The Downtown Council of Kansas City recently unveiled its Imagine Downtown KC 2030 Strategic Plan, a plan nearly two years in the making that sets new goals, outlines transformative strategies and identifies catalytic projects to shape a more equitable, inclusive and vibrant Downtown Kansas City.
Last week, Bill Dietrich, president and CEO of the Downtown Council, joined the KC Downtowners to share details of the plan containing 189 recommendations, which Dietrich described as a “living document” and a “grassroots plan.”
The last strategic plan for Downtown, issued in 2000, focused on the Central Business District, River Market and the Crossroads. At the time, Kansas City was very close to losing its downtown, according to Dietrich. Many of the initiatives in the 2000 plan - such as the Power and Light District, T-Mobile Center and the KC Streetcar -led to the improvements we see today in those three core neighborhoods,
“The key goal of this [new] plan is to impact those downtown adjacent neighborhoods positively with that type of wealth creation and keep expanding that circle of new investment and growth,” said Dietrich.
Dietrich said the planning process which resulted in the Imagine Downtown KC plan focused on 22 unique neighborhoods, each with its own heritage, history, culture and aspirations.
“This plan looks through the lens of economic inclusion. It’s all about building partnerships and bridges between neighborhoods and expanding the revitalization into those downtown adjacent neighborhoods while continuing obviously in the core areas,” he said.
“We as the Downtown Council facilitated the process, but we did not want to take for granted that we knew what was important to these neighborhoods. We wanted to make sure that we were really focused on listening to neighborhoods and understanding each neighborhood has a different set of development goals, livability goals, (and) portability goals,” said Dietrich.
The planning involved an extensive community engagement process, with members from each neighborhood represented on the steering committee. The Downtown Council launched a year-long “listening tour” by meeting with large and small groups, conducting one-on-one interviews and producing ten podcasts to learn what was important to the community. MIG, a national consulting firm, assisted with the process.
Dietrich said once the plan had a vision statement, the following goals were identified: ensure a livable city for all; connect Downtown neighborhoods; nurture a prosperous, innovative and creative economy; preserve and enhance our unique assets and make Downtown sustainable and green.
To achieve those goals, the plan identifies six transformative strategies, which Dietrich further described:
Mosaic of neighborhoods. “This is a recognition again that diversity is our strength. Each neighborhood has its own heritage. We need to preserve and enhance those unique characters.”
Smart and healthy infrastructure. “We need our downtown to be resilient. We've been very fortunate coming through COVID. Our downtown really remains ready to reopen. We’ve been able to preserve the advances we’ve made. And then focusing on smart city technologies — as mundane but important as sewer and stormwater separation or the environment, high-speed fiber to every home.”
Housing for all. “Downtown today remains an affordable downtown, but that doesn’t stay without intentional strategies to maintain the affordability while allowing growth to go forward. So the housing for all is really focused on maintaining affordability, (and) maintaining residents who live in our neighborhood. We don’t want to redevelop our neighborhoods and force the residents who have lived there for many years out of their homes.”
21st-century jobs, economy and recovery. “(We want to) continue innovative efforts to support local retail through the pandemic. One of the market segments that has been hit the hardest by the pandemic is the arts community… How do we help them re-emerge post-pandemic? Connect local students with businesses through internships. Retain existing major employers.”
Seamless mobility. “Continue the zero-fare for transit. Talk about removing obstacles for people to connect to jobs, . . . Prioritize east-west routes. Support bike and pedestrian amenities. Implement complete street policies. Look at things like parking benefit districts. . . . Streetcar expansion already happened north and south. How do we get across the river? What’s the first east-west transit route for the streetcar?”
A green, beautiful and vibrant city center. “We’re still a very hardscape downtown. We need a lot more tree plantings. We need much more landscaping. Rooftop gardens. Lowering that carbon footprint. Update green space. We need to update the green space plan, prioritize pedestrian access, support neighborhood events and reimagine and reinvigorate parks and plazas.”
The plan identifies eight broad categories of catalytic projects—those projects that spin-off additional community benefits and investment: east-west connections; innovation districts; parks, open spaces and plazas; streetcar expansion; loop reimagination; a downtown ballpark; street reimagination; and arts, cultural and historic destinations.
An implementation committee, led by Jason Parson, president and CEO of Parson + Associates, as chair; Lynn Carlton, regional leader of planning at HOK, as vice-chair; and Dr. Kimberly Beatty, chancellor of Metropolitan Community College, as vision advancement chair; will be joined by 25 to 30 neighborhood representatives, organization representatives and content experts.
“They’ll guide decision making through collaborative partnerships, ensure downtown wide feedback and input ongoing (feedback), facilitate the coordination of communications and strategic decisions, and work to coordinate funding from public and private sources,” Dietrich said.
A copy of the full plan can be found at www.downtownkc.org.
Featured rendering credit: HOK/Agency L+P.