A year after Kansas City Life Insurance Company demolished nearly two dozen buildings in the Valentine Neighborhood, residents hope that Kansas City will name a portion of the neighborhood as a historic district to help prevent more demolitions.
The Valentine Neighborhood Association, led by development committee chair Chris Jordan, applied in July to designate a historic district between West 35th St. to Valentine Rd. between Pennsylvania Ave. and Summit St., called the Norman School Historic District.
The application must be approved by the Kansas City Council, which could take up the measure as early as this week.
For years, the neighborhood association has been at odds with KC Life over the demolition of properties, which has resulted in high proportions of vacant land.
KC Life has defended the demolitions, arguing the buildings were dangerous and needed to be demolished.
“The City’s acceptance of Kansas City Life’s recommendation to designate these buildings as ‘dangerous’ and their decision to issue an order to demolish these properties is a crucial step toward improving the safety of the neighborhood and to begin the process of refreshing our community with new development and more sustainable housing,” a spokesperson for KC Life told KCUR.
To Mary Jo Draper, a 36-year resident of the Valentine neighborhood and communications chair for the Valentine Neighborhood Association, KC Life’s actions are a result of neglect.
“If the homes had been well maintained, like the homes that we live in which were built in the same time period … they would be safe,” Draper said.
The neighborhood association says that a historic district would safeguard more buildings from demolition, and ensure that the character of the area is maintained in new developments.
Opponents of the historic district designation have expressed worries about the added bureaucracy of changing buildings within a historic district. The city’s Historic Preservation Commission is required to sign off on exterior changes to such properties.
“It's not as onerous as I think some folks believe it could be,” said Kansas City 4th District At-Large Council member Crispin Rea, who lives in the proposed historic district. “However, it is an extra layer, and that could always cause delays.”
Rea is undecided on how he will vote when the historic designation proposal comes before Council. He is concerned that it could impact the development of now-vacant plots of land, where KC Life has proposed building new apartments.
Vacant land is a concern of the Valentine Neighborhood Association, too. Many neighbors approved of the concepts that KC Life brought to a neighborhood meeting earlier this year.
“What the concern is, is that either that doesn't happen or something comes up, those plans end up being too expensive and they decide to do something completely different without any input from the neighborhood,” said Anna Seydel, who’s lived in the proposed historic district for four years.
Rea also introduced an ordinance Tuesday to require the city manager’s office to develop minimum standards for maintenance of historic buildings.
“So much of our efforts have been focused on the demolition process, and by that point, a lot of these buildings have fallen into too much of a disrepair,” Rea told KCUR’s Up To Date. “This would require certain standards for historic buildings before they get to that point, so that we don't even have to have these conversations.”
- Chris Jordan, development committee chair for the Valentine Neighborhood Association
- Anna Seydel, Valentine Neighborhood Association board member who lives in the proposed historic district
- Mary Jo Draper, communications chair for the Valentine Neighborhood Association
- Crispin Rea, Kansas City 4th District At-Large Council member
