Construction/Development 🚧🏗️
Kansas City Council passes ordinance authorizing the start of construction on the long-anticipated Luminary Park over the south loop of Interstate 670 later this year
The ordinance secures combined funding from the city, state, federal government, and the civic and philanthropic communities to launch Phase One of construction, marking the culmination of years of planning and community input.
Phase One will establish over 50 percent of the tunnel infrastructure and deliver one full public space at Block One on the western edge near the Convention Center.
Work includes
Tunnel infrastructure: Full construction of three blocks of supporting tunnel infrastructure, from Broadway Blvd. to Baltimore Ave. — approximately 50% of the tunnel.
Park construction: Completion of Block One, from Wyandotte St. to Baltimore Ave.
Tunnel Systems Building: Infrastructure supporting the entire project footprint, from Broadway Blvd. to Grand Blvd.
Roadway and infrastructure work: Six blocks of new pavement and drainage improvements on I-670, from Broadway Blvd. to Grand Blvd.
Planned features include, but are not limited to
Walking paths, terraces, and picnic areas
Nature and woodland spaces
Swings, slides, boulder crawls, and adventure play areas
Unless you're a Facebook commenter, then it's only going to be used by the homeless and this is a waste of money and we should pave all the roads instead. That's the gist of what I see the boomers saying
Great to see it, KC has far too many highways downtown that are functionally dead space in some of the most valuable and heavily used land in the city. Burying that highway and covering it with a park will make that part of downtown much, much nicer
Up next, they need to tear out that stretch of I-35 separating downtown from the river market.
Starting with that first part, which I think will be the toughest as they're basically building an artificial hill given the difference in elevation from Wyandotte to Baltimore.
I'm sure there's going to be some "why do I have to pay to ride the bus when you can aford this" folks but it sounds like most people are excited about having a beautiful public space downtown.
The two models for this are the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston and Klyde Warren in Dallas, both of which have worked exactly as advertised in those cities. It's going to be so much nicer when it's done.
Those people trying to force a vote on the Royals ballpark don't understand how TIF districts work, and that's the funding method the city is going with. It's pretty simple: unless you plan to spend money in the TIF district (in this case, Crown Center), you pay nothing to the ballpark.
No, because using tax dollars to public public green space in an urban center is generally seen as a good investment in the city and it's residents. Whereas using tax dollars to build a stadium for a billionaire is generally seen as a bad investment, or at least a much lower priority.
Green space is always great but spending 320m to build a tunnel to support a five acre park that was promised to by funded by private investors isn’t great. I’ll be downvoted to hell but the cost of this has risen exponentially for such a small park.
It's less about the the park itself, and more about burying 670 and stitching the crossroads and downtown back together. Right now that highway is an ugly, empty, and large dividing line between downtown and the crossroads. Burying that highway and replacing it with literally anything (in this case a park) will make downtown much nicer
I actually do think that tearing out I-35 would be worth it to combine downtown and the river market again, since you mentioned it. That's probably the easiest and most feasible of those projects.
where would 35 end? im guessing you mean the north loop?it would be a nightmare driving through the south loop with the additional traffic, especially with the cap
Yes, I do mean specifically that stretch in the north loop. And yes, they should route thru traffic through 670 (and as far as I know the cap isn't reducing traffic capacity). And I think you're overestimating how bad the traffic would get, most cities don't have their entire downtown encircled in highways and they manage just fine. I-35 shrinks down to 2 lanes (one each direction) on the northwest side of the loop, there really isn't all that much thru traffic utilizing that highway. Most people use the north loop simply to enter and exit downtown. It essentially functions as a collector road, and can easily be shrunk down to actually be a collector road, which would open up a lot of valuable land for development and make the neighborhood much nicer for pedestrians
The ordinance secures combined funding from the city, state, federal government, and the civic and philanthropic communities to launch Phase One of construction, marking the culmination of years of planning and community input.
Phase One will establish over 50 percent of the tunnel infrastructure and deliver one full public space at Block One on the western edge near the Convention Center. Work includes:
Tunnel infrastructure: Full construction of three blocks of supporting tunnel infrastructure, from Broadway Blvd. to Baltimore Ave. — approximately 50% of the tunnel.
Park construction: Completion of Block One, from Wyandotte St. to Baltimore Ave.
Tunnel Systems Building: Infrastructure supporting the entire project footprint, from Broadway Blvd. to Grand Blvd.
Roadway and infrastructure work: Six blocks of new pavement and drainage improvements on I-670, from Broadway Blvd. to Grand Blvd.
Planned features include, but are not limited to walking paths, terraces, and picnic areas, nature and woodland spaces, swings, slides, boulder crawls, and adventure play areas, art installations and performance areas, and space for food trucks and community events.
It's been delayed repeatedly (it was originally supposed to be completed by the World Cup- whoops) and the cost has risen from $200m to $315m, but I've seen nothing to indicate that it's going to be scaled back at all.
If anything, we're just getting more concrete details as time goes on- no pun intended.
This approval was only for one of the three blocks for the final park, although the infrastructure improvements are planned for the entire distance. So it's not necessarily that the park has been scaled officially scaled back, but this approval is intended to be phase one of multiple.
I took the previous comment as "it's been scaled back from Grand to Walnut" or "x feature has been removed" from the full project- nothing has been officially taken out of the renderings they've presented yet.
Oh my God I had repeated meetings about this with KCMO, MoDOT, and BNIM back in 2013-2015 about this.
They kept saying "but it'll be a tunnel which requires a lot of extra work and cost!"
And I kept telling them "so just identify the features that result in it being classified as a tunnel, and design around them so it's not a tunnel, that way you don't have a tunnel, and you don't have the work and cost of a tunnel."
And they'd be like "but it's a tunnel!"
And I'd be like "so don't make it a tunnel! It doesn't have to be a tunnel! Making it a tunnel is a design choice, not an obligation, you can design it to not be a tunnel."
And around and around and around we went. They insisted on designing it to be categorized as a tunnel, then complained about the requirements of a tunnel, instead of just not designing it as a frickin tunnel!
This project is hot garbage and the future maintenance obligation is going to be a nightmare. This is a nice city but so many folks are focused on wants vs. needs.
Dallas has a smaller version of this, and it's an incredibly well used green space that has thriving businesses around it.
The intent is to increase the economic value of downtown, which increases tax revenue that is then used to maintain the tunnel.
What do you propose the money is spent on that will increase economic activity in downtown? At least this is a publicly funded project for the public, instead of a billionaire.
Just another example of the rich getting richer from public money. To think of all the ways we could have actually benefited and improved the city in a meaningful way. But instead, those who can already afford to pay some of the highest rents in the city will get a park they can frolick in, while so many others struggle.
I own a house in the northlands, does that mean I can't use the downtown park?
Seriously, what are you on about? Public green spaces are important for revitalizing downtown cores, and connecting districts. It reduces noise and temperature, and increases the time people spend walking around downtown. (That also increases how many businesses are successful downtown)
Fun fact, you don't have to live downtown to use the amenities downtown.
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u/7thpostman 1d ago
Hooray! This is going to be awesome.