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Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:30 am
by kcjak
The Nextdoor app has a few details about the revised plan: developer has agreed to reduce the height on front/sides from 64 ft to 58 ft and back to 46 ft; reduced the number of units from 46 to 43; committed to having one parking space per bedroom and securing a long-term lease with neighboring properties for 7 additional spaces; willing to consider a security gate to close in garage.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:07 am
by chaglang
Are those the demands that the neighborhood made? Lol.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:14 am
by flyingember
kcjak wrote: securing a long-term lease with neighboring properties for 7 additional spaces
This is good news in the big picture
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:24 am
by kcjak
I still find it ridiculous that the Valentine Neighborhood Assn, rather than the Westport NA, is the group spearheading this - doesn't Valentine end on the north side of 39th? I get LIMITED involvement since it the development is nearby, but if they ever try to get involved in Volker development I'm gonna explode.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 10:53 am
by beautyfromashes
‘security gate to close in garage’ ??? Dumb.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 7:57 pm
by KCMOJoe89
capitolwildcat wrote:A few things:
1. The developers of the 39th West apartments are having a meeting with the Valentine Neighborhood Association to present their revised plans. The meeting is on Oct. 30th at 7pm at the Writer's Place. The notice I saw did not say it was open to everyone but it was shared with surrounding neighborhoods so if you live in the area I would encourage you to attend.
2. I only recently found this forum and I'm so happy I did. An urbanist can feel like a real outcast in KC but this place gives me some hope.
3. Getting on a neighborhood board is not super difficult and in my opinion is the number 1 way you can influence things. I know because I did it. These boards are typically starved for help especially from younger folks and if you demonstrate a willingness to volunteer for some of the less important things, you'll gain influence on some of the bigger things.
4. Why isn't there a more formal organization around some of these ideas to increase density and walk-ability? I know Bike Walk KC does good things but I'm wondering if there's an organization that advocates on a broader level. I'm a little overextended right now so I don't think I could spearhead such an effort (I realize others are too and maybe that's why we don't have one) but I would certainly participate. Creating an official, organized counter voice to HKC would go a long way and that type of organization could recruit people to run for their neighborhood boards. Is there something I'm not aware of? If not, is there interest?
Some good points. Agreed, a pro-density/development group would be a welcome change to the entrenched NIMBY culture here in town. KC is definitely a city of neighborhoods and for better or worse many of these neighborhoods (even in the urban core) are dominated by single-family homes. Advocating density seems to run counter culture to the sprawl and isolated enclaves KC is known for, but the tide seems to be turning...slowly...
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:14 pm
by DaveKCMO
IMO you are better off advocating from within an established neighborhood association than creating a new structure alone (perhaps do both). the city is more deferential to established associations -- business and residential.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 9:22 pm
by Riverite
Has anyone read the twenty-seventh city by Jonathan Franzen. We could form an Urban League, that advocates the progress of the city.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 5:42 am
by chaglang
DaveKCMO wrote:IMO you are better off advocating from within an established neighborhood association than creating a new structure alone (perhaps do both). the city is more deferential to established associations -- business and residential.
Absolutely. KCMO gives neighborhood associations a surprising amount of power in development decisions. Unless someone wanted to launch an urbanist PAC and use that to influence who actually gets elected, the neighborhoods are your best bet.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:54 am
by capitolwildcat
chaglang wrote:DaveKCMO wrote:IMO you are better off advocating from within an established neighborhood association than creating a new structure alone (perhaps do both). the city is more deferential to established associations -- business and residential.
Absolutely. KCMO gives neighborhood associations a surprising amount of power in development decisions. Unless someone wanted to launch an urbanist PAC and use that to influence who actually gets elected, the neighborhoods are your best bet.
I completely agree, but flipping the neighborhood associations to pro-development isn't going to happen overnight. I'm still feeling out my group but I would guess there are 2/10 that have an urban mindset (including me), 8/10 range from passive participants to aggressive NIMBYs. There's also a group of ex-officio types that attend board meetings and they're all hardcore NIMBYs.
An independent group would give urbanists in different associations a way to coordinate efforts so that we don't all feel like we're on an island. I love the idea of forming a PAC at some point. They're very easy to set up in Missouri. The hard part is ongoing administration and finding/maintaining a viable donor base. Both a "club" and a PAC would require a lot of work and maybe there isn't enough critical mass for either at this point.
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 10:10 am
by Riverite
We could always just start a meetup group and then gauge involvement from there
Re: West 39th Street Apartments
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 3:29 pm
by mykn
Riverite wrote:We could always just start a meetup group and then gauge involvement from there
Lets just decide on a bar and a time and all show up. Let it go from there.