New Apartment Complex by the Plaza

JBinKC · Post by **JBinKC** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 11:54 am

The news around the Plaza/Westport neighborhood is that there will be a new apartment complex on 44th/45th and Madison. You can see the empty tract of land right now. I think St. Lukes was partly responsible for the land acquisition, but I'm not sure who will be developing it. It will be 4 or 5 stories and house I believe 152 residents. When more details come in I'll confirm these numbers.

This, of course, is a touchy subject for the neighborhood residents, as parking will be the main issue. The plan claims to meet city code, but undoubtedly there will be a lot of overflow into the neighborhood behind the complex. The problem here is that the streets are already pretty full, as most owners in the neighborhood do not have driveways (lucky me, I'm one of a few who does).

As a side note, the go ahead from the Plaza/Westport neighborhood association was given for this project (which was necessary because of the neighborhood-centric plan Cleaver put in years back) on the condition that St. Lukes, under the guise of Westport Today, would begin to downzone the houses they own in the neighborhood core from R3/R4 to R1/R2. It was also requested that they begin selling off their stranglehold, errrr stronghold, of rental properties to families interested in buying. Conversely, the neighborhood will allow St. Lukes to develop as they please on the main roads framing the neighborhood. The purpose of this is to create stability in the area and prevent the condemnation and destruction of their rental properties in order to build bigger in better in their place, which usually causes chaos for the home owners next door. The owners here are certainly not against progress, we all just want to see the neighborhood planned well and able to meet its potential while keeping its character as a quiet little oasis between the bustling Plaza and Westport.

Finally, Happy Thanksgiving!

paisstat · Post by **paisstat** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 5:05 am

Another? Good to hear. Madison and Belleview drive me nuts, they get so much traffic--between the Plaza and Westport and SW Trafficway feeds them. The area looks like a bombed out city. I am happy with the other new housing development that has infilled another block--to the south and the rehab of another building. Sorry I don't know the names. Anything would be better in these blocks than nothing, now there is just weeds and broken glass. Repairing this portion of the urban core is very important. If this important area b/w the Plaza and Westport can at least be dense, both districts would benefit. I would especially like to see something done with that triangular lot where Roanoke leads into the Plaza, that white wall at the base of the mini skyscraper standing alone drives me NUTS!

KCDevin · Post by **KCDevin** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 11:06 am

yup i saw renderings watching either the council or committee meetings. Itll look nice

JBinKC · Post by **JBinKC** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 2:33 pm

As a follow up to this thread, it appears there has been a big win for the neighborhood. I know there has been a lot of NIMBY bashing lately, but their persistence finally paid off on this one. Not only is Westport Today going to downzone their house ownership in the neighborhood (which is probably about half of all houses between Plaza and Westport) to R1/R2, but they are bringing in an architect to act as a consultant for "reweaving" the run down houses back in to the feel of the area. This will involve exterior and interior renovations to a majority of the houses that fit the Plaza/Westport design style...which is largely Arts and Crafts. Supposedly he has done this for Volker and part of Columbus Park. After the renovations Westport Today wants to sell the houses to single family owners. One downside is they say they want to tear down those that cannot be brought back to a reasonable condition. Though they say they will replace them w/houses of the same style, only larger. My personal opinion is that they want to get out of house rental management and into bigger apartment complex management, hence their Madison development.

paisstat · Post by **paisstat** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:57 pm

I would personally like to see all those older, small apartment complexes and those tiny houses razed and new, larger--same scale as others--4 or 5 story apartment complexes line the two streets. These streets are an eyesore and have so much potential.

KCforumer · Post by **KCforumer** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 10:18 pm

Between the Plaza and Westport is an excellent place for higher-density residential.

Post by **dangerboy** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 12:25 am

Didn't St. Luke's inherit all that real estate as a bequest? They have already agreed that confine their expansion/renovation to their existing boundaries, so they dont really have any need to keep the residential property anyway.