S.W. 42nd and Wanamaker Road.

That area has been developed to a degree, but some plans to build homes there have fallen through.

McClure said he personally would be interested in working to develop Lauren’s Bay.