photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Plans have been filed to annex into the Lawrence city limits more than 170 acres of agricultural property. The property, which is southwest of the Bob Billings Parkway and South Lawrence Trafficway interchange, is pictured on Aug. 21, 2026.

UPDATED 6:30 P.M.

Plans to build more than a thousand new homes and apartments west of the Bob Billings Parkway and South Lawrence Trafficway interchange hit a snag at Monday’s Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission meeting.

Planning commissioners on a 4-3 vote recommended denial of a request to annex 177 acres of property into the city limits. Unless the Lawrence City Commission overrides the Planning Commission’s recommendation, plans to develop that property just southwest of the interchange into a mix of homes and apartments will be nixed.

An attorney for the property owner told the Journal-World on Tuesday that he will indeed ask the City Commission to override the Planning Commission’s vote.

“I know the City Commission has strong feelings about housing, and we think we owe it to the commission to give it a chance to look at this project,” said Patrick Watkins, a Lawrence-based attorney who represents the ownership group.

Watkins said the annexation request represented one of Lawrence’s largest opportunities to build a significant amount of residential housing on a contiguous piece of land. Watkins noted to planning commissioners on multiple occasions that a city-hired consultant recently estimated the city needs more than 6,000 additional housing units — both rentals and owner-occupied properties — during the next 10 years.

If the denial of the annexation is allowed to stand, Watkins told the Planning commission that “we don’t have a prayer, in my opinion, of meeting those ambitious goals.”

For the most part, planning commissioners weren’t arguing against the idea that the city needs more housing. A majority also did not object to the proposed location for the housing. Rather, the debate turned on specific language in Plan 2040, Lawrence and Douglas County’s comprehensive plan that provides direction on how the community should develop in the future.

Their opposition to the annexation centered on the fact that some of the acreage requested to be annexed was just outside the area that the Lawrence-Douglas County comprehensive plan has labeled as Tier 2 land that is ready for annexation. Approximately 20 acres of the property is in Tier 3, which is a category that the comprehensive plan doesn’t recommend for immediate annexation.

Planning commissioners disagreed over exactly what the comprehensive plan required as it relates to approval or denial of Tier 3 property. Several commissioners said Plan 2040 provides guidance, which includes language that says Tier 3 property should not be annexed unless it is shown there is no other way to provide the community benefit — in this case, housing. A minority of commissioners argued, though, that the language is guidance not a rule.

The majority pushed back on that notion.

“If we undermine Plan 2040, I think we lose all viability as a fair and decent Planning Commission,” Planning Commissioner Jane Eldredge said in opposing the annexation request.

Concerns about whether city planners had adequately considered the fact that the property sits in two different drainage districts — one that flows away from nearby Clinton Lake and another that flows to it — also were raised as a point of opposition.

“We need to take into account environmental concerns as much as affordable housing and economic concerns,” Planning Commissioner Andrea Perdue said in opposing the annexation.

Ultimately, Commissioners Eldredge, Perdue, Steve Munch and Charlie Thomas voted against the annexation request. Commissioners Gary Rexroad, Michael Crawford, and Prasanth Duvvur voted in favor of the annexation request.

Now the attention will turn to city commissioners in the coming weeks when they are expected to consider the issue. Exactly what will be required to override the Planning Commission’s vote isn’t clear. Watkins said his reading of Kansas law says annexation requests can be overturned by a simple majority vote of the City Commission. That would be different, though, than how Planning Commission votes regarding rezoning are overturned. Those require the City Commission to do so via a super majority vote, meaning four of five commissioners in the case of the Lawrence City Commission.

Regardless, state law does generally create a path for a city commission to overturn a planning commission decision with a simple majority vote, if the city commission willing to take a couple of steps. In general, city commissions can send any item back to the planning commission for reconsideration. At that point, if the planning commission again recommends denial, the city commission can generally override the planning commission’s vote with a simple majority.

In this case, it is not certain that a reconsideration by the Planning Commission would produce the same vote for denial. That’s because two planning commissioner were absent from Monday’s meeting.

On Tuesday, Watkins expressed hope that the project ultimately would win the necessary approvals, in part, because there has been a lot of general discussion by city leaders for years about putting residential development west of the South Lawrence Trafficway. He also noted the city’s professional planning staff recommended approval of the annexation request.

“The city has been sending signals for decades,” Watkins said. “We followed their rules.”

Planning commissioners on Monday also were scheduled to consider an annexation request for nearly 140 acres next to the Lawrence Regional Airport in northern Douglas County. However, the property owner — the KU Endowment Association — asked that the application be deferred, and commissioners did not take the matter up.

Several members of the public had expressed opposition to the annexation request and were preparing to speak against it at Monday’s meeting. It was not immediately clear whether KU Endowment intends to bring the request forward again at a later time. Attempts to reach a KU representative on Tuesday were not successful.