City officials have one fewer reason to put the brakes on growth south of the Wakarusa River.

Sewer service, long considered to be an expensive hindrance to southern development, could be extended to serve 20,000 people south of the river by 2025, a consultant said Wednesday.

Carl McElwee, Lawrence, prepares to spread straw along the shoulders of a drainage ditch that runs through his property. McElwee owns the land where the Oak Grove Estates housing development, just south of the intersection of North 1056 Road and East 1326 Road, is in the process of selling lots. City, county and school officials were told Wednesday that extending sewer service south of the Wakarusa River wouldn't be the arduous engineering and infrastructure feat previously imagined.

Now officials must decide if they want to extend the city’s sewer system.

“I think it’s inevitable we’re going to jump the Wakarusa River in that time frame,” said City Commissioner David Dunfield. “The alternative is to grow more densely than we are now (north of the Wakarusa), and I don’t sense much sentiment for that.”

His comments came after a joint meeting of the Lawrence school board, Lawrence City Commission and Douglas County Commission. Officials heard from Matt Schultze of the engineering firm Black & Veatch.

He said a Wakarusa River treatment plant to serve southern residents would not, as officials had assumed, be necessary.

The city could extend service south of the river and connect it to an existing wastewater treatment plant in East Lawrence.

But the costs, which Schultze wouldn’t specify, would be similar whether a new Wakarusa plant was built or if the sewers were connected to the current system.

“It’s in the ballpark,” he said. “We will provide a plan for 20,000 people south of the Wakarusa, either way.”

¢ 6News video: City may grow south of Wakarusa River

Planning Director Linda Finger urged officials to decide quickly if they would extend city development regulations south of the Wakarusa. Residential developments are popping up in the area under more lenient rural standards, she said, that would prove costly to taxpayers if they became part of the city.

“You can see the pattern that’s developing,” she said.

After the meeting, Lawrence Chamber of Commerce President Bill Sepic agreed regulation was needed.

“There’s certainly some planning issues there,” he said.

And he said Lawrence was more naturally growing west, which doesn’t have the same number of rural residential developments in the path of city growth as in the south.

“You’d have to direct growth to the south,” he said. “It would have to be an initiative.”

Schultze said officials should decide relatively quickly. It would take between five and seven years to plan and build a sewage plant on the Wakarusa River. City and county officials said they would discuss the issue at future meetings, but they didn’t give a timeline.

“These decisions need to be made now,” said County Administrator Craig Weinaug. “Not today, but in the time frame we’re in now.”