Comparato referenced the city’s Youth Sports Complex off West 27th Street, where the Sporting Kaw Valley league has first-scheduling rights because of a contract with the city.

Ivo Ivanov, Bishop Seabury’s head soccer coach; Eric Nelson, Bishop Seabury’s athletic director; and Andy Bentley, with Lawrence’s Adult Soccer League, all testified to the struggle of finding space to play in Lawrence during the peak seasons.

“When I came from East Europe 25 years ago, the fields were adequate, but somewhere along the way, around 2000, soccer exploded,” Ivanov said. “Around 2010, it became the No. 1 participation sport in the country. It’s overwhelming. Soccer is huge in this city, and I think the game has outgrown the infrastructure.”

A plan for the privately-owned complex includes five grass fields, a parking lot, storage building and a building for restrooms and concessions, as well as a pond to gather stormwater to use for irrigation.

Several residents of the area stood Monday to voice their opposition to the project, saying the road conditions were not suitable for increased traffic. There was also concern the development would tap into well water, though Comparato said chemical toilets would be used.

The commission asked that when the Douglas County Commission makes the final decision on the project, it consider the residents’ concern with water use.

There was also a condition placed on the commission’s approval that if the site expands in the future over a stream to the east, that a buffer be built between it and a conservation area owned by Wak-N-Duk.

“There may be other places this could work in our community, but every one of them is going to have these sort of issues,” said Clay Britton, chair of the commission. “Coming into town from the east side, seeing the soccer fields with kids playing on them, I think that’s probably a pretty cool thing and would speak well of us.”

Comparato said the group plans to plant the fields by this fall and have the complex ready to use by fall 2017.

In other business, commissioners:

• Voted 6-3 to deny a special-use permit that would allow developers of a commercial project at the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Inverness Drive to include one fast-order food establishment in their design.

Because commissioners voted to deny the special-use permit, the motion also denied the proposed site plan.

The plan called for four restaurants, one with a drive-thru, and two office and retail buildings. The 7-acre area would have included a total 31,625 square feet of restaurant, retail and office space. There were plans for the drive-thru to be a coffee shop, said Paul Werner, the architect on the project.

Commissioners voted to deny it after hearing from a half-dozen residents of the area who had concerns the fast-order establishment would bring in extra traffic to a neighborhood with multiple schools.

The item will next go to the Lawrence City Commission. To overturn the Planning Commission’s denial, at least four city commissioners must vote to approve the special-use permit.

• Voted unanimously to recommend the rezoning of four acres at 5325 W. Sixth St. from single-family residential to multi-dwelling residential to allow for the development of Village Cooperative of Lawrence, a 52-unit independent living facility. The group also unanimously approved the project’s preliminary development plan, which includes a single three-story structure with an underground parking garage. The Lawrence City Commission will have the final vote on the project.

City Government