Abby Hoover
Managing Editor

The Kessler Park Master Plan is coming to a close, with the help of community input along the way.

Kansas City, Mo., Parks and Recreation is working on creating Improvement Plans for several parks in the parks system over the coming years.

“Many of the parks we know and love today have not had a prioritized holistic improvement plan for decades,” according to Hoxie Collective, the agency tasked with the Kessler Park Master Plan. “This is an opportunity to look at the assets and challenges in the parks today and look for ways to improve them for the future. The plan we’re working on in Kessler Park includes an operation and maintenance plan, a conservation plan, and a connectivity plan.”

The planning process should be wrapped up by the middle of 2023. The timeline includes working with residents through community meetings and focus group meetings with diverse groups.

After planning wraps up, then it’s on to implementation. Some elements of the plan will be implemented immediately. For example, the operations and maintenance plan and the conservation plan will have a solid relationship with each other and they’ll be handed off to the park staff who work in the park every week. Other elements will be more long term, spread out over the next three, five or 10 years.

Planners say the goal is for this to be a community process that listens to residents and park users about what they want to see in their community. Outcomes will include improvements to regular park maintenance so staff can be proactive rather than reactive to challenges in the park. It is also to emphasize and expand on the regional draw of Kessler Park.

The more than 300-acre Kessler Park, stretching along the northern border of Pendleton Heights, Scarritt Renaissance and Indian Mound in Historic Northeast Kansas City, is named for landscape architect and engineer George Kessler. He was a driving force in creating Kansas City’s park and boulevard system. Kessler designed what was originally called North Terrace Park, an important part of the master plan presented in the first Report of Park and Boulevard Commissioners of Kansas City, Mo. in 1893.

“There’s already a regional draw, but this park has so many assets that could be expanded, whether that means cleaning up so the park isn’t so rough around the edges, or implementing new programming, that’s what we’re working with the community to decide through the planning process,” according to planners.

Hoxie Collective previously held Community Open Houses and shared two surveys for people to give input on the plan. Following broad community engagement, Hoxie Collective formed an Advisory Committee, made up of stakeholders, community members, park users and others. The 38-person Advisory Committee met three times with Parks staff and planners over the past eight months.

“Some of the Advisory Committee members are now transitioning into a Task Force to formulate a Kessler Park oversight body as a standalone non-profit to assist the Parks Department with fundraising and implementation of plan priorities,” Hoxie Collective Founder Christina Hoxie said. “We are scheduling the first meeting of that group now.”

At the same time, they are drafting the final plan. They will host the last Community Open House at the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce on February 4, 2023, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Notes from the Advisory Committee meetings and summaries of the survey results can be found on the project’s website, kesslerparkplankc.com.