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Within the next few days, developers of the proposed Wonderful World of Oz theme park will submit a detailed report on how they plan to carry out the $860 million project.

State officials are expected to spend at least 60 days analyzing the voluminous report en route to deciding whether to approve the project for bond financing.

"We anticipate receiving the documents as early as Friday, but it might be Monday or Tuesday," said Tom Page, chairman of the Kansas Development Finance Authority, the outfit that brokers bonds on behalf of the state.

Page said KDFA attorneys will "pick the documents apart, piece by piece" in an effort to protect the interests of both state and would-be investors.

"Our role in this is to make sure that if bonds are issued, they are in conformance with state and federal law and are consistent with the customs and practices of the security industry," he said.

"That is not an endorsement," he said. "We're here to make sure all necessary disclosures are made and that all the information an investor needs to make an informed decision is there."

Oz officials have asked KDFA to approve $270 million in Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) and Tax Increment Financing bonds, allowing the project to pay its debts with revenues that would ordinarily be set aside for sales and property tax payments.

Oz officials outlined the project Wednesday during a KDFA meeting in Topeka.

Ray Kljajic, a spokesman for Solomon Smith Barney, assured the group that he would have little trouble finding private investors mutual funds, specifically willing to put millions of dollars in the project.

So little, in fact, that Solomon Smith Barney plans to require a minimum investment of $100,000, Kljajic said. Solomon Smith Barney is working with the Oz developers on the project's financing.

"But I have to tell you I'm not expecting any at less than a million (dollars)," he said. "This is going to be a high-yield deal for sophisticated investors."

Plans call for building the Oz-based theme park, hotel complex and technology center on the 9,065-acre site of the former Sunflower Ammunition Plant near DeSoto.

Martin Battistoni, vice president in charge of engineering and construction at IT Group, said he sees "nothing unique or complicated" in removing hazardous wastes from the Sunflower site.

If approved, the cleanup is expected to take 12 years, Battistoni said.

Afterward, Andrew Bailey, an attorney representing TOTO (Taxpayers Opposed to Oz) said he filed a motion Friday in federal court, seeking a summary judgment in the group's lawsuit accusing the U.S. General Services Administration of skirting environmental regulations in its efforts to make the Sunflower site available to Oz Entertainment Co.

"The bottom line here is we're saying this whole deal is based on environmental data that's inaccurate and unreliable, and GSA hasn't done anything to show that it is," Bailey said. "That's our contention."

Bailey said he's not expecting a ruling on his motion for several months.

The extent to which the lawsuit will derail or delay the Oz project remains to be seen. But Page, a Wichita banker, sees it as a problem.

"I can tell you that a private lender is not going to advance money against a mortgage on a piece of property, the disposition of which is potentially clouded by a federal lawsuit," he said. "They just aren't going to do it."