photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

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

The City of Lawrence will host an open house next week to collect community feedback regarding how the city should preserve and maintain its brick streets and sidewalks.

The city announced the open house in a news release Friday. The event is set for Thursday, April 4 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Building, 200 W. Ninth St. An online survey will also be made available for anyone unable to attend, starting April 4 and running through April 19.

According to a project page on the city’s website, efforts to create a brick streets and sidewalks policy have been ongoing in the Municipal Services and Operations Department since 2013, with delays in adopting a formal policy likely due in part to “shifting city priorities and staff turnover.” As part of the 2024 budget process, the city identified developing a comprehensive Brick Streets and Sidewalk Policy as a priority.

To that end, the city’s Multimodal Transportation Commission in February created a subcommittee that will meet four times throughout the planned six-month policy development process. Along with members of the Multimodal Transportation Commission, that group will include representatives with neighborhood associations, Independence Inc.’s accessibility task force, LiveWell Douglas County, the University of Kansas and the Historic Resources Commission.

“Ultimately, the policy will guide how and where the city will preserve and maintain brick streets and sidewalks and consider standards for reconstruction of brick streets and sidewalks,” the release reads. “The information collected at the open house and subsequent survey will be used to inform the decision-making process when the policy is drafted.”

The city’s transportation planning division is partnering with the subcommittee to lead the public engagement process for the project. According to the project web page, the city anticipates that the new policy will be completed by the third quarter of 2024.