The quick oil-change place built in Olathe a few years back doesn’t look like your typical Jiffy Lube.

Because the Johnson County city has design guidelines governing the look of every residential, commercial and industrial building constructed, Jiffy Lube had to come up with something different than the trademark red-and-white garage it usually builds.

“It’s a predominantly brick building,” said Julie Williams, an Olathe city planner. “The garage doors are set back behind a colonade — the doors aren’t visible from the front. They couldn’t just come in and put in their standard Jiffy Lube building.”

Such design guidelines could be on their way to Lawrence.

In recent months, the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission has called for design guidelines for new commercial development in revisions to Horizon 2020, the city-county long-range guide. Commissioners also have written general design concepts into the “nodal plan” guiding development at Sixth Street and South Lawrence Trafficway.

“Instead of a Home Depot that’s orange, you have red brick or something like that,” said Bryan Dyer, a Lawrence city planner. “The city of Lawrence would be able to control the aesthetics of what the city looks like — putting forth the image of Lawrence instead of the image of corporate America.”

Such standards have the backing of Planning Commissioner Myles Schachter. He said guidelines should require open space at shopping centers, with buildings placed closer to the street so passers-by don’t see a “sea of parking.”

“Do we want our city to look like strip shopping areas — the classic example being 23rd Street — or do we want to be inviting, differentiated from other communities?” Schachter said.

Olathe’s commercial design guidelines call for new shopping centers to be “attractive and interesting,” suggesting they should include canopies, walkways and many trees.

¢ ‘Simple’ zoning changes questioned (9-4-03)¢ Groups go to bat for downtown (6-25-03)¢ Plan favors plaza over strip mall for new stores (5-30-03)¢ 6News video: Douglas County Planning Commission adopts policy about commercial design (5-30-03)¢ Memo on commercial development policy changes (5-30-03)¢Horizon 2020

There are skeptics of such plans. Planning Commissioner Ernie Angino said it would be hard to develop guidelines unique to Lawrence.

“What is the style of architecture in Lawrence?” he said. “It’s poly-everything. There is no common motif.”

And he said new guidelines would only discourage developers from doing business here.

Schachter agreed that Lawrence, except for downtown, didn’t have a signature architectural style. That’s the result of bad planning, he said, and could be reversed.

“Now is the time to establish, recognize that we haven’t helped identify what could make us unique,” he said, “and adopt those standards.”

Planning commissioners say development of design guidelines is tentatively on their list of goals for the next year.