In the heart of Kansas City, Missouri's urban core, vacant lots and abandoned structures set the stage for change. Speakers at a recent KC Downtowners luncheon are actively working to revitalize these areas, focusing on the potential for improvement in KC’s urban neighborhoods.
Andrew Ganahl, managing partner, AND Real Estate, LLC; Shawnna Murrell, owner and managing broker, Murrell Homes Real Estate Group, LLC and program manager, Real Estate Diversity Initiative (REDI) of ULI Kansas City; and Abby Newsham, senior associate, urban designer, Multistudio, and founder of Small Developers of KC, are advocates of incremental development.
According to Newsham, incremental development is locally driven and led by citizen developers and entrepreneurs who undertake projects that might not be suited for larger real estate development companies.
Small Developers of KC is a local group of citizens of all skill levels that meets monthly to focus on different topics and highlight projects.
“The four things that we do is just exposure for this type of development, awareness about risks and challenges associated with this kind of work, helping people build connections who are interested in being a citizen developer or supporting this kind of development, and then also advocacy for changes that can be made in policy as well as in regulatory processes that can help support small scale and incremental development,” Newsham said.
The group’s advocacy work has centered on changes to the city’s zoning code which have impeded housing development, what Newsham described as “missing middle housing”.
“So this is everything between a single-family house all the way to an apartment complex. These are buildings that we see in a lot of our historic legacy neighborhoods. They are important for a lot of reasons for the productivity of our city. They also are important for providing a variety of different housing types for different household types at different price points. So having that variety is really critical to our city,” said Newsham.
Until earlier this year, the standards for minimum lot sizes, parking and setbacks created multiple barriers to building this kind of housing or to reutilizing existing structures.
Effective January 2023, Kansas City’s infill ordinance waived minimum lot sizes and parking standards for projects up to eight units and provided “contextual setback standards that have to do with the actual patterns that are on the block, rather than having a one size fits all associated with a zoning district,” said Newsham.
In addition, Kansas City adopted an ordinance in September 2022 that permits the building and use of accessory dwelling units on any lot zoned residential which is owner-occupied, another initiative in which Small Developers of KC was involved.
REDI is a 15-week real estate development training and mentorship program started in 2019 whose mission is to advance the number of women and people of color in the real estate industry. The participants gain direct knowledge and experience working in teams to produce a development plan, a proforma and a marketing plan for a real estate project.
“What this program does, is it connects these participants with our local experts. Maybe someone that they didn’t have access to prior to going through the program,” said Murrell.
Murrell said most of the program participants were born and raised in the community and want to see their city thrive. To date, more than 100 participants have completed the program.
According to Murrell, small-scale, incremental development provides many benefits to the community. It empowers residents and entrepreneurs to help shape their neighborhoods. It can lead to the revitalization of commercial districts, attracting new businesses and customers. Smaller incremental projects often have lower upfront costs and can provide affordable housing options. They also promote the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, create local jobs, support walkability and accessibility, facilitate social interaction and a sense of community and can be designed to be sustainable.
Ganahl has been involved in developing several successful infill projects, including two 44-unit apartment projects with ground-floor retail, one of which was constructed on a quarter-acre size parking lot at 19th and Main Street, and the other in Waldo on a half-acre lot.
His firm currently is developing a project in Columbus Park with 10 townhomes, all of which will be for sale. Behind the townhomes will be 10 apartments—two fourplexes and a duplex--offering a cheaper alternative to renting in a larger building in River Market.
Ganahl said infill is important for the city financially. In addition, the future workforce wants to live in the urban core.
“[Y]oung people that we need in our next generation of talent, they want to be near amenities, they want to be in well-located, walkable neighborhoods,” he said.
Infill development also is important from an environmental perspective, according to Ganahl.
“The more you can use existing infrastructure as opposed to running new roads, sewers, new liabilities on the city’s balance sheet, you’re taking better advantage of what’s already there,” said Ganahl.
Ganahl said density restrictions, financing challenges (including higher interest rates and tighter lending regulations) and the changes the city made to tax incentives in 2019 have made it more difficult to do small projects.
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Feature Photo Credit: Mike Sinclair