Lawrence city commissioners said Tuesday they didn’t want to make single-family housing more expensive by requiring storm shelters in new construction.

But they agreed to let city staffers and advisory boards take a deeper look at the issue.

“Just from my gut feeling, the cost is pretty high and the risk is pretty low, even in this high-tornado area,” Commissioner Boog Highberger said of the proposal. “If we require this up front, it does create a barrier to affordable housing.”

The proposal came from Lawrence resident Jane Graves, who said that people living in “slab houses” with no basements were in great danger when tornadoes and severe storms hit the city.

“Where do Lawrence citizens go when a tornado is on the ground?” she said. “When time is of the essence, many of us have no place safe to go.”

Graves’ concerns about storms became acute in May 2003 when a tornado hit southwest Lawrence, laying waste to an apartment complex and surrounding neighborhoods. In that storm, Graves’ family sought shelter in a house three blocks away from their west Lawrence house.

No one was killed during the storm, and the tornado dissipated before it hit Graves’ neighborhood. She started researching, however, ways to keep her family and others safe.

“We were lucky no one was killed,” she told commissioners Tuesday. “Will we be so lucky next time?”

Graves had found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had approved plans for “safe rooms,” a reinforced room contained within a house that can withstand most storms — even when the rest of the house is falling apart in high winds.

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The cheapest models run about $2,000 to build in new homes, she said. A basement, housing experts have said, can add $18,000 to $20,000 to the cost of a new house.

“In a $120,000 house, this would be a 1.6 percent increase in the cost,” Graves said of the price tag for safe rooms.

Ron Durflinger, a Lawrence home builder, suggested the price would be higher.

“It’s a risk assessment issue,” Durflinger said. “It has costs, and the true cost will be considerably higher than that.”

Commissioners agreed.

“Every $1,000 you add to the cost of a house, you drive a group of people out of the market,” Commissioner Sue Hack said. “I don’t want to drive people out of the market.”

Planning Director Linda Finger said the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission wanted to look at a shelter requirement in its review of the city’s subdivision regulations. And Highberger said he wouldn’t be opposed to requiring safe rooms in multifamily homes — fourplexes and larger.

“I do think it does deserve some sort of process that would get a thorough study,” Mayor Mike Rundle said.

There was no timeline set for the commission’s next discussion of the issue.