Expect more frontage roads to begin appearing in rural Douglas County during the next few years.

“If you are going to have property that is accommodating four, five or six residences on a heavily traveled road, it probably makes sense from a safety standpoint to have all of them put on a frontage road and then to have only one entry onto a highway or a heavily traveled road,” County Commission Chairman Bob Johnson said at Monday’s meeting.

County engineer Keith Browning will determine exactly where frontage roads are needed. The number of adjoining properties requiring a frontage could vary, Browning said, and factors to be considered include the terrain and difficulty of construction.

The county is considering a frontage road along the east side of County Route 1057 just north of North 1000 Road.

Who pays for frontage roads – the landowner or the county – also will vary.

“In a situation where there have been approved entrances and we are essentially retrofitting a frontage road in – we’re doing that with the idea that we’re improving road safety and it’s a public funding issue – then we would pay for that situation,” Browning said.

If there is no approved entrance from a property to a county road and the landowner wanted a permit for an entrance, the owner would need to provide the land for the road and finance the costs of construction, Browning said. The county also would have to decide how far to extend the roads.

In other business, commissioners approved a conditional use permit for a mini-storage business, Lakeside Storage, along East 900 Road and the South Lawrence Trafficway. The permit was sought by Robert D. Voth, president of Windover Community of Lawrence LLC, the property owner.