Lawrence and Douglas County commissioners want to pursue spending at least $20 million during the next 10 years for developing business parks and preserving open space.

Now they just need to find the money.

“It’s time to move off the dime,” said Sue Hack, a Lawrence city commissioner.

During a joint study session Wednesday at the Douglas County Courthouse, commissioners agreed to consider two potential financing plans:

¢ Ask voters to approve a 1/4-cent, countywide sales tax, which would be expected to generate $2.5 million a year.

¢ Boost property taxes, cut spending or rely on an increase in property valuations – or a mixture of the three – to generate an estimated $2 million a year.

The money would go toward financing projects endorsed by the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board. Elected officials informally embraced the projects Wednesday.

One new business park would occupy the 467-acre site of the former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant, located along the north side of Kansas Highway 10 at the southeastern edge of town. Another would be located on 300 acres of unspecified agricultural land north of the Kansas Turnpike, near Lawrence Municipal Airport.

Without them Lawrence essentially will be out of room for industrial projects by 2012, said Mike Maddox, chairman of the Economic Development Board and a member of the Kansas City Area Development Council.

Of 15 potential industrial projects being sought recently by the council, Maddox said, only one from outside of town – with a potential for six jobs – was considering Lawrence, because of the lack of large industrial lots.

“Not that six jobs is bad, but it’s six jobs – compared to 30, 100, 150 jobs,” Maddox said. “We’re not necessarily in the game in a lot of cases.”

Projects recommended for preserving open space include development of a “Two Rivers Trail,” connecting the Kansas and Wakarusa rivers; enhancement of Black Jack Battlefield, east of Baldwin; protection for a 150-acre prairie near Lone Star Lake; and addition of a buffer to a 1,000-acre forest near Baldwin.

David Schauner, a city commissioner, said he likely would prefer to seek a sales-tax increase to finance such projects. He called for creation of a master plan that would give voters a sense of specific project priorities and costs.

Alone, he said, business parks or open space projects might not garner enough support for approval.

“But together, they’re a pretty nice match,” he said.

Commissioners instructed administrators to compile a report that details financing options and projects that could be financed under each scenario. That report is due in time for the Economic Development Board to review options Feb. 15 and again March 1, before making recommendations to another joint study session of city and county commissioners March 15.