photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence City Commissioners listening during the commission meeting Tuesday night.

Lawrence city commissioners expressed excitement on Tuesday for an upcoming study about potential development and infrastructure opportunities in North Lawrence, which city staff says will take a holistic look at improving this key gateway to the city.

The study, for which the city is currently seeking applications from consulting firms, gives the city a chance to “dream big” of what potential improvements could be made to the North Lawrence corridor, according to Melissa Sieben, the director of the Municipal Services and Operations department. She and other members of city staff told the commission how big an opportunity they thought the study would be, and Jeff Crick, the director of the city’s Planning and Development Services department, said nothing like this had been done in Lawrence since the late ’70s or early ’80s.

Sieben said the Connected City Advisory Board voted unanimously to approve the scope of the study in January, and Hilary Carter, the chair of the Advisory Board, told the commission during the public comment period that the board felt the study would align well with the city’s overall strategic plan.

“We feel really confident in its goals and outcomes we’d like to see,” Carter said.

Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei said one of the exciting things about the study to him was that it would cover many different areas. The corridor study would explore not just potential economic development plans, but also improvements at the Union Pacific underpass and at-grade railroad crossings in North Lawrence, options to add more multimodal transportation and make North Second Street safer, and even future bridge alignments over the Kansas River.

However, Finkeldei did have questions about how the study would be able to cover each issue evenly. Sieben said that the consulting firms had been asked to bring them ideas on how to tackle the project.

“We’re saying (to firms) come to us, bring us your best design,” Sieben said.

Sieben told commissioners the study would be set out for bid in late February or early March. Once they choose the firm, it will take about 18 months to complete.

Sieben said public feedback would be a big part of the study and would help to create a North Lawrence Comprehensive Corridor Plan. The public input and suggestions or recommendations that stem from the study will help evaluate whether some projects or areas could use economic development tools like the creation of a special tax district for redevelopment activities.

The corridor study would explore not just potential economic development plans, but also study improvements at the Union Pacific underpass and at-grade railroad crossings in North Lawrence, consider options to add more multimodal transportation and make North Second Street safer, evaluate how the wide variety of critical infrastructure could be upgraded and study future bridge alignments over the Kansas River.

Mayor Mike Dever said he hoped that the study of the improvements at railroad crossings is a priority, as the safety around the train crossings is something that had been “neglected for far too long.”

Commissioners were in agreement that this study would be important. Finkeldei called the project “ambitious,” while Commissioner Bart Littlejohn said he was glad to see it moving forward. Commissioner Amber Sellers said Lawrence had changed a lot since the last time it did a study like this, and now it will put its “big city britches on” to look at creating a blueprint for development.

“This is a huge undertaking for us,” Sellers said.

In other business, commissioners approved a $17,338,472 construction bid to Kissick Construction Co. to start work on a stormwater project in Old West Lawrence that will lead to a partial redesign around Ninth Street.

The funds for the project were included in the Municipal Services and Operations department 2025 budget and the city’s 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Plan.

The bid approves work on the Jayhawk Watershed Middle Reach Project — part of a potentially $32 million list of stormwater upgrades to the watershed that includes four projects near the University of Kansas campus. A main focus of the project is replacing a stormwater tunnel. The work will begin around Eighth and Tennessee streets and will “significantly impact the neighborhood,” according to city staff.

Because of the disruption, the city is combining multiple projects, including improvements to other infrastructure, such as water mains, sanitary sewers and street maintenance. Additionally, the project will include a redevelopment of Ninth Street from Illinois Street to Vermont Street that will add a “road diet,” reducing the total number of lanes for vehicles from four to three — one lane going each direction and a turning lane in the middle — and bike lanes, with some portions featuring physical dividers between the bike and vehicle lanes.

Nick Hoyt, Lawrence’s lead program manager on this project, previously told the Journal-World construction in the Old West Lawrence neighborhood is expected to start this spring and last through most of 2025, sharing a map that outlines where and when portions of the project would take place. The construction on Ninth Street, including the road redesign, would happen in 2026.