EPA moving to Lenexa from downtown KCK

[redperro]

whats the harm in having epa stay put?!?!

[KCMax]

Protest about EPA regional headquarters move to Lenexa is denied

[KCMax]

Filling An Empty Shell: What Will Replace The EPA In Downtown KCK?

“It is a very unique tenant that we want to have in that location. It’s a very iconic building and prime location within the community and the region.” Say Greg Kindle, President of the WYEDC. He says it’s a difficult building to divide up into multiple spaces, so the ideal tenant will be a single entity that has 500 plus employees. At minimum it will take 6 months to identify a new tenant, but most likely it will take longer.

Kindle hopes that the future tenants will be more involved in the downtown community, as in move in, and hire within the surrounding area.

[GRID]

Sad. Should have never left downtown kcmo...

[KCMax]

Sad. Should have never left downtown kcmo...

How long ago was it in KCMO?

[heatherkay]

EPA has been in KCK for about 25 years.

http://midwestdemocracy.com/blogs/entri ... ach-other/

They may have had some of their office in KCMO after that, but I think the main operations were in KCK since the move in the 80s. I have a couple of friends who moved here from Chicago to open an environmental consulting office. Their first office was in downtown KCK to be near EPA HQ. Their third son was born in Kansas City, and he graduated from college last year, so that sounds about right.

[mean]

There is one building in KCMO (training center, warehouse, etc), and two in KCK (the regional HQ and a laboratory).

[heatherkay]

Yeah -- the warehouse moved out of the Fairfax in KCK and up to the Subtropolis in 2006ish.

[GRID]

Sad. Should have never left downtown kcmo...

How long ago was it in KCMO?

I thought the main office was in KCMO up till like 1998 or 99. Bob Dole pushed to move them to KCK to spark revitalization in downtown KCK.

[aknowledgeableperson]

The new building was opened in 1998 or so but I thought the offices had been in KCK since at least the early 90's. I had a supervisor then whose wife worked for the EPA and I my memory tells me she worked in KS. But before 1998 the EPA offices were not centralized.

[heatherkay]

I thought the main office was in KCMO up till like 1998 or 99. Bob Dole pushed to move them to KCK to spark revitalization in downtown KCK.

Nope. Bob Dole did push the office to KCK, but that was in the mid-80s. EPA left its offices in the Crossroads area somewhere and moved to an old JC Penney's in downtown KCK. Like I said, there may have been a couple of attorneys in the federal courthouse building or something like that, but EPA's main operations were in KCK as of 1986ish. EPA's operations still aren't totally centralized. They have a lab building that moved from Fairfax to right next to the current building, and a warehouse building that also moved from Fairfax to the Subtropolis.

[mean]

That pretty much jives with my understanding. After the move from KCMO in the 80s, they occupied a mishmash of buildings along Minnesota Avenue between 7th and 8th streets, which are now mostly vacant. A friend of mine leased one of them not long ago to repurpose as a photography studio, and there were still boxes of EPA junk and cubicle walls, etc. As I recall, this was directly above the old Katz.

[KCPowercat]

From the EPA's site:
http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=reso ... atyoucando

Choose a cleaner commute — car pool, use public transportation, bike or walk when possible.

Guess it's more of a "do as I say, not as I do" policy for the EPA.

[mean]

Actually they have implemented telework for almost everyone, and relocated many employees to the lab and the cave to keep them closer to home. The move is still retarded, but at least they are not being complete hypocrites.

[KCPowercat]

that is good news but I still can't see them as anything but hypocrites to move to a location that has absolutely no way to get there except vehicle....

[FangKC]

Where is the "cave?"

[pash]

.

[mean]

that is good news but I still can't see them as anything but hypocrites to move to a location that has absolutely no way to get there except vehicle....

That had nothing to do with EPA, that's all on GSA. In response to GSA deciding EPA was moving to the middle of nowhere, EPA implemented telework and alternate work sites so as many people as possible wouldn't have to make the drive.

[KCPowercat]

that is good news but I still can't see them as anything but hypocrites to move to a location that has absolutely no way to get there except vehicle....

That had nothing to do with EPA, that's all on GSA. In response to GSA deciding EPA was moving to the middle of nowhere, EPA implemented telework and alternate work sites so as many people as possible wouldn't have to make the drive.

Understood.

[KCMax]

EPA finds lots to like about new suburban home in Lenexa

One of the bigger objections to the EPA moving from a central location in the metro to southern Johnson County was the extra drive — and the environmental cost — it would cause employees. Brooks said that hasn’t been the case.

“Quite a few of our employees are from Johnson County, Lawrence or Topeka,” he said. “As far as we know, the change in commuting miles was a complete wash. The biggest frustration was for people in the Northland having a longer commute.”

Well good, as long as the EPA is fighting for the status quo and not trying to reduce commuter miles or anything.