Lawrence builders came to City Hall in numbers Tuesday night to hammer home a point: New impact fees on new construction will increase the cost of homes in the city.

City commissioners stopped short of agreeing with that assessment. But they did agree to schedule a series of stakeholder meetings to dive into the topic of whether the city should begin charging special fees on the constructions of new homes to help pay for new parkland and construction of major city streets.

“What I really want people to think about is if we do these impact fees, will people 10 years from now really be able to buy a first home here, or is that going to be an idea that is completely off the wall?” said Sid Ziegler, a Lawrence builder.

After builders presented a slide show that illustrated how new home prices in Lawrence had climbed sharply since 2003 – even though demand had not sharply increased – city commissioners agreed to meet with stakeholders such as builders, real estate agents and neighborhood leaders to determine what the consequences of the new fees might be.

“This would be a sea change for Lawrence, and we really haven’t had any discussion about it,” City Commissioner Sue Hack said. “I think it is important that we have a serious conversation.”

City commissioners were not scheduled to adopt any new fees at their meeting Tuesday, and they have yet to even decide how much the fees should be. But the issue of having a series of meetings on the subject could create an interesting issue of timing.

The three commissioners who have most often talked positively about impact fees – Boog Highberger, Mike Rundle and David Schauner – are up for re-election during April’s city elections.

“My strong preference would be to have it before the elections,” Schauner said after the meeting. “We can talk about this until the cows come home and still not all agree. I don’t mind having the conversation, but I don’t want us to drag it out too long.”

Mayor Mike Amyx said he didn’t have a timeline in mind when proposing the stakeholder meetings. After Tuesday night’s meeting, he said commissioners would have to discuss whether they want the issue to be taken up before the April elections to ensure that the five current commissioners deal with it.

Several builders told commissioners there were multiple issues to resolve. David Reynolds, a Lawrence home builder, said impact fees too often were portrayed as a fee that only developers pay.

He said the truth is that the fees get passed along to home buyers, and they affect the entire community’s real estate market.

“These fees look like a tax, act like a tax and smell like a tax,” Reynolds said.