Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday will consider boundaries for a downtown transit station and decide whether the city should stop maintaining recordings of general public comment.
The city is planning to open a transit station in downtown Lawrence in the near future.
A Downtown Transit Station Steering Committee has been meeting for the past several months, and the first part of their process has been to determine the boundaries of the area to be considered for station site selection.
Committee members have decided to recommend boundaries of Sixth Street to the north, Tennessee Street to the west, approximately South Park to the south and Rhode Island Street to the east.
If the Lawrence City Commission approves the boundaries, the steering committee will proceed to develop site selection criteria and, later, three to five sites for concept development. See an interactive map of the proposed boundaries at this link.
The goal is for construction on the chosen site to begin in 2025.
General public comment
Commissioners will also consider making further changes to their general public comment procedures.
The commission last month approved several changes to procedures, including moving the general public comment period to the second-to-last agenda item and not broadcast it live, but maintain a recording. However, live broadcasts of public comment have continued.
Frequent commenter Chris Flowers told the commission last month that people often make points in general public comment that commissioners then ask city staff to address at the end of the meeting. Some commissioners said they thought that was a good point.
They voted to hold general public comment after all the regular agenda items and work sessions, but before commission items. In the weeks since, commissioners have asked staff members for more information or to follow up on something they heard during general public comment.
But city staff members have determined that they are unable to meet all three objectives — to stop broadcasting public comment, maintain a recording of it and hold it near the end of meetings but not at the very end.
“To stop broadcasting General Public Comment and also maintain a recording of it, it must be placed at the end of the meeting,” according to the agenda item.
City spokespeople did not respond to an email Friday seeking to clarify whether people participating in meetings remotely will only ever have the opportunity to view public comment if they watch it live via Zoom, if the commission does vote to stop broadcasting and maintaining recordings of public comment.
Elsewhere on the agenda, commissioners will:
• Hold a public hearing to consider nominating First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway, to the Lawrence Register of Historic Places;
• Hold a work session on renovation planning for the outdoor pool; and
• Hear an update on the Lawrence Police Department seeking CALEA accreditation.
The full agenda is online at this link.
The commission will meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 4 at Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. Meetings are open to the public and livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/@lawrenceksvideo.
People may submit written public comment until noon the day of the meeting by emailing ccagendas@lawrenceks.org. The commission also hears public comment in person and via Zoom during meetings. Register for Tuesday’s Zoom meeting at this link.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
