STATE OF KANSAS ) WYANDOTTE COUNTY )) SS SPECIAL SESSION, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018 CITY OF KANSAS CITY, KS ) The Unified Government Commission of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, met in Special Session, Thursday, November 29, 2018, with eleven members present: Bynum, Commissioner At-Large First District; Burroughs, Commissioner At-Large Second District; Townsend, Commissioner First District; McKiernan, Commissioner Second District; Murguia, Commissioner Third District; Johnson, Commissioner Fourth District; Kane, Commissioner Fifth District; Markley, Commissioner Sixth District; Walters, Commissioner Seventh District; Philbrook, Commissioner Eighth District; and Alvey, Mayor/CEO presiding. The following officials were also in attendance: Doug Bach, County Administrator; Ken Moore, Chief Legal Counsel; Bridgette Cobbins, Unified Government Clerk; Joe Connor, Gordon Criswell, Melissa Sieben, Assistant County Administrators; Rob Richardson, Director of Planning; Zach Flanders, Planner; Emerick Cross, Commission Liaison; and Officer Sutton, Sergeant-at-Arms. MAYOR ALVEY called the meeting to order. ROLL CALL: Walters, Philbrook, Bynum, Burroughs, Townsend, McKiernan, Murguia, Johnson, Kane, Markley, Alvey. NOTICE OF SPECIAL SESSION of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, to be held Thursday, November 29, 2018, at 5:00 p.m. in the 5th floor conference room of the Municipal Office Building, regarding the Northeast Area Master Plan/Zoning Code. CONSENT TO MEETING of the governing body of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, accepting service of the foregoing notice, waiving all and any irregularities in such service and in such notice, and consent and agree that we, the governing body, shall meet at the time and place therein specified and for the purpose therein stated. Doug Bach, County Administrator, said some time ago, as directed by the Commission, we set out to go through and work on the Northeast and do some community engagement. Working 2 through that cycle, tonight Mr. Richardson is here to report back on the outcome of that plan and let us know where we are tonight as we move forward this evening with a recommendation as an item on the agenda. Rob Richardson, Director of Planning, said with me tonight is Adam Rosa with Camiros Consulting Firm. They have helped us with our community engagement putting the plan together. I think the plan has been widely supported and the community is very excited about it overall. We will have one minor amendment to present at the 7:00 p.m. meeting related in the history section of the plan related to the Exodusters that was overlooked at the Planning Commission meeting. Other than that, Adam has the presentation on the plan to go through how we got to where are at the end of the process. Adam Rosa, Principal with Camiros Consulting Firm, said we are the urban planners that really facilitated this process over the last year or so. They always say when you’re starting a presentation you should try to leave your audience with three main things to remember, so I’m going to give your four things because I couldn’t cut it down to three. This plan really represents a holistic vision that was created by the community that builds off of existing assets within the neighborhood. That’s number one. Number 2, it includes a future Land Use Plan that recalibrates the neighborhood for future growth and change. Number 3, the plan includes specific priority projects that will help to achieve the community’s vision to really move it forward. Number 4, the plan includes an implementation structure led by the Historic Northeast Midtown Association. It’s already taking action on a number of initiatives and projects. As I go through the summary presentation I would like to kind of reflect on those four key points. November 29, 2018 3 Since July, this previous summer, we’ve been going through developing and refining the draft plan into what we have here today which is really the final plan document. This included a community open house in July. A public comment period that lasted approximately a month. A Steering Committee Meeting to go through a summary of the plan to take feedback from our working group, our Steering Committee. The Planning Commission review was October 8th. Then, here today, November 28th, the Board of Commissioners. November 29, 2018 4 The area that the plan includes is really made up of a number of different neighborhoods of different character as well as the Fairfax Industrial District. The boundaries are as shown on the screen here. It’s really the Missouri River on the north and the east, down to Washington and State on the south, and over to I-635 on the west; also including the Quindaro Town Site area just west of I-635. November 29, 2018 5 November 29, 2018 6 The vision that was developed through the process is really focused on four main planning themes and all the projects and actions in the plan are organized around these themes. This came directly out of the community engagement process that we undertook with residents. The first is a rich history, the second is a food hub, the third is a healthy community, and the fourth is an expanded economy. I’m going to talk a little bit about each of those as we go forward here, but I kind of wanted to lay that out right at the start in terms of the structure of the plan. Bringing all those themes together results in the community vision. We have an illustration here on the screen that shows how all these different pieces really interconnect and interlock to improve the quality of life for neighborhood residents and to also help identify catalytic improvements to the physical structure of the neighborhood. So, all in all, I believe we have about 23 priority projects that are listed in the plan. We also have some smaller infrastructure improvements that we’ve also identified as part of the process, but the 23 projects, and they are kind of dotted around the screen here, are the ones that are really the highest priority for moving the neighborhood forward. November 29, 2018 7 We began with an assessment of the existing conditions in the neighborhood. We know that we have about 21,000 residents living within that planning area. We know it’s a very diverse area, about 54% African-American, 31% White, 31% Latino. After a 10-year decline in population, since 2007 there has been a 4.2% increase in the number of residents living within the neighborhood. So, there is a growing population within the Northeast Area, although, there is a— the median income is about $14,000 less than Wyandotte County as a whole. Unemployment is about 15% which is higher than the county and higher than the national average. These are probably stats that you’ve heard before. It’s good to identify these, but what we really wanted to do was build first on the assets of the community and working with the neighbors to really understand how we can really stress and build upon what’s there today. November 29, 2018 8 The planning process; this is kind of a general outline of the process that we went through. It began in September 2017. The first couple of months were really dedicated to listening and learning. We had a number of small group meetings, one on one conversations with stakeholders, our first larger community meeting as well as our first Steering Committee meeting. We had a site tour with Chester Owens who brought us around the neighborhood and told us about the history of the place and everything that had happened there and just trying to get the lay of the land. That moved into the visioning phase which began in January 2018 and into February 2018 where we looked at specific focus areas within this larger Northeast Area and worked with the community to identify some different options for change within those areas. That led into the development of the strategies, programs and projects which began in March 2018 into June. From there we developed the outline and the draft plan starting in June 2018 into July. It was really an iterative process. All the while we were looking for opportunities to create action while we were doing the plan, that’s the doing well planning as well as creating community connections between different partners—members of the community that were interested in doing projects. November 29, 2018 9 November 29, 2018 10 Looking a little bit more at the assets and the challenges that were really told to us by the residents in the community. Again, building off the rich community assets that are already located and available within the neighborhood including parks, churches, schools, and daycares. Restaurants were identified as a major asset and something that was unique to the Northeast Area. Community Gardens; there’s several community gardens and farms within the neighborhood. Recreation facilities and really a large collection of historic assets which is why one of our themes is really built on a rich history. Community facilities were identified by residents as being a really important asset in amenity. Although many of the facilities residents felt could benefit from additional programming and investment, making better use of the spaces we have today within the neighborhood. November 29, 2018 11 In terms of challenges, we tried to organize them around different categories, physical and economic and so forth. This grew out of our first couple community workshops and a couple challenges that really stuck out were the poor sidewalk conditions, the infrastructure, thinking about being able to walk around the neighborhoods safely.