|
|
 |
Crown Square Helps to Revitalize the Old North St. Louis Neighborhood
The Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance, Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. (Enterprise) recently announced the opening of Crown Square, a $35 million restoration of 27 buildings now comprised of retail/commercial space and homes, transforming what was the 14th Street pedestrian mall.
''Crown Square is a key component to the revitalization of this community,'' said Stephen Acree, president, Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance. ''The investment in these buildings has created jobs through small businesses and homes for people in every economic sector. This neighborhood used to be a strong commercial center in St. Louis and we are excited that it has a chance to be so again.''
Just down the street from the historic Crown Candy Kitchen, the new development offers 34,000 square feet of street level commercial and retail space and 80 mixed-income rental homes including apartments, townhomes, live and work spaces and lofts. More than half of the homes are designated for low-income households and the remaining 38 apartments are available at market rate. As part of the neighborhood redevelopment, $2 million was invested in storm and
sanitary sewer construction, utility relocation, parking areas, public lighting, grid integration and
other public amenities to support a strengthened infrastructure.
''Housing is an important factor in the rebuilding of neighborhoods,'' said John Ducey, vice president of structured finance, Enterprise. ''However providing commercial development where people can own their own businesses and become a part of the economic fabric of a city is just as important. Crown Square is a great addition to St. Louis because it was designed to provide both.''
Financing for Crown Square was made possible by a mix of federal and state tax credits, and public and private funds. A large portion of the financing was made available
through New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC), one of the most successful federal financing tools
that funds the construction of commercial and residential/retail mixed-use properties in low-income areas. Enterprise provided a $12.5 million NMTC allocation and McCormack Baron Salazar in St. Louis allocated $5 million in the tax credits. US Bank is the investor for both allocations. 7/29/2010
Resource(s): www.enterprisecommunity.org/
Kansas City to Implement New Sewer System to Prevent Sewer Overflows
The city of Kansas City, Mo., has agreed to make extensive improvements to its sewer systems, at a cost estimated to exceed $2.5 billion over 25 years, to eliminate unauthorized overflows of untreated raw sewage and to reduce pollution levels in urban storm water, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.
The settlement, lodged in federal court in Kansas City, requires the city to implement the overflow control plan, which is the result of more than four years of public input. The plan is designed to yield significant long-term benefits to public health and the environment, and provide a model for the incorporation of green infrastructure and technology toward solving overflow issues.
When completed, the sanitary sewer system will have adequate infrastructure to capture and convey combined storm water and sewage to treatment plants. This will keep billions of gallons of untreated sewage from reaching surface waters.
''Today's agreement will have positive, lasting effects on both public health and the environment. The agreement prioritizes neighborhood sewer rehabilitation projects in the urban core, reducing basement and other sewer backups and thereby significantly improving public health,'' said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. ''The Justice Department is committed to enforcing our nation's environmental laws so that the environment and the health of our communities are protected.''
''This is a landmark day in the history of Kansas City,'' said Karl Brooks, EPA Regional Administrator. ''This agreement charts a course for the largest infrastructure project in the city's history, and what we believe to be one of the largest municipal green infrastructure project undertaken anywhere in the nation. These provisions put one of the nation's largest municipal sewer systems on a steady path toward compliance with the Clean Water Act by committing it to address deficiencies that have harmed the environment and posed risks to public health and safety for decades. Over time, our area streams and rivers should become much cleaner and safer as a result.''
Under the agreement, Kansas City will pay a civil penalty of $600,000 to the United States, in addition to the estimated $2.5 billion it will spend to repair, modify and rebuild its sewer system. The plan is also structured to encourage the city to use natural or engineered ''green infrastructure,'' such as green roofs, rain gardens and permeable pavement, to minimize stormwater burdens on the improved system.
As part of the agreement, Kansas City will spend $1.6 million on supplemental environmental projects to implement a voluntary sewer connection and septic tank closure program for income-eligible residential property owners who elect to close their septic tanks and connect to the public sewer.
Kansas City's sewer system collects and receives domestic, commercial and industrial wastewater from a population of approximately 650,000 people in the city and 27 neighboring satellite communities, including a portion of Johnson County, Kan. The system covers more than 420 square miles, and includes seven wastewater treatment plants, 38 pumping stations and more than 2,800 miles of sewer lines, making it one of the nation's largest.
Of the 420 square miles covered by the system, 58 square miles mostly within the city's urban core are presently served by combined sewers, which carry both stormwater and wastewater, and the remainder of the system is served by separated sewers. Under the consent decree, Kansas City has agreed to expedite certain projects that are expected to provide more immediate relief to residences and other properties presently served by combined sewers in the urban core.
Since 2002, Kansas City has experienced approximately 1,294 illegal sewer overflows, including at least 138 unpermitted combined sewer overflows, 390 sanitary sewer overflows, and 766 backups in buildings and private properties. The overflows are in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and the terms of the city's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for operation of its sewer system.
Untreated sewage from overflows can cause serious water quality problems and health issues from pollutants including harmful bacteria, oxygen-depleting substances, suspended solids, toxic metals and chemicals, and nutrients. As part of today's settlement, the city has agreed to install disinfection treatment systems at all of its wastewater treatment plants by 2013.
Kansas City's overflows result in the annual discharge of an estimated 7 billion gallons of raw sewage into local streams and rivers, including the Missouri River, Fishing River, Blue River, Wilkerson Creek, Rocky Branch Creek, Todd Creek, Brush Creek, Penn Valley Lake and their tributaries. 5/18/2010
Resource(s): www.prnewswire.com/
St. Louis Voters Pass Half-Cent Sales Tax Hike for Transit
In what St. Louis Tea Party leader Gina Loudon dubbed ''a dry run'' before an assault on Democrats in November, scores of her activists throughout St. Louis County urged residents to vote no Proposition A. But in a rebuke, 63 percent of voters passed the half-cent sales tax increase to restore and expand bus and light-rail services reduced last year.
''The cuts last time helped people really understand the value of mass transit,'' said Metro President and CEO Bob Baer, elated by the victory margin. ''Despite the bad economy, people stepped up and did the right thing. Instead of a loss of 600 jobs, we’ll be adding 125.''
''According to the St. Louis Business Journal, Proposition A will generate some $80 million a year, also triggering a quarter-cent tax hike approved earlier in the city of St. Louis. Area leaders and observers consider the additional self-taxing for transit especially telling not only because the measure lost in November 2008, but also because of the aggressiveness of the opposition in the past several weeks. With proponents organized in the Advance St. Louis campaign, led by Chesterfield Mayor John Nations and helped by Citizens for Modern Transit, the opponents assumed the clearly confusing names of Citizens for Better Transit and As A Mom, the latter a new group aiding the St. Louis Tea Party as it becomes increasingly involved in various state campaigns, mostly Republican.
A Tea Party activist himself, notes St. Louis Beacon political reporter Jo Mannies, Citizens for Better Transit spokesman John Burns called the party a loose coalition of small groups and like-minded individuals, but ready to act both locally and nationally. ''What happens on the local level is often a microcosm of what is happening nationally,'' he told the reporter. ''The Tea Party will be meaningless unless they get involved on a local level.''
The Advance of St. Louis chairman, Mayor John Nations, exposed Burns' criticism of Proposition A as misleading. ''Metro has been in operation for 60 years and has had only two small sales taxes in St. Louis County during that entire time, during which there has been tremendous change in the St. Louis region. The last increase was in 1994 – 16 years ago – and the only other tax levied to support public transportation was in 1974,'' he wrote in a comprehensive St. Louis Beacon rebuttal. ''Since then, federal funding for operations was eliminated and in the last four years, the cost of fuel has quadrupled. The St. Louis County Council voted to put Prop A on the ballot in April because so many citizens were distressed by service reductions after the defeat of the sales tax in 2008.''
''The voters have now emphatically agreed they needed to spend another half-cent of each dollar for transit they want. Thus, Burns' remark that the ''proof of the pudding'' for the Tea Party influence ''will be in November'' may also boomerang. 5/1/2010
Resource(s): www.stlbeacon.org/ ; www.bizjournals.com/ ; www.grist.org/
Kansas City Light Rail Advocate Back With Ninth Plan
The Kansas City Star reports that ''rail advocate Clay Chastain was back in Kansas City for the second time this year to make a stab at getting light rail on the ballot again.'' Chastain has pushed eight ''light-rail initiatives since 1998,'' and this time, he ''is proposing a ballot initiative that would ask voters to approve a three-eighths-cent sales tax increase for 25 years to help fund a $3.6 billion transit and parks plan.''
His plan ''calls for spending $1.5 billion for a 35-mile light rail spine that would run from Kansas City International Airport to Lee's Summit.'' Chastain needs 4,300 signatures to get the issue on a ballot for next year's primary or general election. The Star notes that ''Kansas City has voted on light rail eight times since 1998, rejecting it every time but once.'' Then, ''the city later repealed the voter-approved plan after engineers deemed it too costly and unworkable.'' 10/15/2009
Resource(s): http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1508431.html
Kansas City Ready to Turn the Page on Sprawl
The biggest Kansas City metro problem no one talks about is sprawl, but just days ago, ''the president said it was over,'' writes Kansas City Pitch weekly newspaper columnist CJ Janovy, thankful for the change and sure that ''(h)earing the president declare the end of sprawl was exciting for people who are paying attention to the issue,'' including forward-looking local architect Kevin Klinkenberg and Johnson County Planning Director Dean Palos, both of whom he quotes.
''Kansas City is as spread out as any city in the world,'' the architect pointed out. ''We've poured all of our collective and individual wealth into horizontal infrastructure, and it is literally bankrupting us.''
With insufficient mass transit, residents are dependent on cars for everything and hit especially hard when they lose jobs or when gas prices go up, he said, concerned that despite being ''stuck with this mammoth amount of infrastructure that we cannot afford,'' the area still lacks ''enough popular support to do something different.''
That provides the context for County Planning Director Palos' efforts in his some 20 years on the job.
With about 200 of the county's 477 square miles still unincorporated, he tries to preserve as much of their rural character as possible, he told the columnist, explaining, ''For years, our goal has been to encourage development to occur where there is adequate infrastructure to support it -- public utilities, roads as well as public services (i.e., sewers).''
Thus, the columnist notes, he welcomes ''new urbanism'' and similar mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly development trends, and the increases in ridership on the K-10 bus route to Lawrence and in the use of the county's extensive trail system not only for recreation, but also for bike commutes.
''I think we're becoming much more aware, and the public is demanding many more services like that,'' the planning director observed, optimistic about President Obama's economic stimulus package.
''It's supporting green development and there's a lot of money in it for transit,'' he said. ''Highways aren't going to go away -- we're not going to get rid of the car in my lifetime, but automobiles are becoming much more efficient. It seems the new administration is talking about smart growth, building smarter so we're less dependent on foreign sources of energy.''
The columnist has the last word.
''OK, folks, you may have heard it here first,'' he writes. ''Johnson County is officially anti-sprawl.'' -- Pitch 2/13/2009
Resource(s): www.pitch.com/
Cluster Development Would Create Rural Villages, Protect Rural Heritage in Boone County
Impatient with Boone County's outdated comprehensive plan and its commission's inability to protect land and rural heritage, local Democratic civic activist Sid Sullivan is campaigning for a commission seat, stressing in a Columbia Missourian guest editorial that ''(r)ather than giving lip service to the smart growth constituents and blindly following the decades old zoning ordinance, the county could easily provide incentives to developers and landowners to cluster development into rural villages leaving 60 to 80 percent of the land in its natural state.''
Under the current ordinance, he writes, owners can subdivide their land into 2.5-acre ''estate plats,'' too large for economically feasible public water and sewer services and too small for further subdivision into urban size lots.
The bureaucrats ''wring their hands feeling apologetic and noting their impotence to improve the situation,'' but ''leadership can find a way to solve this problem,'' the candidate for commissioner asserts, pointing out that ''zoning classification of planned districts could and should be amended to retain some of our farms before the entire county is developed into residential estates.''
The amendments should encourage higher-density clusters on 20 to 30 percent of a given tract, with the landowner or developer donating the remaining development rights to a public agency or a nonprofit land trust for a possible tax credit.
The housing could often be clustered away from roads and public view to preserve the landscape and further improve landowners' investment return, while protecting the county's rural quality.
Under such zoning amendments, the county ''could create rural villages that would support a walkable elementary school and neighborhood commerce while protecting local farms within reach of an urban market,'' he writes, adding that ''three or four of these clusters adjacent to one another'' would leave substantial land acreage undisturbed, and asking, ''Wouldn't that be beautiful?'' -- Missourian 7/10/2008
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/
Long-Term Effects of High Energy Costs Still Uncertain in St. Louis Region
Encouraged by 50 years of constant road construction, urban sprawl carried home owners ever farther away from the central city, but finally seems to have met its match in $4-plus gas, with some commuters moving closer to jobs and some outer suburbs testing smart growth, observes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board, citing the example of De Soto couple Carol and Robert Miles and quoting Realtors Association of Southwestern Illinois Chief Executive Stephanie Tonnies.
Carol and Robert Miles love their four-bedroom De Soto lakeside home, bought 15 years ago, and didn't mind their 100-mile, two-hour round-trips to jobs in St. Louis until gas began to cost them almost $800 a month -- more than enough to buy a small two-bedroom South St. Louis ''pied-a-terre'' as a second home, which they did, at a monthly payment of $500.
Their children are grown, which gives them more flexibility, the Editorial Board notes, but Carol Miles wants to keep the De Soto home, saying, ''I can't give it up. It's nice country out there.''
But the ''country,'' including St. Louis' Metro East fringe suburbs on the Illinois side, is changing, too.
''They're zoning for shops within walking distance of new subdivisions,'' said Realtor Tonnies. ''I think you're going to be seeing much more of that.''
It's not clear how the changes may play out for St. Louis, the Editorial Board says, with the city and St. Charles County, to the northwest, holding roughly 17 percent of the metro area's jobs, and the rest ''scattered widely, from Boeing in North St. Louis County to the Granite City steel works to thousands of smaller businesses in industrial parks and office buildings along the suburban interstate highways.''
The ever higher gas prices ''could send people moving in a lot of directions, not just back to the city.''
In any case, real change will come slowly, since ''(w)e have a huge investment in where we are now'' and even long-distance commuters have options other than moving, pointed out East-West Gateway Council of Governments Executive Director Les Sterman. ''You sell the SUV and get a vehicle that gets twice the gas mileage.''
Though home-price slide rates in the first five months of the year show no pattern yet -- a 17 percent drop both in outer Lincoln County and the city itself, 7 percent in nearby St. Louis County, 4 and 5 percent a little farther out in St. Charles and Jefferson counties, and 5 to 6 percent throughout Metro East -- the Editorial Board concludes, ''If there's a silver lining to higher gasoline prices, this may be it: less time on the highways, more at home. Or homes.'' -- Post-Dispatch 7/4/2008
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/
Kansas City to Create Light-Rail Starter Line Before Regional System
After vast majorities of Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties' residents polled last month chose a regional light-rail system over a city-only starter line, which seemed to some to derail the latter's prospects, Councilman Russ Johnson offered a compromise plan to blend both by seeking a quarter-cent Kansas City sales tax increase for an 8-mile starter line in November, ''then coming back two years later with an election for a regional system'' in the three counties, writes Kansas City Star columnist Steve Penn, a solution backed by the city's Regional Transit Alliance (RTA).
Applauding Councilman Johnson's proposal in a press release, RTA Chair Margie Richcreek expressed belief that ''a successful light rail starter line is key to a comprehensive regional transit plan.''
In November, she pointed out, ''Kansas City voters can invest in a light rail spine that can connect seamlessly with the broader regional transit vision'' Mayor Mark Funkhouser and others have started to explore, a vote that would reaffirm the almost two-year-long planning for the line and an ongoing analysis of alternatives, an analysis necessary to secure federal funds.
At the same time the RTA stated its preference for bus rapid transit on Troost Avenue -- Troost BRT aka Troost MAX, which has already won federal funding and can be operational within the next 18 to 24 months.
The RTA press release cautioned that suspension of the project and resumption of the study on streetcar or other transportation modes ''can result in a loss of project dollars from the federal government and jeopardize Kansas City's credibility with the Federal Transit Administration.'' -- Star 6/6/2008
Resource(s): http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/
Columbia City Ready for Zoning Code Overhaul
Now that last month's election of another smart growth advocate to the Columbia City Council has secured a four-member majority, the Planning and Zoning Commission sees this as the right time to draw up a badly-needed comprehensive plan and overhaul the outdated zoning code, last reworked in 1983 -- both recommended by neighborhood activists and developers in their joint 2006 Process and Procedures Stakeholders Committee Report, which also advised greater community input in development decisions, better mediation between stakeholders, and elimination of duplicate public hearings.
''We not only want to accommodate the types of development we want, we want to encourage them,'' said Commission Chairman Jeff Barrow. ''We want developments to basically work in a way to enact a community vision of green space, accommodating recreation, appreciating wildlife and not polluting our streams.''
Commissioner David Brodsky also stressed the need for change, saying, ''Instead of dealing with things on a case-by-case basis, we should be making ordinances that govern everything.''
With developers seeking more consistency in council decisions and complaining about lengthy public hearings, reports Columbia Missourian writer Rachel Heaton, Commissioner Glenn Rice said developers are used to do things in ''a certain way because the zoning law says they can, and they're taken aback when they come to a hearing and they find out people don't want them to do that.''
He also noted that the commission has been differentiating on a trial basis between complex and simple cases for public hearings to move the latter faster, but that there are ''some developers that work closely with neighbors and bring them into the process early on, and there's others that sort of give it lip service.''
Commissioner Ann Peters observed that some local developers make little effort to involve residents in project plans.
''In my neighborhood, there's an out-of-state developer who has gone the distance. He's met (with neighbors) five times to go over plans and changed parts of his plans to fit with the neighborhood. He's tried to make it a positive win-win for everybody,'' she pointed out. ''With some local developers, they seem to send out the required notification, and they have one meeting and that's it.''
Hoping to find a way for easing good projects through the system, she added, ''Columbia reminds me a lot of like a gold-rush town, where people can't build fast enough, but I don't feel they are building correctly.'' -- Missourian 5/4/2008
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/
Columbia Voters Install Smart Growth Majority on City Council
Elected to the Columbia City Council in 2006, Boone County Smart Growth Coalition co-founder Barbara Hoppe was joined by like-minded new Councilmen Karl Skala and Jerry Wade a year later and Paul Sturtz last week, reports Columbia Tribune writer Kat Hughes, expecting the newly formed smart-growth majority on the seven-member council to insist on development paying its fair share of infrastructure costs and on more decisive efforts to contain sprawl.
Having easily defeated nine-year Councilwoman Almeta Crayton, Councilman-elect Sturtz commended her as ''an amazing spokesperson'' of black constituents against the city's racial divide, attributing much of his victory to his door-to-door campaign and promises of better control over some inefficient projects on the fringe of town near the ward they competed to represent.
''This is a gross simplification,'' he said, ''but she seemed to think that all development was good development, and I'm coming at it from a different angle that talks about stimulating the kind of development that will allow us to have a city we're all proud of in 20 to 30 years.''
His co-worker on an urban garden project, Bryce Oates, feels the same about the election result.
''I think this shows our ward is ready for aggressive change,'' he observed. ''Almeta has done a fine job and has paved the way for a lot of things, but Paul appeals more to our green needs and the push for sustainability in the city.'' -- Columbia Tribune 4/6/2008
Resource(s): www.columbiatribune.com/
Columbia's Smart Growth Coalition Helping to Shape Growth Decisions
Although Columbia's Smart Growth Coalition is still small, it has already become a public force and former Missourian editor, Missouri School of Journalism Professor Emeritus George Kennedy, expects it to gain even more clout for at least two reasons -- because voters have put its past president Barbara Hoppe and anti-sprawl advocate Karl Skala on the City Council and because the coalition's insistence on fairness in paying development costs was just substantiated by retired Missouri University Professor Ben Londeree, whose research shows that the city ''has been giving developers pretty close to a free ride.''
Having ranked Columbia and 26 similar Midwestern cities according to their development fees, Professor Londeree found only three that charge less than Columbia's meager $1,200 per housing unit to help build roads and water and sewer lines, with the median for his target cities at $2,260 and the 2006 average for 271 cities nationwide at $8,868.
With the Columbia City Council's recent unanimous approval of a $300 increase in developer fees over three years, Professor Kennedy observes, the city will move ''all the way up from 24th to 23rd'' on the 27-city list, ''jumping over College Station, Texas, but still well below Fayetteville, Arkansas.''
Still, since professor Londeree refrained from pointing out ''that even the higher fees don't cover the full costs of providing the services nor that infrastructure is only part of the cost of growth,'' Professor Kennedy considers it his journalistic privilege to draw for Missourian readers the inescapable conclusion: ''What the developers don't pay, the rest of us do.'' -- Missourian 10/6/2007
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/
Infrastructure Costs Could Sway School Board Decision on Location for New Columbia High School
Columbia School Board Weighing Options for New High School Location
Having $60 million in recently-passed bonds and expecting to open a new 600-to-1,800-student high school by 2010, the Columbia School Board should decide next month whether to approve the High School Site Evaluation Committee's selection of an 80-acre site on St. Charles Road, some six miles northeast of the city's core, as the best of the six available -- the owner willing to sell for $900,000 instead of $2 million and the Engineering Surveys & Services (ESS) firm estimating its gas, sewer and other connection costs at $758,000 but declining to provide an estimate for road improvements -- a gap filled on his own by a committee member, former University of Missouri Professor Ben Londeree, who calculated their cost at $23 million.
This cost would be the lowest, except for a 70-acre and less distant $3.5 million site, whose owner-developer proposes to build the roads himself, reports Columbia Tribune writer Janese Heavin, with Committee Chairman Jim Ritter convinced the public would eventually pay much less.
''The roads are the hardest thing to make a judgment on,'' he said prior to site selection. ''Anywhere a school is built, developers are going to be doing some of that work, so there's a lot of shared costs.''
Still, Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe, a Smart Growth Coalition past president, told Columbia Missourian writer Audrey Spalding last month that school road costs are an important factor for the city, especially since the state ''isn't awash in money,'' and her like-minded colleague, Councilman Karl Skala, rebuked the committee at its public site-selection meeting for not asking the city for full infrastructure cost estimates.
As to the school's architectural design, reports Missourian writer Tori Moss, district officials are working with Kansas City-based DLR Group office leader Andy Anderson to make it ''green,'' which will save on materials and energy use and enhance students' learning and retention.
The design may also follow a recent trend to create more personal learning surroundings in which groups of perhaps 180 students of different grades would share the same teachers for core classes.
According to the architect, the writer notes, ''students feel more valued and known'' in such a school within school. -- Columbia Tribune, Missourian 10/5/2007
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/ ; www.columbiatribune.com/
Columbia School Officials Urged to Rethink Site Selection of New High School
In overt disregard of the ''Metro 2020: A Planning Guide for Columbia Future'' goals, the Columbia Area Transportation Study Organization's (CATSO's) 2025 Transportation Plan, and the public outcry, Columbia Public School officials want to build a new high school three miles southeast of city limits, writes resident-activist Sid Sullivan in a sharp Missourian op-ed, stressing that while many people envision walkable neighborhoods, energy efficiency and less obesity, school officials are moving in the opposite direction.
Having gone ''beyond forecasting growth'' with their school site proposal, they are ''shaping growth for years to come'' and expect the city and Boone County to pay the infrastructure and service costs.
''There is no question the proposed site with its demand for extended water and sewer lines and an improved road would spur development where land is cheap,'' he observes. ''But its effect would also encourage sprawl and premature development.''
Instead of choosing a site that may be perfect ''for the fourth or fifth high school,'' the school board should realize that the taxpayer money needed for roads in the sparsely populated southeast can be better spent ''to fill out neighborhoods already under development'' in the city's close-in northern section.
Its population growth, which a walkable high school would accelerate, the op-ed author points out, would certainly encourage future construction of similar pedestrian-friendly elementary schools in those neighborhoods. -- Missourian 9/4/2007
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/
Dardenne Prairie Taking Steps to Create Distinctive Downtown Through ''Smart Code''
Long eager to make their fast-growing municipality of some 7,000 residents, about 30 miles northwest of central St. Louis, ''stand out from its neighbors by producing a true downtown distinct from the strip malls and subdivisions common in the area,'' reports St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Tim Bryant, Dardenne Prairie Mayor Pam Fogarty and other like-minded officials moved the goal closer to reality, with the Planning and Zoning Commission voting 6-3 to recommend approval of a detailed ''smart code'' by the Board of Aldermen, and the board rezoning 285 acres for a downtown district, designed by a team of New Urbanism co-founder Andres Duany.
The smart code, the writer notes, specifies six layers of zoning, regulating ''big things,'' such as building setbacks and storefront looks, and ''small things,'' such as shapes of gutters and exterior wall textures.
Aiming for mixed uses, higher densities and walkability, it is expected to speed up developers' plans for homes, condos, stores and offices in the area.
A few among some 50 hearing attendees wanted larger lots in part of the district. Otherwise, developers will put houses ''on top of each other,'' worried resident Roy Stout.
Trying to assuage his fears that they will ''rack'em, stack'em and pack'em,'' Mayor Fogarty pointed out that high-density housing is projected only for some downtown sections.
Like a traditional town, the writer observes, the future downtown will feature two-story street front shops and businesses, a town square park, most parking in the back, and easy pedestrian access to nearby housing, high-tech offices, and hotels along Highway 40.
The overall goal, he adds, is to make everything reachable by foot within 10 minutes. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch 7/19/2007
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/
American Farmland Trust Workshop to Help Farmers and Ranchers Keep Control Over Their Land
As rural Boone County's population and development pressures increase, with some new residents irate about farm dust and odor or large equipment on narrow roads, farmers unable to expand operations because developers can pay more for land, and vineyard owner Tom Vernon contacted recently by a land prospector from California 1,500 miles away, the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition, the Greenbelt Land Trust of Mid-Missouri and Sustainable Farms and Communities are inviting farmers and ranchers to a June 20 educational workshop to hear American Farmland Trust expert Bob Wagner and discuss how they can keep control over their land.
The expert told Columbia Missourian writer Ryan Gladstone that their options include participation in governmental land conservation programs, creation of agricultural districts and donation or sale of development rights to nonprofit trusts, which can hold onto them even if other property rights are separately sold.
''It can be a sort of a win-win situation for the farmers and the community,'' pointed out Missouri University Agricultural Economics Professor Ron Plain. ''A lot of people like to have green space, and farmers want to hang onto their land. In some states, like Vermont, it has been very successful in targeting key farm locations for acquisition of development rights so the state can maintain a very rural feel.''
Rural Sociology Professor Rex Campbell noted that although most farmers see a possible land sale for development ''as a major source of funds for retirement or other purposes,'' selling development rights ''greatly helps them by reducing tax costs.'' If land can only be farmed, he said, ''it has a very different appraisal rate.'' -- Missourian 6/8/2006
Resource(s): http://columbiamissourian.com/
Victorious Smart Growth Candidate Says Election Means Voters Want Better Planning for Columbia
After a politically charged four-month campaign for the Sixth Ward seat in the Columbia City Council, attorney and Boone County Smart Growth Coalition founding member Barbara Hoppe got over 1,000 votes, almost three times more than Realtor Valerie Barnes, daughter of a prominent local developer -- a result the real estate industry considers unfortunate but typical for a low turnout in the quiet and growth-shy ward, while the winner and her backers see it as a message to the council and a mandate for better planning.
''It was always an uphill fight,'' noted industry lawyer Craig Van Matre. ''I don't think anybody who follows Columbia politics thought Valerie had a chance.''
Although she promised during debates last month to vote only for good projects if elected to the council, reports Columbia Daily Tribune writer Matthew LeBlanc, her smart-growth rival gained the upper hand by pointing out she has no financial ties to developers.
''I think the citizens felt they wanted more input on city decisions,'' said Barbara Hoppe of her win. ''I think they're uniformly concerned about development that hasn't been planned or as thoughtful as it could be.''
Boone County Smart Growth Coalition Co-Chairman Ben Londeree concurred. Noting that voters also rejected a city sales tax extension to fund roads last November, he said these two elections sent officials ''a message'' that ''(c)itizens aren't happy with how development is happening.'' -- Columbia Daily Tribune 4/9/2006
Resource(s): www.columbiatribune.com/
Columbia to Seek Broad-Based Input for Community Visioning Project
In response to increased development, expected to push Columbia's population from 91,000 to about 150,000 by 2025, officials are gradually updating several ''master plans'' for roads, parks, sidewalks and other infrastructure, but the Boone County Smart Growth coalition worries about the lack of a long-term comprehensive plan, with City Manager Bill Watkins agreeing that the city doesn't yet know ''what it wants to be when it grows up'' and initiating a ''community visioning'' project to find the answer.
The City Council embraced the idea a special growth-related meeting, reports Columbia Daily Tribune writer Matthew LeBlanc, quoting Councilwoman Laura Nauser, who observed that the public often sees council decisions as reactive rather then pro-active, and Mayor Darwin Hindman, who said ''the time has come'' to seek broad-based input on common concerns.
Briefing participants on vision documents worked out in Springfield and Chattanooga, Tenn., and Charlotte, N.C., Assistant City Manager Paula Hertwig Hopkins noted that Columbia needs similar ''strategic'' visioning and land-use planning.
''This is what we've tried to achieve,'' pointed out Smart Growth coalition co-chairwoman Barbara Hoppe, who will run to replace Councilman Brian Ash. ''We're growing so fast that how we grow is crucial.'' -- Columbia Daily Tribune 2/19/2006
Resource(s): www.columbiatribune.com/
Kansas City's First Suburbs Coalition Produces Idea Book to Help Communities Modernize Housing
Formed in 2002, the First Suburbs Coalition of the Kansas City metro area -- the 19 member-cities confident they can better solve common problems by ''working together, sharing information, and forging a larger partnership between the public and private sector'' -- offers communities its new 40-page, folio-size, richly illustrated Idea Book, to help them remodel and modernize their housing stock.
Examining the four most common housing types built in the first suburbs after World War II -- ranch, split level, two-story and Cape Cod -- the book shows best ways to renovate them inside and outside or even enlarge, also addressing issues of energy efficiency, design, financing and selecting reliable contractors.
The coalition, notes a National League of Cities press release, is working with the Home Builders Association of Kansas City, the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, the financial community and other groups to popularize the book and boost remodeling in the first suburbs.
With more than 2,000 copies already sold or distributed, the Idea Book is available for $10 through the coalition's web site at www.marc.org/firstsuburbs/planbook.htm
10/26/2005
Resource(s): www.nlc.org/index.cfm
Boone County S.G. Coalition Names Columbia College, Interactive Science YouZeum, and Subdivision Project for 2005 Awards
Formed in 2000 to promote urban revitalization, denser development, zoning and infrastructure-funding reform, and resource conservation in the Columbia area, midway between Kansas City and St. Louis, the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition (BCSGC), reports Columbia Missourian writer Jemimah Noonoo, gave its 2005 awards to Columbia College for good community work, to the city's future interactive science YouZeum for accessibility by foot, bike and bus, and to the Bear Creek Prairie subdivision project for preserving glacial prairie and woods.
Columbia College, said BCSGC co-chairwoman Barbara Hope, has been ''a strong anchor in central downtown Columbia, preserving historical buildings and keeping them well-maintained.''
YouZeum, scheduled to open next year, instead of being built on the edge of town, is ''being built where the infrastructure already exists,'' she pointed out, and the Bear Creek Prairie subdivision, going under construction next spring, exemplifies ''a great balance of providing housing and development, yet preserving the natural assets of the land.''
With the $4 million to $5 million renovation of Columbia College's Missouri Hall slated for launch in January, the writer notes, College President Gerald Brouder also invited community input in planning its new science laboratory, expected to be built within three to four years.
''Whenever we are going to change footprints, whether that's an addition of a new building or acquisition of new properties,'' the president said, ''we will always involve those in and around the campus before taking such a step.'' -- Missourian 10/5/2005
Resource(s): http://columbiamissourian.com/
Editorial: Springfield's Center City Revival Shouldn't Stop There
Vision 20/20 gave the Springfield area ''a map of what we want to do and where we want to go,'' but now it's time for a new metropolitan zoning and planning approach to advance smart growth, writes Butler, Rosenbury & Partners president Geoffrey H. Butler in a Springfield News-Leader guest opinion, elated over rejuvenation of the center city, but concerned about the rest of the community, which ''struggles with a zoning ordinance'' that demands separate uses, encourages low-density sprawl and inhibits pedestrian travel.
Crediting its revival to public-private partnerships, flexible zoning, creative grant use, low interest loans and supportive administration, the writer points out that the center-city area is bounded by the usual suburbs, where flexibility is illegal, and by an outer ring of 5-to-10-acre ''estates,'' beyond which any road and service extension would be extremely costly.
''We need to turn our attention inward,'' the writer stresses, calling for ''creative infill development within the outer ring.'' At a minimum, he continues, ''we should create a 'parallel' redevelopment ordinance that lets the community chose between working with the existing zoning and subdivision regulations or using a more flexible 'redevelopment code','' or a ''form based ordinance,'' popular in Florida and elsewhere along the East Coast.
Such tools helped Arlington, Virginia resurrect a major neighborhood from 25-year stagnation, bringing in $300 million of investment, the writer observes, adding that many officials ''use these codes to save the urban forest, to reduce the reliance on automobiles, to promote a sense of community, to enhance the redevelopment of their community and to stop the urban sprawl.'' -- Springfield News-Leader 6/1/2005
Resource(s): www.news-leader.com/today/
St. Louis Employers See Value in Helping Employees Pay for Housing Near Jobs
Helping employees pay for housing near jobs is becoming popular among St. Louis companies both to attract a work force and to stimulate the city's neighborhoods, with Fannie Mae's Employer-Assisted Housing Program listing about 10 participants, including St. Louis and Washington universities, and the Downtown St. Louis Partnership administering a similar program for U.S. Bank, Bank of America and Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum.
''Companies use the programs because they want to give employees an incentive to live in the area, and it solidifies that neighborhood as an investment for the company,'' says Fannie Mae's St. Louis Partnership Office director Clifton Berry.
Downtown St. Louis Partnership senior economic and housing development director Kevin Farrell agrees. ''It's a relatively inexpensive benefit,'' he notes, ''and it has great perceived value for the employer to promote stability among staff and development in the community directly around the business.''
The programs, reports St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Tavia Evans, offer employees closing costs for buying a home downtown or in other designated neighborhoods, usually in walking distance from their jobs. Such a payment can reach $5,000 -- in the case of U.S Bank, a forgivable loan if an employee keeps the job and the house for five years. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch 5/31/2005
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/
Environmental Features Help Columbia Mixed-Use Village Plan Get Quick Approval
Showing they know what's good for their northern Columbia neighborhood once shown a development plan, residents of the Northland Drive area readily supported the proposed mixed-use Bear Creek Village during the City Council hearing, prompting its unanimous approval of the 17-acre infill-type project as the most thoughtful and advantageous among all offered in recent years.
Site owner Andrew Guti and his wife Sherri DeRousse, reports Columbia Missourian writer Elizabeth Kusta, saw development coming to the area one way or another, but they disliked plans outlined by prospective buyers and developers, and held onto the land till now.
The environmentally friendly Bear Creek Village plan, highlighted at the hearing by Project Consultant Karl Kruse, will cluster housing to ensure preservation of local prairie, native plants and wildlife. The housing will feature single-family cottages, townhouses, and small flats topped by lofts, all built with recyclable materials and wood from quick-growth forests.
Missouri University architecture associate professor Michael Goldschmidt, whose students helped with building design ideas, said the housing units will be more energy efficient thanks to solar panels.
The village's commercial area will include a market, a coffeehouse and a community center, with mail, laundry and meeting rooms. And since a city bus line runs nearby, developers expect future residents to be less dependent on cars. -- Missourian
2/8/2005
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/
Columbia City Council Tables Annexation Request for Boone County Housing Project
With the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition neutral so far on developer Billy Sapp's plan for 1,800 housing units plus some small offices and stores east of Columbia, the local Harg Area Residents for Responsible Growth (HARG) group opposing the project gathered enough voter signatures for the Columbia City Council to table the developer's 1,000-acre annexation request.
Prior to the council's decision, reports Columbia Missourian writer Warren Robinson, developer spokesman Don Stamper, concerned about ''a tremendous amount of misinformation by opponents,'' gave a presentation for Smart Growth Coalition members, representing the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters and 12 other groups. He described the project as ''one of the most pedestrian-friendly developments in the community'' and promised $1.5 million in off-site infrastructure improvements.
The spokesman added that the project's planning and design standards were higher than the county requires, the residential areas will feature single-family homes, townhouses and golf cottages, and a golf course will be augmented by extensive green space.
Smart Growth Coalition co-chairs Ben Londeree and Barbara Hoppe made no commitment. Noting that opponents will present their concerns next month, the former called the meeting with the developer spokesman ''the first installment in a discussion of the development east of town,'' adding, ''In the final analysis, you have to get a compromise that the majority of people can live with.'' -- Missourian
2/7/2005
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/
St. Louis to Keep Careful Eye on Area's First Major Mixed-Use Development
The St. Louis metro's first major mixed-use development, the 250-million, 20-acre Boulevard-St. Louis, just opened by Pace Properties some five miles west of the central city in Richmond Heights, will feature retail stores, restaurants, condos, apartments and eventually office towers around its town square, all under the watchful eyes of area residents, officials and other developers eager to see whether it warrants and promises more such projects.
Pace Properties managing director Robert Sherwood tells St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Eric Heisler, that the project will attract commuters tired of car dependency and ready for pedestrian-friendly streets. An outside expert, Cleveland-based KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Richard Moore thinks such projects are becoming increasingly popular ''because they symbolize getting back to our roots'' and because many apartment dwellers ''want to be in the thick of things, with retail right outside their door.''
Still, the writer observes, ''rising popularity doesn't make building a mixed-use project easier.'' It took the developer years to negotiate the project with Richmond Heights officials, who finally wrote special zoning codes and promised him up to $35.9 million in tax increment financing. His construction costs also added up, and the area's rather soft rental market makes him worry about the feasibility of building more than 100 apartments.
Former Richmond Heights city manager Michael Schoedel, currently managing Clayton, says he doesn't think ''developers will do these projects on their own'' even though mixed uses ''have more longevity and durability than a big-box retail center.''
Maryland-based Federal Realty Trust chief executive Don Wood says he loves urban mixed-use projects, but they are complicated and many things can go wrong, which prompted his company to scale back its mixed-use development plans. The company, the writer notes, will build such projects only in partnership with others, to spread the risk, or when state and local governments chip in with public funds. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch
11/14/2004
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/
St. Peters' Levee Proposal Draws Fire from Two States
Approved by St. Peters voters in 2000, the city proposal to spend $35 million in general bonds for land and construction of a 4.8-mile levee between its northern edge and the Mississippi River, to make the flood plain safe for commercial development, has become increasingly controversial, drawing criticism also from Illinois just across the river.
St. Peters City Administrator Bill Chamisky, writes St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Elisa Crouch, argues that prospective office and retail centers would create 6,000-10,000 permanent jobs for the area northwest of St. Louis. But Mayor Shawn Brown, state and federal officials, and many local landowners consider the project too risky, cautioning that even big levees don't work every time and often cause smaller and weaker ones down the river to fail, which would affects lives and property on both sides of the river.
Such concerns were raised by Missouri Democratic Governor Bob Holden, Missouri and Illinois attorneys general, both states' conservation and natural resources departments, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
One of the strongest opponents, the reporter notes, is Great Rivers Habitat Alliance founder and local landowner Adolphus Busch IV of the brewing family, who has recently engaged former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief James Lee Witt as an alliance consultant.
After a lengthy St. Peters City Hall hearing, packed by more than 300 people from across the area, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager Ward Lenz and spokesman Alan Dooley said once the city responds to the objections, the corps will undertake an environmental impact assessment and make its decision based on facts, not opinions. -- Post-Dispatch
10/25/2004
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/
Development of St. Peters Flood Plain Stirs Controversy
Some $9 million from the 2000 voter-approved bonds already spent for 1,600 grassy acres in the Mississippi River flood plain, the city of St. Peters faces a dilemma in its plan to build there a four-mile levee and a mixed-use business park -- on the one hand Governor Bob Holden requested a lengthy environmental study and the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance threatened to challenge any Army Corps of Engineers levee permit; and on the other hand, Alliance president Adolphus Busch IV, of the brewing family, offered Mayor Tom Brown just $5 million for the land, but promised to give half of it for city parks and half for St. Charles County and state parks.
Voters overwhelmingly authorized the city to issue $39 million in development bonds, but Great Rivers and other environmental groups oppose its plan, reports St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Elisa Crouch, because the area got submerged in 1993 and another such flood would force ''a massive governmental bailout,'' and because a long St. Peters levee would worsen flooding downstream.
City Alderman Jerry Hollingsworth told the writer he doesn't like the prospect of a ''longtime legal battle'' over the planned development, which many see as crucial for the city's economic well-being. Mayor Brown, who has pledged to make flood plain development his priority if re-elected next month, said in a statement, ''we will review the offer in light of what is best for all the citizens of St. Peters and St. Charles County.'' -- Post-Dispatch
3/19/2004
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/
Kansas City Voters Approve Short-Term Transit Improvements Measure
Lower costs and faster improvements might have been key factors as
66 percent of Kansas City voters approved a three-eighths-cent city
sales tax increase to raise almost $110 million over five years for
the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) bus system
expansion and upgrades, in contrast to their 64 percent vote
against a half-cent sales tax hike that would have generated more
than $360 million within 12 years for more comprehensive transit
advancement, including construction of an electric streetcar line
and a light-rail line to the city's core. Long-envisioned and often
proposed by transit advocate Clay Chastain, this comprehensive
12-year plan would also let the city build a transit hub at or near
Union Station, launch a rapid bus system and add 50 new electric
and hybrid buses to the KCATA fleet.
11/5/2003
Resource(s): http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/
Jefferson County Master Plan Seen as Smart Growth-Property Rights Compromise
With most of Jefferson County's 200,000 people crowding its
suburban northern third, just off St. Louis, and its major highway
corridors, the County Commission has finally broken a years-long
growth-management impasse and approved a state-required master
plan, seen by new Presiding Commissioner Mark Mertens and other
officials as a good compromise between smart growth and property
rights. Unlike an earlier-drafted plan, which would have set a
five-acre lot minimum outside major cities and highway corridors
and whose rejection in 2001 impelled most county planners to
resign, notes St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Matthew
Hathaway, the just-approved plan will simply steer most development
into ''a primary growth area'' -- including the county's northern
third, major highway corridors and all municipalities -- and allow
some suburban development in a ''secondary growth area'' and only
limited construction in a ''rural reserve.'' As Commissioner Mertens
predicted, the plan doesn't ''make everyone happy.'' The county's
former planning director and some residents fault it for too many
concessions to residential builders and expect development in the
primary and secondary growth areas to outpace road and utility
needs. Others, like county Economic Development Corporation
chairman Dan Govero and Grandview R-II School District
superintendent Michael Brown, consider the plan ''a little too
restrictive,'' afraid it basically creates ''a no-build zone'' in the
rural reserve area, which needs an economic boost most and whose
rugged terrain creates a natural barrier against rampant growth. --
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
8/6/2003
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/
Report Cites Springfield's Successes, But Points to Need for Regional System to Manage Fast Growth
''More and more in today's footloose economy, jobs and people flock
to livable places with affordable housing, vibrant downtowns,
cultural amenities and lots of close-by outdoor recreation,'' and
the Springfield region in southwestern Missouri should protect and
enhance all these assets through good planning, writes Brookings
Institution senior policy analyst Mark Muro in The Springfield
News-Leader, stressing that the city's continued
growth-management leadership can also spur reforms in a state that
''has lagged on promoting sensible land use and planning.'' Co-author
of the recent ''Growth in the Heartland: Challenges and
Opportunities for Missouri'' report, the Brookings analyst cites
findings that despite the city's achievements and eight-percent
growth in the past decade, the region hasn't avoided sprawl and its
side effects. Several area towns recorded ''hypergrowth'' and
''struggled to keep up;'' Webster County to the east and Christian
County to the south ''grew unsustainably by 66 and 31 percent,
respectively;'' and 28,000 people settled on unincorporated fringes
lacking sufficient sewer and other services. As a result, he points
out, septic and fertilizer seepage fouls area lakes; residents face
higher taxes to pay for new services and infrastructure; and
further sprawl, with more traffic and more mini-malls, could damage
the region's rural heartland reputation. ''The bottom line: Highly
dispersed, low-density development may well be undermining the
durability of its growth,'' the analyst warns, urging Springfield to
hammer out ''a regional system for managing fast growth,''
rationalize ''local government competition'' and insist ''on state
action to allow all regions to make headway.'' -- The Springfield
News-Leader
3/2/2003
Resource(s): www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/20030302_muro.htm
St. Joseph Plans Gradual Annexation of Green Acres Tract
Since some areas within St. Joseph city limits still lack adequate
services and any infrastructure expansion would require new
revenue, the City Council is preparing a gradual annexation of a
large Green Acres tract slated for development -- and extending
from the city's northern border in Buchanan County into Andrew
County -- by adopting the ''smart growth'' policy of taking in more
land without affecting older neighborhoods. The proposed Green
Acres development along North Belt Highway, says Councilman Jerry
Russell, made the city ''look at the big picture'' of any prospective
annexation, to ''do it right.'' The city, notes planner Jim Holley,
doesn't want to ''create communities that encourage obsolescence of
existing buildings or land uses through the development of new
buildings or land uses.'' The larger question, observes St.
Joseph News-Press writer Patty Scully, is ''whether annexations
would provide sufficient revenue to pay for city services --
police, fire, sanitary sewer, street maintenance and flood
control.'' The city, the writer adds, has earlier adopted such a
cautious approach to creation of tax increment financing (TIF)
districts, limiting TIF incentives to retail and commercial
projects bringing in outside customers and providing markets or
services currently unavailable or insufficient. -- St. Joseph
News-Press
12/10/2002
Resource(s): www.stjoenews-press.com
Rural Sprawl Arrives in Missouri's Rural Areas
In a nationwide trend, Missouri's four small metro areas grew
faster last decade than the large Kansas City and St. Louis regions
and the unincorporated ''open country'' got 50 percent more new
residents than cities and towns, reports Christian Science
Monitor writer Laurent Belsie, citing a new Brookings
Institution study of the state's growth patterns and quoting the
executive director of the regional Harry S. Truman Coordinating
Council in Joplin, Harry Rogers, who says about the area's growth,
''You almost have to rename sprawl. There's urban sprawl. This is
rural sprawl.'' Calling it ''heartland homesteading, Part 2,'' the
writer points to other Brookings' findings distressingly familiar
to smart growth advocates. While last decade Joplin and its
surrounding towns issued 2,979 and 3,079 home building permits,
respectively, their number for unincorporated land in Jasper and
Newton counties reached 3,500. Consequently, the 16.5 percent
Joplin metro's population growth between 1982 and 1997 triggered
40.6 percent greater land consumption, with a total of 23 square
miles of countryside converted to urban use, carrying hidden costs.
''There are bills coming due for this in states that don't have a
lot to spend right now,'' says Brookings senior policy analyst Mark
Muro, stressing the need for rural counties to become proactive. In
the absence of planning and zoning in both counties, yet unaffected
by traffic jams and air pollution, state environmental officials
set minimum lot sizes for projects with seven or more homes, while
the Jasper County Health Department may increase its imposed 0.9-
acre minimum for county homes with septic tanks, as any potential
failure would affect more and more residents. Missouri
municipalities, the writer adds, reward projects compatible with
their plans by extending sewer systems, which frees developers from
septic requirements and lets them build more homes on their sites,
but when small communities annex such land, they face heavy strain
on their water and sewer treatment capacity. -- Christian
Science Monitor
12/10/2002
Resource(s): www.csmonitor.com/
Kansas City Voters Approve Infrastructure Bond, But Reject Streetcar-Trail-Park Measure
In a confidence surge seen by Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes as ''a
real turning point'' for the city, voters approved a $35 million
infrastructure bond they killed three months ago and a $74 million
increase in hotel and restaurant taxes for the Bartle convention
hall overhaul -- a feat marred by rejection of a half-cent city
sales tax raise for a 20-mile streetcar line, a 100-mile trail
system and Penn Valley Park improvements. Paid from the fast-
growing property value assessment revenue, the infrastructure bond
would require a property tax increase only if the revenue had
dropped, report Kansas City Star writers Lynn Horsley and
Rick Alm, noting that officials want to spend $16 million downtown
and $19 million in other neighborhoods. Funded by a one percent
increase in the hotel tax and a quarter-cent increase in the
restaurant bill tax, both taking effect in January, the Bartle Hall
overhaul will include interior and exterior renovation, with high-
tech equipment upgrades, a new ballroom and an outdoor plaza, all
to make it more competitive with other city convention centers. As
to the failure of the streetcar-trail-park measure, its champion
Clay Chastian said, ''We tried to show the advantage of a more
balanced transportation system, a more pastoral urban environment,
and a downtown with excitement and soul. But our vision was
distorted by opponents, neglected by the media, and rejected by the
majority. So be it.'' -- Kansas City Star
11/6/2002
Resource(s): www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/
Kansas City Metro Officials Seek Input on ''Smart Moves'' Integrated Transit Plan
Undaunted by the 72.5 percent statewide vote against half-cent
state sales tax and 4-cent state gas tax increases that would
have raised $511 million for road and transit improvements, the
Mid-America Regional Council is gathering public input on its
so-called Smart Moves proposal to upgrade and integrate transit
in the two-state, seven-county Kansas City metro area over the
next 12 years, starting with expanded bus services and later
introducing commuter and light rail in some corridors. The metro
area, currently spending $55 million a year on transit, would
need between $125 million to 150 million annually to operate the
joint system, reports Kansas City Star writer Robert A.
Cronkleton, with council officials counting on increased fare
receipts, state and local funds, and up to $367 million in
federal grants over 12 years. The system would have three
components. The Local Link would use buses, vans and sedans
between neighborhoods and transit centers, with urban area stops
every three blocks. The Rapid Rider would run vehicles able to
adjust traffic lights and using bus-only or HOV lanes. The
Freeway Flyers would offer buses designed for longer commutes and
running mainly during rush hours. The chairman of the nonprofit
Regional Transit Alliance, Kenneth Bacchus, says if area transit
officials want to win public support, they must present ''very
defined goals and objectives,'' clearly stated ''needs and
benefits'' and ''real instead of miscalculated'' costs. The council
will end its series of seven local public discussions of the
proposal on September 12. -- Kansas City Star
8/17/2002
Resource(s): www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/
Utility Suggests Cost-Sharing for Quick Cleanup of Kansas City Redevelopment Site
The coal and tar waste pollution under a long-vacant Missouri River
bank site, slated by Kansas City for redevelopment into a
residential-office complex connected to the downtown area, is worse
than estimated last year and definitely left from operations ''by
the Kansas City Gas Light & Coke Company (and related entities)
from 1868 through 1908,'' conclude new consultant studies,
bolstering city arguments that the projected cleanup costs of up to
$50 million should be paid by Missouri Gas Energy (MGE), which
acquired the old companies. Eager to move forward with the
already-delayed redevelopment of the 55-acre site, city officials
stress it's time to start the cleanup. MGE, currently owned by
Southern Union Co. of Austin, Texas, has already promised to remove
contaminants from an adjacent old gas plant site, but questions its
sole responsibility for the city site's cleanup, warning that the
costs would likely force it to increase utility rates. Even if
insurers and the site's seller would contribute, the cost of
cleanup necessary to prepare the site for residential use is too
high for the company, says MGE spokeswoman Pam Levetzow, suggesting
cost sharing, especially since the site also was once a city tow
lot and a dump. ''If all the parties work together,'' she says, ''we
can do this safer and sooner.'' -- The Kansas City Star
7/15/2002
Resource(s): www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/
Kansas City Adding Mixed-Use Projects to Downtown Redevelopment Plan
Fleshing out her recently outlined $1.8 billion sports arenas and
downtown redevelopment plan, Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes wants to
launch it with mixed-use projects in a 20-block area of the South
Loop, or SoLo. The projects will include a performing arts center
and ''an attractive mixture of offices, restaurants, specialty
entertainment, green space and residential.'' Speaking to reporters
at the Economic Development Corp. office downtown, the mayor
invited the City Council, the Civic Council, the Downtown Council,
the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and several foundations
to nominate candidates for a Greater Downtown Development
Authority, which can possibly be created next month and proceed
with the projects shortly after. The authority should be able to
issue bonds, assemble land and condemn properties if necessary. The
president of the Economic Development Corp., Andi Udris, credited
with a key role in crafting the SoLo concept, said the city wants
to create ''an area that's representative of Kansas City, that shows
off its historic uniqueness and gives people satisfaction for their
entertainment dollar.'' Kansas City Star writers Kevin
Collison and Lynn Horsley report that SoLo's first phase provides
for developing three blocks with 450 of the planned 1,635 housing
units, 100,000 of 1.6 square feet of office space, 425,000 of
455,000 square feet of commercial space, 1,500 of 11,000 parking
slots and a 200-room hotel. 12/10/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com/
Four-Lane Highways Versus Smart Growth in Missouri
At a Missouri Senate Transportation Committee hearing prior to the
new legislative session in January, most witnesses stressed the
need to pass a sales tax for transportation, including public
transit, with the Sierra Club Ozark Chapter's representative Ron
McLinden opposing calls by farmer interest groups for four-lane
roads and urging a "smart growth" approach to congestion and
mobility problems. Kansas City Star writer Tim Hoover notes
that rural lawmakers have in recent years resisted efforts to tap
state fuel taxes and license fees for public transit in Kansas City
and St. Louis, and that pressure from Republican and suburban
leaders has recently stopped Governor Bob Holden from issuing an
executive "smart growth" order, which would have directed state
resources toward managing growth. In this context, the writer
quotes McLinden, who said, "We need to deliberately set about
making our cities and towns more transportation-efficient, better
places to live and work and play -- so we can live within our
transportation means" and the general manager of the Kansas City
Area Transportation Authority, Marg Huffer, who pointed out that
public transit is equally important for rural areas, where 600,000
Missourians, especially those over 65, have no cars or driver's
licenses. Testifying a day earlier, specially invited Kansas
Transportation Secretary, the president of the American Association
of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Dean Carlson, told
the committee that crucial for the 1999 passage of a $2.6 billion
road improvement plan by Kansas lawmakers was "the inclusion of
'multimodal' forms of transportation -- rail, airports and public
transit."
11/28/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
Kansas City Mayor Prepares Downtown Revitalization Plan
In a move to advance her vision of "greater downtown," Kansas City
Mayor Kay Barnes has been readying a $1 billion, six-year
revitalization plan, which combines city, county, state and private
money for a proposed arts center, projects near Union Station,
parking garages at residential redevelopment sites and the
renovation of the Truman Sports Center -- all in line with Governor
Bob Holden's terms for state aid. The plan would create an
authority or corporation for its implementation. The mayor's plan,
report Kansas City Star writers Kevin Collison and Kit
Wagar, reflects key recommendations of the Downtown Corridor
Development Strategy report, written early this year by the
Massachusetts consulting firm Sasaki for the Civic Council of
Greater Kansas City, which includes the area's top business
leaders. The report also urged more urban parks and extensive
landscaping, with the oversight corporation responsible for
assembling land, recruiting developers and coordinating such
redevelopment tools as tax incentives, property condemnation and
tax increment financing. The mayor expects to announce the plan
within days.
11/27/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
The new CitiesFirst Task Force to spur city revitalization and economic growth co-chairs appointed
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, in partnership with the Nehemiah Corporation of California, appointed Mayor Lee Clancy of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus, Ohio, as co-chairs of the new CitiesFirst Task Force to spur city revitalization and economic growth by promoting investment, affordable housing and efficient use of urban land. Announcing the appointment, the Conference President, New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, emphasized "Mayor Clancey's commitment to reinvigorating Cedar Rapids and her focus on providing affordable housing" and "Mayor Coleman's fresh and innovative ideas" about strengthening cities and Columbus prosperity. Nehemiah president and CEO Scott Syphax, whose company has spent about $300 million in home down-payments to more than 93,000 families in 5,700 cities nationwide since in 1994, said its partnership with the Conference of Mayors will enable it "to reach more people who can benefit from our down payment assistance and urban land renewal programs." The company's new Nehemiah Urban Land Trust will help social service organizations continue their assistance to low-income and special needs families and individuals in selected cities. 10/18/2001
Resource(s): www.usnewswire.com
Kansas City Star editorial predicts that a recent $80 million developer proposal .... still faces many obstacles
Applauding Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes' long insistence that the redevelopment of the President Hotel downtown -- closed 21 years ago and listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- should involve reclamation of other vacant buildings and parking lots on the same block, a Kansas City Star editorial predicts that a recent $80 million developer proposal along those lines still faces many obstacles and requires officials to be "nimble and innovative" to push it forward. The editorial points out that the project could have many "ripple effects by attracting more office and housing development" to the area and probably merits some city tax breaks, given that downtown projects, especially with sufficient parking space, "tend to be quite costly and difficult." The editorial advises the mayor to also seek state and federal tax credits for the project. 10/18/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
In an incisive article, "Losing Ground to ...
In an incisive article, "Losing Ground to Urban Sprawl," posted on the Missouri Conservationist web site, Helene Miller and Laurie Brown remind readers that the nation's growth, affluence and technological progress involves disturbing side effects such as long rush-hour traffic jams; the loss of open land and other natural resources; habitat fragmentation, fatal to many species; and increased runoff from impervious surfaces, resulting in soil erosion and water pollution. In addition, they note, impervious surfaces get and stay hot longer, making the downtown areas of St. Louis, Kansas City and many smaller cities "routinely five to 15 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside." Urging Missourians to get involved in shaping local growth, the authors stress that "good planning and zoning, aided by citizen involvement, can help protect Missouri's natural resources." The authors recommend several ways for counties, municipalities, developers and builders to "incorporate nature into development." Here is the list. " 1. Identify and save key natural features on the site. 2. Save forested stream corridors and blocks of forests and prairies in yards or as parts of common areas. 3. Use wetlands as part of storm water control systems. 4. Minimize impervious surfaces by reducing road and parking surfaces. 5. Fit buildings into the landscape to minimize grading and other construction impacts. 6. Require the planting of trees and re-establishment of native plants. 7. Make sure the green space forms a connected system that encourages safe wildlife travel." 9/24/2001
Resource(s): www.conservation.state.mo.us
Despite strong economic and anti-sprawl arguments from ...
Despite strong economic and anti-sprawl arguments from most Kansas City leaders, all area unions, many businesses and The Kansas City Star, 60 percent of voters rejected a 25-year, half-cent sales tax increase for a proposed $793 million, 24-mile light rail system, asking why it stops short of the airport, how the development around stations may affect neighborhoods and whether the cost will end up higher. A rail critic, Councilman Paul Danaher, says the voters "don't think a billion-dollar gamble was worth it," with the rail projected to carry 15,700 passengers a day. The city's steering committee chairman, Warren Erdman, points out that opponents -- led by road builders and three chambers of commerce -- didn't have to do or spend much "to be damaging." And even though proponents spent twice as much, their $250,000 was still far less than the million dollars that successful light-rail campaigns in other cities usually cost. The committee's co-chairman, Leonard Graham, is upset that he "failed to realize how much of a schism there is" between the city's south, where the light-rail proposal lost by 56 percent, and the north, where it lost by 69 percent. The voters, he says, made a decision "that we can sprawl and the urban core can be neglected," which is "a very, very big mistake." Undaunted, Mayor Kay Barnes says she detected in the last days that "as people grasped what this was about, they were shifting their opinion" toward the rail. Thus, her political consultants expect the proposal on another ballot, possibly in November 2002. 08.08.200 8/9/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
The Kansas City light-rail plan that requires ...
The Kansas City light-rail plan that requires voter approval of a 25-year, half-cent sales tax increase on August 7th, would both "dramatically improve the city's transportation system" and "reshape the city in fundamental ways, spurring economic growth along a wide path through the heart of the metropolitan area and presenting many new opportunities for residents, businesses and entire communities," asserts The Kansas City Star, basing its editorial predictions on light-rail successes in Dallas, Denver and Portland. The daily points out that the Dallas transit agency shows $922 million in improvements near light-rail stations and that its own writer, Jeffrey Spivak, just reported from there: "Major companies moved back downtown, vacant warehouses have been converted into more than 1,000 apartments, new stores have opened in poorer parts of town -- all attributable, in part, to the rail line." With the Dallas' ridership double the projected number and with light rail becoming "a magnet for residents and private investments" in other cities, the Star notes a logic in this pattern. "A convenient transportation system is a crucial factor in where people want to live; that is in fact the story of the American suburbs, which owed much of their rapid growth to massive road and highway construction projects -- projects with enormous financial costs that are often discounted or just ignored in debates over mass transit." Convinced that many people, including middle-class and high-income residents, "who do not expect to be using the new transit system will end up doing so," the daily says that if Kansas City voters approve the light-rail plan, they "will someday look back on that decision as a fundamental turning point in the city's history." 07.17.2001 7/24/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
Citing the metro area's huge backlog of ...
Citing the metro area's huge backlog of infrastructure needs, the boards of the Greater Kansas City and Northland Regional chambers of commerce broke ranks with other business groups and in split votes refused to endorse a 25- year, half-cent sales tax increase for a proposed 24-mile light-rail system, as too expensive "for too few riders." The increase, put on the August 7 ballot by a Citizens for Light Rail group, is backed by area officials, the AFL-CIO, all 23 construction and trade unions and several community councils, transit organizations and merchant associations, including the Freedom Inc. city political club and the Raytown Chamber of Commerce. Proponents say light rail will help revitalize the urban core and, by offering commuters an alternative, reduce road congestion and air pollution. They see the sales tax increase ballot, writes Lynn Horsley of The Kansas City Star, as the city's best chance to reach consensus and "get in line for federal aid," which would cover 60 percent of the system's projected $793 million construction cost. With early estimates putting the number of prospective riders at more than 15,000 a day, the chairman of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance, Warren Erdman, stresses that ridership has exceeded projections elsewhere and can also exceed them in Kansas City. Nevertheless, the writer notes, the chambers' stance against light rail may spell trouble for the tax ballot measure, especially with two newly-registered local committees -- Citizens for Responsible Spending and Citizens Against the Rail Plan -- also ready to jump into the fight. 07.10.2001 7/12/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
After two decades of losing ground to ...
After two decades of losing ground to population growth, which reduced Johnson County's parkland ratio from 22 to 14 acres per 1,000 residents, compared to adjacent Jackson County's 32-acre ratio, the Johnson County Park and Recreation District board unanimously approved a $192 million expansion plan that would more than double parkland over 20 years -- starting with acquisition of 7,540 acres to secure continuous stretches of green space for developing areas. Called MAP 2020, the plan seeks financing through a sales-tax raise and a nine-year property tax increase. The district's director, Gary Haller, who met with county officials weighing several financing options, is concerned that with the county having "so much on its plate," parks may get lost "in the shuffle of balancing out" top priorities. But the board's chairman, Craig Kenworthy, stresses the commissioners' opportunity to decide about county quality of life and adds, "One way or another we're going to start implementing this plan next year. We're not going to wait three or four years to implement the critical aspects of land acquisition." Commissioners are expected to decide the size of park appropriations this summer. A word of caution comes from an official of the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, Erik Sartorius, who says experts predict an economic slowdown and worries that the competition for open land will push up already high housing prices. 04.19.2001 4/26/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
The National Trust for Historic Preservation released ...
The National Trust for Historic Preservation released its second annual list of the Dozen Distinctive Destinations that, said Trust President Richard Moe, "typify our country's small towns, close communities, and celebrated heritage." These town and cities, he continued, "are committed to preserving their historic landmarks, maintaining their unique character, and supporting locally owned business entrepreneurs. They are not historically distinctive vacation spots -- they are also fun places for families and visitors of all ages. We can learn from their past and contribute to their future. Yeah." The list includes Eureka Springs, Arkansas; Calistoga. California; Silverton, Colorado; Madison, Indiana; Bonaparte, Iowa; Northampton, Massachusetts; Red Lodge, Montana; Las Vegas, New Mexico; Jacksonville, Oregon; Doylestown, Pennsylvania; Beaufort, South Carolina; and Staunton. Details at www.nationaltrust.org 4/16/2001
Resource(s): www.usnewswire.com
A long-neglected section of Kansas City, with ...
A long-neglected section of Kansas City, with 96 acres just south of the historic jazz district shared by 19 residents and 3,000 tires, will be turned into the $42 million mixed-use Vine Street District, where a partnership of the Black Economic Union, the Move Up community group and Bank of America is planning small retail stores, offices and 550 residential units, including lofts, condos and single-family homes. The neo-traditional design incorporates a four-block pedestrian mall, a community center, three public schools, two churches, parks and other recreational areas -- 90 percent of them within a five- minute walk radius. The regional president of Bank of America, Clyde Wendel, told the media that the plan, tied in with Mayor Kay Barnes' urban core revival goal of creating 10,000 residential units this decade, will "change the face of downtown housing." The executive director of Move Up, Jim Nunn, said the partnership wants to bring back people who had moved to the suburbs because there was "no suitable housing in the urban core." The president of the Black Economic Union, Sylvester Holmes, noted that the project will complement the $35 million renovation of the jazz district and the $40 million redevelopment of the adjacent Beacon Hill area. Mayor Barnes expressed the city's full support for the project as helping create "a viable urban village" downtown. The project will benefit from Missouri redevelopment law, under which real estate improvements receive full tax abatement for ten years and 50 percent abatement for the next 15 years. 04.02.2001 4/10/2001
Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
Scenic America, a national organization created in ...
Scenic America, a national organization created in 1978 with a mission to preserve natural beauty and distinctive community character, released its 2000 Last Chance Landscapes report, listing the ten that are most threatened by billboards, new roads and other symptoms of sprawl. This year's list of the last chance landscapes includes Oakmont (Verdugo Mountains), Glendale, California; Ravalli County, Montana; the entire state of Colorado; Upper Mississippi Blufflands Region of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois; State Highway 131 between Ontario and Rockton, Wisconsin; Erin Township, Wisconsin; Springfield, Illnois; Poplar Point, Anacostia, Washington, D. C.; Cook Creek and Tributaries, Springfield Township, Pennsylvania; and the Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke Ranges, Massachusetts. Scenic America President Meg Maguire said these ten landscapes typify problems present in many other areas. Yet, for every problem, she stressed, there is a solution which other communities have adopted, showing once again that change is inevitable, but ugliness is not. 11/28/2000
Resource(s): www.scenic.org
Speaking at an Independence Chamber of Commerce ...
Speaking at an Independence Chamber of Commerce event, Governor Mel Carnahan stressed the importance of strong neighborhoods for keeping Missouri strong and announced state aid to speed up revitalization of the city's inner Santa Fe Trail neighborhood. Begun by residents in 1996, and helped along by the non-profit Community Development Corporation set up in 1998, the old urban neighborhood's improvement projects now qualify for $5.2 million over 23 years from the state supplemental tax increment financing program. The corporation's president, Henry Inouye, says the renovation of many homes has been completed and further projects, some under way, call for the refurbishment of sidewalks, curbs, storm drains and underground power lines. Independence Mayor Ron Stewart welcomes the state funds as a big help in restoring the city's inner core, where our history lies. 7/21/2000
Kansas City entrepreneurs are full of ideas ...
Kansas City entrepreneurs are full of ideas for converting old buildings to new uses and reviving once-forgotten parts of the city, but they're often frustrated by red tape, writes a Kansas City Star editor, E. Thomas McClanahan. The city's code includes building standards that make historic restoration difficult and off-street parking quotas that make using old stores for small businesses impossible. The editor cites a real estate expert, Tim Schaffer, who says that small firms with up to 50 workers are what drives the economy in the suburbs, and it is a quiet growth. Shaffer adds that small high-technology firms often prefer a downtown location because it offers multisource fiber-optic access and redundant power from two substations and because their employees want a compact area offering places to live, work and play, not a large-lot home in a pastoral setting. Asking when downtown will start emphasizing 'quiet growth', the editor urges area executives in the Civic Council to support development efforts by entrepreneurs working block by block. He also urges the City Hall to boost downtown's prospects by drawing up a building code more appropriate to older structures and revising parking rules so more empty storefronts can become home to tax-paying businesses. 5/22/2000
The Kansas City metropolitan area, near the ...
The Kansas City metropolitan area, near the bottom nationally in mass transit ridership and at the top for highway miles per capita, recorded a three-percent ridership increase in 1999, to more than 15 million annually for the first time in seven years. Officials attribute this long-awaited trend to a strong economic demand for workers in the suburbs; to the Area Transportation Authority's TV infomercials and new transit centers; and to gas price increases. The transportation director for the Mid-America Regional Council, Mell Henderson, says the area has begun to turn the corner, with public transit higher on its civic agenda and with efforts to improve air quality and build light rail. The transit authority expects the trend to continue, though far below the 1980 peak of 26.4 million passengers a day. The subsequent passenger loss started with suburbs leaving the authority or launching their own bus services, while the federal funds for public transit also dropped. 5/22/2000
Please, not another highway, implores Kansas City ...
"Please, not another highway, implores Kansas City Star columnist Chris Lester. Noting that the city has "more freeway lane miles per capita than any major metropolis on earth," the columnist calls the proposed 22nd - 23rd Street elevated connector between Crown Center and the Freight House District "a soul-deadening urban design monstrosity" and asks when the city is going to care more about building neighborhoods than highways." He admits that the downtown freeway system "is something of a traffic engineering marvel, shuttling vast numbers of cars through the urban core and out to the suburbs with almost centrifugal force." But we "conveniently forget," he stresses, that its construction decades ago devastated urban neighborhoods on both sides of town and that its downtown loop became"a moat isolating the central business district from the rest of the urban core." Instead of planning "a fantastically expensive elevated highway," the columnist suggests that the city route traffic to 20th Street, slow it down and "give folks in those cars an opportunity to stop driving, get out of their car and be someplace." 1/19/2000
The Regional Transit Alliance, an advocacy group ...
The Regional Transit Alliance, an advocacy group for better transit in the Kansas City region, is holding a "Preparing for Action" series of educational workshops, to mobilize residents and help them voice their concerns about the area's transportation planning and funding. The alliance's interim chairman, Warren Erdman, writes in The Kansas City Star that a broad regional constituency, "working in concert with transit agencies and other institutions" is essential for long-term, lasting transit improvements. He encourages concerned residents to attend the workshops that run till February 8 and to join in the alliance's other activities. For more information, he directs readers to its web site at marc.org/kctransit.htm or to telephone number (816) 474-4240. 1/19/2000
During the next 100 years, we will ...
"During the next 100 years, we will be more concerned with ethical and moral considerations of events and with the results of our own creativity and curiosity," predicts Theodore Seligson of Seligson & Laferty, Architects, a professor of architecture at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Writing in The Kansas City Star, he ties his belief that the century's greatest challenge will be "the marriage of technology and human values" with other predictions. Thanks to medical advances people in affluent societies can expect "healthy, vigorous lives past their 100th birthday." Genetics and molecular biology will greatly affect the world population and test ethics and morals. With ecology "totally integrated into the technical-industrial complex," and with greater sensitivity to ecological balance, "the destruction wrought by previous centuries of 'progress'" and population growth, will trigger "adjustment in our living habits." In metropolitan Kansas City, he continues, the population will double to 3 million, with growth accelerated in the city core and slowed down in the suburbs. Like all major cities, it will be linked with others by elevated high-speed bullet trains. Car use will be restricted. The area will have dense development and "open land between cluster communities rather than a continuous sprawl." 1/5/2000
The joint 12-member Missoula city and ...
The joint 12-member Missoula city and county 12-member delegation to last month's Smart Growth Conference in San Diego was one of the largest and most diverse groups among the 1,000 conferees. The Missoula delegates found the ideas inspiring, the problems familiar and local growth control efforts close to the mark. Discussing conference themes at the delegation's public round table, Office of Planning and Grants Director Cindy Klette said Missoula is trying to improve the economy while protecting the environment and ensuring equity for all. To be successful, said delegate Nick Kaufman, we must find new ways to reach and recruit "broad-based constituencies." He also advised administrative and financial incentives for large well-planned projects, to deter developers from focusing on small cul-de sac sites. Noting that Missoula and the state lack the zoning laws needed for "smart growth," County Commissioner Barbara Evans warned that some of its strategies may backfire by hindering free-market solutions to affordable housing and transportation problems. Grant coordinator Cindy Wulfekuhle expressed a hope that the city will benefit from redeveloping its two brownfield sites, if Congress passes a proposed $9.5 billion funding program. City Councilman Dave Harmon would like to follow other cities in sparking development of blighted areas through school construction. He also suggested a dialog with the so-called Not-In-My-Back Yard activists, to attract them to other community causes. Commissioner Bill Carey said West European car ownership rates are similar to American rates, but good mass transit systems and a tradition of mixed development cut down on driving. Americans could reduce public service costs and save taxpayer money by following this model. Juxtaposing American concerns about both sprawl and density with smart growth advocacy of new construction in urban neighborhoods, planner Russ Fletcher called for an innovative approach to the issue of high density. 12/28/1999
Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes says voters ...
Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes says voters gained "a huge victory" by passing an eight-year extension of 1-cent sales taxes for capital projects, while rejecting a rival proposal to extend the taxes for 15 years, with half of the revenue for light rail construction. The votes were 59 to 41 percent and 63 t37 percent, respectively. The rejected proposal, pushed by transportation activist Clay Chastain, was opposed by officials and others as premature and requiring more research. The extended taxes, starting in 2001, will bring in more than $100 million for bridge repairs, $150 million for neighborhood improvements and $225 million for other infrastructure projects. Part of the money will be matched by state and federal funds. City officials will now be fine-tuning the improvement projects and continue transit planning, together with consensus-building efforts on a light-rail route. 11/22/1999
In a post-electoral editorial, The Kansas City ...
In a post-electoral editorial, The Kansas City Star urges civic and political leaders who campaigned against taxes for a light rail line now, "to make good" on their promise and produce "a better rail plan" in 18 months. The daily says it has supported light rail "not as a solution for congestion or polluted air, but because rail provides a focus for development, and provides what amounts to a subsidy supporting areas of compact development." 11/22/1999
Citing American Public Works Association estimates of ...
Citing American Public Works Association estimates of a more than $1 trillion backlog in urban infrastructure funding, The Kansas City Star reports that the city alone needs about $1 billion for its bridges, roads and storm sewers. City officials say that no matter which of two capital improvement funding proposals gets approved in November voting -- if either does -- it took years of neglect for infrastructure to deteriorate, and it will take years to make it sound again. 10/26/1999
Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes, about 280 ...
Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes, about 280 neighborhood groups and "a small army of volunteers, are launching an intensive campaign to convince voters that an eight-year extension of the one-cent capital improvement sales tax, which expires in December 2000, is crucial for the city's future. The mayor and civic leaders say the city desperately needs the more than $500,000 by 2008, to rebuild its aging infrastructure -- bridges, roads, parks, sidewalks and flood control devices. But they oppose a ballot drive by transportation activist Clay Chastain who is seeking a 15-year sales tax extension, with half of the money for infrastructure and half for a future light rail line. They stress that asking voters for money prior to a feasibility study, which will take another 18 months, is premature and diverts attention from city infrastructure problems. 10/6/1999
At the 91st Annual Meeting of the ...
At the 91st Annual Meeting of the National Governors' Association in St. Louis, its standing Committee on Natural Resources adopted ten Smart Growth Principles, closely modeled after those worked out last year by the Smart Growth Network -- EPA and two dozen partner organizations. The Smart Growth Principles will become part of the policy basis "for the governors' collective lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill." The principles are: * Mix land uses * Take advantage of existing community assets * Create a range of housing opportunities and choices * Foster "walkable," close-knit neighborhoods * Promote distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place, including the rehabilitation and use of historic buildings * Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas * Strengthen and encourage growth in existing communities * Provide a variety of transportation choices * Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost-effective * Encourage citizen and stakeholder participation in development decisions. 8/10/1999
Kansas City: In line with the City's ...
Kansas City: In line with the City's FOCUS master plan, which seeks compact mixed-use development in self-contained neighborhoods with traditional Main Streets, developer Edgar Barth projects an upscale Renaissance Village upscale community as his way of "doing away with suburban sprawl." Counting on $10 million from the city's Tax Increment Financing program to pay for local road improvements, the developer's plans for the 90-acre site include 150 patio homes, 420 apartment and townhouse units, and office towers and shops, all in walking distance with open-space amenities. Two similar mixed-use pedestrian-friendly centers are also planned nearby in Clay and Platte counties. 5/28/1999
In an Earth Day guest column in ...
In an Earth Day guest column in Kansas City Business Journal, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Thomas J. Donohue, says: "The environmental progress is largely due to the fact that American businesses have spent more than a trillion dollars over the last three decades to clean the air, water and land, inventing new technologies, and creating wealth to pay for it." In this context, he criticizes the Kyoto Protocol as unfair, wasteful and risky for the nation's economy; and the EPA for moving ahead with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and "other expensive regulations." He also voices concern about "the straitjacket many politicians want to place on business -- Ôenvironmental justice' considerations that drive industry from the inner city and urban sprawl justifications that prevent businesses from locating in the suburbs." In conclusion, he calls for cooperation between the business and environmental communities on common ground issues, saying: "let's work together to have a healthy business environment and a clean environment." 4/29/1999
Kansas City: The proposed $20 million, 28 ...
Kansas City: The proposed $20 million, 28-acre Zona Rosa shopping center in north Kansas City is being designed as an"urban village," with neighborhood-type stores and streets. The Kansas City Business Journal says that the project, next to a residential section, reflects "a major trend in the retail world to get away from strip centers," and a wish to do "what is good, what is sustainable, what is ethical." Both the designer and the landowner want to make the project a model for commercial development that enhances, not degrades communities. 2/1/1999
The Kansas City Star welcomes the Vice ...
The Kansas City Star welcomes the Vice President's promise to curb urban sprawl, but wishes he had been more specific Òabout what needs to be done to help central city areas while promoting more orderly development patterns in suburban areas.Ó An editorial, signed by the Editorial Board, notes that many mayors have been complaining for years that Òthe worst kind of sprawl can devastate downtown areas, lead to wider income gaps between urban and suburban dwellers, heighten racial tensions and damage city school systems.Ó Saying that Òthe federal government certainly can't be let off the hookÓ for some of the poor metropolitan development patterns, the editorial ends: ÒBetter cooperation among urban and suburban officials -- along with sensible federal policies -- could lead to balanced programs that will reduce destructive growth patterns and help build tighter-knit communities around the nation. 12/1/1998
Kansas City: According to a National League ...
Kansas City: According to a National League of Cities report, this city is in good shape, but faces increasingly tougher competition from its suburbs and other big cities for residents, tax revenue and development. Entitled "Major Factors Affecting American Cities," the report was released on the eve of the league's annual conference in Kansas City. The report states that sprawl fuels racial conflicts, promotes tax incentives in suburbs and reduces core residents' access to jobs. 12/1/1998
Addressing 4,500 mayors and other officials at ...
Addressing 4,500 mayors and other officials at the 75th Annual Congress of Cities in Kansas City, Vice President Al Gore outlined a vision of 21st century metropolitan regions, with robust cities at the core, as Òpowerful engines of growth and opportunity.Ó Dismayed by sprawl, which fragments communities and family lives, and spawns endless traffic jams and Òneon nightmares,Ó the Vice President expressed his belief that Òthe federal government has a role to play to encourage and strengthen smarter, more liveable, sustainable growth.Ó Promising Òcarefully targeted incentivesÓ for smart growth, he pledged efforts to preserve open space, clean up the environment, help cities and nurture a sense of community. All these goals, said the Vice President, are part of a broad philosophy that he described as Òpractical idealismÓ for the 21st century. 12/1/1998
Kansas City is stepping up its revitalization ...
Kansas City is stepping up its revitalization efforts with the nation's first city Brownfields Commission. The commission will make brownfield cleanup and redevelopment easier by integrating resources and helping Mayor Emanuel Cleaver and the City Council with project endorsements for state or federal assistance. 7/1/1998
Development in Kansas City has turned for ...
Development in Kansas City has turned for the better with public and private efforts to preserve historic buildings and the areas cultural and natural heritage. In 1995, Johnson County commissioners rejected the 21st Century Parkway project. Recently, they approved the First local subdivision with 30 % of the site set aside for conservation. Other developers use neo-traditional principles of compactness and conservation in their projects. 6/1/1998
The Triangle Council of Governments' World Class ...
The Triangle Council of Governments' World Class Region Conference III in Cary dealt with the area's long-term growth options. Several hundred government, business and civic leaders focused on the need to control sprawl, protect open space, develop mass transit and forge regional cooperation. 4/1/1998
A two-year study "Business Strategies for Kansas ...
A two-year study "Business Strategies for Kansas City's Urban Core" found most of its businesses highly satisfied with their location. The downtown location assures a big customer base, a large pool of employees and good relations with the government. The only problem is a lack of good public transportation. 4/1/1998
The new Kansas City FOCUS master plan ...
The new Kansas City FOCUS master plan recommends redevelopment around future light rail stations, but Chamber of Commerce leaders failed to forge consensus on a rail route, and instead proposed either a less expensive commuter train or double-decker bus lines between the downtown and the suburbs. 4/1/1998
In Johnson County's Gardner City, Administrator Tom ...
In Johnson County's Gardner City, Administrator Tom Kaleko used the state's 1994 Neighborhood Revitalization Act to create a Downtown Enhancement District with tax increment financing, or TTF. 4/1/1998
Mecklenburg County's town of Davidson is implementing ...
Mecklenburg County's town of Davidson is implementing its strict 1995 growth control code by building a neo-traditional pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, Lake Davidson Park. 3/1/1998
To boost the Kansas City core, hit ...
To boost the Kansas City core, hit by 14% unemployment, Mayor Emanuel Cleaver devised a full 25-year property tax abatement for businesses in the city's Enhanced Enterprise Community zone. 3/1/1998
|
 |
