Lawrence city leaders approve steering committee structure, scope of work for downtown bus station project

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Members of the Lawrence City Commission listen to a presentation during their meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024.

City leaders are on board with a plan for the next attempt at finding a suitable location for a downtown Lawrence bus station.

At their first meeting of 2024, commissioners voted 4-0, with Commissioner Lisa Larsen absent, to approve a resolution that lays out the composition of the project’s steering committee and scope of work. As the Journal-World has reported, the proposed 12-member steering committee includes a wide variety of representatives appointed by the City of Lawrence, Lawrence Public Library, downtown businesses and others. The group will be charged with advising the City Commission throughout the site selection process, which is slated to take place throughout 2024.

“This is something we need, as (Transit and Parking Manager Adam Weigel) presented,” Mayor Bart Littlejohn said Tuesday. “This has been a temporary solution for the last 10 years, where people have been at what we like to call a ‘shelter’ trying to catch a bus, not knowing exactly what time the bus will be showing up … I think this is a great first step and I’m glad that we’re turning the page this direction.”

But before approving the resolution as is, commissioners spent a while debating exactly which voices — and how many of them — should be represented in the steering committee’s membership. There was some discussion about adding, removing or replacing members of the group.

Commissioner Amber Sellers, for example, said she “would hate for this process to be marred” by a lack of input from people who see themselves as potential transit riders. Vice Mayor Mike Dever, meanwhile, said that any appointee will inherently have a bias, but that the city would benefit from having people with many different opinions and perspectives to inform the process.

In line with those thoughts, Weigel told commissioners that the plan presented Tuesday night was intended to be more “intentional” compared to the last time the city attempted to come up with a plan for a downtown bus hub in 2021.

Weigel said there were a few problems with the process that time around. For one, it relied on prior studies without clarifying “guardrails” for site selection. Weigel said there was also confusion about how possible candidate sites were identified, and a feeling that the process was rushed.

“I think we weren’t able to reach the right folks early enough,” Weigel said. “2021 was maybe still a challenging time with COVID and virtual (participation). We did have some in-person opportunities, but we didn’t garner the right type of discussions early enough.”

The next step for the first of the phase project, after appointing members of the steering committee, will be to define the criteria for site selection. In future phases, the steering committee will work to identify and evaluate possible sites within the boundary and rank their top three choices for test concepts.

In other business, commissioners:

* Issued a proclamation proclaiming the month of January 2024 as “Advocating for Peace Month.”

The proclamation says the City of Lawrence is “advocating for peace, understanding and cooperation in the Middle East, particularly between Palestine and Israel.” It also encourages residents to display compassion for those who are grieving and work to dispel the stereotypes and biases that have perpetuated the conflict.

Community members for the past couple of months have urged the city to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas conflict during the public comment period of City Commission meetings. Notably, that includes one instance when dozens of protesters filled Lawrence City Hall for the City Commission’s meeting on Nov. 7, 2023.

A group of commenters at Tuesday’s meeting said they weren’t satisfied with the language in the proclamation, which does not use the word “ceasefire.” So did Sellers, who asked to speak about the proclamation before it was read and specifically mentioned the absence of that word.

“Unfortunately, this proclamation does fall a bit short for me, and I think why it does for me personally — and also as an elected official here to be a voice for those in our community — is how often in an attempt to not rock the boat we miss the opportunity in the message, and in the message of the movement,” Sellers said.

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

The land is currently a private property adjacent to the railroad, and it’s 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.

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

The property had been home to downtown Lawrence restaurant Cielito Lindo since 2006. The city’s Historic Resources Commission also unanimously approved demolishing the building at its last meeting the following week. With approval from both groups, the building’s owners can proceed with demolition if they wish.