City Hall will impose a new registration requirement on Lawrence businesses, part of changes Tuesday to a policy that would guide future commercial development in town.

The requirement would help officials track existing businesses in order to decide whether new commercial zoning requests should be approved.

The registration plan caught at least one leader of the Lawrence business community off guard.

“I have had no conversation with anyone that (a business registration requirement was) coming,” said Larry McElwain, Lawrence Chamber of Commerce chairman. “I’m kind of surprised that something like that would be passed without that kind of conversation.”

But Mayor David Dunfield noted after the meeting the policy approved Tuesday by the City Commission did not contain particulars of the registration; instead, it commits the city to creating a registration ordinance.

“I’m sure they’ll be involved in the discussions,” Dunfield said of the chamber. “This is just the beginning of the discussion.”

The requirement is part of long-debated changes to the commercial chapter of Horizon 2020, the city-county comprehensive plan. The most recent version of the changes, including the business registration requirement, were unveiled Friday on the city’s Web site. Tuesday’s commission meeting was the first public mention of the registration plan.

The chapter includes a new requirement that major commercial developments be subject to a “market analysis” to determine whether the city can absorb the new business without creating excess vacancies in existing commercial areas.

The registration requirement would help City Hall track those vacancies.

Asked whether there would be a registration fee, City Manager Mike Wildgen said it was possible.

“From what we’ve seen in other cities, it’s quite an involved process,” he said.

Commissioners praised the overall revisions to the chapter, which caps the maximum size of “community commercial centers,” such as the cluster of developments at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive, at 400,000 square feet. Roughly 170,000 square feet of commercial construction already has been built at the intersection.

The development policy passed Tuesday reflected a compromise between the City Commission and the Douglas County Commission, which had split over what that maximum square footage should be for community commercial centers. City commissioners wanted to cap the maximum size at 350,000 square feet, while county commissioners proposed 500,000. That rift had threatened to end with a different set of development rules for the city and rural parts of the county, respectively.

“The last thing I think we want,” Hack said, “is two separate plans.”