photo by: Douglas County

A map shows the three growth tiers, or land in the city's current and future growth area, included in the city and county's comprehensive plan, Plan 2040. Newly proposed regulations for subdividing land for Lawrence and the unincorporated areas of Douglas County would prohibit new residential subdivisions in land in the city's growth area unless the land is annexed into the city.

Citing the need for denser neighborhoods, Lawrence city leaders expressed interest in moving forward with regulations that would prohibit new rural neighborhoods near the city’s boundaries until that land is ready to be added to the city. And they said that would also mean the city should be ready to make those expansions.

Lawrence city commissioners got their first look at the proposed subdivision regulations for the city’s urban growth area as part of their meeting Tuesday, and gave planning staff the go-ahead to continue work on the proposal, which will come back for a vote at an upcoming meeting. Some commissioners agreed that the restrictions on rural residential development would put pressure on the city to expand its boundaries to accommodate new neighborhoods.

Mayor Brad Finkeldei said if the city was going to prohibit residential subdivisions in its urban growth area, then it also needed to be ready to annex new land into the city to accommodate new neighborhoods and address the city’s housing shortage.

“We already have a lot of pressure to figure out how to get additional residential property and figure out how to annex,” Finkeldei said. “This will up that pressure.”

Commissioner Lisa Larsen said she agreed with that idea, and Commissioner Stuart Boley added that denser residential development was the most efficient way for the city to grow. Boley said the city would need to be mindful of that when considering annexations.

“We are really working hard to provide services to the city as it is right now, and we have to be very careful about bringing in areas that are hard to provide services to,” Boley said. “We need to have urban density to be able to provide services in a fiscally responsible way, so this is an important thing for the city’s fiscal stability going forward.”

Recent decades have seen a boom of rural neighborhoods with multi-acre lots near the city’s boundaries, precluding denser city expansion in those areas and creating infrastructure problems for both the city and the county. The regulations were proposed in the wake of significant growth in rural residential development and are meant to align with growth management goals in the new comprehensive plan, Plan 2040, as the Journal-World recently reported.

The Douglas County Commission expressed support for the changes at its meeting last week. At the county meeting, some members of the public criticized the county for restricting how property owners can develop land, while others said the changes were needed to prevent further suburban sprawl.

Lawrence Home Builders Association Executive Director Bobbie Flory and Lawrence Board of Realtors Governmental Affairs Director Danielle Davey spoke in opposition to the proposed regulations at both the county and city meetings. Both encouraged the governing bodies to consider less restrictive options. Davey said that the community needed housing of all types and price points, and that the city needed to be proactively planning annexations in its growth area now because the lots are needed.

If ultimately approved by city and county leaders, new neighborhoods in the current and future growth area of the City of Lawrence — known as tier two and tier three — would be allowed only when the development is eligible to become part of the city. Only property that is touching the city boundaries is eligible to be annexed into Lawrence, meaning that some property owners would have to wait for the city to grow if they are wishing to redevelop their rural land into a residential subdivision. Once eligible for annexation, the subdivision would follow city standards that allow for denser housing options, as opposed to county standards that require lots to be at least three acres.

Mary Miller, a planner in the joint city-county planning and development department, told the commission that the draft resolution and ordinance related to the code changes would probably be brought back to the County Commission within three or four weeks. The new regulations will then go to the City Commission for consideration.