Kansas City Streetcar grand opening celebration!

Public invited to street parties to celebrate the opening of the KC Streetcar May 6 & 7

The City of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Streetcar Authority invite the public to celebrate the start of KC Streetcar operations while visiting downtown Kansas City neighborhoods to witness the transformative effect the streetcar is having on our city. The public celebration starts at 10:00 a.m. Friday, May 6, outside of Union Station with a grand opening ceremony featuring Kansas City Mayor Sly James, Federal Transit Administration members, Kansas City Streetcar Authority Chairman Mike Hagedorn and other local dignitaries and elected officials.  The ceremony will be followed by an inaugural first ride for those dignitaries and the opening of public streetcar service and community-wide parties and activities. Mayor Sly James said the grand opening of the KC Streetcar is more than a celebration of a new transit option for Kansas Citians.  “This is the first step of what I believe will be a truly historic transformation of the entire city,” James said. “Building owners and developers have completed, started or announced more than $1.7 billion in construction in the downtown KC Streetcar district since the route was announced. I’m confident the entire city will find new momentum as the KC Streetcar energizes the heart of our community.” The KC Streetcar grand opening ceremony kicks off a weekend long celebration along the entire two-mile streetcar route. Many special streetcar-related events are planned in downtown Kansas City, in conjunction with other festivities such as First Friday (and Saturday this time) in the Crossroads Arts District, a family-friendly festival with carnival rides at Union Station, fireworks both Friday and Saturday nights from Liberty Memorial, Smart City Village in the downtown business district, Middle of the Map Fest in the KC Power & Light District, movie in the park in the City Market, and a busy spring weekend in the River Market. The public is encouraged to enjoy and explore the many restaurants, boutique shops and other retail business along the streetcar route. There will also be a stationary streetcar parked at Union Station near Pershing Road for your chance to take a selfie with the streetcar. For complete information about KC Streetcar grand opening activities, including transit options and parking, please go to www.timetoridekc.org.  An endeavor of this magnitude would not be possible without the involvement and support of so many partners”, said Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority. “For a project to go from the drawing board to completion in this timeframe is record setting and only possible with the strong and visionary leadership from the City of Kansas City, and tremendous support from the Federal Transit Administration, the KC Area Transportation Authority, downtown businesses, our contract operator, Herzog Transit, and many others. This milestone represents years of effort by many and a new and exciting era for the region’s RideKC public transit partnership.” Many thanks to the Grand Opening Celebration sponsors: The City of Kansas City, Missouri, The Kansas City Streetcar Authority, KC Streetcar Constructors, Sprint, CAF, UMB, HDR, Burns & McDonnell, KCATA, Port KC, Lewis Rice, Dimensional Innovations, KCP&L, SNC-Lavalin Rail & Transit, BNIM, Commerce Tower on Main, Central States, J. Reiger Co, Boulevard Brewing Company,  HINT, HNTB, Thomas McGee, LTK, Centric Projects, Sprint Center, Commerce Bank, JE Dunn, Jackson County, Mark One Electric and the KC Chamber of Commerce. The KC Streetcar grand opening celebration planning team was led by the Kansas City Streetcar Authority and O'Neill Marketing & Events Management, with assistance from many City of Kansas City departments, including Public Works, Kansas City Police Department, Kansas City Fire Department, and the City Manager’s Office. We’d also like to thank our downtown partners including the Downtown Council, the City Market, Union Station, Kansas City Power & Light District, Visit KC, KC Crossroads Community Association, and the River Market neighborhood association. Celebration Information: Watch the ceremony in front of Union Station. Then enjoy activities in all downtown neighborhoods along the route. Please do not expect to ride the streetcar’s entire route continuously. Plan to exit at stops along the way to explore neighborhood activities. Transportation & Parking: FREE RideKC bus service is being offered on all local, express and shuttle service that connects to downtown. There will also be additional RideKC Max bus service on Main Street the weekend of May 6 & 7. Main Street between 20th and Pershing Road will be closed to traffic. Union Station parking and Crown Center parking via Grand Blvd. will remain accessible. A full map of local parking locations is posted onwww.timetoridekc.org Main Street north of 20th will remain open to traffic, however, no street parking will be allowed on Main Street or on the south side of 5th Street between Main and Walnut on May 6 & 7.  Streetcar information: The KC Streetcar will operate seven days a week, with service running from 6 a.m. to midnight Mondays through Thursdays; 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays; 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturdays; and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays, and it is free to ride.

City hosts 8th annual Civil Rights & Fair Housing Summit

April 22 Summit will feature Gustavo F. Velasquez, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD

On Friday, April 22nd, the Civil Rights Division of the Kansas City’s Human Relations Department will hold its 8th Annual Civil Rights/Fair Housing Summit. The Summit will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, 2345 McGee St. in Kansas City, MO.  The event, which is held annually in April in commemoration of National Fair Housing Month, will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will end at 2:30 p.m. The theme of this years’ Summit is “Are There Really 2 Sides of Justice?”.  The Summit will examine how disparities in laws between urban and suburban areas affect the lives and livelihoods of those living within the urban core.  The Employment Law ADA workshop looks at the employment rights of persons with disabilities. Our hope is to focus attention on steps to take that will change outcomes in the future. The keynote speaker for the event is Gustavo F. Velasquez, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD. Gustavo Velasquez was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate to become Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Prior to his nomination, Velasquez was Executive Director of the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), a non-for-profit organization based in Washington, DC dedicated to serve thousands of Latinos and other immigrants and underserved populations gain the necessary skills and capital to start and maintain their own businesses. Workshop issues to be addressed at the Summit include Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: Effects of Residential Segregation, Employment Law ADA, Education – Equal/Unequal Treatment and Environmental Justice & Urban Core. The Summit is free and open to the public.  Free parking will also be provided.  Lunch will be served.  To preregister and for more information, call 816-513-1888 or register on line at www.kcmo.gov/civilrights. Any persons requiring special accommodations please call TTY or 711.

City celebrates Show-Me Green Sales Tax Holiday April 19-25

During the week of April 19-25, Kansas City, Mo. residents can help save money, conserve energy and stimulate the economy by participating in Missouri’s Show-Me Green Sales Tax Holiday!

During this week, ENERGY STAR®-qualified appliances purchased within Kansas City, Mo., located in Jackson County will be exempt from state and city sales tax. In addition, purchases made in the portions of Kansas City, Mo., located in Clay, Platte, Jackson and Cass counties will be exempt from city, state and county sales tax.

The Show-Me Green Sales Tax Holiday exempts state sales tax on retail sales of qualifying energy star certified new appliances, up to one thousand five hundred dollars per appliance, during a seven-day period beginning at 12:01 a.m. on April nineteenth and ending at midnight on April twenty-fifth.

The following energy star certified appliances qualify for the holiday:

• Clothes washers
• Clothes dryers
• Water heaters
• Trash compactors*
• Dishwashers
• Conventional ovens*
• Ranges*
• Stoves*
• Air conditioners
• Furnaces
• Refrigerators
• Freezers
• Heat pumps

(*According to the Energy Star Website, trash compactors, conventional ovens, ranges and stoves do not receive an energy star rating. Therefore, although the statute anticipates that someday they may receive the energy star rating, tax will continue to apply to purchases of these items during the upcoming Show-Me Green Sales Tax Holiday.)

For more information, please contact the State of Missouri Department of Revenue website:http://dor.mo.gov/business/sales/taxholiday/green/consumers.php

Updates from the Nelson Atkins Museum

Two updates from the Nelson-Atkins:

First, we are expecting a large crowd of visitors this Sunday, April 3, for Passport to India. Please know that a shuttle will run from the Kauffman Foundation and Gardens throughout the day, and we encourage visitors to park in those lots. Please join us for the event!

Second, the vibrant sculptures by Philip Haas, Four Seasons, which have been in place on the south lawn of the museum for four seasons, are scheduled to be deinstalled this month. We wanted you to be aware, because this will involve heavy equipment and the closure of one lane of Oak Street for one week. Here is the expected schedule:

Monday, April 11: Offloading crating materials from the circle drive off Oak Street.

Friday, April 15: Delivery of equipment, including a spydercrane, crawler boom lift, telehandler and forklift.

Sunday, April 17: Local traffic control firm Gun-Ko will consolidate northbound traffic on Oak Street to a single lane; 95% of curbside northbound lane between Cleaver II and the museum West Lot will be closed to traffic including school buses. The closed lane will be needed for the transfer of sculpture components via fork lift to the West Lot for crating, transfer and staging of packed crates south along the curb, and eventual loading of four full-length tractor-trailers.

Monday, April 18 through Friday, April 22: Deinstallation takes place, with no visitor/public access to the South Terrace. We anticipate this to require five days, through Friday, April 22. Oak Street traffic should return to normal by Saturday, April 23.

Visit southmoreland.org for more information, and to become a member.

Westport High School Re-purposing Presentation - This Monday, March 21st

Dear Neighbors,

On behalf of the Southmoreland Neighborhood Association, I am writing to encourage you to attend the Westport High School Re-purposing presentation at 6:00 pm on Monday evening, March 21st at Redeemer Fellowship.  I’d like to provide you additional information and perspective prior to this presentation to better equip you to evaluate the developer’s (Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners “KCSDP”) request to expand parking as a part of the development.

The design and placement of parking will be handled through a process that will be followed with every single material change in the development receiving two levels of public scrutiny:

• First, the KCSDP will inform the Southmoreland Neighborhood Association (“SNA”) and Old Hyde Park Neighborhood Association (“OHPNA”) of the change and specifics of the change;

o   The SNA and OHPNA will have the opportunity to provide community feedback and guidance;

§  KCSDP will pay for a traffic study and propose a design that minimizes traffic and parking impacts to our neighborhood, and present this data to our neighborhoods and to City Planning groups.

§  KCSDP will provide a design that pictures where the parking will be and how it will look, for neighborhood review.

o   KCSDP will amend their plans as appropriate.

• Secondly, material changes will be subject to City Planning and Zoning review and approval, as appropriate.

o   The first question the City Planning and Zoning review will ask is: “Have you discussed this with the neighborhood, and is the neighborhood OK with this change.” 

The Southmoreland and Old Hyde Park neighborhoods have selected and endorsed this development team and development proposal several times. Most of us can agree that we are excited about the dynamic development Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners is proposing, which is focused on technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.   They are planning for co-working space, startup accelerator space, a coding school, maker space, a public forum and theater for public and private use, work-live spaces, healthcare outreach services, an early childhood learning center, and more.  This is an excellent use of the Westport High facility, and will be a big draw for home buyers looking to live close to a space like this, improving the value of our property and our neighborhood.  It will draw positive activity into our neighborhood and help eliminate crime and other negative influences in the area.

The additional parking is driven by a requirement of the banking institutions that are financing this development, by city zoning and planning requirements, and by the success of the developer in drawing tenants to the development. 

As we have reviewed development proposals in other parts of our neighborhood a top concern of ours has always been “has the developer planned for the appropriate amount of off-street parking”. That’s an important an essential concern given our perennial issue of overcrowded off-street parking.   The additional parking will prevent the developer’s tenants from taking already scarce street parking that the residents of our neighborhood use on a regular basis.   

We understand some residents are concerned that the green space of the track will go away. Green space is incredibly important to our neighborhood, and our neighborhood is blessed with more public green space than just about any other Kansas City neighborhood. We are directly adjacent to Gillham Park, Mill Creek Park, Hyde Park and Theis Park; Southmoreland Park is in our neighborhood.  We also benefit from the lawn at the Nelson Atkins and the Kansas City Art Institute campus.  It’s also important to remember that KCSDP is developing a sustainable project (it’s actually in their name – Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners), providing natural green space is a necessity in sustainable design.

Understand that the sale of Westport High School is not complete.  The school district has agreed to sell the building and property with the use restriction that NO ground modifications can be made for twenty years.  If the use restriction is not removed, the sale of Westport High School will be at risk of falling through.  The Southmoreland Neighborhood Association encourages you to tell Kansas City Public Schools to remove this use restriction. 

Once the use restriction is removed and KCSDP can complete the purchase of the building and grounds, they can then order traffic studies, continue to develop the design building and grounds, and begin the planning and zoning process with the city. When the project is in the planning and zoning review stage, the community will gather again to review what specifically KCSDP has designed for the grounds.  None of these processes can even begin until the use restriction is removed and the building is sold.      

Again, we encourage you to come out Monday night, and voice your support for Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners’ plan!

Sincerely,

Laura Burkhalter

Southmoreland Neighborhood Association

PS: In addition to this reminder, we wanted to provide you with an overview of a few key events that have transpired over the last five years, bringing us to this Monday’s Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) Westport High re-purposing presentation.

January 2011: KCPS created Re-purposing Initiative Office. Staff reports to the school board.

May 2012: Proposals for Westport Middle and High Schools were received by the KCPS Re-purposing staff.

August 2012: Community heard presentations of teams that had submitted reuse proposals for Westport Middle and High School.

April 2013: Three short-listed teams gave presentations for their plans to re-purpose Westport Middle and High School.  Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners (KCSDP) presented a proposal to develop Westport Middle and High School into Westport Commons.  Public feedback was heard and feedback sheets were received by the KCPS Re-purposing Staff.

January 2014: Westport Middle School is sold to KCSDP.

August 2014: KCPS hosts presentation of market-rate apartment proposal by Foutch Brothers.  Residents voice their concern that the proposal was materially-revised due to the loss of anchor tenant Academie Lafayette, and that the school district should reconsider KCSDP’s plan to purchase and redevelop Westport Middle and Westport High into the Westport Commons campus.  A few weeks later, KCPS agrees to allow KCSDP to re-enter bidding for Westport High.  

February 2015: Presentations given for the Re-purposing of Westport High School by KCSDP and Foutch Brothers. 

September 2015: KCPS approves sale of Westport High School to KCSDP.  Although KCSDP development presentation has always had an element of land development, including additional parking, KCPS imposed a use restriction that NONE of the grounds can be modified for the next 20 years.

Visit southmoreland.org for more information on SNA, and to become a member.  

SNA Encourages Residents to Attend Westport HighTrack/Field Revised Reuse Presentation

Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners, LLC (KCSDP) will present its revised redevelopment proposal for Westport High to the community for consideration at 6:00pm on Monday, March 21 at Redeemer Fellowship, 3921 Baltimore Avenue. KCSDP would like to use the track/field area to provide additional parking for its tenants.

KCPS invites local stakeholders to come and provide feedback on the revised proposal. Feedback will be used by KCPS school board to determine if the revised proposal should be accepted. 

If you have comments/questions, please contact the Repurposing Initiative Office at repurposing@kcpublicschools.org or 816-418-7725.

Visit southmoreland.org for more information on SNA, and to become a member.  

Register Today for Community Engagement University

City program helps residents to better connect with their government

Curious about how the City of Kansas City, Mo., government works? Want to learn from City staff how to improve your community? Sign up for Community Engagement University: a free program designed to connect residents with government to build a better Kansas City. Community Engagement University is a free, hands-on, interactive program for Kansas City, Mo., residents 18 years of age and older. The sessions cover basic knowledge of the City’s functions and operations. The eight-week program will begin on Tuesday, March 29 from 6-8 p.m. at City Hall, located at 414 E. 12th St. Community Engagement University sessions will continue once per week on Tuesday nights through May 17. Residents must register to participate by enrolling online at kcmo.gov/ceu or by calling 816-513-1313. WHY PARTICIPATE IN THE UNIVERSITY? Gain a better understanding of how local government functions Participate and interact with knowledgeable staff to better learn and understand how City finances, operations, projects and services are developed, distributed and executed Serve as role model for community and neighborhood residents Help improve the quality of life for Kansas City residents Build a livable, sustainable community Learn about volunteer opportunities in city government SESSIONS Local Government 101 We Keep this City Clean We Keep This City Safe We Keep This City Healthy and Active We Build and Improve This City We Are in Your Neighborhood Part I We Are in Your Neighborhood Part II Dollars and Sense Registration opens March 1, but seating is limited to the first 35 residents registering. For more information, contact 311 at 816-513-1313 or ceu@kcmo.org.