City commissioners unanimously approved a set of commercial design guidelines that will determine how new retail and office projects look for decades to come.

Commissioners heard only one objection to the guidelines at their Tuesday evening meeting. That came from Don Zimmer, a Lawrence resident who works on real estate development throughout the Midwest. Zimmer said he was concerned the guidelines would give government officials too much discretion to dictate the “tastes” of a particular development.

“I don’t want us to get in a situation where we go back to the flavor-of-the-decade approach,” Zimmer said. “This decade it may be stucco buildings, the next decade it may be brick, in the ’50s it was all contemporary.”

City commissioners, though, said they were confident the guidelines were broad enough that they would not stifle creativity.

The new guidelines will apply to all new commercial developments and the redevelopment of existing commercial areas.