Douglas County commissioners agreed Wednesday to wait another month before ruling on plans for a new rural subdivision along Stull Road.

Commissioners said they would wait until Aug. 23 to decide whether 159 acres of agricultural land at 1636 E. 50 Road should be rezoned for residential uses.

Charlie Dominguez wants to build 13 homes on the property, which is along the north and east sides of County Road 442, about a half-mile east of the Shawnee County line.

Dominguez actually could build that many homes now, simply by securing building permits. But because he wants to arrange the lots with driveways onto only one street that leads onto Stull Road — instead of taking direct access onto the county road — he must secure the rezoning.

The homes would sit on lots ranging from five to 12 acres, share communal horse barn, grazing pastures and ponds and sell for anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000.

But if Dominguez and his two South Korean business partners are to secure permission to start construction, something they hope to do next year, they’ll have to convince commissioners to reject two pending recommendations:

• The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted unanimously to oppose the rezoning application, saying it did not comply with Horizon 2020, the comprehensive land-use plan for Lawrence and Douglas County.
• A similar recommendation from professional staffers in the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Office, who contend that the rezoning should be rejected because the site is nearly 10 miles from Lawrence, far outside the county’s regulatory urban growth area, and would not be adjacent to another platted subdivision.

“It doesn’t comply with those specific land-use criteria,” said Sandra Day, the city-county planner who reviewed the case. “(But) this is a good design of a subdivision.”

Without the rezoning, Dominguez said, the lots likely would be sold separately and developed without planning as a subdivision. The new homes would share six driveways directly onto a curve along Stull Road, a curve known for numerous accidents and at least four fatalities.

Such a possibility didn’t sit well with Commissioner Bob Johnson.

“If we deny this, we’re almost forcing them to do something that we don’t want them to do,” Johnson said.

Commissioners agreed to wait until next month to rule on the issue, giving them time to receive recommendations about rural development from a committee of the Planning Commission. That report is due Aug. 17.

The committee’s recommendations could call for changes to the county’s development rules to allow for such rural subdivisions.