Concerned the city isn’t friendly enough to business, economic development officials tonight will ask the Lawrence City Commission to form a business retention task force.

The task force would “have discussions to see if there’s room for improvement or if we can communicate our policies in a better way,” said Lavern Squier, president of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “It’s forward-looking and anticipatory in a healthy way.”

The request grew from a summer survey by the chamber’s economic development arm. In the survey, local business leaders said the city’s “no-growth” politics were a barrier to attracting companies to Lawrence and keeping them here.

Mayor David Dunfield, who was skeptical of that view, said it wouldn’t stop commissioners from moving forward with the task force.

“I think there’s some real issues, and I think there’s also a certain amount of rhetoric that flies around,” he said. “We can’t always change the rhetoric, but we can try to address the issues.”

Commissioner Sue Hack pointed out that the city’s own survey of business leaders earlier in the year also showed dissatisfaction.

“I think both of those (surveys) indicated we’ve got some issues that we as a commission and a city government need to look at and deal with,” she said.

“If there’s a perception that there’s difficulties, we need to figure out what the truth is, where the perceptions are and some positive way of dealing with the situation.”

The request for a task force, from the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board, said the committee would “study possible solutions” to traffic, regulatory and city planning obstacles for businesses.

But Squier said that didn’t mean changes to city policies or organization would be recommended.

“I think it’s a predetermined conclusion to say that,” he said.

The commission meets at 6:35 p.m. in City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.