Neighborhood groups in southern Lawrence are keeping a realistic eye on the possibility that 31st Street could be extended and become a major throughway.

The Southside Coalition of Neighborhoods sponsored a “community study session” Thursday night to examine the effects of a 31st Street throughway. Coalition members say city and county officials might pursue the option if state budget shortfalls prevent completion of the eastern leg of the South Lawrence Trafficway in the foreseeable future.

The throughway would be created, members predict, on 31st Street from Noria Road west to Kasold Drive. The session focused on land use, infrastructure and financial decisions surrounding that possibility.

Among the speakers were Brian Gower, a traffic engineer with the Kansas Department of Transportation; Douglas County Commissioner Bob Johnson; and Planning Director Linda Finger. About 40 attended the session.

Coalition members are bracing for the possibility that an unannexed 150-acre area south of 31st Street, between Ousdahl Road and Louisiana Street, could be used for office or multifamily residential development. If developed as apartments a worst-case scenario in the coalition’s thinking the site could generate in excess of 30,000 daily trips along 31st Street. That would be in addition to the projected 12,000-plus trips generated by the Home Depot planned for 31st and Iowa streets.

“One positive,” Johnson said, “is that if 31st Street is significantly improved and extended to Noria Road, it would allow for some relief of traffic on 23rd Street.”