AUBURN — A better bus station with room to grow is what city councilors want, they said Monday.

Councilors told city staff and members of the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee on Monday that they were willing to spend a little more on a new bus station during a workshop meeting.

Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said he didn’t want to see the building dumbed down.

“We are still trying to interest an inter-city bus service to come here,” LaBonte said. “We’d like to see a commuter service here. If we want a developer to buy into the site, having a nice place to start won’t hurt. If we just build a shell and it’s unattractive I don’t think it’ll be long before the broken window theory takes over and it becomes a hangout, and not for the clientele we want downtown.”

The station should be back before councilors for a vote at the April 6 meeting.

The city has been working to build a permanent bus station for 10 years. The station would be about 1,500 square feet, with room for a warm seating area, two public restrooms and a break area for drivers.

Original plans put the center in Great Falls Plaza, beside a city parking garage.

The garage was never built and the city began looking at a lot near Hannaford’s Supermarket on Spring Street instead. Complications with Spring Street land ownership last summer convinced the city to move the center back to Great Falls Plaza.

Councilors agreed to move back to Great Falls Plaza in December but stopped short of approving designs for the building. Higher-than expected construction costs had staff asking councilors if they wanted to increase the overall budget or make the center smaller.

Planner Eric Cousins outlined six ways to trim the costs, ranging from eliminating vestibules at the stations entrances, less attractive masonry and trim and a flat roof.

But councilors argued for all those features.

“I’d like to see no changes to this transportation center,” Councilor Tizz Crowley said. “For some people, this will be the first introduction to the City of Auburn for many people and I want to make sure the introduction suits our city well.”

The center is being built with a combination of city money and state and federal grants. The Federal Transit Agency has set aside $247,000 and the Maine Department of Transportation has earmarked another $350,000 for the project. Auburn can put in another $150,000 from Tax Increment Finance revenue set aside for downtown economic development.

Overall, the project is expected to cost $746,000.

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