Neighborhood Watch List:
Hyde Park ⌾ KCI ⌾ Town Fork Creek ⌾ Hickman Mills ⌾ Old Tiffany Springs ⌾ Historic West Bottoms ⌾ Independence Plaza ⌾ Crossroads ⌾ Longfellow
What to watch
A 10 story apartment building on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard cleared the City Plan Commission (CD-CPC-2026-00111), three weeks after the Board of Zoning Adjustment granted the height variance that made it possible. Commissioners added a requirement that the developer update its traffic study before later phases.
An art salon proposed inside a Hyde Park home ended in a 3 to 3 tie (CD-SUP-2026-00044) after a long line of neighbors testified, so the Parlor ArtHouse goes to the Board of Zoning Adjustment with no recommendation from the commission.
A 1928 auto building at 45th and Troost would become a private car club (CD-SUP-2026-00043), with closing times, outdoor music limits and noise conditions borrowed from the event venue up the block.
The Hickman Mills Strategic Plan was approved and now goes to Council (CD-MISC-2026-00004). It lays out economic development priorities for six aging shopping centers in South Kansas City, along with senior housing and a possible expansion of the tax freeze area.
Two industrial buildings totaling more than 760,000 square feet were approved at the KCI Intermodal Business Center (CD-CPC-2026-00123 and CD-CPC-2026-00124) on the consent docket, with no one from the public or the applicant present.
Nine items were continued or dismissed at the start of the meeting, including a low barrier shelter on Agnes Avenue, an 18 unit transitional group home in the Northland, and the Shoal Creek neighborhood plan.
City Plan Commission
Case No CLD-FnPlat-2023-00028
A request to approve a final plat in district R-7.5 (Residential) on about 45 acres generally located at the Northwest corner of Northeast 120th Street and Northeast Sherman Road, to allow for 47 residential lots and 1 tract.
Applicant: Nelson Willoughby, Olsson
Staff Planner: Justin Smith
Result: Approved with conditions on the consent docket.
Case No CLD-FnPlat-2026-00009
A request to approve a Final Plat in District M1-5 (Manufacturing) on about 11.5 acres generally located at the northeast corner of North Kimball Drive and Northeast Missouri Highway 210 to create one lot and three tracts.
Applicant: Trent Shrider, Continental Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Staff Planner: Justin Smith
Result: Approved with conditions on the consent docket.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00123
A request to approve a Project Plan in districts KCIA to allow for the construction of 515,000 square foot industrial building, on about 600 acres generally located at NW Global Avenue and NW Transcon Drive.
Applicant: Landon Thomas, Trammell Crow Company
Staff Planner: Olofu Agbaji
Neighborhood: KCI
Result: This is a 515,000 square foot building at the KCI Intermodal Business Center, the airport area logistics park the City owns and leases. Staff handed out revised conditions the morning of the hearing after the Water Services and Aviation departments agreed to drop a platting requirement, and several commissioners questioned changing conditions the public had not seen. No one from the public or the development team was present. Approved with the modified conditions.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00124
A request to approve a Project Plan in districts KCIA to allow for the construction of 248,000 square foot industrial building, on about 475 acres generally located at NW Global Avenue and NW Transcon Drive.
Applicant: Landon Thomas, Trammell Crow Company
Staff Planner: Olofu Agbaji
Neighborhood: KCI
Result: A 248,000 square foot building on the same campus, heard together with the case above. Approved with the modified conditions.
Case No CD-SUP-2026-00043
A request to approve two special use permits, one for an indoor event space, the other for a reuse of officially designated historic landmark to allow for indoor warehousing in a B3-2 zoning district within the Troost Corridor Overlay on about 0.30 acres generally located at 4538 Troost Avenue.
Applicant: Justin Watkins, Polsinelli
Staff Planner: Stephanie Saldari
Neighborhood: Hyde Park
Result: The building at 45th and Troost was built in 1928 as a car dealership, later held the horse carriages that worked the Country Club Plaza, and has been used for storage since. The owners plan a membership club of no more than 20 people who would store and display classic cars on the upper floors, with a gym, kitchen and common area on the ground floor and 25 parking spaces inside the building. Because indoor warehousing is not allowed in the Troost Corridor overlay, the project needs a historic reuse permit, and staff said the event space category was the closest fit in the code for a private club.
Chris Koch, president of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, said the neighborhood supports the project but asked that it carry the same conditions as the Firehouse KC event venue 200 feet up the block, since the event space designation stays with the property if it sells. The applicant agreed to all of them except a shared parking agreement, which the code does not require in the urban core or for a historic reuse. Commissioners weighed a time limit on the permit instead, and settled on an open ended permit with conditions. Approved with conditions, adding an 11:30 p.m. closing time on Fridays and Saturdays and 11 p.m. other nights, no loitering after closing, no outdoor activity after 9 p.m., an end to alcohol sales 30 minutes before closing, and compliance with the city noise ordinance.
Case No CD-SUP-2026-00044
A request to approve a Museum/Cultural Exhibit in District R-5 (Residential) on about 0.16 acres generally located at 3632 Locust Street.
Applicant: Kara Bouillette, SixTwentyOne LLC
Staff Planner: Matthew Barnes
Neighborhood: Hyde Park
Result: The Parlor ArtHouse would turn a three story house on Locust Street into what founder Amy Kligman described as a modern version of a European art salon: small gatherings, artist talks and book discussions on the first floor, rotating installations on the second, and a residency apartment on the third for visiting artists and curators. The plan caps public programs at four a month and about 15 people each, requires RSVPs, sets hours of noon to 5 p.m., and adds nine parking spaces behind a wood fence at the back of the lot. Staff recommended approval with a three year permit.
The August neighborhood meeting drew more than 80 people, which was the best attended Hyde Park Neighborhood Association meeting in nearly a decade according to Chris Koch the association’s president. Seven neighbors testified in opposition, several of them longtime residents who said Hyde Park spent decades converting institutional buildings back to housing and that a nonprofit gallery in the middle of a residential block would undo that work and set a precedent. Neighbors also objected to the surface parking lot and to needing an appointment to visit a neighbor. Three people testified in support, including the director of the Pilgrim Center for Connection, who said the nonprofit label matters and that a small arts use is not commerce. Koch said eight of the 14 property owners within 185 feet oppose it, so the association had to oppose it as well.
Commissioners split. One compared it to the Union Hill garden tour and said the use adds to livability rather than taking from it. Others said they liked the idea but not the location, or worried about what the permit would allow if the operation stalled. The motion was to approve with the conditions in the staff report and no added limits on hours or attendance, and it failed on a 3 to 3 tie. With no recommendation, the case moves to the Board of Zoning Adjustment, and the chair urged the applicant to keep talking with neighbors before that hearing.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00111
A request to approve a Major Amendment to an approved UR Development Plan in District UR, which serves as a preliminary plat to allow for a mixed-use development (office and residential), on about 15 acres generally bounded by Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd to the north, E. 49th Street to the south, Chestnut Avenue to the west, and College Avenue to the east.
Applicant: Tony Edwards, Taliaferro & Browne, Inc.
Staff Planner: Olofu Agbaji
Neighborhood: Town Fork Creek
Result: This is phase two of the Offices at Overlook, the Community Builders of Kansas City development on 15 acres between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and East 49th Street. Phase one, a three story office building, is finished and occupied. Phase two is a 150 unit apartment building that steps down to townhomes along 49th Street and rises to 133 feet 8 inches, about 10 stories, at the back of the site. The urban renewal plan approved in 2020 capped buildings at 80 feet, and the Prospect Corridor overlay adopted in May 2025 caps them at 75 feet, so the developer went to the Board of Zoning Adjustment on August 26 and won a variance from the overlay allowing 133 feet 8 inches on that one lot. This amendment raises the height and density limits in the urban renewal plan to match.
Two residents testified against it, saying a building nearly three times the neighborhood limit does not belong next to one and two story houses, that the height was never discussed when neighbors reviewed the plan, and that the 2020 traffic study was done during the pandemic and no longer reflects conditions near the daycare on the corner. Emmett Pierson Jr. of Community Builders said the group has worked with Town Fork Creek and neighboring associations on the site since 2018, briefed them on the taller building in July and again on August 24, and that demand for market rate apartments on the east side drove the added density. Commissioners spent much of the hearing on the sequence, questioning why the variance went to the Board of Zoning Adjustment before the plan amendment came to them, and staff explained that it could not recommend approval while the overlay capped the site at 75 feet.
Public Works asked for an updated traffic study, and the developer pushed back, noting it has $175,000 in escrow for a pedestrian crossing signal at MLK and Agnes from the earlier approval. Approved with conditions, adding a requirement that an updated traffic study approved by Public Works be completed for phases three through seven before any final plan approval.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00117
A request to approve an amendment to the Briarcliff/ Winnwood Area Plan by changing the recommended land use from Institutional to Residential High Density, on about 6 acres in an area generally located on the south side of NE Englewood Road, between N. Highland Avenue on the east and N. Flora Avenue on the west.
Applicant: Lindsay Vogt, RL Buford
Staff Planner: Olofu Agbaji
Result: One of three companion cases for the Northminster Synergy Youth Haven, an 18 unit transitional group home on NE Englewood Road. Continued without fee to October 7.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00116
A request to approve a rezoning from District R-6 to District R-1.5, on about 6 acres generally located on the south side of NE Englewood Road, between N. Highland Avenue on the east and N. Flora Avenue on the west.
Applicant: Lindsay Vogt, RL Buford
Staff Planner: Olofu Agbaji
Result: Continued without fee to October 7.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00118
A request to approve a development plan (and preliminary plat) in lieu of a Special Use Permit pursuant to Section 88- 517-09-D to allow for an 18-unit transitional group home that includes administrative and other support services, in District R-1.5, on about 6 acres generally located on the south side of NE Englewood Road, between N. Highland Avenue on the east and N. Flora Avenue on the west.
Applicant: Lindsay Vogt, RL Buford
Staff Planner: Olofu Agbaji
Result: Continued without fee to October 7.
Case No CD-MISC-2026-00004
A request to approve the Hickman Mills Strategic Plan for the area bounded by E 87th St to the north, Raytown Rd to the east, City limits to the South, and Highway 71 to the west.
Applicant: Samuel Fitzner
Staff Planner: Samuel Fitzner
Neighborhood: Hickman Mills
Result: Councilmember Darrell Curls asked staff to write this plan, which looks at economic development in the part of South Kansas City bounded by East 87th Street, Raytown Road, the Grandview city limits and Highway 71. Staff held four in-person meetings between January and July. The plan identifies six commercial centers, most of them built in the 1950s and 1960s, oversized, half empty and, by the city’s own math, returning pennies per square foot in property taxes against the staff time spent on code complaints. Recommendations include focusing incentives on the centers worth saving, a signage and storefront program, historic tax credits for buildings now old enough to qualify, and better coordination between the city, the Economic Development Corporation and property owners.
The plan also covers housing. Staff said the area’s 1950s and 1960s homes are well built, sit on large lots, and carry a median value around $150,000, which puts a mortgage under what many renters pay now. Staff has asked the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority to study extending the East Kansas City urban renewal area, and its 10 year tax freeze, into the Hickman Mills area, and flagged senior housing as a gap keeping older residents from staying in the neighborhood. Approved without conditions. The plan goes to committee and then to Council as a resolution.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00057
A request to approve a major amendment to a previously approved development plan in District B4-5 (Heavy Business/Commercial) to allow for the expansion of a self-storage facility on about 6.7 acres generally located at the northwest corner of Northwest Prairie View Road and Northwest Donovan Drive.
Applicant: Lance Scott, Cook, Flatt & Strobel Engineers, P.A.
Staff Planner: Justin Smith
Result: Continued off docket with fee.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00119
A request to approve a development plan, also serving as a preliminary plat, allowing multi-plex residential buildings in district B3-3 on about 42 acres generally located at the southwest corner of NW Tiffany Springs Parkway and NW Skyview Avenue.
Applicant: Paul Osborne, McClure
Staff Planner: Genevieve Kohn-Smith
Neighborhood: Old Tiffany Springs
Result: Continued without fee to October 7.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00115
A request to approve a Neighborhood Plan to guide future development for the Commons, Crossroads, and Creekside neighborhood areas designated by the Shoal Creek Special (SC) Purpose District. on about 450 acres generally located south of HWY 152, east of I-435, and west and north of Shoal Creek Parkway.
Applicant: Brett Haugland, Continental Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Staff Planner: Genevieve Kohn-Smith
Result: Continued without fee to October 7.
Case No CD-SUP-2026-00033
A request to approve a Special Use Permit to allow an automotive dismantling business to operate in an M3-5 zoning district on about 0.726 acres generally located at 1012 Woodswether Rd.
Applicant: Zachary Schlichting, Ozark Drift Parts
Staff Planner: Alec Gustafson
Neighborhood: Historic West Bottoms
Result: The case had been carried over since July and staff recommended dismissal. Dismissed.
Case No CD-SUP-2026-00046
A request to approve a Special Use Permit for a low-barrier shelter in an M1-5 (Manufacturing) district on about .193 acres generally located at 1400 Agnes Ave.
Applicant: Mathew Smith, Open Doors Foundation
Staff Planner: Ahnna Nanoski
Neighborhood: Independence Plaza
Result: The docket listed this shelter case as a continuance off docket, but staff asked instead for a date certain. Continued with fee to October 21.
Case No CD-CPC-2026-00121
A request to approve a rezoning from district MPD (Master Planned Development) to district R-0.5 on about 7.196 acres generally located at the northeast corner of 23rd and Locust St (2201 Gillham Rd), the northwest corner of 24th and Holmes St (2310 Holmes St), and the west side of Holmes St between 24th St and 25th St (685 E 24th St and 650 E 25th St).
Applicant: Not listed
Staff Planner: Olofu Agbaji
Neighborhood: Crossroads & Longfellow
Result: A correction to the Children’s Mercy campus zoning. Continued without fee to October 7.
End of City Plan Commission
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