photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence city commissioners pictured during their Dec. 10 meeting. The commission voted to approve an agreement with a design firm to draft a revamp of Mass Street, shrinking vehicle lanes from four to three and adding protected bike lanes.

Lawrence city commissioners voted to approve an agreement with a design firm to redesign a portion of Mass. Street, opting for a design that would shrink space for cars from four to three lanes and add protected bike lanes as part of a revamp of the street.

The commissioners voted unanimously to approve a $494,915 design agreement with Trekk Design Group to draft a new design on Massachusetts Street from 14th Street to 23rd Street. The commissioners recommended a design option that would add five foot bike lanes to the outer portion of the road, build in a three foot median between the bike lanes and car traffic and convert the lanes for cars from four to three lanes. There would be one lane for cars going northbound, one lane going southbound and a turning lane in the middle.

The potential addition of bike lanes to this portion of Mass Street had been explored by the city since 2023, as the Journal-World reported. That corridor is part of the priority bikeway network for the Lawrence Bicycle Plan, the city’s guide for crafting a safer and more comfortable bike network.

Aaron Parker, a senior project engineer with the city, said the initial estimates for construction of the project would be about $5.6 million. Already, the city has secured $3.37 million from two different grants from the Kansas Department of Transportation for the project, while another grant application to the BlueCross/BlueShield Pathways is still pending. The city did not provide a timeline on when any construction might start or even when a final design would be approved.

Parker noted the construction estimate includes costs for needed utilities upgrades like stormwater upgrades and sewer issues. The plan to put in the medians would also allow for easier solid waste collection than some of the other options the city previously explored. With the addition of the separate bike lanes, Parker said the rough estimates of costs for snow clearance and street sweeping would “double or triple” from the current rate.

Mayor Mike Dever had asked the city and its consultants about the height of the median separating bikes from vehicle traffic and the make up of the curbs. Dever noted while the restricted pathway would clearly protect bikers from cars traveling in the same direction, if vehicles turn quickly in front of bikes, being in a confined space could create less chances to get out of the way to avoid a collision.

Spencer Osborn, a consultant on the project, said it would be six inches tall on the vehicle side, but that once the design work begins, the team will look at ways to allow for a “less rigid” curb on the bike lane side. He also noted they will consider painting the medians a different color to make them stand out.

The project is similar to another future “road diet” concept the commission approved that would add bike lanes along another key corridor in Lawrence. The commission voted 4-1 in October on a plan to redesign Ninth Street from Illinois Street to Vermont Street that would decrease the lanes of car traffic from four to three lanes along that section while adding in protected bike lanes, as the Journal-World reported.

Michael Almon, a spokesperson with the Sustainability Action Network, said during public comment that the option the commission chose here was an “excellent design worthy of the corridor.” Almon added that this redesign and the work on Ninth Street highlight how the city is “coming of age” for its bike routes — shifting from signs to painted lines to now protected lanes.

Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei did have some concerns and questions about the potential traffic flow along the route of high use places like the Dillons grocery store near 19th Street and Liberty Memorial Central Middle School. Osborn noted that the design looked at traffic studies and found even with projected growth, they don’t expect the traffic to increase too much.

William Steele, another public commenter, took a page from “Field of Dreams” saying “If you build it, they will come.” Steele said that constructing safer transit options could drop traffic anyway because people will decide to not use their car.

“If you build safe bicycle infrastructure, people ride,” Steele said.

In other business, commissioners:

* Voted unanimously to approve a plan to install educational panels about Indigenous history in the area at Robinson Park.

The tiny park in downtown Lawrence previously featured, Iⁿ’zhúje’waxóbe, a 28-ton red quartzite boulder that was taken from the Kaw’s traditional homelands nearly a century ago and made into a monument to Lawrence’s white settlers in the park. Last year, the Sacred Red Rock Project group led the effort to remove the rock from the park and return it to the Kaw, and it was installed in late March of this year at the Kaw’s Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park just outside of Council Grove.

The Sacred Red Rock Project group’s request to install two educational panels — one describing the history of a boulder sacred to the Kaw Nation, the other a general overview of Indigenous history in Lawrence — at the park was approved by both the Historic Resources Commission and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Lynne Zollner, the city’s Historic Resources Administrator, in a presentation said the panels would be placed in the Southwestern corner of the park.

The proposed panels feature imagery meant to bust stereotypes that people may have about Indigenous culture and history. Additionally, the panels will have references to Watkins Museum as a way to highlight the broader history as well.

The group has been looking into other ways to reshape the park. In September, as the Journal-World reported, the group heard from the public about a proposal that would rename the park to honor the Indigenous community and brainstormed ideas for a monument to fill the void left by the removal of the boulder.

* Approved wholesale changes to Lawrence’s downtown parking enforcement program, including decriminalizing parking violations and shifting the enforcement to a more administrative model.

Among the changes, the city would increase the length of time to contest or pay a fine for a parking ticket from 10 days to 21 days, add more levels of appeals that can be completed online and provide more notices to remind people about the ticket.

Brad Harrell, the city’s parking manager, previously told the Journal-World part of the goal of the changes is to improve the customer service and overall parking experience for people parking downtown.

Changing the enforcement system to an administrative one rather than legal one also means there is a less harsh escalation of violations. Because the city treats parking violations as a misdemeanor, the ticket, in certain serious cases, could lead to the city’s Municipal Court issuing bench warrants which Harrell said seems “overly punitive.”

The updated enforcement regulations would start Jan. 1, 2025.