This much is for sure: The agricultural scene surrounding Karen Heeb’s home and horse farm southeast of Lawrence won’t last forever.

A growing city is clearly on the march toward Heeb’s rural neighborhood, an area of more than 1,000 acres south and east of O’Connell Road and Kansas Highway 10.

Heeb, who has lived on her farm with her husband and horses since 1993, knows she can’t stop the city from landing on her doorstep, but she would like to have a say in what shape the future development takes. Her desires seem pretty simple.

“I would rather live next to houses instead of industry,” Heeb said.

For city and county planners, though, fulfilling Heeb’s wish is easier said than done. The area has become the center of a growing disagreement among planners and developers. At the heart of the issue is whether one of the city’s larger pieces of undeveloped land should be used to address affordable housing needs or set aside to become the home of a high-profile business park to lure new jobs to the community.

‘Dumb planning’

Planners have been far from unanimous on the subject. Last month, the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission approved a version of the Southeast Area Plan that favors a more industrial/business park feel for the area. But the margin was slim: Five commissioners voted for the plan, four voted against it, and one didn’t vote at all.

Convictions on both side of the issue are strong.

“That (plan) is the worst example of planning that the city has done during my three years on the commission,” said Planning Commissioner Ernie Angino, who voted against the document. “It is not smart growth, it is not smart planning. It is dumb planning.”

Karen Heeb, shown tending to her Arabian horse, Shah Na, is concerned that planners want to turn the land surrounding her rural home southeast of Lawrence into a business park. Heeb says that if the land must be developed, she'd rather live next to houses.

Supporters of using the land for an “employment center” couldn’t disagree more.

“I think this site at some point in time, hopefully sooner rather than later, will be the most superior site for a business park that Lawrence has to offer,” said John Haase, chairman of the Planning Commission and a chief supporter of the plan.

City and county commissioners will become involved in the fray Monday when they meet for a study session on the issue. Both groups ultimately will need to approve the plan before it becomes final.

Good ground

Gary Nuzum, managing broker with Coldwell Banker McGrew Real Estate, can picture a neighborhood much like the city’s nearby Prairie Park area developing on the gently rolling terrain. John McGrew, chairman of the real estate company, and Roger Johnson, a Lawrence developer and excavating company owner, have plans to build 700 to 800 “entry-level” homes on a farmstead near Franklin Road, if they can receive planning approval.

The combination of the relatively flat land, good drainage and the lack of subsurface rock make the property easier and cheaper to develop than the hilly, rocky terrain often found in west Lawrence. In short, it’s a rare piece of Lawrence ground.

“This is about the only direction left where the ground is affordable and you can provide entry-level houses,” Nuzum said. “We have a tremendous need for entry-level housing in this town.”

But the same attributes that make the property attractive for entry-level homes also make it attractive for industrial development.

Haase said he could picture an “upscale, heavily landscaped” business park east of Franklin Road and west of Noria Road. It would attract large employers doing environmentally friendly business such as financial or information services and technology development.

Development proposal close to final OK (02-04-05) Proposal would let parks grow along with city (01-14-05) Revised Southeast Area Plan still lacks consensus (09-09-04)

“When you think about a business that would want to build a very large-scale building and employ a lot of people, this site lends itself very well for that type of development,” Haase said.

Transportation troubles

Haase said he agreed with Nuzum and others that the community needs to address its lack of affordable housing, but he said it might be more difficult to find good industrial sites than it would be to find good neighborhood locations.

“Affordable housing can happen in a variety of locations,” Haase said. “I don’t disagree that is an issue this community needs to address, but I question that it overrides our economic development needs.”

When it comes to potential industrial sites for Lawrence, Haase said the southeast area might rank at the top for a variety of reasons: The area is near Kansas Highway 10, near the area where it would connect with the uncompleted South Lawrence Trafficway, and would be near a proposed eastern bypass project that would connect K-10 with Interstate 70 east of Lawrence.

“This site will be at the absolute apex of transportation connectivity in the community,” Haase said.

But critics contend Haase’s assumptions are riddled with holes. They note there currently is no funding to complete the trafficway, which still could be the subject of an environmental lawsuit. And the idea for an eastern bypass only exists in a transportation planning document and has no money behind it.

“I don’t think we can count on any of those projects happening,” Heeb said.

Angino agrees and said that without the trafficway and the eastern bypass, the area was inappropriate for industrial/business park development.

“It would be a mess for businesses that need to make deliveries or take deliveries,” Angino said. “If you are going to go north, west or south, you have to go on 23rd Street. Are you telling me we don’t already have a traffic problem on 23rd Street?”

Housing hopes

However, Haase said the community needed to plan for the future. He cited planning figures that the community needs to add 1,000 acres of industrial land during the next 20 years. This area would provide about 600 acres.

And Haase said if the area’s transportation network wasn’t adequate for industrial purposes, it would likewise be inadequate for a residential area.

“If we build a lot of residential development out there, I think it would lead to a lot of cut-through traffic in existing neighborhoods,” Haase said.

Housing developers, though, think a new neighborhood in the area is just what the city needs right now. Nuzum said developers were confident they could build at the site many single-family homes that would sell for $130,000 each. That is about $40,000 less than the typical $170,000 starter home currently being built in Lawrence.

At current interest rates, Nuzum said, the average monthly payment on a $130,000 home is $975. That’s $300 less than the average $1,275-per-month payment for a $170,000 home.

Nuzum said he was convinced that would open up home-ownership opportunities to a significant number of people.

“How many times throughout the year do we see articles about there being no affordable housing in Lawrence, about how we’re the most expensive market in the state?” Nuzum said. “We see that a lot. We need to address that issue, and this area can help us do that.”