The city council on Thursday agreed to once again hold a controversial plan for religious student housing on Troost Avenue.
The divided former council delayed the matter to allow negotiations between opponents and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.
Those negotiations are still ongoing, Mayor Sly James said Thursday, and the parties have requested another delay.
The council is now scheduled to take up the matter on Oct. 29.
Council members have called the dispute over the project from 52nd to 53rd streets at Troost among the most bitter in more than a decade.
The diocese wants to put in 85 apartments at the five-acre site and demolish the former St. Francis Xavier School.
The St. Francis church would remain on the northern edge of the site, minus some of its parking.
Many wanted the school renovated but the diocese said it would cost too much.
Church parishioners, neighborhood residents or both have opposed the plan for three years.
The City Plan Commission denied it three times but the former council planning and zoning committee voted 4-1 for approval and sent to the full council.
Lawyers for the diocese say they will sue and easily win in court if the project is not approved.
Who’s talking