photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Property that is proposed for development just west of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Bob Billings Parkway interchange is pictured on April 30, 2026.

UPDATED 4:40 P.M. April 30

The city’s road to large scale residential development west of the South Lawrence Trafficway has a speed bump on it.

Commissioners on the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission last week were scheduled to consider making a recommendation on whether the city should annex about 650 acres west of the SLT and Bob Billings interchange. The annexation would be one of the largest in the city’s history, and could provide enough land for thousands of new homes, in addition to a significant commercial and retail district.

Planning commissioners, though, never got to the voting stage on the annexation request. Instead, the application was deferred before it was ever presented to the planning commission.

Jeff Crick, Lawrence’s planning director, told me Wednesday via email that the request was pulled from the planning commission’s agenda due to the rezoning application being “incomplete.”

City officials didn’t provide additional details about what elements of the application are incomplete, but Crick did confirm that the request is still an active one. In other words, the developers haven’t backed out of the project.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A little-used sidewalk, built in anticipation of future development west of the South Lawrence Trafficway, is pictured on April 30, 2026.

On the Thursday, the developer of the project told me that indeed was the case. As we reported in December, Wichita businessman Phil Bundy has secured a contract to purchase about 800 acres west of the SLT and Bob Billings interchange. Since that land is under contract but not yet owned by Bundy’s group, that requires the existing landowners to complete certain parts of the application. Getting all those steps in order and all the landowners in alignment can be a logistical task.

Bundy didn’t provide specifics about the delay, but simply said some engineering work that was needed for the application wasn’t fully completed. However, he said it soon will be, and the annexation and rezoning requests are expected to be before the planning commission in May.

“Everything is still going forward,” Bundy told me.

When we first reported on the project in December, it caught the attention of city leaders who have been concerned that the city is facing an affordable housing crisis, in part, because it doesn’t have enough available building lots for new homes.

Bundy said since the announcement was made in December, general reaction to the project has been positive from the people he’s spoken with.

“I mean, 95%, I would say is positive,” Bundy said of the feedback he has been receiving about the proposed development. “Everybody is saying, ‘boy oh boy, do we need housing in Lawrence.'”

The project also would include new commercial and retail development, with most of that activity planned for portion of land closest to the South Lawrence Trafficway. Bundy said there are more questions about that part of the development, and he acknowledged he is not in a great position to provide many details about the commercial development. He said he is under some non-disclosure agreements with potential tenants, but hopes to be able to start publicly sharing details in several weeks.

Bundy on Thursday, however, did have more details to share on the number and type of new homes he envisions for the area. While the area will include some apartments, Bundy said there is a heavy emphasis on single family homes.

“Our guess is that by the time we get done, we’ll have somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 single family residential units,” Bundy said.

He said he envisions the project taking five to seven years to fully develop. He said his group, which has been a longtime developer in the Wichita market, estimates that Lawrence needs at least 300 new homes per year to keep up with natural demand.

Some of the first homes to be developed, Bundy is predicting will be on the portion of the property that can be accessed from Sixth Street. Bundy said engineers are studying the feasibility of building a new north/south road about a half-mile west of the United Methodist church that sits at southwest corner of the Sixth Street and SLT interchange. That new street would connect with Bob Billings Parkway to the south. That plan would mean that Bob Billings Parkway would get an additional half-mile of pavement. Currently, the road is paved just a short distance west of the SLT, but otherwise is a gravel township road.

Of course, city water and sewer service also would have to be provided to the area. Work is already underway to extend city sewer service beneath the South Lawrence Trafficway. While that type of work is funded by City Hall funds, much of the other work to build smaller residential streets, sidewalks and individual water lines will be funded by the developer.

Bundy said he remains comfortable that investing in the project makes sense because he thinks there are more people who want to live in Lawrence than what the current housing inventory is allowing.

“We think there is some pent up demand,” Bundy said.

The project will face hearings at both the planning commission and City Commission levels. City commissioners will have to approve the project before it can move forward. If those approvals come in a timely manner, Bundy said he would like to start some of the earth-moving and excavation work by the end of this year.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A piece of property west of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Bob Billings Parkway interchange is shown with Lawrence homes in the background on April 30, 2026.

•••

When it comes to the status of Lawrence’s housing market today, the word that is floating around is “sluggish.”

But that is not all bad. While the numbers of homes sold were down both in March and for the first quarter of the year overall, selling prices also were largely down. If you are a buyer, that news is probably welcome after a steady increase in prices for years.

Lawrence recorded 67 home sales in March, down from 72 in March 2025. The more interesting number, though, was that the median selling prices for those homes was more than 5% less than the homes sold in March 2025. The March median selling price was $310,000, compared to $327,500 during the same period a year ago.

March, of course, also marked the end of the first quarter of the year. Looking at results for the entire first quarter showed a similar picture, although not quite as stark on the price front.

Homes sales recorded in the first quarter were 152, down 16.9% from the first quarter of 2025. The median selling price of homes was unchanged from a year ago at $315,000. We haven’t seen first quarter numbers quite like those for awhile. Last year, median home prices were up 3.3% in the first quarter and in 2024 they were up 7%. So, an entire quarter in which home prices held steady is significant.

Both local and national factors are playing a role in the cool down, the Lawrence Board of Realtors said in its monthly report.

“Inventory remains tight and interest rates have increased, and the housing market is off to a sluggish start in 2026,” Erin Maigaard, president of the Lawrence Board of Realtors, said in the report. “For March we can attribute much of the sluggish numbers to the lack of new construction, which had just 1 sale in the month, compared to 6 in March last year.”

Other numbers in the report include:

• The number of homes on the market in March was 127, up from 114 a year ago and up from 124 two years ago.

• The median number of days a home has remained on the market was 15 for the quarter, up from 14 during the same period a year ago. It is up from 10 two years ago.

• The Lawrence market produced $53.8 million in home sales in the first quarter, down from $64.4 million during the same period a year ago. This year’s amount also is down from $56.3 million two years ago.