urban development

For decades, Kansas City has made it mandatory to provide a minimum amount of parking spaces for restaurants, businesses and apartments. Planners and advocates say that the high price has prevented empty storefronts from being filled and hollowed out the urban core.

After years of delays, a historic Kansas City railroad bridge is set to reopen as a unique entertainment destination in April. The redevelopment will allow pedestrian crossings between the West Bottoms and Kansas City, Kansas, as well as elevate space for restaurants, music and events.

The Sun Fresh Market at Linwood Shopping Center closed in August due to increasing issues with crime and a lack of customers. The lawsuit alleges Kansas City undermined and neglected the store, which caused it to close.

The project will build new housing on what was once one of the oldest Black-owned housing cooperatives in the country.

The zoning change is the first regulation on where data centers can be built in the city. Advocates see it as the first step in limiting the AI data center boom.

Kansas City Council is considering a plan to overhaul the Country Club Plaza, with much taller buildings and a new public square. But not all residents are convinced — and now Lockton Companies is moving its headquarters to Leawood.

Kansas City is using a $5 million grant to study how to reconnect communities torn apart by Highway 71. Commuters, residents, and urban planners continue to debate between multiple possibilities that could transform nearby neighborhoods and traffic in the area.

Highway construction tore through the historically Latino neighborhood in the latter half of the 20th century. Now, Kansas City is reconsidering the roadways with an eye toward addressing some of the harms they have caused.

The new owners of the Country Club Plaza plan to open the door to 200-foot apartment buildings as part of their redevelopment plans. That’s sparked concerns from residents about the area losing its architectural identity. Members of the Plaza Westport Neighbor Association Board warn that the high-rises could wall off the neighborhood.

After borrowing $1.4 billion to redevelop the Country Club Plaza, the Gillion Property Group is now seeking millions in tax breaks from a Kansas City agency. Residents are also concerned about new construction renderings showing 200-foot apartment buildings and a major change to the neighborhood’s style.

A local weather phenomenon holds that the 6,100-person town of Tonganoxie, Kansas, can weaken and divide thunderstorms and tornadoes. Experts are mixed on its existence — and what causes it — but locals say otherwise.

On Friday, Brandon Calloway will lead a 10-mile walk to showcase 24 Black-owned businesses along Troost Avenue, challenging decades-old stigmas about Kansas City’s former racial dividing line.