By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
November 30, 2011

“This is not a plan of dreams, this is a plan of action,” said Nando Micale, principal at the WRT design firm.

Micale was one of several project partners in attendance at the Nov. 17 public meeting to discuss the Paseo Gateway Transformation Plan. Part of the plan includes razing Chouteau Courts public housing, 1220 Independence Ave., and redeveloping the units as mixed income housing throughout Kansas City.

The planning process is being funded by a $250,000 Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) planning grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD awarded the grant to the Housing Authority of Kansas City (HAKC) as a means to revitalize neighborhoods and redevelop distressed public housing. The Greater Kansas City Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) matched the grant with $100,000 worth of in-kind services. LISC, along with Kirk Perucca Associates, Inc., are in charge of leading the “people plan” and community engagement.

Built in 1955, Chouteau Courts is outdated and considered “physically isolated.” The complex contains 140 housing units and more than 44 percent of the neighborhood lives in poverty.

“The primary goal is really the redevelopment of Chouteau Courts because the concentration of poverty only provides problems for the people living there and the surrounding community,” Micale said. 

Micale said the study area for the Paseo Gateway Transformation Plan spans approximately one square mile and is bordered by East 9th Street to the south, Chestnut Trafficway to the east, I-35/I-29 to the west and the Union Pacific Railroad to the north.

The plan outlines three main goals: revitalizing distressed public housing; supporting positive outcomes for residents in terms of health, safety, employment, mobility and education; and transforming distressed neighborhoods into viable, mixed income neighborhoods with access to public amenities like parks and transportation.

Pendleton Heights neighborhood attendees voiced concerns about adding additional public housing sites into the neighborhood, but John Monroe, director of planning and redevelopment with HAKC, cleared up the confusion.

Pendleton Heights already has a high concentration of poverty and minorities, Monroe said. Adding public housing to an already distressed area isn’t the answer, he said.

“We looked at seven sites for replacement housing and not a one of them was in Northeast,” he said.

Monroe also added they would not rebuild on the Chouteau Courts site. However, HUD would like a portion of the housing to be located within the study area, he said, which includes the Pendleton Heights, Independence Plaza and Paseo West neighborhoods.

Garlen Capita, urban designer with WRT, stressed the public housing units won’t all be built in one location. In order to achieve enough mixed income housing to replace the 140 Chouteau units, the project will need to build three times as much housing, she said.

Capita also discussed the advantages of mixed income housing.

“Mixed income communities always have a decrease in crime because crime tends to follow poverty,” Capita said. “In high concentrations of poverty, there’s opportunity for crime.”

One attendee questioned the future housing and if the facades would match the surrounding neighborhoods. Capita assured attendees the facades will reflect the individual neighborhoods and that the transformation plan will also integrate existing area plans.

Project partners will continue to develop the transformation plan and seek community feedback through June of 2012. Beginning in July of 2012, the project partners will begin seeking funding and partners for implementation.