photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on Jan. 31, 2023.

Now that the site selection process for a new bus station in downtown Lawrence is officially underway, Lawrence leaders could next week approve the framework for the 12-member steering committee responsible for guiding the project through its planning phase.

At the first Lawrence City Commission meeting of 2024, commissioners will hear a presentation on the draft site selection and public outreach plan for the project, which earlier this week was announced in a news release from the city’s transit office. The City Commission will also consider approving a resolution that outlines the steering committee’s member list and scope of work.

According to a copy of the resolution included with Tuesday’s agenda materials, that steering committee will consist of the following members:

• One non-voting member who will serve as chair of the steering committee, appointed by the City Commission.

• One member of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, appointed by the chamber.

• One representative of Downtown Lawrence Inc., appointed by DLI.

• One representative of the Lawrence Public Library, appointed by the library.

• One representative of the Senior Resource Center for Douglas County, appointed by the Senior Resource Center.

• One First Transit bus driver, appointed by First Transit.

• One representative of the Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, appointed by LAN.

• One representative of the Public Transit Advisory Committee, appointed by the committee.

• One Lawrence Transit bus rider, appointed by First Transit and city transit staff.

• One resident of downtown Lawrence, one employee of a downtown Lawrence business and one Lawrence resident serving as an at-large member, each appointed by the City Commission.

According to the resolution, those appointments will be made by Feb. 6, 2024, and all appointments not made by the established deadline will be made by Transit and Parking Manager Adam Weigel. A Lawrence Transit presentation included with Tuesday’s agenda also notes that additional stakeholders will also have a voice in the process, including sustainability, transportation and equity advisory groups, representatives with the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University, and the Lawrence Community Shelter.

As for the group’s scope of work, the resolution charges the steering committee with advising the City Commission at three key points throughout the site selection process: establishing a downtown boundary, establishing site selection criteria and ranking all evaluated sites and recommending three to five sites for concept design. Following the completion of that final task, the steering committee’s work will be deemed complete and the group will be dissolved.

As the Journal-World has reported, the site selection process is expected to take place throughout 2024, with design and construction work targeted for 2025.

In other business, commissioners will:

• As part of the consent agenda, consider accepting a donation of land at 620 E. Eighth St. as open space for trail use.

The land, which is currently a private property adjacent to the railroad, is in the area of a missing segment of the Lawrence Loop trail from the intersection of Eighth and Delaware streets to the Santa Fe train depot. According to the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, the preferred route for that missing segment would run through the private property.

To solve that issue, city staff worked collaboratively with the land owner — going by “And the Whistle is Screaming LLC” — to design an agreeable project for both parties, in exchange for donating the land to the city.

This small section is one of four remaining projects left to complete the entire 22-mile loop around the city. The others include the Iowa Crossing project near the intersection of Iowa Street and Kansas Highway 10, a section from Michigan Street to Sandra Shaw Park and a section from Seventh Street to Constant Park near downtown Lawrence.

• As part of the consent agenda, consider approving the demolition of the property at 815 New Hampshire St., which was destroyed by a fire in mid-December.

That property has been home to downtown Lawrence restaurant Cielito Lindo since 2006. At its Dec. 21 meeting, Lawrence’s Historic Resources Commission unanimously approved demolishing the building, which city staff had officially deemed dangerous in accordance with the city’s Property Maintenance Code.

As of that meeting, the building’s owner — a group called Lawrence 2004 LLC — hadn’t filed a request to demolish the building yet, and it’s unclear from Tuesday’s agenda whether or not that action has taken place since then. The demolition has already been pre-filed by city staff as a planning submittal, and city code official Brian Jimenez told the Historic Resources Commission last week that the building could come down within two to three weeks if demolition does move forward.

The Lawrence City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.