New Planning/zoning/parking regulations

[DaveKCMO]

Hello,

As many of you are aware, the process to update Kansas City's Zoning Ordinance and Subdivisions Regulations has been going on for about two years now. The Steering Committee has reviewed many "modules" over the past year and a half, and has recently received the compilation of these modules referred to as "the consolidated draft".

Sometime throughout this process, you have requested that we add your name to our database, or you may have been involved in a subcommittee. So, if you are interested and available, two public meetings to be held on December 7 and 8. The content of these meetings will be the same. You may attend either or both.

1) Date: Thursday, December 7, 2006
Time: 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Location: Discovery Center, 4750 Troost Avenue

2) Date: Friday, December 8, 2006
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Location: City Hall, 414 E. 12th Street, 6th floor Forum

The "consolidated draft" document is not ready for public distribution, but will be posted to the City's website upon acceptance by the Steering Committee. You will receive notice of this, along with the link.

In addition to the December meetings, the document will be presented to the City Plan Commission on Tuesday, December 19 and the Planning, Zoning & Economic Development Committee in January (exact date not set). We will send additional notices of these meetings.

Thank you for your interest in this project.


Patty Noll
Project Manager
Zoning Ordinance & Subdivision Regulations Revision
City Planning & Development Department
City of Kansas City Missouri
414 E. 12th St., 15th floor
Kansas City, MO 64106
(816) 513-2864 direct line; (816) 513-2810 fax
Patty_Noll@kcmo.org

[dangerboy]

This week is your chance to preview the new much anticipated rewrite of the city's planning, zoning, and parking ordinances (including our first ever bike parking requirements).  The plan goes to City Plan Commission this month and the City Council in January.

Thursday Dec. 7, 6-8 pm
MO Conservation Dept's Discovery Center at 47th and Troost

Friday Dec. 8, 10 am - 12 pm
City Hall 6th Floor, 11th and Oak.

The bike parking component can be read at http://kcbike.info/parking

[kard]

Did anyone from the board go to this?

[kard]

It's happening!  Start paying attention to this.  You'll have to live with it for maybe the next 50 years.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... city_local

Zoning overhaul on tap
After 18 months of study, a panel is about to let Kansas Citians see its land-use vision.
By LYNN HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star

Kansas City is about to overhaul its zoning ordinance for the first time in half a century, with significant changes anticipated for landscaping, parking and housing throughout the city.

A consultant team and steering committee undertook a painstaking review and revision of the city’s zoning and subdivision regulations in the past 18 months. A draft ordinance should be ready for release on the city’s Web site by spring.

City officials say the public will have plenty of opportunity to comment. If all goes as planned, the City Council could vote on the new rules sometime in the summer or fall.

[trailerkid]

I don't know if "urban streetscape" is the proper term, but it seems there are no zoning regulations to maintain corridors with businesses facing the streets/sidewalks. Further, many new small developments in the core also seem to neglect the presence of the sidewalk and street.

IMO, the #1 issue in the decline of KCMO over the last 50 years has been the destruction of the dense, walkable urban streets. We have turned once highly urban streets into dead zones where there are no pedestrians and no life. Hundreds of city neighborhoods have been completely mutilated to the point where it will take generations to rebuild. Many of our walkable neighborhoods are still endangered to suburban uses like parking lots or set back businesses.

I believe something was mentioned in the Sasaki plan about these walkable zones within the city, but where are there plans to increase streetfront activity? IMO parking lots facing the sidewalk should be against zoning code from the River to Waldo. W 39th was brought up in another example. Ideally, Broadway would be completely walkable and dense from downtown to the Plaza and 39th would connect with another highly urban corridor. Instead both corridors are spotty at best. Notice that the walkable parts of both corridors are also the most commercially successful...coincidence? Until we begin to address the built environment and how it interacts I see all the "big projects" as just candy.

[GRID]

KCMO now requires a "walkability" study with every traffic study.  Traffic studies are generally required for all proposed developments.

This is one step the city is taking to address this issue.

The city has tried.  In the 90's, KCMO passed an overlay zoning law for the Main Street corridor requiring all businesses to front the sidewalks and have access via those sidewalks, not just a wall.

Well, a developer sued the city.  He wanted to put in a convenience store at about 39th and Main, something similar to a quicktrip.

The developer got a KCMO judge to kill the law because he somehow conviced the judge that it was impossible to have a fuel station with the building fronting the sidewalk even though other urban cities figure out ways to incorporate gas stations into urban environments all the time, but it's rarely done in the midwest, so it must not be possible.

Amazingly after the overlay zoning was no longer applicable, a gas station never went in.  Osco, Office Max, Office Depot and the Midtown Marketplace were all built soon after and the city still has horrible zoning laws for the urban core today.

[KCMax]

I totally agree tk. This needs to be addressed. Many on here have written that until very recently the city banned outdoor dining on patios? That's absurd! That needs to be ENCOURAGED! Sidewalks need to be widened. Parking lots should be behind storefronts.  The city should give tax breaks for businesses with large windows facing sidewalks (there are many egregious examples along Main - Osco, Office Max, etc.). Instead of forcing businesses to do this, why not entice them?



I'm glad to hear there is now a "walkability" study required, but we need action as well.

[kard]

It is being addressed.

The City has been working with consultants to rewrite the current zoning ordinance that hasn't been changed much since the late 50's.  The presentation back in December showed examples of how to build pedestrian friendly and interactive sidewalks / store fronts, and also revises the parking requirements to encourage more small business.

http://www.kcmo.org/planning.nsf/devmgt ... endocument

Being discussed here:  http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php?topic=10538.0

[ShowMeKC]

This looks very promising, it encourages off-street parking, but doesn't require it, and will eliminate mininum limits, and will put in max parking limits so lots and garages won't be excessive. Off-street parking isn't required in the DT loop.
Rehabbed buildings won't require additional parking.
They will reduce amount of required parking through alternative compliance parking plan.
Bike accomodation will be required, and even will be encouraged if it would slightly reduce vehicle spaces.

They want to mitigate environment and urban design impacts from parking lots and vehicle use areas.

Also, it will help implement the "Downtown Land Use and Development Plan", they want to turn DT to a high intesity mixed use area, with mix of residentian and neighborhood serving uses. They want pedestrian oriented streets in downtown with retail vitality.
They also want standards for: building facades, ground floor uses and parking.

DT Land Use and Development Plan:
http://www.kcmo.org/planning.nsf/plnpre ... endocument

[midtown guy]

I totally agree tk. This needs to be addressed. Many on here have written that until very recently the city banned outdoor dining on patios? That's absurd! That needs to be ENCOURAGED! Sidewalks need to be widened. Parking lots should be behind storefronts.  The city should give tax breaks for businesses with large windows facing sidewalks (there are many egregious examples along Main - Osco, Office Max, etc.). Instead of forcing businesses to do this, why not entice them?



I'm glad to hear there is now a "walkability" study required, but we need action as well.

The outside seating thing just kills me -- the places that do have good outside patios are just packed during the spring, summer and fall -- Sol Cantina, Harpos, Harry's (both of them), -- there just are so few of them...makes me mad when I go anywhere else in the world and they just have tons of outside seating places

[teleology]

The developer got a KCMO judge to kill the law because he somehow conviced the judge that it was impossible to have a fuel station with the building fronting the sidewalk even though other urban cities figure out ways to incorporate gas stations into urban environments all the time, but it's rarely done in the midwest, so it must not be possible.

this is wild.  most other cities i've been in make a simple exception for gas stations, since they are specifically car-centered.  since there aren't typically a large number of gas station/convenience stores in a particular urban area, having one business set back from the street scarcely disrupts the streetscape.

[trailerkid]

The City has been working with consultants to rewrite the current zoning ordinance that hasn't been changed much since the late 50's.  The presentation back in December showed examples of how to build pedestrian friendly and interactive sidewalks / store fronts, and also revises the parking requirements to encourage more small business.

http://www.kcmo.org/planning.nsf/devmgt ... endocument

Where is there information on how "transitional" streets like Main Street (mostly serving cars and some pedestrians) will go back to pedestrian corridors? I don't think there is any mandate in the study on creating more pedestrian corridors-- only not ruining the couple of them we actually kept. As hard as it is for KCMO to admit, auto-dominated corridors like Main shouldn't exist in the urban core...period.

We need to start studying how to get rid of the transitional corridors and convert them to pedestrian corridors instead of creating justifications for parking lots everywhere. Thank God for consultants telling us what we already know...

[Pork Chop]

Does anyone know if the new Zoning Rules have passed or is this still being worked on by the city?

[kard]

Does anyone know if the new Zoning Rules have passed or is this still being worked on by the city?

still being worked on.

[KC0KEK]

IMO, the #1 issue in the decline of KCMO over the last 50 years has been the destruction of the dense, walkable urban streets. We have turned once highly urban streets into dead zones where there are no pedestrians and no life.

I think you've got the cause and effect reversed. The streets went dead because people left for various reasons (e.g., cheaper housing, better schools). When the pedestrian traffic dried up, so did interest in walkable streets. The mass exodus out of downtown wasn't related to walkability.

That said, restoring walkability will help bring some people back.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Got back a few weeks ago from spending 8 days in Lost Wages (Las Vegas).  Street life there along the Strip was very busy.  People walking everywhere.  True, local street life went dead because people did leave KC's urban areas, much like any other urban area in the country.  What was fascinating about Vegas was the amount of walking no matter the time of day or night nor the temperature.
Yes, there were people going from one location to another but there were also people just sightseeing (like me) and were entertained along the way.  There was music.  There was entertainment.  There were places to sit and just watch.  There were things to see.

One block along the strip is probably five blocks long locally.  And one might say that with the buildings and traffic the sidewalks are very hostile and not walkable.  Yes, Vegas is unique but people will walk the streets if there is a reason to walk the streets.

[KCMax]

The Vegas Strip is a bit of a different animal though since its largely tourists who don't have cars.

[dangerboy]

Here is the schedule for the final phase...

August: Public meetings
September: Hearings before City Plan Commission and City Council
October: Final vote by City Council

[Pork Chop]

Here is the schedule for the final phase...

August: Public meetings
September: Hearings before City Plan Commission and City Council
October: Final vote by City Council

Thank you.

[kard]

ok, kids.  have at it!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 16, 2007

Development code project enters public review phase

The City of Kansas City, Mo., City Planning and Development Department's Zoning Ordinance and Subdivisions Regulations project has entered the public review phase now that the Steering Committee's June review is complete.

DRAFT
Pack a lunch, it's a big one!  http://www.kcmo.org/planning/devmgmt/zo ... _draft.pdf

Zoning Ordinance & Subdivision Regulations Revision Process

goodies like this are inside: