photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met for their regular business meeting on Wednesday, July 16, 2025.

Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday agreed to join a plan to help bring an affordable housing project to East Lawrence by offering a 15-year tax rebate.

On Wednesday, county commissioners authorized staff to execute a cooperative agreement with the City of Lawrence, Douglas County and the Lawrence school district to administer an affordable housing project, 9 Del Lofts II at 716 E. Ninth St. This will mean the county will participate in a 15-year, 95% Neighborhood Revitalization Area, or NRA — which would offer a 95% rebate on property taxes for the building for 15 years and help support the investment in affordable housing.

The project would include a four-story building with 36 one-bedroom apartments, plus six ground-floor units that would allow for an office or store in the front of the unit. 24 of those apartments would be rent-controlled units, which would be reserved for people who earn 60% or less of the area’s median income. The remaining units would not be rent-controlled.

Developer Tony Krsnich of Flint Hills Holding Group has developed multiple similar projects in East Lawrence, including the original 9 Del Lofts, Poehler Lofts and Penn Street Lofts, which have all added affordable housing in the area.

In other business, county commissioners:

• Authorized staff to inform the county clerk of the intent to exceed the revenue-neutral rate for 2026 for Consolidated Fire District No. 1. The revenue-neutral rate — or the mill levy required to raise the same amount of property tax revenue as the prior year — for the fire district would be 5.190 mills. The County Commission has established a maximum mill rate of 6.000 mills for next year’s budget, which is a half-mill increase from what was initially proposed as the maximum mill levy from the board of the fire district.

Consolidated Fire District No. 1 covers much of the rural area of Douglas County. Budget hearings for the revenue-neutral rate will be held in conjunction with public hearings on the Douglas County budget and the fire district’s budget for 2026, during the County Commission’s business meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 27, at 5:30 p.m.

• Executed a yearlong agreement with Choice Solutions Backup in the amount of $120,803 for improved data backup and recovery. Douglas County’s IT department had been awarded a first-time purchase discount for the cloud backup solution and is now seeking services for another year without the discounted price.