By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
January 11, 2012

For more than a year, Kansas City’s City Planning and Development Department has been perfecting the Truman Plaza Area Plan aimed at improving the quality of life in the area.

To gather community feedback, city planners conducted multiple public meetings and on Jan. 5 the Kansas City City Council unanimously approved the plan for immediate adoption.

“This plan represents the needs, wants and desires of the people in the community,” 3rd District City Council member Jermaine Reed said.

Reed added that the City Planning and Development Department staff were instrumental in making sure the residents’ voices were heard during the planning process.

City Planner Randy Dunn said he was “truly pleased” to see the months of “hard work and collaboration with the community” pay off with unanimous approval of the plan.

Truman Plaza Area Plan is bounded by the Union Pacific Railroad tracks on the north, Interstate 35, the Paseo and Woodland Avenue on the west, Interstate 70 on the south, and the Big Blue River, Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railroad tracks and Belmont Avenue on the east.

The plan includes five main goals: promote safe and clean neighborhoods and decrease crime rates; promote the area as an ethnic and cultural hub for Kansas City; attract businesses and organizations that increase employment for area residents; capitalize on and encourage a walkable layout of the community and promote multimodal forms of transportation; and emphasize, promote and protect the historic character of neighborhoods and corridors.

Truman Plaza Area Plan is also divided into several categories with “guiding principles,” which include housing and neighborhoods, land use and development, transportation and economic development. Each neighborhood has specific recommendations.

In addition to appointing an implementation committee, a key component of the plan is built-in accountability. Responsible parties are identified for each goal to bring the plan “into reality,” City Council member Scott Wagner said.

“This ensures it won’t end up (sitting) on the shelf,” Wagner said.