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Connected City Advisory Board signals support for Lawrence—s 2026—2030 non-motorized 5-year plan
Summary
The board voted unanimously Oct. 20 to signal support for the city—s proposed five-year plan that prioritizes sidewalks, shared-use paths and bikeways from 2026 through 2030. Staff stressed the plan programs only the first-year allocation and that out-year projects are subject to change with grants, policy updates and funding.
The Connected City Advisory Board on Oct. 20 voted unanimously to signal support for Lawrence—s proposed 2026—2030 Non-Motorized Projects five-year plan, a framework staff says will guide how the city programs sidewalk, bicycle and pedestrian projects against available capital improvement plan funds.
"For those of you who don't know me, so I'm presenting for feedback tonight the 5 year bike plan for non motorized projects," said Jake Baldwin, engineering program manager with MSO, as he introduced the plan and its scoring framework. He described the plan as a tool to allocate CIP funds among design and construction phases and said City Commission approval effectively commits funding for the first year only.
The plan scores proposed projects using the city—s Non-Motorized Projects Prioritization Policy, which staff said was updated this year to add points for vulnerable road-user locations identified in the high-injury network and to incorporate an "active transportation populations" metric that uses population density. Baldwin said those scoring changes, along with grant opportunities and price changes, can shift project rankings when the plan returns annually for review.
For 2026 the plan programs construction and design funding for several projects, including the Massachusetts multimodal project (moving toward construction), continuing the Sixth Street shared-use path and a shared-use path on 30th Street between Atchison and Lawrence avenues. Pedestrian work proposed for 2026 included targeted crossing improvements (Tenth and Delaware; Bob Billings near Bridal; Vermont by the library) and an array of sidewalk gap projects concentrated in North Lawrence and Up-BC neighborhoods.
Board members asked whether citizen reports (SeeClickFix) feed the five-year list and whether projects on private (KU) property should be shown. Baldwin said maintenance and reconstruction requests from SeeClickFix are managed separately and do not feed the five-year planning list, which focuses on new construction and priority network connections; KU-owned segments are sometimes retained on maps but typically not funded by the city. Baldwin also noted roughly $183,000 remains as a five-year running balance in the plan and that bike and pedestrian allocations are each roughly $2.0 million across the five years, with some variation year-to-year depending on projects and grant matches.
Board member Jenny moved that the advisory board "signal support" for the 2026—2030 five-year non-motorized plan; a member seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. The board—s action is advisory; City Commission retains the formal authority to approve and allocate CIP funds.
Staff said the board—s support will be reported to City Commission when staff brings the plan forward for formal consideration, and that the out-year projects included in the plan remain subject to change after annual rescoring.
What happened next: staff will include the board—s support in commission materials. The plan will be updated annually and may be reshuffled as grants, policy changes or funding availability change.
