Environmental study should begin next month on LATS property

City of Lawton officials said Thursday that an environmental study should begin in September on a 6-acre tract identified as the site for the new mass transit transfer center.

City Council members voted in late July to designate city-owned land just south of Lawton Public Safety Complex on Railroad Street as the site for the LATS transfer center and a new maintenance/administrative complex. The property is located between Southeast B and Southeast D avenues, Railroad Street to Larrance Avenue. The transfer center will be the first indoor complex for LATS riders and bus drivers, replacing the outdoor facility along Southwest B Avenue at Southwest 4th Street.

Wendel WD Architecture will design the transfer center and maintenance complexes, under a contract being negotiated by city staff at the direction of the City Council. Construction isn’t expected to start until the beginning of 2025 when federal funds become available.

City officials said contractors are expected to begin surveying the designated tract over the next two to three months. At least 80 percent of the project will be funded through federal and state grants, city officials said, adding the transit center will be built at no additional cost to residents. The remaining 20 percent will be funded through previously-allocated money in the 2016 and 2019 Capital Improvements Programs.

Ward 6 Councilman Robert Weger explained the benefits of the site.

“This new site has great potential because there is plenty of room for the present needs of our transit system,” he said in a statement. “It will occupy land the city owns, so we will be able to grow and expand the transit system as the need arises without the concern or issue of not having enough land.”

Council members said last week there is a small amount of privately-owned land on the tract the city could buy, but this project could be done without it.

Ward 5 Councilman Allan Hampton said the City of Lawton will make efforts to transport residents.

“A new trolley system for moving riders around the downtown area will be one of the many new features of our new bus system and will make it the envy of Oklahoma,” he said in a statemen.

Hendrickson Transportation Group, which manages LATS, already has announced plans to make other changes to the system, including adjusting routes, transitioning buses to alternative energy sources such as electric and transitioning to a cashless fare system.