With an estimated 20,000 new residents expected to move into new homes south of the Wakarusa River during the next 25 years, Douglas County commissioners are taking steps to help them ease into city life through new development limits.

Commissioners are working on plans to allow landowners near the city to build single-family homes on 3-acre lots. Current rules permit such homes on lots no smaller than 5 acres, unless the project is part of an approved subdivision.

Allowing more homes to be built on smaller lots would serve several purposes, commissioners said:

l Landowners would be able to sell more lots, and therefore offset the expenses of filing plats for their projects. Plats are the official government documents that outline where future streets, utility lines and other public infrastructure will be located. “You get more developable property,” said Linda Finger, city-county planning director.

l Establishing sites for future sewer lines and streets would make it easier for the areas to be absorbed into the city, once Lawrence’s boundaries stretch south of the river. And denser development would mean more taxpayers would be available to cover the costs. “It’s a good direction,” Commissioner Jere McElhaney said.

l Rural property owners still would be able to build homes that are served by septic systems. The home would be built on a 1-acre lot, leaving two more acres open for lateral fields; when city sewers become accessible at the site, the two open acres could be sold and developed for two more homes.

“The value of those two homes would exceed the cost of platting,” said Charles Jones, who has advocated the concept as commission chairman. “We’ve negated any negatives of being in the UGA (urban growth area).”

Commissioners hope to get the new standards in place by April. The rules are being developed by officials in the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Office and the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.