Northeast residents get a glimpse of future with possible designs of The Paseo Gateway

Northeast News
Feb. 4, 2016

Area stakeholders pack into KCU’s Butterworth Room for an open house regarding The Paseo Gateway Project.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Kansas City’s Parks and Recreation department hosted an open house last night regarding the realignment of the Paseo Boulevard and Independence Avenue intersection. Hundreds of attendees were able to view the five proposed alternatives and provide feedback to city representatives and the designers. The open house was a way to gather needed input from area stakeholders to help the city select the preferred alternative for modifications to Paseo Boulevard (I-35 ramps to Ninth Street) to create the Paseo Gateway to Kansas City’s downtown.

With five options on the table — after starting with nine — the goal of the project is to improve public safety and functionality and spur economic development. The five options residents saw are:

1. Moving the southbound I-29 off ramp west, removing the southbound Cliff Drive road and removing the aging bridge. Southbound Cliff Drive traffic would be directed east to Woodland Avenue.
2. A traditional boulevard look by reducing traffic to a single intersection by realigning The Paseo.
3. A complete redesign courtesy of the Kansas City Design Center students. This design would transition eastbound cross-town traffic coming out of the Central Business District from Admiral Boulevard to Independence Avenue. This route also provides full access to Cliff Drive and maintains a single intersection along The Paseo. Independence Avenue from the west is then transferred onto southbound Virginia Avenue.
4. Installing a roundabout
5. Access to I-29 from The Paseo via a tunnel that would go under Independence Avenue.

Options three and five [the tunnel and the KCDC redesign] are the most expensive while options one and two are probably the top choices at the moment.

The transportation improvements serve as an essential catalyst for the implementation of the Paseo Gateway Transformation Plan completed in 2013. In 2015, Kansas City and local partners received a $30 million Choice Neighborhood Grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to implement the Transformation Plan for area surrounding the Paseo Gateway Project in the Historic Northeast. City officials and the Kansas City Housing Authority are leveraging local investment to improve the quality of life for those who live, work and visit the Paseo Gateway. The goal is to creatively harness and redirect downtown revitalization—while simultaneously improving the lives of public housing residents.