It was “bad business” for the Lawrence City Commission to table a proposed development at Sixth Street and the South Lawrence Trafficway, Planning Commissioner Ron Durflinger said Wednesday.

“This validates the complaint that dealing with municipal government is shooting at a constantly moving target,” Durflinger said. “We will never attract quality development if we don’t show integrity in our dealings.”

His criticism came after the city commission on Tuesday tabled the proposal for 92 acres of residential and commercial development on the intersection’s southeast quadrant until an “area plan” to guide growth at the intersection’s three other corners was completed. That plan is due by April.

City commissioners Tuesday said they wanted to plan for a bigger picture than just one corner. They stuck with that assessment Wednesday.

“Planning this area doesn’t make it a constantly moving target,” Mayor Sue Hack said. “In my view, it prepares us for the next commercial area, the whole area, out west.”

She said the city commission was dealing with the effects of failure to broadly plan other high-traffic intersections, such as 31st and Iowa streets and Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive.

“I don’t want to put other commissions in the same place we are,” Hack said.

But Durflinger said city commissioners ignored the recommendations of city planners and the planning commission in failing to approve the development. He also said the proposal met the requirements of Horizon 2020, the city-county long-range planning document.

And he said the delay would keep the developers from working with the Kansas Department of Transportation as it plans to widen Sixth Street.

“What happened last night was a missed opportunity to begin the process of good planning,” Durflinger said. “The result has every probability of costing the taxpayer and public more.”

Diamond Head LLC is the developer; its representative, Brian Kubota, made similar angry comments to the city commission after its decision.

Durflinger made his comments immediately prior to Wednesday’s planning commission meeting; his colleagues were thus unavailable for comment.

City Commissioner David Dunfield disagreed with Durflinger.

“I think the message that we heard from Brian Kubota Tuesday and that we’re hearing from Commissioner Durflinger as well is that development interests should do planning instead of planners,” he said.

“The message the city commission is sending is that we don’t agree with that.”