Bob Johnson isn’t looking two years out, 20 years out or even 50 years out when it comes to charting the future of Lawrence’s continued expansion.

Try a century.

“Let’s think in terms of being bold, being big, being brave — being willing to look out there and say Lawrence is going to grow … and allow us to plan way, way into the future, even generations into the future,” said Bob Johnson, chairman of the Douglas County Commission. “Who in our county is willing to think big enough, to see what Lawrence is going to look like 100 years from now?

“We won’t be here, but we may get the credit — or the blame.”

Johnson’s appeal came Wednesday night during the commission’s latest foray into what has proven to be a divisive and controversial issue for more than a decade: the size of Lawrence’s area set aside for development, formally known as the city’s urban-growth area.

Although commissioners made no formal decisions Wednesday, they did indicate what it would take to get them to move the area’s boundary south from its current site, the Wakarusa River. City-county planners long have advocated dropping the line to North 1000 Road, while Lawrence-Douglas County planning commissioners are mulling the addition of another 6,000 acres by dropping the line to North 900 Road.

The area’s boundaries are considered a flashpoint because of what’s at stake. Outside the area, people looking to build homes simply need to carve out a five-acre plot of land, then secure a building permit; stringing together such properties under the “five-acre exemption” allows for relatively inexpensive development for the property owner.

Inside the growth area — covering land where Lawrence is expected to expand during the “foreseeable future” — property owners cannot build without first setting aside space for public roads, utilities and other needs. They also must secure permission from elected officials, considered a risk by even the most optimistic of potential developers.

¢ 6News video: City commissioners to plan for urban growth area¢Lawrence long-range planning documents

Johnson and fellow Commissioner Charles Jones said they would be willing to expand the area’s boundaries in exchange for making accommodations for property owners who would lose some of their development freedoms. In the growth area, they said, it might make sense to loosen restrictions to build more homes on less land, therefore maximizing the investment potential of rural property owners while reducing public costs for sewer lines, roads and other infrastructure.

“Whether people south of the river do or do not want to be part of the urban growth area, the fact of the matter is they will be,” Johnson said. “The question is, under what conditions?”

Few of the two-dozen people gathered to listen to Wednesday’s discussion decided to address the commission. Instead, commissioners advised them to make their cases in front of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission, which is scheduled to make its own decision about the area boundaries during a 6:35 p.m. meeting Aug. 27 at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.

Whatever the Planning Commission recommends then would go to the city and county commissions for approval, likely in September.