Engineers are midway through a study of North Lawrence flooding problems that could determine the future of development in the area, officials said Wednesday.

Full development of the area, said one engineer, could exacerbate stormwater problems there.

“The volume of that runoff is going to have to be managed,” Peter Jarchow, of Kansas City-based HNTB, said during a briefing of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. “That water is going to have to go somewhere.”

That led some commissioners to suggest that restrictions on certain types of development — including, perhaps, a ban on new residential construction — might be needed in North Lawrence.

“There’s a reason why they call those things floodplains,” Planning Commissioner Ernie Angino said.

One Lawrence real estate agent who represents North Lawrence properties said City Hall should figure out what it wanted the neighborhood’s future to be — industrial center, residential neighborhood or something else entirely — and then design solutions around those goals.

“To me it’s backwards to try to stick solutions on a problem until you know what you want your end result to be,” Marilyn Bittenbender said after the meeting.

North Lawrence residents say they want new houses in their neighborhood, but they want to see them spaced farther apart to give the ground a chance to absorb stormwater.

“We’d like to see development happen over here,” North Lawrence Improvement Assn. President Ted Boyle said. “But we’d like to see it less dense.”

The Lawrence City Commission in December commissioned HNTB’s $282,000 study of North Lawrence, mapping out the areas most prone to flooding, why they flood and what to do about it.

The study was requested by the Planning Commission in 2002 when it drafted new floodplain development regulations. North Lawrence, planning commissioners said, was in need of special attention.

HNTB’s Betty Burry said Wednesday that surveys were sent to 1,300 property owners; 100 were returned.

“Roughly a third say they have problems frequently or always, or words to that effect. Another third said never,” she said. “The perception in the area is that the major problem in the area is poor drainage.”

Planning Commission Chairman John Haase asked the engineers to look at stormwater solutions to accommodate a light industrial area near Lawrence Municipal Airport.

“I would hope this study would focus on the economic development that could occur in that area,” Haase said, “so that we know what our constraints are.”

Chad Voigt, the city’s stormwater engineer, said the study would focus on general solutions. Decisions about the nature of North Lawrence development, he said, will be left to commissioners.

“This study is giving us a tool to respond to the decisions you make about those kinds of things later,” Voigt said.

Results of the study are expected by year’s end.