City Open Houses Address Concerns Over Relocating Downtown Transit Hub

City transit officials hosted two public open houses this week to inform bus riders, area residents, and business owners on potential changes coming to Lincoln’s transit system.

In January, Lincoln Transportation and Utilities (LTU) announced intentions to temporarily relocate the city’s StarTran transfer center—located downtown on 11th and “N” Street next to the now partially demolished Gold Building—which serves as a bus transfer point for 13 city bus routes.

The proposed new location would slide the transfer station 2-blocks south to the old Settells Printing building on 11th and “L” Street, which has been vacant since 2017. Due to a closer proximity to stores on the 11th street strip, area business owners voiced concerns about the relocation and attempted to lobby the city to find an alternative site.

The StarTran advisory board decided to delay the relocation, and LTU decided to participate in additional public engagement, giving rise to two open houses hosted at the “F” Street Community Center.

Open house attendees were met with a series of informational boards presented by LTU and StarTran officials, detailing current issues with the transfer hub, logistics regarding the proposed relocation, and a future multi-modal transfer center to be located south of the city-county building on 9th and “H” Street. Development on the new center began in 2019.

KLIN News spoke with LTU Director Liz Elliot at the Thursday evening open house, who said they were hearing useful information from both community stakeholders and residents.

“We’re hearing from bus passengers that the current location poses security concerns. With construction right there, the noise and the dust is a concern. Even though it’s paused right now, construction is going to begin again here soon,” Elliot said.

An LTU official corroborated, this has been the primary concern expressed by riders since the southside of the golds building was demolished in 2022.

From residents and business owners in the area, Elliot said one of the main concerns was related to a feared loss in parking stalls, as 11 meters would be replaced by two new bus stops. These 11 spots, however, would not be lost. Instead they would be shifted to a the nearby Carriage Parking Garage across from Settells, and be free as opposed to metered. Two new bus stops would also be installed on the southside of the Settells building along “L” Street.

Security concerns also presented themselves. Elliot said the unique 90-degree awning area of the Settells building is ideal because, “there’s no dark corners or places where people can hide or do nefarious acts.”

Additionally, Elliot said they’ll make sure the waiting area under the awning will have adequate lighting and off-duty Lincoln Police Department officers will be present during service hours.

“We love living and working in downtown. But because of the tight, confined spaces that we have to navigate, we have to be flexible and work with our neighbors and try to make it work during construction time of the new multi-modal transfer center,” said Elliot.

With the corner of the 11th street business strip being transformed into a temporary transit hub for an estimated three years while the new center is built, business owners shared concerns that more people congregating nearby by their establishments could bleed over with littered trash and riders interested in using business restrooms.

Elliot was aware of this concern, and said professional contract cleaners would be tasked with maintaining the space on a daily basis, like all city locations.

While closer proximity to businesses certainly stimulates the concern over restrooms, Elliot reminds that the current Gold’s building transfer site does not have restrooms either.

“That’s not an issue that we have heard from the businesses around the current transfer center. So I don’t anticipate that being a big issue,” she said.

Public property records reveal the owner of the Gold’s building purchased the Settells building for substantial amount of $1 million in July of 2023, prompting suspicions that mutual ownership contributed to Settells being selected at the temporary transfer center site.

KLIN News asked if this was the case. Elliot said when the city became aware that Gold’s building demolition might necessitate the transfer center being relocated, they began identifying sites that satisfied the eight different Federal Transit Administration criteria for a temporary transfer center.

When Settells was deemed to meet all the criteria and identified as a preferred location, Elliot said she met with Settells original owners and offered to lease the property.

The owners declined, expressing a preference to sell the property. This is where the Gold’s building developer decided to step in and offer a solution for the roadblock, as construction zones would likely have to expand into the current transfer center area.

“There were conversations between private entities, and the property was acquired by the developer,” said Elliot, “Selecting Settells as a preferred site was made long before it was purchased. To make the development happen, purchasing Settells was an option that the developers were willing to do.”

With two public engagement events in the rear view, Elliot said they’re feeling good with where the project is at.

“It’s not perfect for the StarTran riders because it’s farther south, there’s no restrooms, and it’s not perfect for those in the area as well, but we’re trying to make the best of the situation and minimize the impact to everybody,” said Elliot.

Referring to construction of the new transit hub, Elliot said, “If we can focus on the future and work together to get there, it’s going to be awesome.”

New mock up design for the forthcoming Multi-Modal Transportation Center. (Lincoln Transportation and Utilities)

LTU will hold an open house March 28th regarding the new multi-modal transit center.

The StarTran Advisory Board will vote whether to approve or reject the relocation proposal on February 29th. The proposal will be finalized if the board approves. If the board rejects the proposal, then the issue will go to the Lincoln city council. If both the StarTran Board and the city council reject the proposal, then the transfer center will remain at its current 11th and “N” location.