Jere McElhaney’s idea of splitting the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission would take a lot of money and effort, a new report says.

It may not matter. McElhaney’s colleagues on the Douglas County Commission said Thursday they don’t support the concept.

“I can’t see a single positive,” Commissioner Bob Johnson said.

Commissioner Charles Jones agreed.

“I’d be surprised if there are two votes to go down this road,” he said.

McElhaney, the county commission chairman, said Thursday that he hadn’t reviewed the report. He acknowledged that with opposition from Johnson and Jones, “it’s probably not easy to go forward.”

But McElhaney defended his decision to raise the issue.

“About 30 people asked me about it,” he said. “I thought it was worth pursuing and worth looking at.”

McElhaney made the suggestion last month, saying the planning commission should be split into two bodies one each to address city and county concerns separately. He said city-appointed planning commissioners aren’t sensitive enough to rural concerns. The current 10-member joint commission has an equal number of members appointed by the city and county commissions.

“I think there have been some recent appointments to the planning commission that don’t have interests other than their own,” he said at the time.

McElhaney asked Planning Director Linda Finger to report on the consequences of a split. She released the report to the media Thursday.

Splitting the commissions, she wrote, would require:

Creation of separate comprehensive land-use plans. One plan, Horizon 2020, currently dictates land-use decisions for both city and county.

Revision of new city and county zoning regulations. New regulations are in the works but would need substantial and costly revisions.

Decisions by the county on how to oversee planning in the rural parts of Douglas County. The joint department gets one-sixth of its budget $143,569 from the county.

Finger said commissioners should move quickly if they want to split the planning commission, so the change can be incorporated into the 2003 city and county budgets.

Johnson said the potential cost is prohibitive. Splitting the commission might disenfranchise rural voters, he said.

And Jones said dissolving the commission won’t put an end to debates about growth.

“I think it’s inaccurate to blame a couple of new members of the planning commission for a debate that’s been going on for years,” he said. “I think Jere wants to avoid a debate that needs to happen and is happening.”