KCRag Forum

Piece of information to save.

http://www.marc.org/2040/Land-Use_Direc ... idors.aspx

MARC and its transit and local government partners have identified six corridors that are the highest priority for the region to develop as the backbone of this transit system

North Oak Trafficway
State Avenue
Metcalf Avenue / Shawnee Mission Parkway
Troost Avenue
Rock Island corridor
U.S. Highway 24/40

N. Oak comes off this phase 2 corridor

i'm told it will be a struggle to finance this one due to the river crossing expense and lack of significant retail sales tax in NKC.

first public meeting is 6-8pm, nov. 21 at NKC community center (1999 iron at armour road).

project website: http://northrailkc.com/
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/northrailkc
twitter: https://twitter.com/NorthRailKC

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pash wrote:So is this project moving forward independently of the rest of the Phase 2 process?

two cities in separate counties and a river crossing, so yeah.

Don't they make an amphistreetcar?

taxi wrote:Don't they make an amphistreetcar?

you mean like a DUKW?

add to the opportunities on this corridor

Burlington has former dedicated bus lanes from 12th Ave to 26th Ave. If you drive it southbound you'll see the setup with the old transit only signal at 12th st. last I knew the sign was still up to tell drivers about the transit only cycle

this would make most of the corridor a 4 lane segment. if there's a potential for a dedicated rail lane that changes the equation for the corridor. it could be a true light rail line zipping past traffic. otherwise, I still like swift more, it's that much better than Burlington

How'd the meeting go last night? Looks to have been well-attended.

smh wrote:How'd the meeting go last night? Looks to have been well-attended.

I was going to go but that evenings timing didn't work out. ended up feeding a 3-year-old instead which was more important.

I hope to go to one of the next two meetings.

I actually saw on facebook a guy I went to HS with went to the meeting. he works for the army corp of engineers. don't think he was there officially though

The more I think about it I come to this conclusion

Burlington has the existing transit lanes 12th to 26th. Could feasibly do a train only lane without needing to actually lay rails in the street except at crossings. With a slight extension of them at the north end to 32nd for 1.35 miles. And that would be nice.

Swift is better for every other reason of which one to pick.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/gr ... index.html

94 attendees, very engaged crowd. questions about cost, etc., as you'd expect, but overall supportive of the concept. a consensus appeared to emerge for swift and a possible turn on armour to go east (shops, casino, hospital, cerner), which i don't think consultants were expecting.

those present often referred to the streetcar providing benefit to both KCMO and NKC -- breweries/shops/schools/parks on the NKC side that might attract downtowners, access to downtown attractions for existing NKC residents. one nut case said he thought KCMO would try to annex NKC if the streetcar were built (as if the bridge with thousands of cars on it wasn't convenient enough to spur annexation). the guy at my table went rogue and said we wanted a couplet using swift AND burlington (we will not do couplets).

you know what's funny about the annexation context. KCMO just did a shared annexation/deannexation with NKC, and NKC came out ahead in terms of acreage. Wonder if he knew about just how technically easy it would be for KC to get land from NKC, it just takes a council vote from both sides

a swift alignment won the online voting. very small sample size, but another confirmation. an alignment that goes east on armour is now part of the analysis, based on input from the public.

found this good background in the info pdf from the first meeting

N-S Alternative Analysis
evaluated north-south corridor from the northland to south of the plaza in 2008
• focused on light rail
• Burlington selected as preferred alignment
• Identified a new transit-exclusive river crossing
• north Kansas City approved funding for their portion but regional ballot measures failed

Burlington Study
• 2009 planning process to define future of Burlington corridor.
• vision for community gateway and urban,mixed-use destination
• strategies to make Burlington more walkable,attractive, and transit-oriented, including rail

NKC Plans
• 2012 action plan for north Kansas City Council
• prioritizes redevelopment, active re-use, and improvement of Burlington corridor, all of which could benefit from streetcar expansion

North Oak Study
• examined how transit can be a catalyst for sustainable development and how land use changes can support future transit service
• options to enhance transit service along the north oak corridor

Outlook 2040
• This MARCC plan identifies the north oak corridor, including connections through north Kansas City, as one of the six highest priority
corridors for transit in the region

http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/mission ... lText=true

Only five attractions in Kansas City — the Power & Light District, Ameristar Casino, Harrah's Casino, Kauffman Stadium and Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun — attract more than a million visitors a year from anywhere, according to the Kansas City Business Journal.

This makes going east make more sense. Never realized just how big Harrah's was to KC.

could always hit NKC Hospital/Cerner and then immediately swing south to the casino via a bridge and dedicated row. adding in the stadiums down the line and those are the easy connection to the top 3 destinations in the region.

a one seat from downtown to a casino could drive a lot of redevelopment all the way into downtown. and NKC currently has that major parcel right at I-35

next public meeting for this extension is thursday, feb. 13: https://www.facebook.com/events/1422418771331167/

Options from meeting. Excuse the mixed post and repeats

Burlington. Middle dedicated with middle stops. Remove parking
Burlington shared lane. More impact on traffic.
Swift and armour in mixed traffic

Armour option is dropped.

Most development options are east of 35, but hard to get to
Burlington has more option easy to reach

Walkable and residential or mixed use are best corridors
Swift is more attractive today

Burlington has more long term opportunity. Nkc staff has background in the corridor
Swift and armour has best walkable area. Burlington is as bad today as 210 hwy is

Mention smart moves corridors covered before

Need to reduce Burlington speed limit for mixed use. Worst case impact
To fix will lose parking

Swift has loading docks. There's models from other cities

Swift has sharows today. May need to move

I35 armour bridge. Need 16 feet. Have 14' 9"
Need pumping and utility move to lower
Can't widen underneath
Could do streetcar only lane under bridge but can't reduce # of lanes
No reasonable service to stop before bridge

Bridge
HOA bridge has multiple variations in play.
Add single track lane. Has capacity for 7.5 min frequency
$15-35 million
Can take SB lane, could move ped lane

Build new bridge. Double track
$40 million

Move ped to new bridge. $60 million

Stop point at armour or at 32nd

Financing covered in the next meeting in April

next public meeting is thursday, april 24 at NKC community center. official notice coming soon.

DaveKCMO wrote:next public meeting is thursday, april 24 at NKC community center. official notice coming soon.

wednesday, april 23 is the date. 6-8pm.