A neighborhood leader who wants to have a serious discussion about the community’s growth is set to become a candidate for the Lawrence City Commission.

Jim Carpenter, a longtime Barker Neighborhood Assn. leader and member of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods’ board of directors, said he would file within the next week for one of three seats on the commission.

Carpenter, who has a Kansas City, Kan., law practice, said he thought the city had started to take a closer look at the effects of growth but still could do more.

“I know I want to have a discussion about how Lawrence grows,” Carpenter said. “It is not an issue of being pro-growth or anti-growth. It is about what type of growth we’re comfortable with.”

He said he wanted to take a close look at retail growth.

“If you look around, you’ll see there is a lot of empty retail space in town,” Carpenter said. “We need to look at ways to make sure we don’t overbuild.”

Carpenter, 43, said he also wanted to ensure protection of older neighborhoods, and that new housing developments be built with a “neighborhood concept” in mind.

With the city set to move forward on an approximately $90 million sewer plant on the Wakarusa River, Carpenter said he wanted to look at the city’s impact fees and other mechanisms to make sure new development was paying a large enough share for infrastructure costs.

“We really need to talk about how Lawrence sees itself growing and how we pay for it,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter also said he’s a supporter of the city’s public smoking ban.

“It is a good thing for public health,” he said. “I would never vote to overturn the smoking ban.”

But Carpenter, who has lived in Lawrence 12 years, said city officials could learn a few lessons from the issue. He said commissioners perhaps could have thought about phasing in the ban to give businesses more time to adjust. He said it was too late to do that now, but he would support discussing ways to allow businesses to expand outdoor smoking areas.

“When we have such a large social change, we need to look at the other impacts of that change,” Carpenter said. “That is what we maybe could have done a little better on.”

Carpenter is the fifth person who has announced plans for a campaign. City Commissioner Sue Hack, Lawrence school district administrator Tom Bracciano and former Lawrence Mayor Mike Amyx have all filed for one of the three at-large seats on the commission. Incumbent David Schauner is expected to announce he’ll also seek a second term. He postponed an announcement scheduled Tuesday because of the inclement weather. City Commissioner David Dunfield has said he will not seek re-election.

Candidates have until noon Jan. 25 to file. The general election will be held April 5. If seven or more candidates file, a primary election will be held March 1.