News and notes from around town:

• One of the larger buildings in Douglas County may end up having one of the more unusual systems for battling fires.

Details on how Douglas County leaders propose to get adequate water service to a planned 675,000-square-foot warehouse and printing facility for Berry Plastics will be discussed by planning commissioners next week.

Planning commissioners at their Nov. 15 meeting will consider approving a preliminary plat for the Berry project. The plat also includes an adjacent, although unrelated to the Berry project, corporate retreat that will be on 156 acres near the intersection of North 1800 and East 700 roads.

The Lecompton Township Fire Department normally would provide service to the site, which is about 1.5 miles west of the Lecompton interchange on the Kansas Turnpike. But according to a new report from county planners, the township fire department is requesting that the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Department assume responsibility for being the first responder to fire calls, even though the property will not be in the city limits.

City officials previously have been supportive of the Berry project, saying that even though the project won’t broaden the city’s tax base it strengthens Berry’s existing manufacturing plant that is in the city limits. That plant employs more than 900 people, and the new warehouse will free up space at the plant that could be used for additional manufacturing.

According to the new planning report, Rural Water District No. 6 also has expressed concerns about getting adequate water flow to the site to fight fires.

The developers — a group led by the Fritzel family — have proposed a system that would use water from ponds on the property, but both the Lawrence and Lecompton fire departments have expressed concerns. Developers now are proposing to provide underground storage of water to meet the fire protection needs.

Planning staff members are recommending approval of the plat for the project. Planning commissioners meet at 6:35 p.m. on Monday at City Hall.

• UPDATE: About 4 p.m. Thursday, city planners announced that the rezoning request for 4100 W. 24th Place had been deferred from the Nov. 15 planning commission meeting. A new date for the rezoning request to be heard hasn’t yet been set.

Two apartment projects also will be up for debate at the Planning Commission. Commissioners will hear a request to rezone 15 acres at 4100 W. 24th Place to allow additional apartments to be built at the site. Currently, the property has 224 apartment units as part of the Remington Square development. The new zoning would allow 136 additional units on the property.

The city’s planning staff is recommending approval of the rezoning, but several neighbors have objected on grounds that the area is already too heavily developed with apartments. City planners previously lobbied that the apartment project be delayed until a new district plan reviewing all undeveloped property along Clinton Parkway — between Inverness and Crossgate — could be completed. City commissioners agreed to move forward on creating such a plan, but said the apartment project should be allowed to have a hearing since it was already in process.

Just south of the Remington Square site is another proposed apartment project. The Crossgate Drive Casitas proposes to build 46, one-bedroom apartments on 4.6 acres at 2451 Crossgate Drive. Like with the other project, planning staff members are recommending approval after city commissioners said the project should be allowed to proceed.

Both apartment projects ultimately will have to receive City Commission approval before they can begin.

Planning commissioners meet at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 15 at City Hall.

• A Lawrence face will be prominently displayed in New York’s Times Square this holiday season. Shawn Holiday will be featured on the video billboard above the Toys ‘R Us store. Holiday — who lives in Lawrence with her husband, Doug — is a real estate agent with Kansas City’s Coldwell Banker/John Moffitt agency. Coldwell Banker is using Holiday and four other Coldwell Banker agents from across the country for its Times Square advertising because they have festive last names fit for the season. The ads already have begun to run and will continue through the end of the year.

• The region’s new Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area may get a unique bit of publicity in the next year. Judge Deanell Tacha, chair of the heritage area’s board of trustees, recently told city leaders that plans call for the heritage area to be the theme of the 2011 Symphony in the Flint Hills. The event each summer involves an orchestra concert in an outdoor setting in the Flint Hills. Officials details of the event, including its date and location haven’t yet been released, according to the organization’s website.

• Lawrence leaders are hoping to provide people a recycling reminder next week. November 15 is America Recycles Day, and the city’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Division plans to have an event an outreach event at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the city will have a booth in the library providing information about recycling and offering prizes to people who participate. The city received a $1,000 grant from the Kansas Organization of Recyclers to promote recycling during November.