City commissioners tonight may do their part to break a 10-year deadlock over how 1,300 acres of prime property south and east of 23rd Street and O’Connell Road should be developed.

Commissioners are scheduled to give approval to the Southeast Area Plan – a document that area planners started in 1997. The plan was stalled because city and county commissioners couldn’t agree on how the area should look in the future.

For years, the two sides disagreed on whether the property primarily should be the city’s next hub for industrial and office development, or whether it should be developed into a major new affordable housing area.

The new plan lands somewhere in between.

“I think this probably is a reasonable compromise,” said Steve Glass, who as president of LRM Industries is a major landowner in the area.

The plan designates the southern half of the area – bounded by O’Connell Road on the west, 23rd Street to the north, the Wakarusa River to the south and Noria Road to the east – as residential development. The northern half of the site would be a mixture of industrial, residential and commercial development.

The plan doesn’t spell out how many acres should be devoted to industrial development, but a land use map in the plan makes it appear that 300 to 400 acres would be related to industrial or office uses. But that doesn’t equate to 300 to 400 acres of new industrial property because much of the area already is zoned for industrial uses, which includes the LRM plant and an adjacent business park that houses smaller industrial buildings.

The bulk of the new industrial property would be east of the existing LRM plant, extending to Noria Road. Glass said he doesn’t expect the area to become another East Hills Business Park that houses industrial buildings. Instead, he predicts it will be for smaller industrial businesses, contractors and other similar users.

“I think the area may not be too dissimilar from the area between Haskell and Harper, where you have commercial and industrial space near the highway and then residential to the south of it,” Glass said.

Michelle Leininger, a planner for the city and county, said the area definitely will have a mix of residential, industrial and commercial uses.

“What we have tried to do is transition between the uses,” Leininger said. “For example, we try to put some office uses between some of the residential and industrial uses.”

Other features of the plan include:

¢ A community commercial center at the southeast corner of 23rd Street and O’Connell Road. Bill Newsome, a developer leading the project, said he hopes to have commercial buildings under construction in 2009. He said he hopes the site will attract a grocery.

¢ North 1300 Road would become a major city street. The road is envisioned as an extension of 31st Street. The plan, however, does make provisions for the houses south of North 1300 Road to remain largely undisturbed.

¢ A major city park would be located at the northeast corner of North 1300 Road and East 1700 Road. The city already owns the property. The plan doesn’t call for new schools or fire stations to serve the area, although it does state further study may be needed on those two issues.

¢ A neighborhood commercial center would be located just south of the Douglas County Jail property. The center would be located along an extended Franklin Road. The center could house a gas station, restaurant and small stores.

¢ One piece of ground just south and east of the jail property is designated as high density residential. That designation would allow for large-scale apartment complexes. The rest of the residential zones in the plan would be for single-family or duplex development.

Commissioners meet at 6:35 tonight at City Hall to discuss the plan. If city commissioners approve the plan, county commissioners would discuss it, likely in late January.