photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File

Wind turbines are silhouetted against the sky at sunset Dec. 17, 2021, near Ellsworth, Kansas.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission is set to make some key decisions on Douglas County’s revised wind regulations and Family Promise’s planned shelter for homeless families next week.

The Planning Commission meets on Monday and Wednesday, with the first of those meetings dedicated entirely to discussing the wind regulations. As the Journal-World has reported, the group is in the process of revising the county’s rules for wind energy projects so they better align with a set of solar regulations approved in 2022.

The last time the Planning Commission discussed the wind rules, in October 2023, it didn’t reach a consensus. In part, that’s because the meeting lasted well over eight hours, more than half of which was dominated by public comment from dozens of community members. But some planning commissioners also voiced some hesitancy in moving forward without having a chance to review all of the agenda materials for that meeting, and a decision ultimately was deferred to a future meeting. The agenda packet for Monday’s meeting is more than 1,700 pages long.

But the significant public comment from the last meeting won’t be a factor this time around, since the group will be picking up its hearing where it left off rather than starting a new one with another full public comment period. The only changes to the proposed regulations in the time since October are clerical changes to correct spelling and punctuation, the addition of a definition for “non-participating landowner” and some corrections to a subsection covering performance standards.

As far as what’s actually in the revised regulations, they establish substantially more rigorous application requirements and set more specific setback and height limits than what’s reflected in the current rules. For example, the revision calls for a setback distance of 1,500 feet from a “participating” landowner’s home, the same as in the existing regulations, and also from a “non-participating” landowner’s property line. Those two terms describing types of landowners — “participating” and “non-participating” — are another new addition to the revised rules meant to differentiate between those who will benefit most from a commercial wind energy project and other landowners who won’t see the same benefits. Part of Monday’s discussion will likely be a more robust conversation among planning commissioners about specific setback lengths.

If the Planning Commission votes to approve the amended rules Monday, the next — and final — step will be for the Douglas County Commission to consider approving them at a future meeting.

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When the Planning Commission meets again two days later, it’ll be with a much longer agenda that will include considering a special use permit for temporary shelter use at 200 Mount Hope Court.

That’s the site of a longtime day care building that Lawrence’s Family Promise organization has filed plans to convert into a facility that could house up to six homeless families at any given time. Specifically, plans call for the shelter to contain six bedrooms, each with a queen-sized bed and bunk bed set, resulting in a maximum occupancy of 24 plus staff.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Lawrence’s Family Promise has filed plans to convert a former child daycare center at 200 Mt. Hope Court into a shelter for homeless families. The site is pictured on Jan. 2, 2024.

Along with those bedrooms, the shelter would contain offices for staff and case workers, a common area, a laundry area, restrooms and a kitchen where volunteers would prepare and provide an evening meal and to which occupants would have access during the day.

The meeting’s agenda materials note that the special use permit would apply to the land, not to a specific operator, meaning the facility could ultimately be operated by an agency other than Family Promise. According to the agenda, one provision of a temporary shelter is that it must provide a management plan describing all the services provided, the rules of conduct for guests and a response plan for emergencies.

That plan, along with a communication plan outlining how the shelter would communicate with neighbors and the police and a maintenance plan establishing standards for building and site maintenance, would allow for a temporary shelter facility at the site regardless of a change in operator in the future.

If the Planning Commission approves the special use permit, it’ll move on to the Lawrence City Commission for final approval at a future meeting. Family Promise Executive Director Dana Ortiz previously told the Journal-World that if those approvals go as planned, remodeling at the facility would begin in the spring and the center would open by the fall of 2024.

Monday’s and Wednesday’s Planning Commission meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., in the City Commission meeting room.