Douglas County commissioners reached a consensus Wednesday night before opening up what would have been a heated discussion about a temporary homeless shelter site on county property.

Commissioner Nancy Thellman received support to start discussions about the First Christian Church’s Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen site, 221 W. 10th St., serving as a temporary shelter for up to two years.

“It seems like it’s a possible solution that’s looking us in the face, and I’m not willing to discuss the other proposal until we’ve exhausted that possibility,” Thellman said.

The Lawrence Salvation Army closed its overnight shelter Sunday night in favor of a transitional housing program.

The Salvation Army shelter could serve up to 40 people a night, meaning the Lawrence Community Shelter — at 214 W. 10th St. and already at capacity — needed to find an overflow site to handle higher numbers.

Community Shelter leaders had a request pending with the county and city to operate a temporary shelter in a vacant church sanctuary connected to the county’s public works building near 13th and Massachusetts streets.

The county site had met some opposition from county employees and neighbors. This week, the Community Shelter has operated the LINK site as a night shelter and served about 30 people a night.

But Wednesday night, Thellman proposed opening discussions among church, city and shelter leaders about making the LINK site a temporary overnight shelter for up to two years.

“We didn’t think of it as a long-term possibility until recently,” said Loring Henderson, director of the Community Shelter.

Henderson and Don Huggins, president of the Community Shelter’s board of directors, said they supported opening up talks about using the LINK site longer as the board tries to find a larger, more permanent shelter site.

“It was received very positively by all parties,” Huggins said.

Although it is early in the process, Thellman said the LINK site had some advantages over the county building, including being handicap-accessible, having rest rooms and already serving the homeless in some capacity.

Huggins said efforts to find a temporary shelter could lead to broader talks among leaders about homelessness in Lawrence and Douglas County.

“I think that discussion needs to be had between the county and the city,” he said.