photo by: Contributed

The construction plan for the new "public safety building" next to the Douglas County Jail, 3601 E 25th St.

City commissioners have a chance to give the final OK Tuesday night for the start of construction for a new 26,275-square-foot public safety building near the Douglas County Jail.

Plans for the new building — which would serve as a headquarters for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the 911 dispatch center and the county’s emergency management center — are also tied in with adding a 57,000-square-foot addition of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center in downtown Lawrence. The proposed expansion and new building would create space for more courtrooms, judge’s chambers, conference rooms and more at the JLEC.

Those two projects were approved by the Douglas County Commission in May, as the Journal-World reported, with the projected costs combined at $74 million. The Lawrence City Commission is being asked to give final approval for a special use permit for the new building at 3601 E. 25th St., near the Douglas County Jail.

The architecture firms running the project gave an estimated start time to the Douglas County Commission of January 2025 during an August meeting, as the Journal-World reported.

The initial phase will focus on the JLEC building addition, expected to last about a year and a half, from winter 2025 to summer 2026. Construction of the Public Safety Building will run from spring 2025 to spring 2026.

Once both the addition and the Public Safety Building are complete, staff will begin moving into the new spaces. This transition will facilitate the renovation of the existing JLEC, which will be tackled one floor at a time, starting in summer 2026 and concluding by the end of summer 2027.

Currently, the commission will consider this through its consent agenda, which could be approved without discussing the issue. Since the item is listed as a Quasi-Judicial item, it would allow members of the public to pull the item for separate consideration.