Most Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday indicated that they prefer a parking lot in the 700 block of Vermont Street for the site of the planned downtown transit station.
Adam Weigel, outgoing director of parking and transit, presented two sites to the commission during a work session.
Lawrence Transit’s Central Station at Bob Billings Parkway and Crestline Drive opened in January, but there are five bus routes that serve downtown. The station aims to improve conditions for bus riders and drivers. The main elements the city plans to include in the downtown station are driver restrooms, individual bus bays, next departure signs, sufficient seating, wind protection and weather protection canopies.
Weigel said there’s a possibility that there could be public restrooms as well, which “we remain cautious but open to, with the right staffing and oversight of that type of amenity.” Plans do include security at the site from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
The commission had narrowed options down to Lot 9, at the northwest corner of 10th and Vermont streets, and Lot 14, on the northeast corner of Eighth and Vermont streets near the Lawrence Public Library and Senior Resource Center, which is already the de facto downtown bus hub. Lot 9 comes with a price tag of $1.89 million; the cost estimate for Lot 14 is $1.8 million, according to the agenda item.
Both sites ultimately had room for six bus bays rather than the five needed at the site. Weigel said that was preferable to allow some flexibility if needed to switch out the operational bus on a route.
Mayor Bart Littlejohn said he had some concerns about the traffic in the area of the library, but he preferred that site. Vice Mayor Mike Dever said he preferred the Eighth and Vermont site as well.
Commissioners Lisa Larsen and Brad Finkeldei said they liked both sites, and Larsen said she liked the raised crosswalk that would come with the plan for Eighth and Vermont.
Commissioner Amber Sellers said she thought the site at 10th and Vermont streets seemed “a little more seamless,” and more work — such as a new curb cut — would be needed at the Eighth and Vermont site.
“I would hate for us to move forward with something that would come out to be a little bit trickier for us to navigate than with Lot 9,” she said.
Finkeldei said he didn’t think the new curb cut was a dealbreaker for him, but he’d prefer if the site could be used without it.
Commissioners will not take a final vote on the site until December, tentatively their Dec. 17 meeting. Weigel said the feedback they provided Tuesday will be helpful to complete the next steps of the process.
The funding for the project is mostly coming from a federal grant. The city has been awarded an 80/20 grant for the project — $1.6 million in federal funding matched with $400,000 in local funds.
Design work for the chosen site will begin in the first quarter of 2025, with construction to follow from quarter 3 of 2025 through quarter 2 or 3 of 2026, according to the meeting agenda.
That will be after Weigel’s last day working with the city, though he’ll still be in town. He’ll be working with Spare as a transit strategy consultant, he said last week.
Assistant City Manager Brandon McGuire said during the meeting that Weigel has “done phenomenal work and carried this operation to tremendous heights in a very short amount of time.”
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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