Neighbors concerned about stalled construction near Peterson and Monterey; city, KU transit system named tops in state; a bus hub question for Centennial Park

Neighbors are wondering why the weeds are so tall. This is the point that I usually stammer, panic and blurt out something about the flux capacitor being broken on my lawn mower. But for once, we’re not talking about my yard. Several Lawrence residents instead are concerned about why construction seemingly has halted on a multimillion dollar elder care complex at Peterson and Monterey Way in northwest Lawrence

As we’ve previously reported, Columbia-Mo.-based Americare has filed plans to build a new assisted living/retirement community at the southwest corner of the intersection. Dirt work on the project began several months ago, but work at the site has been halted for several weeks now. I got calls from multiple neighbors wondering whether the project was still happening, or whether the vacant ground was destined to become a weed patch.

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No worries on that front, an Americare official told me. The project is still very much alive, but is awaiting its building permits from the city, said Neal Slattery, a staff engineer for Americare. He said the company expects to receive the building permits in a matter of days, and construction of the actual buildings will begin right away. You don’t need building permits to do dirt work on the site, so the company started that process early, and had hoped the building permits would be ready at the time it was completed. But there was a bit of a gap.

“It is soon going to be full speed ahead,” Slattery said. “We’re absolutely doing the project.”

In case you have forgotten, the project will focus on providing Alzheimer’s and other memory care to residents. But the project also will include several units of independent and assisted living for seniors, plus a clubhouse to host activities and such. The project ties in with the latest concept of allowing people to age at a single development, but move to different facilities as their needs change.

In terms of size, the last plans I’ve seen for the project were filed in January. They called for a large assisted living building that has 30 one-bedroom units, a separate facility with a mix of about 15 one- and two-bedroom units that will be for the memory-care portion of the development. In addition, there is an area that would house about six duplex structures.

Slattery believes neighbors ultimately will be pleased with the final product.

“They’re all single-story buildings, so it will be very residential in nature,” he said. “It should fit in seamlessly. Any traffic generation the project creates will be pretty minimal.”

Slattery said Americare — which operates senior living facilities throughout the Midwest — hopes to have the project open in about a year.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Lawrence’s public transit service has won a top statewide award. The T and Kansas University’s bus service have been named the fastest growing urban public transit system in the state, according to the Federal Transit Administration.

The federal officials looked at the ridership numbers during the federal government’s 2014 fiscal year — that’s an October to September time period — and found that Lawrence’s ridership numbers grew by 4 percent during the period to a total of 124,338 rides. That number includes riders on both city buses and university buses. Federal officials look at the city and university services as one system, although Lawrence and KU officials refer to it more as a “coordinated system” because the two entities share some costs but keep others separate.

“By working together, the city and university transit systems have been able to provide service that is working for bus riders in Lawrence,” Robert Nugent, the city’s transit administrator said in a release.

As I’ve noted before, it is an interesting time for the transit system. The city is likely going to need to put a sales tax question on the ballot in 2018 to replace the sales tax that currently funds the transit operations. The current sales tax is set to expire in 2019.

But also of note is that this City Commission, compared with past commissions, has had more discussions about whether the transit system is working adequately. There are concerns about the frequency of routes, and whether the current system makes riders go through the equivalent of going through Denver to get to Dallas.

Transit leaders have said they envision major changes to the city’s route system, if city commissioners will settle on a location for a transit hub. A new hub that is more centrally located — a hub is just a way saying a main transfer point for the bus system — would allow for greater route frequency. But commissioners are really struggling to find a location they can agree on. Last month they rejected a staff recommendation for a hub near 21st and Iowa streets on land that Kansas University Endowment is willing to provide to the city on a no-cost lease.

This latest award may provide some evidence that the bus system may be working better than some commissioners believe. But it probably would be useful to look at the ridership numbers in more detail. For example, how much of the ridership increase has come through service on city-operated buses versus how much has come through KU buses? That may provide a slightly different picture. However, it also may spark an important conversation. Does the community essentially have one bus system these days? You can catch a city bus and transfer to a KU bus. It would be an interesting discussion because I have heard some rumblings that some people think the transit system is too geared to KU. Others I’ve heard have said KU is the obvious and natural driver of ridership in the community.

• While we’re speaking of transit hubs, you might recall that one suggestion from Commissioner Stuart Boley was to consider whether a portion of Centennial Park near Ninth and Iowa could be used as a transit hub.

I recently had a reader make a keen observation about that idea. The reader pointed out that the city’s website includes some history about several of the major parks in Lawrence. On the section for Centennial Park, it mentions that the land for Centennial Park was sold “to the city of Lawrence for $1 on the condition that the property be eternally preserved as a public park.”

I haven’t done any research on the actual covenants on the land, but it looks like that would be an issue the city would have to research if there is any real interest in using Centennial for a bus hub location.