A developer’s hopes for building a new neighborhood near Lone Star Lake evaporated Wednesday night at the Douglas County Courthouse.

County commissioners rejected Michael Nuffer’s plans for Sycamore Valley Home Estates, a proposed enclave of 23 homes on five- to 10-acre lots a mile north of the lake southwest of Lawrence.

Nuffer had sought to rezone 219 acres from agricultural to “suburban home residential” uses, a move that would have enabled him to make room for homes selling for $250,000 to $500,000.

But commissioners denied his application, 11 weeks after saying they were intrigued by Nuffer’s plans to create a 30-acre lake, a feature designed to boost the value of his lots while also easing flash-flooding concerns in the nearby town of Lone Star.

Nuffer struggled to quantify the drainage benefits, opening the floodgates for opposition from neighbors concerned about increased traffic, encroaching development and construction of a new dam whose plans for long-term survival — through maintenance agreements, financing and other factors — remained murky.

“This is too far out in the county for this type of development, period,” said Scott Mesler, who owns 200 acres of farm land between Lone Star Lake and the Sycamore Valley site.

After the meeting, Nuffer said he likely would give up his option to buy the site.

The price he had agreed to pay for the property was too high to justify building only a handful of homes for which he could secure approval through the county’s existing development rules.

6News video: County denies one development, approves another County to rezone rural acreage for ‘upscale’ housing Lone Star development rejected

“I just had the door slammed in my face,” Nuffer said outside the meeting, after the commission’s unanimous vote. “It’s dead. There’s just not a whole lot we can do.”