photo by: City of Lawrence

This image shows a preferred site plan for Lawrence's new Fire Station 6.

City leaders next week will consider authorizing a nearly $1 million contract for the final design of northwest Lawrence’s new fire station.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission is set to vote on the $951,502 agreement with SFS Architecture Inc. for the final design of Fire Station 6. SFS was previously selected for the preliminary design process of the station, and in March 2025, the City Commission approved a nearly $352,000 agreement for those preliminary services.

“City staff have reviewed the contract scope and agree that the fee is appropriate given the size of the project and the complexity of the work,” a report from staff in the meeting agenda reads.

Station 6 will be located at 555 Stoneridge Drive, and its construction cost is estimated at $11.1 million.

The concept plans that SFS has produced so far do include more information about how the future station would look. A design report from SFS says the city settled on a building size of about 13,000 square feet. Among the needs identified for the station are three vehicle bays, 10 bunk rooms for LDCFM responders, a day room, a kitchen and a fitness area. A preferred site plan in the report also shows electric vehicle charging infrastructure, bicycle parking, an outdoor patio and potential locations for geothermal infrastructure and ground-mounted solar panels.

The preferred site plan also includes landscaping designed to “serve as a buffer between the station and neighbors to create additional privacy.”

“The (noisier) elements of the station, like the apparatus bay and apparatus support are located to the south to maintain distance from the neighbors to the north,” the design report states.

The agreement says construction documents would be completed by February 2027 and that construction would commence no later than summer of that year. The station would be expected to be substantially complete by November 2028.

As the Journal-World has reported, staffing Station 6 will require 15 full-time equivalent positions. When to fund these positions – either in 2027 or across 2027 and 2028 — has been one of the major issues of the city’s 2027 budget conversations.

In other business, the commission will:

• Conduct a hearing on whether to grant an exception to the University Place demolition moratorium for Mike Warner, the owner of a house at 1827 Indiana St. Warner has requested the exception “due (to) the extensive deterioration” of the structure; he wrote to the commission saying the house was believed to have been vacant for 15 to 20 years.

In a memo to the commission, code official Brian Jimenez said that “a moderate section” of the house’s floor assembly had “completely failed,” there was “substantial” termite damage, and “the electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems are either in significant failure or missing in their entirety.”

“It is my professional opinion that the structure without any doubt meets the criteria of an Unsafe structure,” Jimenez wrote.

The current demolition moratorium for University Place was approved in May and will last through November. It’s intended to give the neighborhood time to make a case for historic preservation status, but property owners are allowed to request an exception from the City Commission.

• Hear an update on the city’s short-term rental rules. A report attached to the meeting agenda said that temporary changes made to relax the rules during the FIFA World Cup had been repealed, and that the short-term rental rules were now back to normal.

The City Commission will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.