Lot 90, the parking lot in front of Kansas University's Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center, is highlighted on this map of the southern portion of KU's campus along Naismith Drive.

Lawrence and Kansas University transit leaders are considering a parking lot in front of KU’s Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center as the site for a new central transfer hub.

The idea was brought up in a memo to Lawrence city commissioners, who will officially receive the information at their Tuesday meeting.

Robert Nugent, the city’s transit administrator, said he wrote the memo because on Tuesday, KU officials will present the commission with an update on the university’s Central District — an area no longer being considered as an option for the transit hub.

“It’s a good time to tell people, tell commissioners, that we’re not looking at the Central District anymore,” Nugent said. “We’re looking somewhere else. There’s no confirmation of whether we’ll build there, but we’re continuing to look for places in that general area.”

Commissioners will not be asked to take action regarding the location. Nugent said KU and city officials would next take a closer look at the property.

Danny Kaiser, assistant director of KU’s parking and transit department, said it’s still “months or a year off” before anything is definite.

“It’s just in the earliest stages, but we want to get everyone on board with the idea,” Kaiser said.

Transit leaders are proposing the facility be a parking deck with the first floor serving as a transit center.

The facility would take up about 2 acres, equating to between one-fourth and one-third of the parking lot, Lot 90.

It’s proposed that the center be located in the northeastern section of the lot — near the intersection of Watkins Center Drive and Schwegler Drive — so it’s “closer to the core of activity,” Kaiser said.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lot+90/@38.9531699,-95.2524935,636m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x87bf68cad934c21b:0x74eff593a2b990d1

KU has already identified the location as needing more parking.

Kaiser said the university’s master plan calls for the installation of a parking deck at that spot.

“It’s really a win-win,” he said. “One of the most efficient ways of building a transit center is doing it as part of a parking garage development. And Lot 90 has been a long-time future site of a parking garage.”

Lawrence Transit System has been searching for a location for its central hub for more than two years.

According to Nugent’s memo, commissioners directed transit leaders to look to the Central District after they rejected a proposal in July to locate the hub at 21st Street and Stewart Avenue.

Nugent said there were traffic concerns with putting the center in that area.

KU’s Central District is the part of campus within 19th Street to the south, Iowa Street to the west and 15th Street to the north.

Kaiser said Lot 90, located just east of Naismith Drive, is not quite in its bounds.

KU’s plan for the Central District includes the addition of new student housing, retail, science buildings, a multi-modal path and the redevelopment of Burge Union.

Nugent said traffic at the intersections of Irving Hill Road and Naismith Drive, 18th Street and Irving Hill Road, and Sunnyside Avenue and Naismith Drive causes “all kinds of problems.”

The memo states the issues would make it “difficult, if not impossible” to locate a facility there.

Part of the idea for a hub in Lot 90 is rebuilding 18th Street, as well as one block of either Arkansas or Missouri streets, one of which would act as another access point.

Naismith Drive, south of Sunnyside Avenue, “is a little wider and designed for a little more traffic flow than some of the streets in the Central District are going to be,” Kaiser said.

Because it’s early in the process, an estimated timeline and budget for the project is not yet known, Nugent said.

According to the memo, if given the go-ahead, KU and city transit staff would look into applying for a Federal Transit Administration grant for the project in early 2016.

Through that grant, the federal government pays 80 percent of costs for the facility and roadwork, and the local government would be required to pay the remainder.

But, Nugent said, this is only what they’re suggesting for now.

“We at least wanted to say we’re not looking there (the Central District) right now,” Nugent said. “We’re looking somewhere else. We could look there again, though. We don’t know where this trek is going to bring us.”