photo by: Nick Krug

A westward view shows Ninth Street as it stretches toward downtown Lawrence.

Improvements are likely to be made along East Ninth Street, but they won’t include everything set forth in a concept design crafted over the past 17 months.

After Mayor Mike Amyx asked commissioners to put “everything on the table” at a Tuesday work session on the project, it became clear the design would need to be reduced in scope and cost before a majority of the commission will vote to approve it.

Amyx and Commissioner Matthew Herbert indicated they would to advance the design as-is. Commissioners Lisa Larsen and Stuart Boley said the project would need to be scaled back before they voted for it, and Vice Mayor Leslie Soden would support only a simple street repair project, she said.

“I am committed to doing something,” Larsen said. “As far as going to the second phase, I don’t have a problem with that, but it’s going to be with a lot of compromise. The full-blown concept design… I think it needs to be looked at very closely and come more in line with something that could be considered reasonable.”

Amyx, Soden, City Manager Tom Markus and other city staff will meet to put ideas on paper for how to move forward with funding the proposed arts corridor, using the concept design “as a basis,” Amyx said.

The ideas will be put into a memorandum and publicly released in the next three to four weeks, he estimated. The project was listed as “unfunded” in Markus’ 2017 budget proposal. City commissioners will vote on a final budget in five weeks.

Markus told commissioners if they want to fund a Ninth Street project, they must decide on other projects to eliminate from the city’s five-year capital improvement plan in order to fund it.

A project to rebuild Queens Road in northwest Lawrence would be the “best substitute,” Markus said. The project is currently scheduled through the capital improvement plan for 2018, which would give commissioners “time to get into design considerations” for the East Ninth Project, he said.

The Queens Road project was set aside in the 2015 budget to make room for Ninth Street improvements, but neither project has been initiated.

Striking the Queens Road project would free up about $1.75 million for Ninth Street, Markus said.

A cost estimate accompanying the East Ninth Project’s concept design estimates $3.7 million for construction. Other costs, such as contractors’ fees, haven’t yet been developed. The city would also pay between $275,000 to $375,000 for phase two of the project: drafting technical drawings and developing construction and bid documents.

Markus noted other items in the capital improvement plan — such as $1.5 million planned for 2017 to design a new police headquarters — that, if also stricken, could provide full funding to the East Ninth Project.

“If you’re trying to figure out how to fund this, it depends on the dollars you’re talking about,” Markus said. “The road as proposed, with the infusion of art, is adding substantial costs to the project, over and above what a typical street improvement would be. You have to ask what you intend to do with that design.”

Soden voiced opposition to eliminating the Queens Road project, saying, “This is a dirt street within city limits.”

An option voiced Tuesday to cut costs in the East Ninth Project was limiting it to five blocks, instead of seven. One block in the current project’s scope — from Pennsylvania to Delaware streets — has a perfect pavement condition rating, and another — from Massachusetts to New Hampshire street — hasn’t yet met the standard for needing repair.

General street repair to the five blocks from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania streets was estimated at $1.9 million. The general repair includes lanes for parking, bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the street.

About a dozen members of the public asked commissioners Tuesday to support the current concept design, which comprises a stormwater management system with native grasses, integrated art installations, a shared-use path and brick sidewalk restoration in addition to typical street and sidewalk repairs.

“You either go forward with a project or you don’t,” said Lawrence resident Ron Gaches. “Why are you spending time trying to somehow wash away what makes this project great, to make it ordinary and something the opponents may support? Dare to be great.”

A few other people asked that the project be limited to street repairs, ADA compliant sidewalks and lighting.