Someday soon, new shopping centers in Lawrence might be surrounded by more trees, have parking hidden out of sight and be architecturally attractive on all four sides of the building, not just the sides that face streets.

Those are among proposed guidelines, unveiled Tuesday, that would govern the future look of commercial development in Lawrence. The idea is to keep shopping centers, especially chain stores, from looking exactly like their counterparts in cities across the United States.

“It’s supposed to make you feel like you’re in Lawrence, as opposed to someplace else,” city planner Brad Hauschild said.

Planning Commissioner Myles Schachter, a member of the design guidelines committee, said City Hall won’t start telling developers they must create buildings in, say, a prairie architecture style.

“There’s going to be a great degree of flexibility,” Schachter said. “We’re not saying we’re going to have a Lawrence design for shopping centers.”

But developers will be required to meet minimum standards to make new shopping centers more attractive.

Developers would be asked to design centers to fit into the landscape of a site, instead of ripping up the land to make it fit the building design.

The natural landscape contributes “to the distinct character of Lawrence,” the draft guidelines say. “New development needs to work with the natural environment by preserving and integrating natural features.”

Among other details in the draft:

The new design guidelines for city planning would require all four sides of a shopping center to be equally

• Developers would be asked to move parking lots to the rear of shopping centers, and to screen off other parking lots from easy view “to improve the visual character from the public street.”
• “Pedestrian walkways” would be required to connect buildings within the shopping center, to parking areas and other nearby sites.

Easy access for bicyclists and walkers helps a development by “reducing traffic impacts and enabling the development to project a more inviting image.”

Committee Draft Guidelines (MS Word document) Advisers to reconcile ‘3 Lawrences’ (4-2-04)

• All sides of a building would be required to be “equally attractive.”

“We want buildings to have four-sided architecture,” said Bob Johnson, a Kansas City commercial developer who built both Hy-Vee centers in Lawrence. “We don’t want a weak side.”

Officials emphasized that the draft unveiled Tuesday needs a lot of work before it will go to the planning and city commissions for a full review. Many of the standards have not been written yet.

“Basically, what you see is a first run,” Hauschild said.

The committee meets next at 8 a.m. May 4 in City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.