WRITER: Josie Heimsoth

Douglas County commissioners approve rezoning and conditional use permit for landscaping business

Douglas County commissioners approved a rezoning request and a conditional use permit for a 11.1-acre property at 1760 East 1100 Road on Wednesday. The property includes a rural residence and an accessory building, currently used by Schendel Landscaping. The business had outgrown its zoning limitations, with the accessory building being used for what the county classifies as heavy equipment storage and some ...

Douglas County commissioners to consider zoning requests to bring landscaping business into compliance

Douglas County commissioners will consider a couple of land use requests this week that would bring a landscaping business into compliance with the county's rules. On Wednesday, county commissioners will consider the requests for the 11.1-acre property at 1760 East 1100 Road. The property has a rural residence and an accessory building and is currently used by Schendel Landscaping. However, according to ...

Family Promise holds open house for its new shelter for homeless families; it's set to open at the end of November

Lawrence’s Family Promise recently completed the conversion of a longtime day care building into a shelter for homeless families, and it held an open house on Tuesday to celebrate the project's completion. The nonprofit's new facility is intended to house up to six homeless families at any given time. The property, located at 200 Mount Hope Court, is equipped with bedrooms, multiple kitchens and a playground ...

Lawrence school board selects Kansas Association of School Boards to aid permanent superintendent search

After interviewing two agencies, the Lawrence school board selected the Kansas Association of School Boards to help with the Lawrence school district's search for a permanent superintendent. Board members held two interviews during their business meeting on Monday with McPherson & Jacobson LLC and the Kansas Association of School Boards. The board conducted two 40-minute interviews with the agencies and ...

To mitigate serious floods, Douglas County leaders hear, they'll have to look closely at development and soil health

As Lawrence expands to the south with projects like the proposed New Boston Crossing, the landscape in its urban growth area is expected to change quite a bit with new residential and retail development. But five years ago, the landscape southwest of Lawrence changed in a much more unexpected — and frightening — way. At the end of July 2019, 8 to 10 inches of rain fell over the course of just eight hours ...

Lawrence school board to interview firm to assist with permanent superintendent search

The Lawrence school board at its Monday meeting will be interviewing a firm to assist with the district's search for a permanent superintendent, whom the board hopes to have in place by the start of the next school year. Board members will be interviewing representatives from McPherson & Jacobson LLC as a possible search firm to aid with tasks associated with selecting a new district leader. The board ...