Douglas County Rural Water District No. 4 is expanding to accommodate about 100 current customers, but county commissioners want to help district officials make room for even more.

The district, which serves 900 customers southeast of Lawrence, is widening its boundaries to include 108 customers who, for years, have been paying for and receiving water service without being inside the district’s formal boundaries. The district generally covers an area east of U.S. Highway 59, between the Wakarusa River and U.S. Highway 56.

Douglas County commissioners agreed Monday to let the district clean up its problem — an “administrative error” that can be traced back to the 30-year-old district’s early days, said Scott Schultz, district administrator.

Since the district’s founding in 1973, district officials occasionally have allowed people living just outside the boundaries to connect to the water system.

But such decisions have come back to haunt district officials in recent years. When the district stopped selling new water meters about three years ago — as the district reached its daily limit of 525,000 gallons — some of the 125 customers on the district’s waiting list started questioning why they were being shut out, while people living outside the district were being allowed to stay hooked on.

Commissioners finally agreed to approve the district’s new boundaries, after months of meetings, petitions and discussions about the rural area’s future.

“I think it’s great,” said Dorthea Jackson, who secured her first water meter about 30 years ago, despite living outside the district near Baldwin. “Good work.”

But commissioners want to do more.

After agreeing last week to expand Lawrence’s Urban Growth Area south of the Wakarusa River, commissioners now say they want to help encourage people to build homes within that growth area — an area expected to handle another 20,000 residents during the next 25 years.

Building a home in the Urban Growth Area requires a property owner or developer to secure a plat for the land, a process that includes providing access on the site for roads and public utilities. Such components are essential to provide for orderly growth, commissioners say, and can lead to a smooth transition for properties when they ultimately become a part of the city.

Commissioners say they want to explore ways of providing the district with the ability to sell more meters, as long as the water would be used in the growth area.

“It makes sense to have them in the UGA — where they’re closer to city services — than in the farthest reaches of the county,” Commissioner Charles Jones said.

The district already has moved to boost its own water capacity.

A $1.25 million project to add a new pump station and install four miles of new pipes is scheduled for completion this spring, Schultz said. The project will give the district access to water from Johnson County Rural Water District No. 6, allowing the district to meet current and future needs.