The Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive area would be permanently off limits to big-box stores and would be closed to all development for about two years, under a new plan proposed by city officials.

Staff members with the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department confirmed Monday details of a plan they have developed for the controversial intersection, which has been proposed as a site for a new Wal-Mart.

The plan would add new restrictions to the already-approved zoning for the northwest corner of the intersection, the site of the proposed Wal-Mart. Such restrictions would make it more difficult to attract discount retailers and other big-box tenants.

Specifically, the proposal would prohibit any single building larger than 80,000 square feet at the northwest corner, and would prohibit variety stores and home-improvement centers.

It also would stop any development on the northwest and northeast corners of the intersection until a major road-widening project is complete on West Sixth Street. That project isn’t expected to be finished until late 2005 or early 2006.

Planner Bryan Dyer, who oversaw development of the plan, said the intent of the new regulations was to stop the area from becoming a new retail power center. Dyer said the city-county comprehensive plan, Horizon 2020, clearly did not envision the intersection becoming the next South Iowa Street.

“We looked at what Horizon 2020 said was appropriate for a community commercial center,” Dyer said. “We looked at the size and types of stores that are needed to serve the surrounding areas in the city, but also what we could do to make sure it didn’t turn into something that served a large regional area.”

The plan also would place restrictions on the northeast corner of the intersection. It would allow up to 71,000 square feet of commercial space at the corner, but said it should develop with a “nonretail focus.”

It said the approximately 19 acres was better suited for office space, service businesses or governmental or recreational uses. The plan also would prohibit any building larger than 50,000 square on the site.

Dyer said planners recommended a nonretail focus for the corner, in part, because they believed the amount of retail on the other three corners of the intersection would be adequate to serve the area.

Marilyn Bittenbender, a commercial real estate agent who represents property owners of the northeast corner of the intersection, said she her clients had not yet reviewed the plan.

A restraining order issued Monday in Douglas County District court will temporarily stop planning commissioners from considering the plan.

The restraining order does not stop planning commissioners from acting on the rezoning issues related to the northeast corner, but Bittenbender said she would ask commissioners to delay the issue until at least September to give her clients time to study the proposal, which was sent to property owners late last week.