This blog features observations from Line Creek Valley resident Wes Minder. The comments on the blog do not represent the views of the City of Kansas City, MO, Platte County, MO, the Park Hill School District, my wife, my children, Warner Brothers, Blacque Jacqcue Shellacque, my wife's employer, the Platte Brooke North HOA, the TIF Commission of Kansas City, space aliens, the University of Illinois, Rockhurst University, or any other governmental or private group mentioned on this site. Any comments are the opinions of the respective commenter and are not reflective of any governmental or private group. Posts may be scheduled and spaced out to go live during hours of the day so time stamps are not reflective of the actual time of post writing. Any political endorsements are not paid and the cost of this blog is all borne by myself. The opinions on the blog posts are the opinions of one person-Wes Minder aka the Line Creek Loudmouth.
Today the KCMO City Council approved an ordinance which would move the proposed Northland Sports Complex into the next phase. The ordinance states:
Directing the City Manager to issue a Request for Information and a Request for Proposals/Qualifications for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a new 12-field soccer complex in the City’s Northland; authorizing the Director of Finance to close project accounts; declaring the intent of the City to reimburse itself from the bond proceeds for certain expenditures and recognizing that this ordinance has an accelerated effective date.
You can read the whole thing here and read about the economic impact from my post about it last year (note, I'm still in the middle of a DIY disaster but getting closer to the end). What does that all mean? Well it means the City wants to move forward with starting a procurement process to find someone to build and run the thing. It also means the completion of the gap in Old Tiffany Springs Road from Line Creek Parkway to Platte Purchase is going to be very important to start and get done in the next year.
Here are some snippets from the presentation. Keep in mind this is all conceptual and subject to change but will give you an idea of where/what the complex will look like. Here are some of the sites that the EDC team looked at for the complex.
Here is a blow up of site 7 at the Northwest corner of the Route 152 and Platte Purchase Drive interchange. CostcoTM is on the southeast corner of the interchange or diagonal of the site. The complex will have one large stadium as the marquee field and also to host World Cup 2026 practices for people to watch from what I've heard. If the complex was located in this area, there would be some efficiencies with the future Platte County R-3 High and Middle Schools just to the north where they could use the stadium for Friday night football games and parking could be shared. How? Well, there are only 4-6 Friday night home games a year (maybe 7 or 8 if Coach Utz's team has a good year) and so overflow parking could park on both sides of the new street because all of the soccer fields won't be filled every weekend for a tournament.
The EDC also highlighted the economic analysis from the report.
You can watch the presentation as given as I downloaded the video from the KCMO City Clerk's website. You should check out the page and video on demand of committees. It's a great way to see your government in action and the discussion under consideration. Maybe someday we'll have that ability in the Park Hill School District for board meetings.
If you've been up along the north end of Line Creek Parkway or along North Platte Purchase north of 152, you may notice that there's some tree clearing that's underway. That work is being done for extending Line Creek Parkway north of Old Stagecoach Road, widen Platte Purchase Drive, and connect the two roads. Here is an overall schematic map from a presentation to the KCMO Park Board. It just shows what might happen in the area and is used more as a map that gives anyone looking to invest an area what might happen. The land use would still need to go through the zoning/entitlement process before anyone starts building anything.
The next map shows what will be built this upcoming summer and some lane configurations along with water and sewer lines. Again, this was from a board presentation last year so final details will change but it gives an idea of the street layout.
The parkway landscaping and typical sections look something like this.
The project is being funded through the Platte Purchase Redevelopment District which using new taxes off the CostcoTM to pay for improvements. One thing to note, the street improvements will include an extension of the Line/Second Creek Trail system along the north and west side of Line Creek Parkway. If you didn't realize it, the Line Creek Trail officially ends at the Route 152 Trail. The trail along the parkway to the north is technically the Second Creek Trail
What's not shown on these exhibits is the first phase of the Second Creek Trail that will be built in 2020 independent of a street that will veer towards the northwest and follow Second Creek and connect at some point into the Genesis subdivision. By the way, this wouldn't be possible without a great company like Arvest BankTM and Ashlar HomesTM dedicating easements at no cost to the taxpayer to build the trail. If you are in the market for a new house, check out the Communities of Green Hills because you'll be connected to this kick butt trail system. Unlike corporations I've previously noted, these businesses support trails with granting of no cost easements.
The neat thing about Second Creek is that it's a lot different than Line Creek and the floodplain gets wide fast so it's got some wide open valleys and amazing natural diversity. Here's a preview.
It's going to be a fun trail to build and connect up to Platte Purchase Park someday.
If you haven't been to Chuck E. CheeseTM or north of 152 on I-29 lately, it's changing. The new Old Tiffany Springs Road Bridge over I-29 is going gangbusters. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the old narrow two lane farm bridge that used to serve the lost city of Tarrytown is being replaced on alignment with a new four lane bridge that completes the arterial grid around the I-29/152 cloverleaf. Even though it's a state interstate bridge, it's being paid for by federal funds obtained by KCMO and funds from the KCI Corridor TIF.
The project will also add sidewalks and finish a huge gap in the Route 152 Trail and make that a continuous corridor from North Amity to US 169 (see this 152 Trail post for better explanation). If you're feeling a need for a life threatening rush and can't afford sky diving, try riding your bike over the bridge with its 30" or so concrete railing and steady flow of cars like this.
The project will also include an underpass for the future KCI Corridor Trail along the east side of I-29 and the underpass is in place. Underpasses are more than pedestrian only HAWK signals but don't have the threat of a car going 45mph hitting a child or family crossing the street nor does it impede traffic flow by making cars stop. This picture is looking north and shows the amount of dirt needing to be brought in and the bridge abutment and retaining wall partially complete on the left.
In the picture above, you can see the construction crane and what looks like a red steel truss or 3D ladder. That red contraption is the hammer for the steel piles that are necessary to build the bridge support.
Basically bridges are supported by "abutments" which are platforms for the bridge beams to sit on. The weight of the bridge and vehicles on it is transferred to the top of the abutment. However, the abutments alone can't support the load. In this case steel piles are driven into the ground until they hit a solid bedrock surface so that there is no settlement of the bridge.
Some of the time bedrock is not always available and so the steel piles are driven into the soil until the pile can no longer be driven. These steel piles act like nails and the friction between the soil and the steel pile provide enough resistance to support the bridge. I tried finding something on the internet that showed it but couldn't find what I wanted so I drew up a back of the letter illustration of how loads are transferred from the piles and support the bridge.
How does the pile hammer work? Something like this video I captured for the Shoal Creek Trail bridge behind Maplewoods Community College.
Every time that hammer hits the steel pile, it's called a "blow." Piles are marked with chalk in one foot intervals to show the depth and rate at which the steel pile is being driven into the ground. Somewhere some program or engineer does all sorts of calculations that calculate the number blows per one foot which the steel pile will meet resistance ie when the hammer hits the pile 42 times and it goes one foot deep, the hammer can stop pounding.
However from my observation is the pile gets driven and driven until a distinctive "ping" sound starts and the hammer pounds a few times without any movement into the ground at all. Piles are steel H-beams and are usually very long in this area as shown below.
Once the piles are driven, earth or usually rock is backfilled and compacted. This is looking west from the east side of I-29 at driven piles. These will be marked at the right elevation and a cutting torch will cut them to a uniform level.
A reinforcing steel basket will be placed around the piles and then the concrete abutment poured. I don't have a picture of that frame because the contractor hadn't started work on it yet but you can imagine it from the picture below.
The bridge crosses both I-29 and Prairie View Road so it has three spans and two "intermediate bents" or piers. This is the pier on the west side of I-29 and it shows the formwork. I really wish I had a picture of the wire frame because it's rather impressive.
The project will raise Old Tiffany Springs Road just north of Chuck E. CheeseTM to the same level as the parking lot to the south and will require a lot of dirt. This is looking east towards Skyview and all of that will be filled in with dirt.
The new road west of I-29 requires a lot of dirt and retaining wall which is going up quickly. This picture was taken a week ago and looking west over I-29 at the new road just south of Honda of Tiffany SpringsTM.
Notice the hanging equipment from the crane way in the air and wonder why that's a common construction site sight? Theft prevention. It's hard to steal a pump or generator when it's 50+ feet in the air.
The project looks even more impressive when over on North Congress looking to the east.
One thing about concrete is that it is really strong when it is compressed or crunched. It is not strong at all when it is in tension or stretched so those round columns in the center need steel within the concrete to provide strength against stretching. Here is how much steel and how it has to be tied all together like Tinker ToysTM.
Vertical concrete columns may appear to be compressed but the weight of the load actually creates tension on the outside of the column. The reinforcing steel cages provide tension support and create the strength to support the bridge loading. I tried another back of the napkin sketch trying to illustrate how it works. If a column doesn't have that steel reinforcement, the column will "shear" at a 45 or so degree angle.
The grading on the west side of I-29 is coming along and the storm inlets and pipes appear to be in place. This is looking east towards I-29.
Did you know that construction grading is quasi-automated? Some contractors use computer aided drafting and modeling software to create 3D models which are then uploaded into a GPS type system. These models are used to guide the operators on where and how much to dig of fill. This is a GPS type system attached to the blade of a bulldozer. The operator has something in the cab that tells him/her how much to lower or raise the blade to get to the right elevation.
The retaining wall for the project is a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall (us engineers are great with acronyms that make sense to only us.) The wall will be these narrow MSE panels interlocked together and then held up using friction created by gravity from the "backfill" material on a vertical tie. In this case, the backfill material is rock and I'm running out of envelopes.
This is looking east along the north side of the new road and shows wall panels without the tie backs. It also shows some black "filter fabric" between the rock and the dirt. The filter fabric is supposed to keep the "fines" or small dirt/clay particles from eroding into the rock and causing water to saturate right behind the wall. Water is bad in these situations because it weighs a lot and adds unnecessary stress to the wall face. The principle is very similar to the "soil nail wall" installation I explained in 2012.
Here's a ten year old with angst that he was hauled out onto another construction site and a six year old who was super excited for perspective on how big these panels are.
Here's a shot of a tie back buried into the gravel and how it's held onto the MSE wall face. You might also be wondering why some of the steel is green and some is not. The green is a coating that is supposed to keep water off the steel and prevent corrosion/rust.
Now bridge designers have other tools in their toolbox and on this one, they used another type of bridge abutment support......the drilled shaft. Rather than hammer steel H-piles into the ground, a drill digs out soil to a solid foundation like bedrock and then the shaft is filled with concrete. I'm tired and it's late so geek out on drilled shafts here. Drilled shafts will hold up the west side of the bridge.
Why would this be different than the other side? Well the west side is 15 or so feet in the air from the existing ground so there's no way to drive pile and use the dirt to hold it in place I'm assuming. In this case, round metal culvert pipes are placed after the drilling is done and will be filled with concrete. That's why you see the shiny tubes in this picture. To the left of the concrete panels right where I am standing is a 10+ foot drop.
The boys had fund dropping rocks into the drilled shaft tubes and then listening for water. They didn't believe me when I said it was 30+ feet deep but once I dropped a rock to show how I knew what I was talking about, they had about five minutes of fun listening for the splash at the bottom of the tubes.
As we were wrapping up, the six year old loudly pointed out the porta-potty in the median and I had to explain that the crane operator and anyone in the middle of the interstate just couldn't find a non-conspicuous place to take a whiz. The crane is in the middle of the interstate to drive the pile for the middle pier and there is a lane closed each way on I-29 so you might hit some stop and go traffic getting to KCI.
KCMO has a project website for official information which you can find here. Work should progress pretty quickly once the piers are in place and they place the bridge beams and hopefully it's all done and ready for Black Friday because we all know we want to make sure Zona Rosa is easily accessible for Christmas shopping...….
The winter has gone on too long and given me a March cold. However, is supposed to be a balmy 50 or so Friday so you should get outside and come to Happy Rock Park for the groundbreaking of the next phase of the Shoal Creek Trail. Here's a link to the official Facebook link for the event as a reminder. Please share.
If you like these trails, show up and thank your elected officials for funding them. This one has a federal grant and is another Gladstone/KCMO partnership project like the first phase of the trail. It's pretty cool what two cities can do working together. Without this partnership, improvements to Pleasant Valley Road, NE 76th Street, and North Broadway would have not happened this decade.
This section of tell also wouldn't have happened without an easement from the Knights of Colmbus so if any of you are a member of the Council on Kensington Road, thank you.
This section of the trail goes by a large pool in Shoal Creek. Here's a preview.
Happy New Year! The weather has sucked and I've been busy. Also, I've got a four year old who loves watching Scooby Doo on the couch with me before bed and frankly I'd rather do that than sit at a computer posting stuff. In fact as soon as he gets done with his apple, he's going to be over here wondering when this post will be done. Too bad he's going to have to wait until his little sister gets done with the book she's flipping through on my lap.....
First off, in case you were wondering, the big "Beyond the Loop" Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) planning study is over. The big planning study being the one that looked at I-70, US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge, and MO-9/Heart of American crossing. You can review the final plan and presentation at the MARC website here. I just want to highlight a few things. First off, a lot of people took time to engage the planning process using the online surveys and it showed in the data. There were a lot of responses from the 64150/51 zip codes so I know a lot of you took the time to take the surveys which was awesome. The planning process got more data than paid presidential polling.
While that planning process was going on, some things happened. Kansas City and MoDOT secured a $25M federal TIGER grant towards the new bridge. Kansas City renewed its 1 cent sales tax and the MARC region devoted $40M towards the new bridge.
MoDOT did some repairs to keep the bridge open so that a new bridge could be cleared environmentally and then bid for construction. In case you wanted to see what condition the bridge was in, I pilfered some pictures from MoDOT's Flickr page. The existing bridge is a "Tied Arch Bridge" which I have an opinion on but I'll let you look at whether or not it is a bridge type built to be easily maintained. Here is what the bridge deck joints looked like.
Here are the Governor and Mayor probably wondering how many times they drove across the bridge in the past year after they saw its condition and how safe it was to park their vehicles on the bridge with that big gap in the expansion joint. The Governor has a look on his face like "Are you sure it's safe to be standing here????"
Here's a shot showing all the rust in the members that can't be "unrusted" and would need to be replaced with a $50M bridge rehab.
And yes, I do drive my big van and family across the bridge so you don't need to worry about it now that the short term, critical repair project is done.
Anyways, the PEL was one federal process and now there's a new process to complete an environmental study on just the new bridge crossing. MoDOT has set up a website for the project here that you can bookmark. There is an open house (ie no formal presentation) public meeting tomorrow, Tuesday 2/12/2019, at MARC at 600 Broadway but you can review the materials with an online public meeting. I'm just going to post the displays for you here before you go there so you can see them all at once.
So above is all the stuff that is the base of the study. Now below are the three cones of impact from a new bridge. Please note that there's a "process" which must be adhered (and I've written like eight things and deleted them) so I'm not going to explain or editorialize. The "cones" are areas to be environmentally cleared and don't mean that's how wide or where exactly new bridge or ramps are going. This is the first step "in the process" so you need to review and provide feedback however that may be.
Eastern alignment with new bridge right next to existing bridge and any traffic improvements at the existing 5th/6th and Broadway interchange.
Center alignment with new connections somewhere just west of Broadway.
Western alignment with the most direct I-35 connection.
Also being looked at is how the Woodsweather Road connection is impacted by a new bridge.
So now you need to TAKE THE SURVEY. You also need to share the survey. Help repeat the engagement level of the PEL study. Now if you'll excuse me, someone's getting cranky about his Scooby Doo and someone's crawling up the stairs....
Time for a life hack post before I comment on the hastily rushed (by the Bart Klein led school board) redistricting effort. Long time readers know that I think campaign signs are one of the top three things to have around the house. From keeping ice off windshields to bush trimming collection to disposing of lawn refuse to changing oil in the driveway, campaign signs can be used for almost anything your imagination comes up with. Necessity is the mother of invention led me to my latest reuse. I thought I had enough sleds stored away but when I broke them out yesterday, two of them were damaged and unusable leaving me with only two functioning sleds and four kids that wanted to go.
Our normal sledding place are the slopes at Northland Baptist Church. Before I get into the post, let me just tell you how sledding became possible there. Five plus years ago, the church had a large piece of dirt. Kansas City needed a bunch of dirt to build the NW 72nd Street extension. The leadership at Northland Baptist worked out a deal with the City where the City would use the dirt for the new road. Both parties won because the City saved a bunch of money on not having to haul dirt from far away and the cost to truck it to the site and the Church won because they got their site graded so that they could use it for an open athletic area and for future expansion. The fact that it is a great place to sled is how I win since it's so close to the house. It's also a beautiful place to just admire the trees and natural beauty of this area when there's snow on the ground.
Anyways, I pulled out a 4x6 campaign sign from my stash and thought we would see how it would be as a toboggan. I figured since it was plastic and super smooth, it would work better than anything I could get at the store. It also didn't cost me a thing. I was the one to try it because I didn't want to have a kid wipe out right when we got started and let me say it is now the only way I will go sledding.
The campaign sign toboggan worked real well at pushing snow down and also keeping it from blowing up in my face on the first few runs. I ended up being able to fit two kids behind me and eventually the boys started using it without me.
And we've got the first crash and I've been informed this involves a "knee to the balls" pic.twitter.com/l2E9XRMGHE
If you haven't been along 152 past the struggling (and under new ownership) Zona Rosa lately you probably haven't noticed that the latest segment of the Route 152 Trail is almost complete. This segment of the trail will go from Amity over towards I-29 and is almost 2 miles long. The first half of the project from Congress east towards I-29 and was done earlier this summer. This is looking east from Congress towards the old hotel which is soon to become an indoor storage center.
The trail crosses Congress just north of the 152 roundabout. This is looking south towards 152.
The trail goes along the south side of the Riverstone Apartments and was built by Price Brothers when they developed the property. This is looking west from the end of the trail they built towards Amity.
The trail follows along 152 but because of the design, the trees along the fenceline were preserved and the highway is not visible. Here is a view to the west from where the open old farmed area transitions to what I assume used to be a pastured area.
The next picture is looking east from about halfway between Amity and Congress. The highway is on the right or south side of the picture.
This segment is relatively flat but starts a steady decline towards the west.
The trail curves away from the highway and down into a mini streamway valley. This is looking west at the bottom of the decline.
People are already using it. This is looking east at the box culvert crossing and the sycamore tree that hopefully will survive.
What's neat about this streamway crossing is the rock channel and series of mini waterfall pools. There is a great deal of rock and it would be cool if the rock dude/dudette on the Line Creek Trail or some industrious community group did some stepping stones down to the water so kids could get down to the creek and throw rocks in the water.
Next picture is looking east towards the stream from where the trail goes from the highway slope to the valley.
The trail transitions to a flat platform along the 152 westbound off ramp to Amity.
The trail crosses over Amity at a new median. This is looking east from the end of the trail. The guy in the picture is an erosion control inspector and he told me that he just saw a bald eagle flying from the Weatherby Lake area into the woods north of the trail which I just missed seeing.
Looks like fencing still needs to be installed before it's safe to use and the grass seed needs to take before it officially is open.
Following up on yesterday's NW 64th Street/Southern Platte Pass Trail post, a big connector from the Line Creek Trail is under construction that is going to make a big difference in getting around by bike and for all the folks that live on the west side of Line Creek. Both the I-29 outer roads, Prairie View and Roanridge, have nice wide, bike-able shoulders. However, if someone is using Prairie View to come down from Zona or even the KCI area, there is no safe way to get through the I-29/I-635 interchange from Prairie View or Roanridge to the Line Creek Trail. That means anyone wishing to bike commute has to backtrack a couple of miles via 64th Street to safely get to Riverside/NKC/DT. I've gone through here before but only going north out of Riverside then using the NB Gateway on-ramp and then tossing my bike over the highway fence onto Roanridge and going through the fence where others had cut the chain link because some people have to walk through there like this guy who was walking through. This picture was taken as I was biking.
In case you aren't familiar with the area because you don't live in the Sunpointe Village subdivision area, NW 56th Street just dead ends. Why does it dead end? Well the elevation difference between where 56th ends and Waukomis intersects on the other side is 80-90 feet so it is economically and environmentally unfeasible to ever have a street connection between the two because it would require moving a 16" waterline cut through the trees, cutting 10-15 feet into solid rock, and probably a 300-400 foot long bridge over Line Creek.
There used to be a way to get through from the intersection of 56th/Byfield to Waukomis and you can read about it and the old bridge along the Line Creek Trail here. You can also take a look at the 1964 aerial for the area and the tract of ground that is being used to build the trail by clicking here. Here is how the trail connector will be laid out to connect between the Line Creek Trail and 56th and still be within a usable grade.
One huge suck thing about this area is the honeysuckle has consumed it and is choking out everything. Fortunately equipment makers have invented a grinder that fits on the front of a skid loader and not only clears brush, it grinds it up and leaves it in place. This is a picture, taken from the dead end of 56th, of the track hoe from the rear (shaddup) and a peek at the grinder.
That little machine takes care of all that nasty honeysuckle in no time. This is looking south from NW 56th Street. Note that this was the old roadbed of how people got to Riverside and there is a power line with transformer which used to serve an old farmhouse on the property.
The trail will curve to the east/left from the picture above and you can start to see some of the beauty of this piece of park property. This is looking due east.
Recently a sanitary sewer was put in because a lot of the houses south of 56th were built pre-KCMO annexation and are on septic tank. The cleared area is one of those sanitary sewers. This is looking southeast.
The cleared area for the sewer does have some advantages. Even though it took out some trees, it did take out a lot of honeysuckle and opened up views of the valley. This is looking east along the sewer and showing a glimpse of the topography.
The next picture is looking southeast and shows another place where the trail crosses the sewer and shows the big drop off down to the Line Creek Trail. You may be asking why didn't the trail just follow the sewer and the answer is that the sewer doesn't have to have a reasonble grade or worry about complying with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. The trail needs to be longer than the sewer and zig zag so that the 80-90 foot elevation difference can be spread out. Also, it doesn't make sense to put a trail on top off or too close to a sewer because someday that sewer will need to be repaired or replaced and the trail needs to be far enough away to not be impacted.
That being said, a little bit of the trail is near the sewer as shown by the pink survey stakes. This is looking northwest and will be a slightly flat part of the trail. Note the beauty of the oaks (and the evil of the yellow honeysuckle).
This next picture is looking north near the halfway point with the vista of the very dense oaks showing some beautiful color this fall.
This show is looking northwest with the trail on the left of the silt fence. I just included it because it shows the healthy oaks and a strand of cedars. It also shows how Ozarky this piece of ground is.
This next shot is looking 180 degrees from the picture above and looking east. Here is where the bluff falls off to the Line Creek valley. This part is going to be the challenge for anyone on a bike getting a start up the trail.
Lastly in case you were wondering where it will tie into the Line Creek Trail, this is looking north and it's about 300 or so feet south of the retaining wall and old bridge. The new trail will be before the cleared area.
In case you were wondering what the construction was along NW 64th Street east of I-29, the 30 year old narrow sidewalk is being replaced with an 8-10 foot wide trail which will remove the gap in the Southern Platte Pass Trail. When this work between I-29 and Strathbury at the entrance to the Coventry neighborhood is complete, everyone along Route 45/NW 64th Street all the way out to Union Chapel and 45 will be able to get to the Line Creek Trail. In the map below, white shows the limits of the improvement and green shows existing trails.
The contractor isn't wasting any time. This is looking east from the Northland Passage apartments entrance near I-29 where the grading is done and the rock base is ready for compaction.
Concrete work is about halfway done. This is looking east from NW London which is the second ingress/egress to the apartments.
Sometimes things that need to be retrofitted aren't exactly ideal and have to be worked around like telecommunication equipment. This is looking west from Strathbury which is the entrance to Coventry.
Lastly this is corresponding looking east view which shows how the new trail ties into the existing trail along the south side of NW 64th Street near the fire station.
This will tie into the trail underneath I-29 which I did a post about in 2012 where you can learn about the type of retaining wall built with that project.
Buchanan County only has one outstanding precinct remaining and Platte County has 17/28 in and Tony Luetkemeyer has a 1870 vote lead in Platte and a 1,564 vote lead in Buchanan.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you aren’t doing anything tomorrow, load up the kids and head over to the 7600 block of North Broadway tomorrow for the 10AM grand opening of the new Hobby Hill West Park playground and interpretive nature area.
The western edge of the park was rather overgrown with honeysuckle and not very inviting. Now the western edge of the park looks like this with the picture taken from the hill on the southern edge of the park looking north with Broadway on the left.
The playground design is a pure active playground which we desperately need north of the river. The signature piece is a large climbing slide contraption. This is looking northeast from the parking lot entrance.
The circular trail goes between the pond and stream and the playground and connects to active workout type play equipment. This is looking towards the east.
There was a lot of rock on the site and the designers and contractors used a lot of it within the site to create plenty of climbing places and also for parents to watch.
The four-year-old and every other kid there loved the “gazelle freestyle” thing.
Playground also had the now very important saucer swings which are always being used.
The park also had the all-important ZIPLINE!!!!
The designers and contractor also terraced the limestone as a natural amphitheater.
This is going to become our other go-to park (other being the YMCA Challenger Park). I encourage you to get out tomorrow. The weather will be great and if you want more of these types of things, your elected officials need to know. A lot of times parks and trails projects take heat for costing too much when other things are “more necessary” but I’ve watched over $2M go towards buying right of way from one owner on the Flintlock Flyover project, nearly $2M to relocate the west outer road north of I-29 and NW 64th Street, over a half a million dollars for one parcel on Englewood Road, and many millions of dollars to widen Barry Road by Zona Rosa/other northland streets. I’m always amazed at how spending gobs of money for property for cars is okay but park improvements that help our neighborhoods gets scrutinized especially when so many kids are facing weight issues with the corresponding adult health care costs.
Show up tomorrow and thank the Gladstone Mayor, City Council, and staff for all the work that went into getting this project done. You can also check out this really neat background kiosk which uses an old USGS topo map as the background. Don't think that I'm not stealing that idea as my own.
Buckle up and pay attention folks. There is going to be some homework at the end of this post. Looks like there is finally some development pressure at the interchange of I-435 and Route 45. It appears that there is some substantial rezoning being proposed in the fair city of Parkville. Everything shaded below is going to be impacted and discussed at a Parkville Planning and Zoning Commission meeting next week.
The area roughly ID'd as Parcel IX is being proposed to become Creekside Residential. This is the area hatched below.
The development would include 111 single family homes, 100 townhouses, and 216 apartments per the staff report and would look something like this below. Note, north is at the top, Brink Meyer is on the right and I-435 is on the left. The Thousand Oaks subdivision would be to the right of this.
Just to the north of that and south of Route 45, roughly in Tract VIII, a project being called Creekside Commercial is being proposed in the area hatched below.
This project would include "planned commercial development consisting of hotel, restaurant, grocery/market and other commercial and mixed-use retail uses on 38+/- acres." Site plan is below with Route 45 at the top, Brink Meyer and Thousand Oaks on the right, I-435 on the left and the existing gas station (not shown) in the upper right hand corner.
One editorial and a big thing that concerns me is neither of these plans on the east side of I-435 show a trail along Brush Creek. It's been long planned that there would be a trail along Brush Creek from the Missouri River up to Tiffany Springs Park. This trail was part of the 18+/- year old Northland Trails Vision Plan (see excerpt here) and if it was built, it would connect the Missouri River, Line Creek, and 152 Trail systems and create a roughly 26 mile loop.
Seems like it could be done easily in the floodplain or along the sanitary sewer easement without impacting any development. I hope it happens for everyone who lives out there. It would be an amazing trail. It would allow people to get to this development without using a car and would be a great amenity for hotels and offices within the projects. It also would be great bike tourism for downtown Parkville because visitors could use the hotels and then ride down for brew pub dinner <end editorial comment>.
The northwest corner of 435/45 is being pitched as Lakeside Northwest Quadrant, "a planned residential development consisting of 100 single family homes and 160 townhome units; and a planned commercial development consisting of two hotels, three restaurants, one quick serve restaurant, one pharmacy/medical office, one gas station and retail uses."
The site plan for Lakeside Northwest Quadrant is below. Route 45 is on the bottom and I-435 is on the right.
Another editorial comment on the plan. It would be nice if they pulled the west outer road for 435 through the development so that it isn't so close to the interchange. It would save MoDOT (ie us taxpayers) the cost of relocating that outer road once traffic becomes so unbearable because of a frontage road 100 feet away from a ramp terminal (ie like 45 and I-29). I tried showing how easy it would be with a blue line and the red X's denoting the road being abandoned. Maybe there could be some motivation for everyone to work together to move the road and then release some of the right of way that would not be needed as a trade off to the developer to offset the land lost with the relocation so it's a win-win for private interests and us taxpayers.......................
Lastly, the final corner is being pitched as Parkville Industrial Southwest Quadrant and would be "a planned industrial development consisting of 29 pad sites for office/service and industrial uses, including manufacturing, storage and warehousing."
Site plan is industrial so it isn't too sexy. Route 45 is on the top of the picture and I-435 is on the right.
Now for your homework. You can download and read the staff reports and all the development plan submittals here. There is some organized opposition to the zoning changes and that's how I heard about these plans. You can check out their FB page here. It's a closed group but they've added their 466 members in the past week.
The City of Parkville published a list of FAQ's of the area so I encourage you to look at their page here. Within that FAQ page is a link to previous 2014 presentation on the area and it's opportunities. This area is part of the Neighborhood Improvement District (NID) that has been creating some financial controversy. Sewers and pump stations aren't cheap and somehow that debt has to be repaid.
Unfortunately this is the case of the latest victim of the Strongtowns "Illusion of Wealth" theory and need for development to pay off the NID debt. It's no different than the Zona Rosa fiasco.
Well school has started which means no more swimming at the pool till after 10PM and so now maybe I'll have some time (and interest) to write some stuff. It's been a distracting summer with all the kids, a DIY disaster that I'm in the middle of, and family member that's losing a fight to cancer.
Before I get into the $40M proposed Northland soccer complex, I want to plug the Park Hill Soccer fundraiser for this fall. If you enjoy soccer, you might enjoy helping out the kids playing with some updated stuff that the school district doesn't pick up. You can contribute here and if anyone out there is a local business that would like to sponsor, drop me a note and I'll see what I can do to plug your wares.
Anyways, if you hadn't heard, the Platte County Economic Development Corporation hired Canyon Research Southwest, Inc. to look at the market demand for a soccer complex on the west side of Platte Purchase and between MO 152 and NW 100th Street. There were some interesting tidbits in the report. These are screen shots right from the November 2017 report.
Now you might ask why the Platte County EDC would pay for a report like this?
Maybe the EDC is getting tired of watching some of the 333,000+ people in Clay and Platte drive all the way down to Oklahoma, er OPKS, to play soccer and also all the traveling teams keeping their hotel rooms full on the weekends when business travel is light.
The report also listed some data on Platte County major private sector employers which I found interesting. Riverside has a heck of an employment base for a town with just over 3,000 residents.
I wouldn't get your hopes up on burning gas heading to Oklahoma however as the biggest obstacle to this happening isn't coming up with the $40M to build it. Money or lack thereof hasn't stopped a lot of things from happening over the years. You can read through the entire 57 page report here on the Platte County EDC website.
I'd also recommend reading Valerie Verkamp's 11/29/17 write up in the Platte County Landmark. I don't have any neat looking renderings handy and even if I did, this is all conceptual and subject to change so it'd be eye candy only.
Lastly, I'll put one more plug in for my oldest and the Park Hill Soccer fundraiser. I've not one to let kids think that money grows on trees. My oldest worked his tail off earlier this year to earn money to go on a mission trip by refereeing basketball/soccer and doing yard work for folks around the neighborhood. Unfortunately Menard's won't hire anyone under the age of 16 so I can't make him work there (yet) which is too bad because he could ride his bike to work. He's got the unfortunate luck of being my kid and gets a lot of "character building." If any of you are looking for kids to do yard work this fall, let me know and I might have a whole herd ready to go. Their character can always use a good "building."
This fundraiser isn't for just him and the support goes to help the entire 70+ kids on the team and will buy items that will last for years. You want to make sure our kids have the proper equipment to avoid injuries unlike this guy.........
Everyone else enjoying summer? Well we are and I should have posted this earlier and I am sorry I didn't post this earlier but I've got a lot of things going on right now and it snuck up on me.
If you have some clothing especially baby/toddler/kid clothing, bundle it up today and drive it over to 800 NE 72nd Street Gladstone, MO 64118 and a group of volunteers will get it sorted for folks in the community who need clothes to come pick it up free this weekend.
You can get a tax receipt, more closet space, and the satisfaction of helping someone who needs clothing for their family.
I've been doing a lot more biking to work lately. Part of it is because I have a goal to do it once a week. Part of it is because I drive older, late model cars that sometimes need some preventative maintenance or repair. I dropped off the car in Parkville yesterday so I biked into downtown along every part of Route 9 and survived.
I took a break here this morning and pondered increasing my life insurance policy online..... pic.twitter.com/vZ69qPhMOh
I've blogged about the US 169 and Route 9 issues and the railroad "bridge of death" before. We've got a pretty amazing connected trail system that's come together but unfortunately there are some glaring unsafe gaps that 99% of you would never even think about riding a bike through.
I am no longer going to complain or think it's tough biking from Platte County to downtown KCMO or North KC because today (since it's kids eat free night everywhere) the kids had a dentist appointment in the Shoal Creek area so after work I biked up to the Liberty area to meet the family so we could go to Zaxby's™. Let's just say there's no comfortable way to bike from downtown KCMO to Liberty or southern Clay County.
I chose to go through the Old Northeast and down the hill on Chestnut Trafficway but had to ride Front Street for a little then Riverfront Road. After crossing the Chouteau Bridge, I really didn't want to take the hill on Chouteau Parkway and the steady climb on Parvin. I would have loved to have gotten on old Birmingham Road but there is no way to get from the bridge down. I ended up using the shoulder of Route 210 over to Searcy Creek Parkway and then cut through the Maple Park area.
Anyways, there is a competitive planning grant funding opportunity underway so there are some projects north of the river in this area you might be interested. Two of the projects I could have really used the past two days. The Mid-America Regional Council is looking for feedback on projects so here are links to the applications where you can comment one way or the other.
I've been told thanks to some donations from Kansas City Southern Railroad and JE Dunn Construction Company that this year's National Train Day celebration this Saturday May 19th is going to be bigger and better than all the others.
In case you don't know how we celebrate National Train Day in the Line Creek Valley, we do it with our wonderful volunteer operated Kansas City Northern Railroad aka the Line Creek Train in Frank Vaydik Park. In case you need directions, here is how to get there but remember that Englewood Road is closed west of US 169 so you will need to take Waukomis Drive from I-29 or NW 68th Street.
This is a great event and this is a great opportunity to check out the train for free this weekend and enjoy other activities and half price ice skating. Here are some highlights of last year's event.
I also encourage you to plug into the Kansas City Parks social pages. They've got staff that puts the effort into these events and it takes a lot of work and time. They'd rather have a ton of people show up than no one so like their FB page here, their Twitter page here, their Insta page here, and their YT page here. They also have an email sign up on their webpage if your "anti-social" where you can sign up with your email by geography so you don't miss any events. Get signed up/following so you know what's going on. That way you won't be one of those "I didn't know anything about that" people.
They also created a FB event so add it to your calendar so you don't forget to swing by Saturday and let the kiddos have some fun.
Today I was just minding my own business driving along the newly widened Route 45 when I spotted where MoDOT decided to protect people in their cars with their seat belts and air bags by installing sharp metal guardrail which would be fine except the guardrail is right next to a multi-purpose trail. This trail of course will be used by people who don't have safety features and any accident or stumble they have would result in the guardrail disfiguring or fatally impaling them. This kind of put me in a mood. Of course it could also be the fact that I was driving on this road on my way back from freezing my rear off at a kid's soccer game.......
I also noticed that this less than a year old guardrail end terminal which I think costs around $3,000 has already been hit. Maybe the guardrail should have been installed on the backside of the trail away from the edge of the street and where cyclists and pedestrians wouldn't face instant death if they slipped.....
It reminded me of my earlier post and gripe about the professional negligence towards non-motorized users' safety on Route 45. The misapplication of the AASHTO Roadside Design Guide in urban areas makes urban streets less safe than they can be. I also took the roundabout at 45 and K at 40mph because those DOT roundabouts are designed to handle the minimal amount of semi-trucks because engineering group-think designs for the worst possible scenario without evaluating probabilities and DOT's and DOT firms are set up to design everything like a freeway first and foremost.
Anyways, as I approached Route 9, I noticed that the hillside on the south side of the highway right after "THE National" had been deforested and remembered that there was a TIF approved years ago and wondered if some taxpayer subsidized development was finally happening.
I did a quick internet search and turns out, it looks like Parkville is in the process/has approved/has tabled a TIF that will divert funding away from the Park Hill School District. I thought maybe it was for the big hillside and that might have made sense but it's for a piece of ground with Route 45 frontage, two existing traffic signals, and is somewhat graded already on the north side of 45 and Melody Lane. It's the tract shown in red below. The Price ChopperTM is to the south of the site. Graden Elementary is to the right or east.
This site of course is SOOOO blighted and so rough that it looks like this.....
It's bad enough that the Metro North TIF is taking away money from the Platte County School District and the office to hotel redevelopment on Ambassador Drive is going to withhold property taxes from Park Hill but if ever there was a perfect poster child of the abuse of the "blight" definition in the TIF statute, it's this one. It might be why House Bill 1236 is getting some traction in Jefferson City this year.
I might understand the public benefit if NW Cross Road was being realigned with Bell Road and the traffic signal but looking at the site plan, this looks like more cookie cutter suburban auto oriented retail. I guess it would be nice to have a McDonald'sTM or Burger KingTM with a play place on that site since there are a lot of kids in the area. I'm sure a chicken place is due to show up in this part of Platte County and don't forget we could use another pizza place, nail salon, and cell phone store. We couldn't have more nice things like that without TIF.
The staff report can be read from the entire 277 page Parkville BOA packet here. Just look for APEX.
It appears that there was a special BOA meeting on January 24, 2018 just to talk about how much to give away for the development. Most of these TIF plans and staff reports are a bunch a pencil pusher busy work so I just skip to the tables because that's where the reality is. You can read the 61 page packet here and decide on your own.
Not only will the development site have TIF, it will have a Community Improvement District aka CID (maybe even two) so you can pay an extra one or whatever cent for the privilege of shopping there. Now let's take a look at the proposed TIF budget shall we.
The TIF subsidy on this run of the mill development is 35% of the project cost. It also contributes $843,122 towards the purchase of the land. Since is is a PILOTs (aka property tax) diversion TIF, this impacts the Park Hill School District and these concerns were noted in the November 13, 2017 TIF Commission meeting.
The last news article I could find about this besides perusing all the BOA packets was a January 17 write up by Jeanette Faubion.
While I was doing that, I discovered that Parkville also was considering more handouts but this time using Chapter 100/353 abatement programs to build an office building along Route 9 just south of the west entrance to Park College.
It's a four story office building with tons of parking because cars is what makes Parkville unique.
The consultant study lists this little nugget.
Here's the big picture question from the consultant report. They paint the rosy "but for" analysis that after 15 years, the taxing jurisdictions will be rolling in the dough.
If Parkville does this and I'm reading the report right, this means that over 25 years with all the increased traffic on Route 9, impervious surface, and parking lot maintenance, the City will net $507,000 in today's dollars??? That would be enough to pay for a traffic signal at 6th and Route 9 and its operational cost for 25 years. Is it really worth it?
Is this something a city that is already dipping into emergency reserves for prior eco/devo schemes should be doing?
Go ahead and troll all you want like I did because all agendas/packets/video can be found here.
If you are a Park Hill School District parent in Parkville you might want to think about the precedent being set because we are the ones that will pick up the bill with rising enrollment while the developer cashes the checks drives on down the road to the next vacant piece of dirt........
One key thing about transportation improvements nowadays is that partnerships are the key to getting things done. The latest case in point are the improvements underway to Pleasant Valley Road between Antioch and North Brighton. The old windy farm road is getting a major makeover and realignment as shown in the exhibit below. It’s a joint KCMO/Gladstone project mostly funded with federal transportation funds.
Construction has been underway sometime now and it looks like a lot of progress has been made even with this cold winter. It looks like the storm inlets and pipes are in and the contractor is getting close to being ready to pave the part on Antioch south of NE 68th Terrace. This is looking south from the big water tower at NE 68th Terrace where the improvements start.
Rough grade has been cut and it looks like the survey stakes for setting up the curb string line for the paving machines have been placed. This is looking south on Antioch just south of the Randall Court Apartments.
The project will include what I think is Gladstone’s first roundabout. It’s a single lane roundabout which I think are great because traffic always flows and it helps keep speeds down in residential areas. It’s also simple to drive because it’s only one lane so all one must do is pull up, slow down, look to the left, wait, and go once it’s clear. This is looking south from Antioch as one would approach the roundabout.
Since it’s Gladstone’s first roundabout, they are putting a little civic pride into it. This is looking southeast at the Antioch approach into the roundabout.
This is looking southwest from the western Pleasant Valley Road approach into the roundabout. This is what you will see if you are coming from North Brighton and heading towards Route 1.
It appears a lot of work still needs to be done on Antioch south of the roundabout along the cemetery but I am assuming that is because the old road cannot be closed and needs to be kept open until this new construction is usable. The Saturday I was out here taking pictures there was a service going on and cars were streaming along it. Work is still being done however. This is looking north along Antioch towards the roundabout and shows the grading along the existing pavement.
Most of the work on the eastern leg is done and is open to traffic. This is looking east from the roundabout towards North Brighton.
This is the open section looking west from North Brighton.
When it’s done, the project will have a ten foot trail on the south side and a trail along old North Jackson pavement and connect to Carriage Hills. Hopefully someday it will reach over to Pleasant Valley Park and the Shoal Creek Trail if Pleasant Valley Road ever gets improved east of Brighton over to Searcy Creek Parkway.
There is some neat history in the area which maybe someday I might get around to posting about. I missed the chance this winter to try and find the old town of Acme Springs. The area has quite a bit of early settler archaeology history and there was a rather substantial freed slave community in the area. Fortunately, the Atkins-Johnson Farm folks and the City of Gladstone have done a lot of work and have extensive flyers on the Atkins and Johnson Family, the Big Shoal Cemetery, and Clay County History that you can read. I love getting my City of Gladstone history flyer with my Parks and Recreation sign up guide in the mail. They put a lot of time and effort into including history of the area.
Just when I think I've been everywhere in Platte County, I realize I have so much to learn. Since yesterday was a cold day, I figured I'd "build character" with the older boys by wandering in the woods. I didn't feel like doing more exploring in Tiffany Springs Park and we've wandered all over the Line Creek Valley. I thought about maybe trying to find any remnants of the long lost Island School but figured it was probably long gone because the area is all farmed and the area has flooded for 100+ years.
I finally decided we'd check out the Parma Woods Conservation Area near I-435 and the Missouri River and boy were we happily surprised. Little advice before you load up and head out, if you're triggered by guns, you probably ought to avoid because there is an active shooting range and folks use it.
The conseravation area has a nice paved trailhead with toilet and trail map. I'm not sure how long the loop is because we wandered off the gravel trail a little but in total we hiked over 2.5 miles. The start of the trail looks like an old road. This is looking north from the parking lot.
I assume it's an old road because the 1912 soil map of Platte County shows a road that would be in this general area and there is a fence and a drop off to the right of the trail. See the red arrow for the road in the map below. Also see the green arrow? I'm not sure if that symbol is a cemetery or something else but it's in the middle of I-435 now.
At the end of the flat part of the trail, there is an old foundation which I am assuming was a barn.
From there is was up hill.
And back down.
The pictures don't do it justice but the area was abundant in tree species--plenty of sycamores, oaks, shag-bark hickories, etc..
We found a deer stand tree and of course the boys had to try and climb up it.
There's a little ephemeral stream that you have to cross but it's a great place to try and do some spear fishing.....
We stumbled on an area that was mined at one time which made for great climbing.
The nearby area to the west was mined according to the 1948 USGS Topo map but this area wasn't close to it. I can't totally figure out where it is on the topo map because it's kind of hard to get my bearings with the landfill and I-435 blowing through everything but I think we were in the area by the blue arrow.
Right in that hillside area, someone had built a primitive structure or fire pit with the remnant stones.
We then reached the end of the trail but I had the park map downloaded before we left and saw we were close to the high point. I figured there had to be something at the high point so we started up along the ridge and we found something. The first thing I saw was this.
This is either a cold storage or a storm shelter that was attached to what I am assuming was a very primitive log house. The stone foundation was still neatly placed.
It had a small brick chimney.
Overall I'd recommend taking a few hours and exploring the area. It's also off the beaten path and you get a country drive feel getting to the trailhead. I'd also recommend checking out Richard Johnson's page for some other hiking ideas.
It's not quick to get to but that's kind of nice. Little trivia tidbit for you. When I-435 was being planned, MoDOT actually bought and designed a folded diamond interchange. I came across the plans one time and took a picture. Unfortunately, I cannot find it so I schematically drew it in using that incredible CAD system call MS Paint.
It was one of three interchanges on the I-435 loop that were planned for but not built.
One of the reasons why I started this blog was to archive and share history. It even has its own category of posts. It's a repository of stuff I stumble on or things I find interesting. Did you know there's an actual group of folks who take historical documentation very seriously?
They have installed and are dedicating three new historical markers tomorrow (Saturday 4/7/18) at 11AM at the YMCA Challenger Park (click here for directions) and you're all invited.
This group has mapped all of their historical markers for you to learn about our past.
It's going to be cold tomorrow but bundle up and come learn more about the pioneer past. Do a little homework before you come and read up about the Barry Road Flea Market before you come. Also, I forgot to wish the old town of Barry a happy 189th Birthday last March.
While not as exciting as the saga of The Boat at Tiffany Springs there is some redevelopment of long vacant office space along the I-29 corridor underway. Back in the 1970's, someone built a pair of matching office buildings between NW 112th Street and Tiffany Springs Parkway.
Those buildings of course lost their sexyness and tenants moved to newer places because that's what happens in suburbia. Someone has bought the south tower and is in the process of converting it to a hotel.
If you've been along I-29 lately, you may have noticed that the exterior shell and interior have been stripped to the concrete skeleton.
The new interior walls are being framed right now.
It looks like the parking lots will mostly remain the same although more parking will be added on the green space on the southern portion of the parcel.
This is what the front door of the hotel will look like and is from the viewpoint if you were looking south from Ambassador Drive.
This is the southern view of the hotel or what you would see if you were going north on I-29.
This is the westerly side of the building or what you would see if you were driving south on I-29.
Lastly this is the view of the eastern side of the building or what you will see from Ambassador Drive.
The project's got a ten year, 100% tax abatement according to this old KC Business Journal article. Now what to do with all the other vacant office buildings in the area given the changing work environments?
Well final conceptual alternatives have been posted to the www.beyondtheloopkc.com website in case you've signed up for updates. You also need to take the online survey which shows all of the concepts and provide your thoughts in the simple sliding scale. The survey will look like the screenshot below so you can read, review, process, and rate it.
Before I get started, let me just say you all did a great job engaging in the first survey. Below is a heat map of responses and as you can see, the I-29 corridor was well represented.
There has been quite a bit of scuttlebutt on how a direct connection to I-35 is possible and there are four ideas. All of these would be a heck of a lot easier and cheaper if that WB 70 to SB 35 flyover ramp was gone or could be an at-grade intersection. I'm going to try and overview them while a six month old sits in my lap and tries to grab every cord and piece of paper on the desk in front of her.
The first concept builds the new bridge to the far west with a connection to 4th Street and that's the main way to access downtown from north of the river.
The second one builds the new bridge to the far west and makes the north of the river connection from 5th and 6th Street.
The third one builds the new bridge to the far west and is kind of like the first option above (4th Street) but is more connected to Broadway.
The fourth one builds the new bridge right next to the existing bridge but still has a direct connection to I-35 so north-south access wouldn't be forced to sit at the stoplights at 5th or 6th Street.
The survey also wants your input on the I-70 north loop portion of the project. Option below removes all the ramps.
Option below skinnies up the interstate but pushes it up next to 6th Street.
Option below skinnies up the interstate but pushes it up next to 5th Street.
Last option removes the interstate and traffic uses a connected Independence Avenue and 6th Street.
You also can voice your temperature on lowering Route 9 back to street level. Right now it's an elevated freeway with multiple bridges that were built in the 80's. At some point in the next twenty years those bridges are going to need to be replaced and the way MoDOT is broke, it's a question of do we want double down on the way it is or look at something else. Most of the traffic on Route 9 goes straight into downtown so all it does is allow me in the morning to do 30 until I get to the stop light in North Kansas City at 10th Street, then race up to 60 and hope KCPD isn't running radar, and then stop at the traffic signal at Admiral.
If we have a new US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge with direct connection to I-35, a great deal of traffic will start using the US 169/Broadway Extension corridor which makes this option feasible. The difference in the two renderings below is one puts Route 9 to the east and the other pushes it to the west.
I got distracted with what I thought was a smelly diaper and some kids who wanted to paint so if there's any incoherent thoughts or I missed anything, all of these displays can be downloaded for your enjoyment in a rather large PDF here. I just took the time to screenshot the ones I thought were interesting.
Also, this is all moot if KCMO voters don't vote to renew a one cent capital improvements sales tax tomorrow. This tax has existed since the 80's I think and you can read the official FAQ page here.
I created a FB event for you to like so you don't forget. Just click here.
I don't know if those of you that ride the train have noticed but the south bank of the East Fork of Line Creek had been eroding near the tunnel so the train was in jeopardy. The track also was in the way of the proposed improvements to Waukomis Drive (which I just realized I haven't blogged about and overview PDF can be found here).
Work is underway this off-season to relocate the tracks and to stabilize the stream bank. This is a picture looking west at the restored stream bank. We lost some trees but don't worry we'll have wild sycamores and cottonwoods sprouting up in no time. I don't know how many capital projects (ex #1 NW 72nd extension to Green Hills) I've specified street trees which have been eclipsed in growth by wild trees sprouting from seeds.
The volunteers at the KC Northern Railroad are a dedicated group and are putting in the blood, sweat, and tears to bend the track back into place. We wouldn't have this wonderful treasure if it wasn't for the guys that have dedicated their time to this track. Everyone who's ever rode that track owes a great deal of thanks to them.
The rough grading is complete and the rock base is in place. This is looking from the tunnel east towards Waukomis.
I'm such a nerd that I actually took a semester class at the University of Illinois on railroad engineering and it's rather amazing how railroad tracks are a very simple design which hasn't changed in 150+ years. Wood or concrete beams hold rails, rock base distributes the load, and steel handles the daily grinding and friction of rail cars. It doesn't matter the size or width of the railroad--the technology is still the same.
Once they get the rails nailed into the wood timbers, more rock will be added to stabilize the rails. This is looking east from the tunnel towards Waukomis.
I also took a picture of the arch bridge on Waukomis Drive which once was the Kansas City to St. Joseph Interurban Railroad (in case you're confused, check this out). This arch was built in the 1910's. I tried finding a video to explain why railroad bridges will last 100+ years and road bridges really only last 50 years but couldn't find one. In case you were wondering, we don't put destructive ice salt on railroad bridges and trains weigh so much that the loading on a rail bridge is less destructive than a semi truck going over a road bridge.
You haven't experienced life on the edge unless you've rode a bike over one of these Waukomis bridges and been able to see the drop off towards instant death. I'd strongly recommend keeping both hands on the steering wheel through this area because there is no recovery zone if you stray outside the white lines. This is looking east from the north edge of the train tracks.
The track will be straightened along Waukomis but it appears to be slightly flatter than the old layout. I know sometimes in the hot summer the old engines slowed down a bit when going up the grade and around the curve in this area with a full train.
The railroad is also getting some expanded gravel parking. I don't know why everyone thinks gravel parking is unacceptable. It's the most pervious parking surface that can be installed which helps reduce storm water runoff and allows pollutants to infiltrate and be filtered rather than flowing straight into our water supply. It's also tons cheaper than asphalt. I guess over time too many blue hairs that their blue suede shoes get dusty....
The rain this week might have set things back but I know the kids are all interested and looking forward to opening weekend for the train. In case you are ever looking for something to do on Saturday or Sunday, it's the best entertainment for two trips around for 75 cents.
Sometimes I see development plans and I'm just like "barf, that's boring" but suck it up and write a post just so you know what's going on. I haven't been doing my real estate posting because there's really been nothing that's been interesting enough for me to give up a half hour to post.
Sometimes I try to put some spin on it or my own take like the low quality self storage plans at Green Hills and Old Tiffany Springs Road or Green Hills and Barry Road which is deforesting the Line Creek Valley as you read this. I guess with this case, I'll just point out like those self storage developments, we're getting more impervious pavement and the added tax benefit of stormwater fees and without buildings or employees.
If you haven't been on Old Tiffany Springs Road lately on your way to help keep Platte County afloat by helping pay off the Zona Rosa bonds, Honda of Tiffany Springs™ is expanding to the west.
They are building more car storage because apparently there isn't enough car inventory for sale in this country (did you that in 2015 know Missouri had 926 vehicles per 1000 people in the state?).
The parking lot will have some perious pavement that, in theory, is supposed to mitigate run-off and will have some landscaping to buffer it from the street.
Rather boring but it seems like folks are getting restless about the type of development that's starting to happen in the area as evidenced by two seperate petition drives.
We've got two citizen led iniatives with one wanting to build a park at Green Hills and 152 and another group that wants to preserve the heart of the Line Creek Valley.
Watching that KCTV5 report, I can't help but picture the hillside being bulldozed to build a parkway or a bunch of sports fields and think I'm glad I'm not the only one who cares about nature and places to enjoy it. I actually stumbled on a cluster of cardinals today that must be migrating around the area. They seemed to like Line Creek.
If you didn't see the article from Steve Vockrodt yesterday, here it is.
The money line in the article? "Zona Rosa's occupancy rate has fallen from 85.9 percent in 2014 to 60 percent in 2017." This is what happens when we overbuild parking and subsidize parking garages. Cue the Strongtowns.org plug.
We wind up sinking capital in an asset that provides no direct return on investment. Not only is Platte County facing a huge budget shortfall for years to come, how will the vacant 40 percent of the shopping center get leased and help pay off Platte County debt when Metro North Crossing is being subsidized to the tune of $71M and will probably steal some tenants?
Anyways, all of the information being reported could easily be found by someone with a computer and some savvy search skills. I went to the Electronic Municipal Market Access website and did a simple search for "zona rosa" and all of the debt issuances appeared.
From this page, one can click on any of the debt issuance. I pulled the $19.2M 10/4/2007 issuance. I think if you click here, you can see it too. It should pull up a page like this:
From there, one can pull up the original document. One can also see how and when the bonds have traded.
What I like about the site, is it also has "continuing disclosures" tab which had annual reports.
I pulled the most recent one. You can read it here. It had quite a few nuggets of information.
The report had a schedule of annual debt payments. Looks like the bond payback increases to a roughly $2.8M annual average in 2022 with a $5M or so balloon payment in 2032?
However, the revenues of the district in 2016 were only $1,792,302.
I went back to the report for the year before and it looks like TDD sales tax revenue was flat from 2014-2016. I made this spreadsheet to see the annual change.
If the district is only collecting over $1.7M or so but the debt payments continue to grow, Platte County taxpayers are screwed based on these reports. I encourage you to do your own digging. Also, parking garages and parking lots are bankrupting us. Stop and think about the interest and debt we are passing onto our kids for our "free" parking. Building that massive parking garage at Zona was worth what to us?