Imagine areas of Lawrence developed with a greater integration of single-family houses, apartments, condos and retail stores instead of separating those entities into urban moats.

Such a mixed-use concept is called new urbanization, and city officials and planning commissioners say it’s possible such an experimental development area could be in blueprint form by the year’s end.

Will it succeed? Planning Commission chairman John Haase is keeping an open mind.

“I’m not going to draw that conclusion, but I certainly think the benefits are such that it is worth looking at,” he said Saturday at he conclusion of a two-day community development and neighborhood design workshop held in Lawrence.

Others agreed, including Mayor Mike Rundle and City Commissioners Sue Hack, Boog Highberger and David Dunfield, who also were at Saturday’s session. The workshop also dealt with nuances of the planning process and issuance of building permits.

“This gets down to the brass tacks about the things we’ve talked about around here for a long time,” Rundle said.

The city brought in four urban planning and research experts to conduct the workshop: Kevin Klinkenberg of 180° design studio, Kansas City, Mo.; Chris Shears, of Shears Adkins Architects, Denver; Garner Stoll, director of community development for Parker, Colo.; and Cliff Ellis, associate professor in Kansas University’s School of Architecture and Urban Design.

Hack said she liked the new urbanization concept because it looks at neighborhood features that encourage walking and sustainability. For example, a couple could raise a family, then move into a condo during their retirement years without leaving their old neighborhood, she said. She also hopes the planning and building permit process can be simplified.

“That’s a song I’ve been singing for a long time, and I’m excited to see folks in the profession saying we need to work toward that,” Hack said.

New urbanization concepts have been instituted in other cities with varying degrees of success, including Liberty, Mo., Rundle said. However, the city’s codes currently do not allow for mixed-use development, he said. The codes would have to be thrown out and new ones written or revised. A parallel set of codes also could be developed to be used for certain developments, he said.

Lawrence Planning Director Linda Finger said her department would look at a possible development area and draw up a list of processes that would be needed for mixed-use.