There’s so much on the plate for the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission, it’ll take two meals to finish.

The commission’s agenda for its regular Wednesday meeting is so big that it already has scheduled a Friday afternoon meeting to deal with spillover business.

“There’s some hot topics,” Planning Commissioner Myles Schachter said Monday. “We’re moving ahead with development projects, and we’re moving ahead with some regulations.”

Among the highlights: new floodplain development regulations for rural Douglas County, city zoning code revisions and a proposed rezoning of the west Lawrence land where Wal-Mart wants to build a new store.

“These are large items that have multiple elements,” Planning Director Linda Finger said.

Here’s a closer look at those items:

• The county’s current floodplain development regulations are the minimum required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to participate in the Floodplain Insurance Program, which compensates property owners for some losses after big storms.

The new county regulations will do little to change development standards for most rural properties, officials say. But in areas where Lawrence is expected to grow — the Urban Growth Area surrounding the city — the regulations will be similar to city standards.

The city’s floodplain regulations, passed in 2002, require developers to do expensive studies that ensure their construction won’t enlarge the floodplain.

• The new city zoning codes include a number of changes, including revisions that will allow new residential neighborhoods to mimic the look and feel of older neighborhoods, allowing lot sizes to be smaller and houses to sit closer to the front of the property.
• The rezoning for the northwest corner of Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive would limit the biggest building on the site to 80,000 square feet — two-thirds of the 132,000 square feet Wal-Mart has announced it wants to build on the corner. The rezoning was initiated by the Lawrence City Commission in June; Wal-Mart and 6Wak Land Investments, the landowner, oppose the rezoning.

“There is not a legal basis for this action, and it violates our property rights,” 6Wak partner Bill Newsome said in a letter to planners. “We’re adamantly opposed to it.”

Also on the commission agenda is a plat for a 33-lot residential subdivision near Monterey Way and Stetson Drive, rezoning of land at Research Park Drive and 15th Street from industrial to residential uses, plans for a commercial-residential subdivision at Clinton Parkway and the South Lawrence Trafficway, and rezoning of 154 acres in northwest Douglas County for light industrial uses.