Kansas City’s Streetcar Advisory Committee is recommending that a proposed southern expansion of the new system end at UMKC.
The committee is backing three extensions off the two-mile starter line, which will run from Union Station to the Rivermarket. Phase two would stretch east from Main, running about two miles along Independence Avenue, and Linwood Boulevard. The third would extend south from Union Station about three and a half miles, and stop around 51st street.
A proposal to run the line as far south as 85th Street, drew opposition from some Brookside and Waldo residents, and would not have generated as much tax revenue per mile as the other extensions.
Vincent Gauthier director of planning for the architectural firm BNIM, says the process has to clear the city council, the courts, and two public votes before the city’s even ready to ask for federal assistance.
“On your way to getting a Ph.D. in streetcar, we’ve just gotten out of Jr. High,” quips Gauthier.
Tuesday’s recommendations also shrunk the proposed boundaries for collecting sales and property taxes in support of the project, and called for a MAX bus line on Prospect.
Total cost: about $515 million.
City leaders say the federal government would likely pick up half, if everything falls into place before the end of the Obama administration
