Planning commission backs rezoning to split 20‑acre Douglas County parcel into two 10‑acre lots

The Lawrence‑Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission on Aug. 25 voted to recommend approval of Z‑25‑0008, a request to rezone about 20.27 acres at 2005 North 1700 Road from AG‑1 to AG‑2 so the property owner may divide the land into two roughly 10‑acre parcels and seek an additional residence on the site. The commission’s affirmative recommendation will be forwarded to the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners for final action.

Mary Miller, city‑county planner, presented the staff report and told the commission the property is in the unincorporated county, not in any city’s urban growth area. "The applicant lives on the subject property and is requesting rezoning to accommodate a land division," Miller said. She summarized that AG‑1 requires a 20‑acre minimum for division while AG‑2 allows 10‑acre parcels, and that approval would permit division by certificate of survey.

Miller told commissioners the parcel includes a residence, about 9.6 acres of farmland, and wooded areas; high‑quality soils (class 1 and 2) occur on parts of the site. She said that if rezoned and divided, environmentally sensitive lands and high‑quality soils would be protected by being placed outside building envelopes as allowed under the land‑division rules. "If this zoning is approved and it was divided through a certificate of survey, the high quality soils will be protected by being placed outside of the building envelope," Miller said.

Terry Martin, the property owner, spoke in support. He said he moved his family to the parcel 13 years ago and that small parcel size and the retirement of tenant farmers made continuing commercial row cropping impractical. "I found Lone Pine who reluctantly agreed to farm it. They farmed it for about 4 years and then gave it up due to low yields," Martin said. He told commissioners he and his wife are relocating for family reasons and want to split the parcel to enable one portion to be sold with the residence.

Commissioners discussed the policy tension between the county’s Plan2040 goals to protect rural character and the practicality that small, nonirrigated parcels under 10 acres are often uneconomic for modern row cropping. Several commissioners said the request was a close call; others said Figure 5 in the staff packet showed existing clustered residences near the site and that an additional home would be an infill consistent with that character. After discussion, a commissioner moved to approve Z‑25‑0008 and forward it to the county commission with a recommendation for approval; the motion was seconded and passed as stated in the meeting record.

Staff noted that the property is not in the urban growth area, that the land division would proceed through a certificate of survey if the Board of County Commissioners approves the rezoning, and that some agricultural uses allowed by AG‑1 and AG‑2 are similar but the change would allow smaller parcel sizes. The applicant and staff indicated the final use of the smaller parcels—whether rented to a tenant farmer, used for niche farming, or developed for nonagricultural residential use—was not certain and would depend on market interest and future decisions by owners.