CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Week ending April 13, 2012
Northern Flyer Alliance Passenger Rail Symposium
Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard attended the Business Case for Passenger Rail Symposium at Kansas City’s Union Station on Friday, April 6. The Symposium was sponsored by the Northern Flyer Alliance, a group of passenger rail advocates from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas who have been working to expand passenger rail service along the Kansas City-Wichita-Oklahoma City-Fort Worth corridor, to include Lawrence. The symposium was well attended and featured a number of speakers, including those representing Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration. Also attending was Carey Maynard-Moody representing Depot Redux and several Lawrence residents. For more information, please see the attached speaker bios and cost estimates for expanded passenger rail in Kansas.
Proposed projects & bikeway system planning update
During the Complete Streets discussion at the March 27th City Commission meeting, two bicycle and pedestrian projects were presented by citizens to the City Commission. The projects, a 7th Street bicycle and pedestrian bridge crossing Iowa and a pathway connecting the Burroughs Creek Trail to City Hall and the Kansas Riverfront in Downtown Lawrence, were presented and discussed by the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) in 2010 and 2011/2012 respectively. The BAC would like to take the opportunity to include those two corridors in the upcoming Countywide Bikeway System Plan and other bicycle planning activities that the BAC will be involved with soon as a first step to improving the network and prioritizing projects. Please see the attached memo for more information.
Building permits trends analysis
The attached report provides information concerning trends for building permits issued compared to previous years and to other area jurisdictions. Staff surveyed the other area permit issuing jurisdictions within Douglas County, including Douglas County, Eudora, and Baldwin City as well as Topeka, De Soto, Olathe, Salina, Ottawa, Emporia, and Lenexa. Permit activity in Lawrence stabilized over the past two years after experiencing eight consecutive years of decline from 2001 to 2009.
The number of permits issued for new one- and two-family dwellings decreased in 2011, from 156 permits issued in 2010 to 99 in 2011. Only two area building departments reported increased numbers of new dwellings from 2010 to 2011; De Soto reported an increase of 183% (from 6 to 17), and Lenexa reported a 56% increase (57 to 89). Eudora reported the largest percent decrease, 62% (from 13 to 5).
De Soto (81%) was the only permitting agency to report an increase in residential permits issued in 2011 versus their five-year average number of permits issued with 17 permits issued compared to an average of 9 permits per year from 2007 through 2011. Lawrence’s percent difference for 2011 compared to the five-year average (2007 through 2011) was -26%, with an average of 134 permits issued the last five years compared to 99 permits in 2011.
There were 15 permits for new commercial projects in 2011, compared to 9 in 2010; which is an increase of 67%. This is the most permits issued for new commercial projects in the last five years. Four of the other area jurisdictions surveyed reported increases in the number of new commercial projects in 2011, De Soto (from 0 to 1), Salina (36%), Baldwin city (31%) and Emporia (175%). Emporia officials noted that the increase was due to the number of permits issued for individual self-storage buildings.
Map of weekly construction updates now available
The Information Technology Department and City Manager’s Office have released a new online construction updates map. The map features clickable construction zones impacting traffic flow in Lawrence. It also highlights traffic camera locations that display continually updated photos of key intersections. The smart phone and tablet friendly map will be updated weekly alongside construction update new releases.
1st quarter website statistics
Website visits are up slightly in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year. From January 1 to March 31, there were 248,861 visits compared to 246,309 in 2011. However, the number of pages viewed was down from 707,930 last year to 661,679 in 2012. The top 10 visited pages during this quarter were:
2. LPRD home
3. Jobs
4. Police home
8. 2012 Winter/Spring Activities guide
10. Departments
The top five most viewed FAQs in the FAQ database were:
1. Do I need a permit for a fire pit, chimnea, or outdoor fireplace?
2. Does the City of Lawrence have a noise ordinance?
3. I think I may have a warrant, what do I do now?
5. Where do I pay my water bill?
Energy Smackdown featured in Fire Chief Magazine
Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical’s “Energy Smackdown” competition was recently profiled in Fire Chief Magazine (see attached article). The friendly competition pitted different fire stations against one another in an effort to reduce energy usage.
City sells 677 tons of compost during sale
During the Fall Compost Sale, the City sold approximately 1,231 cubic yards of compost (equivalent to 677 tons) and generated $5,950 from the sale. Compost was offered on a first-come, first-served basis until the supply was depleted. The sale sold out early. Lawrence community compost is made from the weekly collection of residential yard trimmings, which includes grass, leaves, and small woody debris. A total of 626 vehicles participated. Please see the attached report for more details.
Public meetings held to seek input on Parks’ improvements
Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department has held several public meetings over the past couple of months to receive input into improvements to DeVictor Park, Deerfield Park, and the Skatepark at Centennial Park from the park’s neighborhood and the general public.
Concept plans were discussed and public provided guidance and suggestions to features and amenities they would like to see added to the future. Please see attached photos.