Planning commissioners on Monday voted to recommend annexing nearly 300 acres into western Lawrence for a development dubbed Beacon Landing.
Developers with Landplan Engineering are seeking tax incentives from the city and sales tax and revenue bonds, or STAR bonds, to help pay for development of that area as well as 1059 (formerly New Boston Crossing), the development slated for southeast of K-10 and Iowa Street. However, the tax incentives were not up for the planning commissioners’ consideration.
The land — 288 acres total — is west of Kansas Highway 10, south of Sixth Street (aka U.S. Highway 40) and mostly north of Bob Billings Parkway/North 1500 Road, though a small portion near the highway is south of it. The westernmost portion of the annexation request reaches as far as East 800 Road.
The original annexation proposal was for 650 acres, but that was reduced down to 288 after one of the property owners decided not to move forward, planner Ellie Mullins told commissioners.
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The proposal creates 111 additional acres of residential zoning — 70.1 acres for low-density housing (R-2, about four to six units per acre with 5,000-square-foot lots); 16.9 acres for medium density (R-3, about seven to 15 units per acre); and 23.5 acres for high density housing (R-4, 16 to 32 units per acre).
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“The additional acreage provides the opportunity to develop multiple types of housing across three ranges of density, which has the potential to reduce the strain on existing on the existing housing market within the city of Lawrence,” Mullins said.
It’s possible that could include affordable housing, but no development plans have been filed, Mullins said.
If ultimately approved by the city commission, another 126.7 acres would be rezoned to commercial center district, and 51 acres would be rezoned from agricultural to open space.
Here’s a map of the rezonings (click here to open the PDF in a new tab):
20260720-Beacon-Landing-rezoning-req-mapSome community members raised concerns about the process through which the planning commission considered the requests — one presentation and one opportunity for public comment, despite seven individual items appearing on the meeting agenda — and that one of the reports was not added to the agenda until Monday afternoon, just hours before the meeting.
Others expressed concerns that the public documentation did not make clear that the rezoning requests are connected to the Beacon Landing development.
Altogether, four people voiced concerns about the project, and one person encouraged the commission to approve the requests because of the opportunity for housing and commercial development that they represent.
After discussion, a majority of planning commissioners voted in favor of all seven agenda items connected to the development, though the votes were not unanimous.
The annexation and rezoning requests will go to the Lawrence City Commission for final approval.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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