KCRag Forum

There's a neighborhood meeting about the OPUS development tomorrow (25th) at the Westport Library at 6:30. If you're supportive of the project, come meet up with us there. There's a group of NIMBYs that are trying to kill the project and that would result in a parking lot at Broadway and Westport Rd for the foreseeable future. After the meeting a couple of us are going to head over to HopCat for drinks.

Perfect thanks for the info! I'll make sure and be there

I'll be there.

Sweet! See you both there.

KCtoBrooklyn wrote:The plans for the apartment tower now appear on the KCMO Development Tracker Map:
http://maps.kcmo.org/kcgis/rest/service ... ments/8001

Unless I'm looking at this incorrectly, this development appears to be in front of the garage, not on top.

Phase 1 looks like it would be on the site of the Tivoli and phase 2 would be on the site of Char Bar. 515 Units in total.

I don't know about this. Westport needs more residential and this would be a good addition, but why not build this on the parking lot across the street instead of displacing quality establishments?

There are no renderings, but there are elevations:

Updated plans are now on the city's development site: http://kcmo.gov/planning/development-tracker/

Direct link to the PDF (it is a very large file): http://maps.kcmo.org/kcgis/rest/service ... ents/11203

Some of the changes I noticed:

The plan is showing a hotel portion now. It looks like the hotel portion will be going between Mill St and the garage, with the garage entrance being moved. I don't see a number of rooms and apartment units.

The height is down to 7 stories from Pennsylvania and 9 stories from Mill Street.

The Char Bar outdoor space will be kept and built around.

Westport Coffee house will stay.

The garage will have green space/park on top with a pavilion.

Design is brick and more traditional.

It looks like the developers heavily altered their plans to appease the "neighbors." I'm sure there will still be some objection, but hopefully this won't get blocked or further neutered by the nimbys.

Sound like great changes all around.

Apartment building on Main just south of Armour has sign that it's being converted to Motel 6 extended stay hotel. I wonder if they are taking the Lost Sock laundromat next door that recently moved locations.

Article in the Star:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/business ... 61394.html

Developers are seeking no incentives.

beautyfromashes wrote:Apartment building on Main just south of Armour has sign that it's being converted to Motel 6 extended stay hotel. I wonder if they are taking the Lost Sock laundromat next door that recently moved locations.

Motel 6

mykn wrote:There's a neighborhood meeting about the OPUS development tomorrow (25th) at the Westport Library at 6:30. If you're supportive of the project, come meet up with us there. There's a group of NIMBYs that are trying to kill the project and that would result in a parking lot at Broadway and Westport Rd for the foreseeable future. After the meeting a couple of us are going to head over to HopCat for drinks.

We had a great turnout for this meeting. It was obviously an opposition meeting, but we were able to turn out about 25% of the people there in support. I don't think anyone there expected us to show up in such numbers

On a side note, the demographics of the meeting were pretty unsurprising. I'd say about 90% of the people opposed were 60+.

I wish I could have made it. I'm glad to hear it went well.

Was there indication of compromise to desire project w/out tearing down BOA? I wouldn't mind if it were 12 or even 20+ stories as that lot is huge enough to do a big project w/out tearing down BOA.

Afterall the compromises for the other project by Char Bar look reasonable for all concerned parties.

earthling wrote:Was there indication of compromise to desire project w/out tearing down BOA? I wouldn't mind if it were 12 or even 20+ stories as that lot is huge enough to do a big project w/out tearing down BOA.

Afterall the compromises for the other project by Char Bar look reasonable for all concerned parties.

I'm not convinced they couldn't save it in some form, but changing the scope to 20+ stories just to save a building misses the issues at play.

Parking minimums is the defining feature of the project.

JBmidtown wrote:I wish I could have made it. I'm glad to hear it went well.

Not a problem! Hopefully we can make this a reoccurring thing and get some more people next time. I think drinks afterwards might be a good motivator!

earthling wrote:Was there indication of compromise to desire project w/out tearing down BOA? I wouldn't mind if it were 12 or even 20+ stories as that lot is huge enough to do a big project w/out tearing down BOA.

Afterall the compromises for the other project by Char Bar look reasonable for all concerned parties.

The opposition was, in my opinion, all over the place and contradictory at times, however the two major themes that I heard were:

1) Not enough parking for residents, customers, and guests.
2) It's too tall (The argument was made that it would block out the sun and in the winter the street would never unfreeze and it would just lead to accidents. No joke. I guess downtown is a icy wasteland in the winter).

I didn't get the feeling that BOA building going away was a big deal, but more of that the style of architecture and the size of the new building was not appropriate for the area. I don't think there's a chance you could get the majority of them to support anything like 12 or 20 stories.

The good news is, those of us who spoke in favor of the plan did a good job at explaining the benefits of the project and why, even if it's not the perfect building, it would be good for the area. Afterwards, one of the people in our group was cornered by a few of the others in attendance and they said that he gave them something to think about and he felt like he changed a few minds at that meeting. So that's great!

It was an odd experience at the meeting though, I felt like I was in a very vocal church. The person speaking would say something against the project and the audience would murmur back approvingly. I have a feeling there's a lot of group think and if we just have a presence there, we could peel off enough support. Heck, we get another 10 people to show up next time and we could basically have the majority of people there.

kcjak wrote:

beautyfromashes wrote:Apartment building on Main just south of Armour has sign that it's being converted to Motel 6 extended stay hotel. I wonder if they are taking the Lost Sock laundromat next door that recently moved locations.

Motel 6

Its actually Studio 6 extended stay, but they are owned by Motel 6.

these midtown projects deserve their own threads.

DaveKCMO wrote:these midtown projects deserve their own threads.

Good call. I'll make them.

Two more Westport related items appeared on the city's development tracker map today:

A proposed CID for a portion of Westport.

And, some info on the proposed Marriott Suites on the old XO site: