Hopes for a lighted pathway from downtown to Kansas University’s campus may be dimming as a city committee is recommending only limited funding for the project.

City commissioners at their meeting tonight will consider a recommendation to provide the project $59,410 in funding — far less than the $200,000 that had been requested to build lighted paths along both 12th and 14th streets.

“I think the committee had concerns about the route locations, and about what it would look like once it is lighted and completed,” Margene Swarts, the city’s assistant director of development services, said of the city’s Community Development Advisory Board.

The lack of funding means the future of the pathway project is almost entirely dependent on the city receiving a federal transportation grant for $175,000. Mark Thiel, assistant director of public works, said that money would allow the city to do some of the project — probably the part along 12th Street, but not any work on 14th Street. The city should receive word on the grant in June or July.

Several KU students had asked the city to undertake the path project, citing safety concerns about people walking from downtown to campus late at night.

The city committee didn’t recommend full funding for the project despite the city receiving a boost in federal CDBG funding compared with 2009. The city is slated to receive about $1.56 million in federal CDBG and HOME funding, up about $60,000 from a year ago.

Among the projects recommended for funding are:

• $16,000 for Ballard Community Center’s program to help pay utility bills for those in need. The funding represents about an $8,000 increase from 2009.

• $80,000 for the city’s home weatherization program that provides attic insulation, weatherstripping and storm windows for homeowners that meet certain income guidelines. The funding is double 2009 totals to meet growing demand for the program, Swarts said.

• $98,500 for the city’s Public Works Department to repair crumbling sidewalks for low-income property owners. The city will pick projects based upon a sidewalk inventory it recently completed.

• $57,576 for weatherization of the Boys and Girls Club building on Haskell Avenue.

• $36,489 for operations of the Lawrence Community Shelter. The commission also will be asked to allocate $78,789 in federal stimulus funding to the shelter’s effort to relocate to a site near the Douglas County Jail in eastern Lawrence. The money previously had been set aside for the shelter’s planned move to the former Don’s Steakhouse location in eastern Lawrence, before the shelter withdrew those plans.

• Funding for five neighborhood associations — Brook Creek, $6,450, East Lawrence, $10,240, North Lawrence, $7,514, Oread, $9,479, and Pinckney $2,987.

Commissioners meet at 6:35 p.m. today at City Hall.