Some of the goals for the Oread Neighborhood Design Guidelines are shown in this page from a draft version of the document.

New specifications for how properties in the Oread neighborhood are designed aim to recreate the look and feel of the area as it was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Proposed guidelines for new development or redevelopment in the neighborhood were publicly unveiled Wednesday to a crowd of about two dozen people, many of whom had assisted in the six-year process of creating the plan.

The Oread Neighborhood Design Guidelines, a 132-page document, outlines in detail how things such as porches, fences, windows and doors should look in order to conform to the history of the area.

The goal is for the neighborhood to look and feel like it did between 1877 and 1945, when the original properties were established, said Jeff Crick, a city planner.

“Typically, property between 1877 and 1945 defined the architecture, the quality of the sites you see in the district,” Crick said. “We want to make sure that new construction and modifications are consistent with the best parts of the neighborhood, the parts that everybody associates with Oread.”

The guidelines cover the area from Ninth Street to the north and 17th Street to the south. The area surrounds part of the Kansas University campus, with Massachusetts Street as the east boundary and Arkansas Street as the boundary to the west.

The city will use the guidelines when a property owner initiates a new project. The project will first have to fit the city’s zoning requirements, and then it will be determined whether it follows the new design guidelines, too.

City Planning Director Scott McCullough explained to the crowd that the zoning requirements were like the “blunt instrument” and the more detailed guidelines like “the scalpel.”

There are two other areas of Lawrence where design is required to follow a set of guidelines: downtown Lawrence and property surrounding Eighth and Pennsylvania streets.

On Tuesday, the City Commission denied a request from a Massachusetts Street restaurant owner to put a wrought-iron arch in front of his restaurant — something the city’s Historic Resources Commission found to be forbidden under the Downtown Design Guidelines.

Guidelines for the Oread neighborhood are the first in Lawrence that cover a mostly residential area, McCullough said.

It was decided to create guidelines because of concerns about parking, trash, privacy, noise and code compliance. With some homes in the area converted into rental units, there have also been concerns about the neighborhood’s design integrity.

The details that make up the guidelines were collected from public input sessions in 2012 and from field surveys.

One of the biggest points is that property owners in one of the five districts that make up the area would not be able to create or modify structures to allow for duplexes or other multiple-unit housing. That district is designated district one, which is encompassed by Ninth street to the north, Fambrough Drive to the south, Arkansas to the west and Illinois to the east.

Currently, district one is predominantly single-family residences, with some duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes.

One property owner in that area told city planners Wednesday he had wanted to put an apartment in the basement of a home off Maine Street and was concerned he would not be able to do so because of the design guidelines. He said he thought property owners in the area would rush to put in more units before the guidelines are implemented.

It will be at least March before the guidelines can gain full approval.

They will next go before the Historic Resources Commission and Lawrence-Douglas Planning Commission on Feb. 18 for review. On March 21, the two commissions will vote on whether to recommend the City Commission approve them.

It is not yet sure when they will go before the City Commission.

One point of contention Wednesday was the parking guidelines. One of the parking arrangements permitted for duplexes was a two-car garage with an area for five other cars.

State Sen. Marci Francisco, who lives in the Oread neighborhood, expressed some concerns with parking arrangements included in the guidelines.

The guidelines allow single-family and duplex housing to have stacked parking off alleyways, which could lead to alleyway traffic being blocked when cars are moved, Francisco said. The guidelines also allow up to seven spaces for duplexes, which Francisco thinks could encourage developers to build duplexes with more bedrooms, rather than triplexes or higher.

Parking will be talked about in detail during the upcoming commission meetings, McCullough said.

Other guidelines Crick talked about Wednesday were details of what was permitted for sidewalks, front-yard landscaping, architectural elements, roof angles, building materials and exterior lighting.

“One thing I think is important to note, these guidelines don’t take away creativity,” Crick said. “If you are creative and want to go a little differently, they don’t prohibit that. They do make sure you can’t go very far outside of that and affect the impact of the architecture of the district as a whole.”