KCRag Forum

The South Liberty Parkway, which will eventually extend from the I-35 and Liberty Dr. intersection east to 291 Highway, will include family oriented "commercial, retail and industrial centers throughout the corridor." It's aim is to serve the rapidly expanding population of Liberty with as much as "331,600 square feet of office space, 384,300 square feet of industrial space and 826,100 square feet of retail space." The will start with big box stores near the I-35 as a gateway to the city.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 920254.htm

hmm... if all those were combined, they would be 5 308,340 square foot buildings. This is huge for a city the size of Liberty.

Planners look to next phase of South Liberty Parkway

By KELLY GARBUS
Special to The Star

The second phase of the South Liberty Parkway project may someday include a town center development similar to Zona Rosa in Kansas City, North, says Steven W. Anderson, Liberty's director of planning and development.

The new four-mile South Liberty Parkway will connect Interstate 35 and Missouri 291 and open the southern part of the city to new development. The second phase of the project will run from Withers Road to Missouri 291 through lands that now are largely farmland and river bluffs. One conceptual drawing has the road swinging north and connecting with Missouri 291 near Ruth Ewing Road, while another has it connecting about a half mile farther south.

“This has been on the long-range plans for the last 35 years,â€

Thanks for the post Trailer. If they're going to make it similar to Zona Rosa they better get on the ball. Retail on the other side of the highway is exploding and will only keep increasing once Shoal Creek breaks ground on there retail developments. They claim this has been in the long range plans for the past 35 years. Not a very good excuse to cover your rear's. Wonder what there excuse was for not annexing land west of I-35. Oh well I'm glad it's KCMO anyways.

I have often questioned why Liberty did not annex west of I-35 but now that I have lived here for awhile I appreciate the community’s position on this topic.

Many of you claim to be opposed to suburban sprawl yet you criticize a community that has tried to establish natural and man-made boundaries. You have me slightly confused. The I-35 corridor created a man-made boundary. Would the families living on the West side be provided with the same services and the strong sense of community provided on the East side?

While being proud of Kansas City and being a part of the KC community, we strongly want to maintain well defined boundaries. Our annexed lands to the north, east and south must be developed to include a well defined and measured green space, a natural boundary. As you know we dislike the word suburb.

Liberty takes great pride in providing its citizens with a strong sense of community. I live in a newer Liberty neighborhood that many of you would call suburban beige but I find it ideal. I am not removed or gated off from the rest of Liberty. I can walk to the grocery, my favorite pizza joint, the post office, library, fitness center, community center and the park. Our streets are more traditional and our city planners insist that a modified street grid must be maintained.

Liberty works hard to develop “Infillâ€

Liberty will not be able to stop the "suburbanization" of the town. The town has a lot of history etc, but most of the new parts don't look and different than any other suburb of KC.

I will say, that I am impressed by how well the old 291 corridor is still doing. With all the retail near I-35, the original 291 corridor has yet to convert into some second tier "has been" corridor (yet) with pawn shops and vacant stripmalls along side the HyVee's and Blockbusters.

Exactly Grid. I used to live in Liberty and wisely got the hell out. The reason being that Liberty so stubbornly fought retail growth that is inevitable and simply occurred on the other side of 35 in Kansas City. Meanwhile, the people that shop in that area still mostly bought houses in Liberty. Liberty also stubbornly resisted the undeniable growth by not expanding the roads until recently which put them way behind where they need to be for the amount of residents now there. Essentially what they have done is forced all the convenience and extra revenue into Kansas City, Mo while adding more inconvenience to their own community by becoming probably the most irritating traffice nightmare in the metro area.

Liberty can continue to try to fight the idea of their little town becoming suburbia but in the end the result will still be the same. If Liberty doesn't expand it's city limits Kansas City and possible Independence will simply swallow it just like Claycome and Pleasant Valley. All of what they are trying to resist will happen anyway but they won't receive any revenue from it. That revenue will be needed even more once it gets enveloped. People crossing back and forth from a burb on one side of Liberty to a burb on the other side will tear up their roads etc.. and won't have to pay any of the taxes to repair it. Won't that be spayshul!

Having said that, I am just happy that I don't live there anymore. Everytime I have to pass through that place it gives me a damn headache.

The new South Liberty Parkway...phase 1...will be completed in November 2005. I can see the construction from my house.

It is interesting to note that Liberty has not annexed all the lands south of Liberty and as the local newspaper pointed out that this error will give KC an opportunity to develop lands south of the very parkway that Liberty is building!

The paper was asking Liberty to annex south, east and north...they pointed out that the vast majority of the lands surrounding Liberty are owned by the Mormon Church....as also is the entire Shoal Creek Valley area.

zlohban wrote:The new South Liberty Parkway...phase 1...will be completed in November 2005. I can see the construction from my house.

It is interesting to note that Liberty has not annexed all the lands south of Liberty and as the local newspaper pointed out that this error will give KC an opportunity to develop lands south of the very parkway that Liberty is building!

The paper was asking Liberty to annex south, east and north...they pointed out that the vast majority of the lands surrounding Liberty are owned by the Mormon Church....as also is the entire Shoal Creek Valley area.

Unless the city government has done a total turnaround in the last 10 years I would be surprised to see it happen. While they are sitting at the meeting table kicking the idea around and coming up with reasons why they shouldn't do it, Kansas City will likely be in the process of getting it done.

That's how it has been in the past and that is the reason why you can look across 35 and see that massive shopping center in KCMO. When I lived in Liberty in the mid 90's, there was nothing there except a small gas station and the McDonalds. That Wal Mart that is now located in KCMO was located in Liberty at the time over by the old Hardees and all of that. Wal Mart wanted to build a newer and larger store and, for reasons I can't remember, Liberty got into a pissing contest with Wally World so they packed up and moved across the highway. That was the start of a trend that continued for many years which is why you see what you see now.

Liberty has been giving the impression lately that they may be changing how they go about things but until I see more I will remain skeptical.

Herein lies the conundrum of our modern times. Municipalities like Liberty don't wish to see their pristine landscape sullied by the built environment cancer that typifies Sprawlmart and it's other big-box compatriots, but then get bit in the ass when the contemptible development just moves across municipal boundaries, causing (in this case) Liberty to miss out on all the tax revenue and accompanying fanfare.

Phase 1 was completed 10 years ago.

Phase 2 was funded in the November 2014 election

http://www.libertytribune.com/news/arti ... b1a3b.html

Question 3: Economic development sales tax

With 7,928 total votes cast, the tax was passed with 56 percent in favor and 44 percent against.

The tax will go toward funding Phase 2 of South Liberty Parkway from Withers Road to Missouri Highway 291. In addition, the tax will fund the rehabilitation of downtown Liberty infrastructure and improvements to sidewalks and crosswalks. The tax will sunset in 20 years.

here's a map
http://www.ci.liberty.mo.us/DocumentCenter/View/19769

I live on the KCMO side of the Liberty area and was glad to see they passed on funding the Liberty Parkway expansion over to 291. As it was you had to drive north a ways, then over, then back south, then over to get to 291. Of course looking at the map above they apparently decided they don't like straight lines.

SWFan wrote:Of course looking at the map above they apparently decided they don't like straight lines.

Yep, that's 1800s road design with it's radiating road pattern.

Some of them make complete sense because they were developed before a modern "let's just move that hill" style of engineering.

Not sure what it was, but it looked like some large sewer tanks were installed south of the parkway at Flintlock. So work is preparing to open up development is my guess

Phase 2 broke ground last week

Expected to finish this fall
https://libertymissouri.gov/27/South-Liberty-Parkway

Opening up space for 5000 homes for development

Phase 2 is open, Withers Road to 291