photo by: Mike Yoder

A Lawrence Transit System bus stops just south of Seventh and Vermont streets, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.

Residents near the site of a proposed $30 million Lawrence transit hub released a list of concerns about the project last week, saying that an increase in buses around their neighborhood would clog already congested streets.

Plans for the proposed bus transfer hub on KU’s Lot 90 are still conceptual, haven’t been voted on by the City Commission and won’t be developed until when (and if) a federal grant is awarded. But the University Place neighborhood’s stance “probably isn’t going to change” if plans progress, said neighborhood association president Steve Evans.

“At the end of the day, how the design evolves and what the impact is and how the university and city are going to respond to the identified impacts are the real big issues here,” Evans said. “Eighty-five percent of the neighborhood said it ought to go somewhere else.”

Evans distributed an informal, online survey to the approximately 250 households in the neighborhood to gauge how they viewed the proposal for the new hub. Of the 128 people who responded, 107 said they did not support the concept.

University Place is bounded by 19th Street to the south, the KU campus to the north and Arkansas Street to the east. It runs as far west as Edgehill Road. The neighborhood surrounds Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center, and just to the west of Ambler is Lot 90.

Neighbors said in the survey they would rather see a transit hub located near a major street, such as Iowa Street, and away from residential areas.

There was also concern about the amount of bus traffic on 19th Street, which is “already too congested” and would “mean more problems,” Evans said.

Preliminary numbers provided by Lawrence Transit System Director Robert Nugent show the number of buses on 19th between Louisiana Street and Naismith Drive would increase from four every hour to 16. On 19th from Naismith Drive and Iowa Street, it would increase from 12 per hour to 20.

Nugent noted that Lawrence is planning a reconstruction of 19th Street from Iowa to Naismith in the next two years, which would “improve the size and ability of that road to handle more traffic.”

In the concept for the facility, it would have room for 14 buses, each on a 30-minute route, Nugent said. Buses would enter and exit Lot 90 from Schwegler Drive and 18th Street, according to the concept plan.

Property owners just south of 18th Street have been “very vocal” about more buses entering and exiting Lot 90 from that street, Evans said, and “the neighborhood has rallied behind them.”

Fewer people said they were against the site when asked in the survey if they would approve of it if buses were not allowed to enter and exit from 18th Street. More people favored the hub being built on the west side of Lot 90, rather than the east, as the concept currently shows.

In addition to other concerns, those surveyed worried about drivers cutting through University Place to get to and from the transit hub.

Nugent reiterated Friday it was early in the process and that he was uncertain at this time whether some of the concerns raised by neighbors are justified.

“We don’t have a plan, we have a concept and a grant proposal,” Nugent said. “A lot of what they’re doing is assuming there will be issues here and there and wherever, and we don’t know that yet. Let’s base this on facts and not on speculation.”

Evans said he hoped the survey results would be useful, and considered, as designs for the facility evolve.

“The more we can have an intelligent conversation about this, the better off we all are,” Evans said.

The concept for the hub, dubbed a “multimodal” facility, comprises a parking deck, bicycle lockers, office space and public restrooms. A bus transfer center would be on the ground floor, with four levels of parking rising above it.

It would serve the Lawrence Transit System, KU on Wheels and the K-10 Connector.

A concept released May 4 shows the facility taking up half of Lot 90. It also includes a roundabout for the intersection of Naismith Drive and 18th Street.

City and KU leaders are waiting to learn whether the project will receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. If it doesn’t, the plan won’t move forward, Nugent said.

Lawrence and KU applied for a $15.6 million grant for the total $30.6 million project. KU has said it would contribute $11 million, and Lawrence would pay for $4 million, if plans received approvals from the City Commission.

Lawrence Transit System has the city’s $4 million share in a reserve fund, which has accumulated since voters passed a 0.05 percent sales tax for the transit system in 2008.

While waiting for news about the grant, which is likely to come in September, a contractor is performing a traffic impact study and environmental study for the site.

The studies will center on the “impact area,” Nugent said, about a quarter-mile from the hub in all directions. It will look west to Iowa Street, south to 23rd Street and east to Louisiana Street, he said.

Nugent started meeting with the neighborhood about the project before applying for the grant this spring. He said he would arrange another meeting once the studies were finished.

“Part of what I really like about what Steve [Evans] has done is at least allowed the neighborhood to flush out what the issues are or what they perceive the issues are,” Nugent said. “We can come back and say, ‘That’s justified,’ or ‘That’s really not an issue; that’s not what the facts are showing us.’

“Now we already know what the neighborhood is thinking, and maybe we’ll get further faster. If we do get the grant, we’ll know what we really have to start dealing with.”