A Lawrence businessman will ask the Douglas County Commission on Wednesday to support his alternatives to closing access to the South Lawrence Trafficway from Kasold Drive, including the idea of a traffic light at the intersection.

The Kansas Department of Transportation has announced that in October it will eliminate Kasold Drive access to the South Lawrence Trafficway — which is also Kansas Highway 10 — as the eastern leg of the SLT opens. Douglas County Public Works director Keith Browning said traffic on K-10 was expected to increase significantly with the SLT’s opening, and KDOT was concerned about safety issues at the at-grade Kasold Drive intersection about 1 mile west of U.S. Highway 59.

Frank Male, whose Lawrence Landscape has a nursery south of the intersection, said he would ask county commissioners to send a letter of support for short- and long-term alternatives to eliminating highway access from Kasold Drive, which is E. 1150 Road south of the highway. He would ask the Lawrence City Commission for the same support at a later meeting, he said.

The short-term solution would be installation of a temporary traffic light at the intersection, which would stop traffic on the highway only when vehicles were waiting on the side streets, Male said. The long-term solution would be construction of a Kasold Drive interchange when the west leg of K-10 is expanded to four lanes in the future. Male said he would share with county commissioners plans for the interchange he had Landplan Engineering develop. The interchange’s separated-grade design would provide entry and exit lanes for eastbound and westbound K-10 traffic at Kasold Drive.

The plan would realign Kasold Drive/E. 1150 Road about 100 yards to the west and includes a frontage road south of the highway from E. 1150 Road to Wakarusa Drive.

KDOT currently is studying possible designs for an expansion of the SLT west of U.S. Highway 59. But there is no funding in place to expand the road, and KDOT officials have said the earliest a project could start would be 2020.

When the four-lane expansion is approved, KDOT plans a separated-grade interchange to serve the Youth Sports Complex near the intersection of the SLT and Wakarusa Drive. But Male noted that interchange would not provide direct access north into Lawrence nor provide those south of the highway access to K-10.

Closing access from E. 1150 Road to Kansas Highway 10 would force many in the area south of the highway to use County Road 458 and U.S. Highway 59 to get into Lawrence, Male said. The added traffic would increase the danger at the at-grade CR 458/U.S. 59 intersection, which has no traffic light, he said. The closure also would add traffic to the Clinton Dam road, Male said.

He hoped KDOT would reconsider the alternatives with the letters of support from the two commissions, but said he wasn’t sure department officials could be swayed.

“I’ve been told KDOT can pretty much do what they want,” he said. “The ball is 100 percent in their court.”

The County Commission will also consider a request to rezone 6.178 acres in the 1400 block of E. 900 Road from B-3 to less restrictive B-2 zoning. The property is just west of K-10 and north of Clinton Dam. The property owner, Fairway LC, wants to build warehouses on the property with the rezoning.

The property’s current B-3 zoning requires development conform to commercial lake uses, such as the adjacent boat and recreational vehicle storage available at Clinton Storage.

The request comes to the County Commission with a recommendation for denial from county planning staff and the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission because many uses permitted with B-2 zoning are not compliant with the area’s long-range West of K-10 Plan.

The County Commission will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Douglas County Courthouse.