The City of Kansas City is currently gathering information to update its comprehensive plan, which sets priorities, guides land development decisions and provides guidance for areas like transportation, housing and livability. The current plan was adopted in 1997.
While this may sound like bureaucratic detail work, it could impact how, when and where Clay County gets things like curbs and gutters, new parks or how new development occurs.
With online meetings, surveys and other virtual technologies, the effort in February included strategy sessions on livability issues like housing affordability, neighborhood amenities, desirable neighborhoods, revitalizing distressed neighborhoods and community character. Anyone can register for the sessions or, if live participation is not possible, use the online surveys and recordings of past meetings, which began in June.
Although the efforts are big-picture and long-range, they are tied to reality on the ground. “How can we make the topics we’re discussing a reality?” Triveece Penelton, city planner, asked at the start of a Feb. 22 session. “This is really just getting your input into how we can do that.”
Participants, including several from the Kansas City Northland, were able to ask questions and make suggestions. Everything from repairing curbs, community policing and major developments were on the table. Several of the citizen suggestions seemed to resonate, like calls for more pocket parks or the establishment of a city office to help small businesses access tools that large developers easily afford.
More information on the process, upcoming meetings, online surveys and accessing recordings of past meetings, is available here.
