Welcome back to “This Week at City Hall”, a blog committed to bringing you important updates on the decision being made at City Hall. Each week, the various boards, commissions, and committees of City Hall make decisions that affect the many communities of Kansas City. If you have a tip about an upcoming agenda item – please email gojgbt@umsystem.edu with “This Week at City Hall” in the subject.
This edition covers updates on Federal grants, new process for renaming streets, an update on a potential downtown drive-through, and the approval of many new developments.
The following neighborhoods will be directly affected items covered in this edition:
- Terrace Lake Gardens
- Shoal Creek
- Longfellow
- Unity Ridge
- Hospital Hill
- Wornall Homes
- Countryside Homes
Transportation, Infrastructure, and Operations Committee
Tuesday, July 16th at 9am
The Transportation, Infrastructure, and Operations Committee (TIO) includes Vice Chair Melissa Robinson, Councilmember Lindsay French, Councilmember Eric Bunch, and Chairperson Kevin O’Neill and Councilmember Johnathan Duncan, who attended this meeting via Zoom.
Ordinance 240557 was an ordinance directing the Director of Parks and Recreation to partner with the Federal Highway Administration to construct the Blue River Trail Martha Truman Connector and the Blue River Trail Missouri Pacific Railroad Connector. Total project costs are estimated to be around $2,000,000, $500,000 of which is funded by the City.
Richard Allen, the City’s Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, presented this ordinance to the TIO committee, remarking the popularity of these trails. After a quick comment on trail maintenance from Councilperson Bunch, the committee recommended approval. The City Council passed this ordinance on Thursday, July 18th.
Resolution 240527 directs the City Manager to identify possible locations for 24-hour drop boxes to allow residents to pay water bills, within each council district. Councilperson Lindsay French, sponsor of the resolution, reminded the committee of the one existing drop box for water bills, located 4800 E. 63rd St. As this location is far from many areas of the city, French suggested one be located within each council district. The committee unanimously recommended approval of the resolution, and the City Council passed this ordinance on Thursday, July 18th.
Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee
Tuesday, July 16th at 10:30am
The Fiance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee (FGPS) includes Chairperson Andrea Bough, Vice Chair Quinton Lucas, Councilmember Crispin Rea, Councilmember Darrell Curls, and Councilmember Wes Rodgers.
Ordinance 240546 and Ordinance 240547 were ordinances accepting a total of $4 million dollars in Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) money. These funds will be added to the Kansas City Regional Brownfield Coalition Revolving Loan Fund, of which the city of Kansas City is just one member. The fund is also available to the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, as well as Jackson County.
Andrew Bracker, representative from the City’s Brownfield Commision, presented these ordinances to the committee. While they were generally approving of these grants, Mayor Lucas questioned the oversight Kansas City, MO had over the funds, and what it could potentially be used for by other members of the fund. Without stating so explicitly, Mayor Lucas described a theoretical scenario in which Kansas City, Kansas wanted to attract the Royals to move their team to KCK. Mayor Lucas surmised that KCK would need EPA money to clean up a site big enough to build a stadium. Lucas asked Bracker whether it would be possible for KCK to use the funds from these grants for that purpose, without the consent of Kansas City, MO. Once he fully understood Lucas’s line of questioning, Bracker stated “I can’t see a project being approved without the consent from the City of Kansas City and its council members, it’s just not possible”. Satisfied with this answer, the committee recommended approval of these ordinances.
Ordinance 240559 was sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw. The goal of the ordinance is to establish socially responsible banking practices within banks that operate in the City. The new sections in the code will require banks to submit Community Reinvestment Plans, submit information on their lending practices to the City, and creates a panel to review the Community Reinvestment Plans.
Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw presented the committee with this ordinance, stating that discriminatory lending practices are “modern day red-lining”. Parks-Shaw described how the cycle of disinvestment is perpetuated when poor communities do not have access to capital. Parks-Shaw further stated that people within communities of color are often denied the loans required to start or maintain a business. Without opposition, the committee recommended approval of this ordinance, the City Council passed this ordinance on Thursday, July 18th.
Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee
Tuesday, July 16th at 1:30pm
The Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee (NPD) includes Chairperson Ryana Parks-Shaw, Vice Chair Eric Bunch, Councilmember Melissa Patterson Hazley, and Councilmember Nathan Willett.
Ordinance 240565 approved the development plan of a 184 unit, and 6,000 sq ft mixed-use development, located at 1531 Holmes St, within the Hospital Hill. Grayson Capital are the developers pushing the construction of this building.
City planning staff Genevieve Kohn summarized the details of the building and took questions from the committee. A representative from Grayson Capital was also there to summarize the project, describing the integrated transit stop, bike parking facilities, and access to the building. The committee unanimously recommended approval of the case, and the City Council passed this ordinance on Thursday, July 18th.
Ordinance 240569 approved mobile home development, located north of Raytown. The site was previously used as a mobile home park, but was vacated due to fire issues. The site was purchased by BoaVida, who have many mobile home parks. This case has been covered in a previous edition of This Week at City Hall.
City staff planner Andy Clarke and applicant representative Patrica Jenson gave presentations similar to those heard at their City Planning Commision meetings. In summary, Clarke recommended denial due to the extreme density of the site, while Jenson argued it was not an issue. With similar conclusions and no new information, the committee recommended approval of the case. The City Council passed this ordinance on Thursday, July 18th.
Resolutions 240573 and 240575 create further regulation around extreme heat and establish procedures for these extreme weather events. The ordinances were sponsored by Councilperson Crispin Rea after an incident within his district.
Recently, the air conditioning for an entire apartment building in the Westport neighborhood went out. The City had no knowledge until several days into the outage. When the Health Department found out, they responded with cooling buses, water, and other supplies. However, this meant many elderly and at-risk residents went days without relief. Councilperson Rea created these resolutions so building managers would be required to inform the City once their building is without AC for 12 hours. Rea hopes this requirement will mean fewer residents face extreme temperatures without help. After some clarification on the language within the resolutions, the committee recommended approval of the resolution. The City Council passed these resolutions on Thursday, July 18th.
Resolution 240574 was also sponsored by Councilperson Crispin Rea. The resolution creates heat index guidelines and forms policy around activity within extreme weather for city employees. Once adopted, Teresa Castle and her team will develop and implement policies like mandatory water breaks on hot days, rescheduling of procedures to cooler parts of the day, or cancelation of activities if the weather demands it. Rea reminded the committee of the many city employees who spend long days outside, such as park groundskeepers and road workers. Teresa Castle also stated her intention to develop policies for other weather conditions, after the heat guidelines were established. The committee recommended approval of the resolution, and the City Council passed this resolution on Thursday, July 18th.
City Planning Commission
Wednesday, July 17th at 9am
The City Planning Commission (CPC) was attended this week by Chairperson Coby Crowl, Commissioners Tyler Enders, Betsy Lynch, Matt Hasek, Sean Arkin, Luis Padilla, and Forestine Beasley, who attended this meeting via zoom.
CLD-FnPlat-2024-00016 approved a plan for golf course developments at 9800 Grandview Rd, within the Terrace Lake Gardens neighborhood.
CD-CPC-2024-00079 approved a plan for a 500 acre data center and technology park located at the intersection of Interstate 435 and Highway 169.
CD-CPC-2024-00026 approved a plan for a 300,0o0 sqft warehouse, located at the intersection of N Arlington Ave and NE 48th St, within the Shoal Creek neighborhood.
CD-CPC-2024-00081 approved a plan for a gas station and convenience store, located at the intersection of N. Indiana Ave and NE Barry Rd, also within the Shoal Creek. This case began before the City’s moratorium on gas stations and was thus exempt from it.
CLD-FnPlat-2021-00061 approved a plan for mixed use development at 500 E 31st St, within the Longfellow neighborhood.
These five cases (above) were placed on the consent agenda, and were thus given the approval of the commission without public testimony or debate between commissioners.
CD-SUP-2024-00015 was a case granting a Special Use Permit (SUP) to St. Teresa’s Academy for the construction of an additional parking lot at their campus. The new parking lot, located at the southeast corner of campus, would create 50 additional spots. St. Teresa’s is located at the border of the Wornall Homes Association and the Countryside Homes Association.
City planning staff Larisi Chambi and the applicant team, including engineer Roger Barrett, and school official Babette Macy, presented the CPC with this case. As Macy described it, the school decided to build an additional parking lot after a security review of the campus. They suggested eliminating as much off-campus parking as possible, to limit the ingress and egress points on the site. This was only possible for St. Teresa’s if they built an additional parking lot. The school originally sought to build this lot back in May of this year, but push-back from neighbors has extended the process. After hearing of neighbors’ opposition, St. Teresa’s team had various meetings with both homes associations, and a separate group of affected neighbors. Because of these meetings, the school added requirements to their project, such as protecting the mature trees on the site, and additional signage. St. Teresa’s also hired Multistudio, a local architecture and planning firm, to create a landscaping plan.
After hearing project details, the CPC welcomed anyone wishing to give public testimony on the case. Several neighbors from homes directly across from the school testified about their continued concerns about the project, including traffic, headlight beams, and loss of greenspace. This included Vicky Notice, Tom Usher, Jason Moore, Season Burnette, Jim Carnes, and Mark Palmer. Several school officials; including Principal Dr. Shivan Washington, Sister Rose, Sister Maryland Lot, and Board Member Mary Jane Judy, and neighbors; including Josh Uker, Tim Sachs, Jerry Bowers, and John Mcgurk spoke in favor of the project. Neighbor John Bowers stated, “The safety of the students is paramount”.
After hearing public testimony, the commissioners debated the project, but all generally appreciated the school efforts to include and work with the community. Commissioner Padilla questioned if this parking lot would permanently fix the campus’ parking issues, or if they would need another solution in the future. After debate, the commission voted to approve this project.
CD-ROW-2024-00004 approved the vacation of a section of right-of-way along E 87th Terrace until its intersection with Prospect Ave. This section of 87th Terr is surrounded by property owned by the applicant, Lab Conco.
Patricia Jensen, who represented the applicants, cited the need for vacation as safety of the site. Jensen testified to the hardships Lab Conco has faced, and the need to implement access control on their site. The commission unanimously recommended approval.
CD-CPC-2024-00050 was a case requesting a rezoning from R-0.5 to O-3 to reflect the current use of the building at 4900 Oak St. The building is within the (neighborhood) and houses offices for Russell Stovers Chocolates.
City planning staff Ahnna Nanoski recapped the history of this site, when it was originally zoned as R5, which allowed offices. In 2011, the city reorganized its zoning designations, bringing the Russell Stovers offices out of compliance with the code. To be brought back into compliance, the applicants petitioned for a rezoning, which the commission recommended approval of.
CD-CPC-2024-00078 was a case requesting a rezoning from R-80 (residential) to B2-2 (commercial) located at E US 40 Highway and Phelps Road in the Unity Ridge neighborhood. City planning staff Andy Clarke was assigned to this case, and presented its history to the commission. This site is planned to be a “mixed-use neighborhood” in the Little Blue Valley Area Plan, which matches the zoning. Clake’s only recommendation was to leave a 75 foot buffer at the southern edge of the site to protect the residences behind this site.
Attorney Broc Exposito represented the applicants, pleading their case. Exposito stated the applicants hope to rezone the property to increase its value in the market. After Exposito’s presentation, the commission heard public testimony from neighbors. Several neighbors testified to their concerns about rezoning the property. This included Rihanna Desolich, Bill Parker, William Ferelo, Marvin Green, Borris Johnson, and Martina Bowden. Many neighbors had previous issues with this site and its violation of codes preventing junk and scrap cars on commercial lots. The commission decided to continue this case as the applicant was found to have outstanding violations.
CD-CPC-2024-00071 was a case to approve the development plan for two residential multi-unit developments on 8601 N Wyandotte and 20 NW 85th terrace. The site will have 120 units and 180 parking spots. Neighbor of the site Hattie Underwood represented her neighborhood, and testified to their concerns including noise, traffic, and neighborhood character. Applicant Brian Mertz testified to the multiple neighborhood meetings he attended, and the changes he made to the plan after those meetings. The commission unanimously recommended approval of this case.
Grayson Johnston is the author of This Week at City Hall and an Urban Planning and Design Student at UMKC. He moved to Kansas City two years ago and has loved it ever since. Grayson became interested in community and neighborhoods while still in high school, when he discovered the field of Urban Planning. As he learned about the theory of walkability, transit, and strong communities, Grayson became committed to going to planning school and starting a career growing his community.
Leave a Reply