downtown airport news

[moderne]

Getting rid of the airport would present an opportunity to give the city center water recreation it lacks and a great environmental restoration. It would cost a lot to clear and remediate pollution on the site. We lack recreation on the river because the Army Corp channelized the river for navigation rather than lock and dam. In the early days pre reservoirs all over, ox bow lakes were popular for recreation--Bean Lake and Lewis & Clark Lake. The airport site could hold a 'C' shaped lagoon for canoes, kayaks, paddle boats, etc. Marsh land areas could be incorporated for wildlife and migratory waterfowl.Biking and walking paths could wind around with picnic pavilions, cafes, event spaces. Parking could be kept close to the highway and maybe apartments between the highway and parkland. All very accessible to DT thanks to the new Buck O'Neil bridge pedestrian sidewalk.

[GRID]

Getting rid of MKC would be a huge mistake. You would push even more of what's left of KC's business economy to Johnson County.

KC doesn't need all that land to have good urban recreation and it would cost a fortune to tear down MKC and build a proper park there. Money KC has proven it doesn't have.

How about KCMO spend a fraction of that and get Penn Valley Park up to par by removing Broadway or spend some money building trails on the levees or building an actual pedestrian bridge across the MO river.

KC could build a REALLY nice park across from downtown in the Harlem area and build a destination pedestrian bridge to it. Do that before leaving that area like it is and tearing down one of the best urban airports in the country.

Having said that, I'm fine with the city "threatening" to close it so the FAA gets their head out of their ass. The last thing downtown KC needs is another obstacle to development. It should be about as easy to get 99% of the projects approved by the FAA as it is to get approval to fly a drone downtown. It should take five minutes unless somebody is proposing a 600 foot tower west of Broadway.

[kcjak]

i realize there isn't much land to work with, but is it feasible (not taking $ into consideration) to reposition the runways to create different flight paths or do the height restrictions apply to a general radius no matter which way air traffic occurs?

[GRID]

i realize there isn't much land to work with, but is it feasible (not taking $ into consideration) to reposition the runways to create different flight paths or do the height restrictions apply to a general radius no matter which way air traffic occurs?

The current alignment has almost no impact on Downtown. The flight paths all go over the west bottoms and the NKC industrial districts. There is no reason a plane would fly directly over the downtown buildings on approach or departure. Even if the buildings were not there, they still wouldn't fly directly over downtown. The runways are fine the way they are. The shorter runway has a flight pattern right over downtown NKC. I'm surprised the FAA allowed that new apartment building in NKC. That should have been a much bigger issue than anything that has been proposed in downtown KCMO.

This whole thing with the FAA and all the proposals so far are stupid. The only parts of the Downtown loop where it would matter at all is like the Quality Hill area. And planes don't fly over that area to, they fly just to the west of that area. But I can see where a 30 story building in Quality Hill would be an issue. A ten story building in the River Market or crossroads or even a 50 story building in the CBD? Those should not even need to be approved by the FAA. They should get a quick rubber stamp at most.

[bspecht]

Downtown developers should see the FAA as a part of the development process for now and until further guidance is given. The only way it would "kill" a project at the moment is for a developer to not be smart/aware enough to have it as a consideration (bad sign). Nearly every tower in Miami/South Florida goes through the FAA approval, even with their better guidance, often happening near the beginning of development process.

[missingkc]

Travel and Leisure names the TWA museum second best aviation museum in US after Smithsonian.