photo by: Dylan Lysen

Douglas County Commissioners listen to a presentation during a meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019.

Three rural property owners in Douglas County will soon be able to operate new businesses or build onto businesses currently housed on their properties.

The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday unanimously granted the property owners’ requests for conditional use permits — one to operate a swimming lessons business, another to run a storage unit for trucks and a third to build a storage unit for boats and RVs.

Property owners Katie Price and Patrick Norman received a permit to expand a private swimming pool on their property at 510 North 1700 Road. In their application, they said the expanded pool would be used for a business that offers swimming lessons. Price and Norman said they would be the only employees of the business and the classes would serve up to five students at a time.

In their request, Price and Norman said the business would operate 9-11 a.m., 1-3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with reduced hours on Fridays and Saturdays. However, the approved permit allows the business to operate between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. Planner Katherine Weik said the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission recommended that time span in case the business wanted to change its hours in the future.

The only physical change to the property will be the expansion of the pool, which is housed in a 3,000-square-foot building and contains three swimming lanes, according to the submitted application. Plans call for the pool structure to be expanded by 800 square feet to provide an area for seating and ancillary training use.

Ben Shepley and George F. Roll were granted a permit for a boat storage unit on their property at 568 North 1800 Road. The property already had a conditional use permit for boat storage, which allows for the business known as Fred’s Boat Storage. But Shepley and Roll requested the new permit to allow them to build an additional barn for boat and RV storage.

The property currently houses a home, a barn and two 7,200-square-foot storage buildings. Shepley and Roll plan to build a 19,200-square-foot storage barn in open space on the property.

Turf Masters, a Lawrence lawn and irrigation company, was granted a permit to operate a truck storage unit at 677 East 1250 Road. The property currently includes an 8,000-square-foot storage facility and a single-family home, and the company isn’t planning to make any changes to it — it only plans to begin using the existing storage facility to house its trucks.