Development Patterns

Careful consideration must be given to how and where the city directs and accommodates growth and development. Effective development patterns recognize the importance of new growth while proactively guiding development in an equitable, sustainable way, fiscally and environmentally.

Development patterns across Kansas City should create equitable growth, maximize the use of existing infrastructure, reinforce a multimodal transportation network, and protect sensitive natural resources. Wherever new investment and development happens, the city must ensure the overall development pattern:

  • Does not overwhelm limited resources for services and maintenance
  • Maximizes the use of existing infrastructure
  • Maintains the health of environmental and natural systems (see Environmental Health and Resiliency Objective)
  • Advances climate and resiliency goals (See Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan)
  • Increases mobility options and connectivity
  • Reduces or eliminates disparities (and doesn't create new disparities)
  • Incorporates the elements of quality development (see also the Quality Development Objective)

The city uses several tools to guide and encourage new growth and development, including:

  • Land use planning and zoning
  • Investments in major streets and transportation systems
  • Sewer and water utility infrastructure
  • Financial incentives and tax abatement
  • Acquisition or sale of property for redevelopment

Each of these elements is handled by multiple city departments (and regional or state agencies outside the city government). That means ongoing collaboration and cooperation is needed to ensure future development is well-placed and well-designed, and functions with the highest possible level of sustainability and mutual benefit.

Development patterns and growth should:

  • Grow equitably and sustainably
    • Accommodate new growth by encouraging reinvestment and infill development
    • Use land use policies and infrastructure investments to guide growth in a fiscally and environmentally sustainable way
    • Capture Kansas City’s share of regional growth and ensure the city's future vitality, while balancing growth in new undeveloped areas with infill development
    • Encourage reinvestment in distressed or abandoned areas (see also the Community Development and Revitalization Objective). Reinforce equitable development that meets the needs of underserved communities
    • Reduce disparities by creating and maintaining places where residents of all income levels, races, and ethnicities can meet their economic, social, and health needs and live in a clean, safe, and healthy environment
    • Engage and empower residents and neighborhoods in decisions that shape their community (see also the Community Development and Revitalization Objective)
  • Use existing infrastructure
    • Concentrate new and maintenance-related public capital investments (e.g., arterial streets, boulevards, trails, parks, water, and sewer) in areas that are contiguous with already developed land and are served by utilities (see also the Mobility Objective)
    • Use existing transportation and infrastructure assets so the city delivers services efficiently and cost-effectively without exceeding its ability to maintain those services (see also the Mobility Objective)
    • Avoid a “leapfrogging” development pattern by discouraging publicly funded extensions of utilities and infrastructure into undeveloped areas
  • Reinforce multimodal transportation systems
    • Reinforce and enhance a multimodal transportation system (see also the Mobility and Public Transit Objectives)
    • Maintain a high level of connectivity that incorporates roadway, bike, trail, and pedestrian connections. Enhance or restore connections where possible (see also Connected City and Mobility Objectives)
  • Develop in harmony with natural systems and historic resources


INDICATORS OF SUCCESS

Successful implementation of this Objective will result in equitable, sustainable growth. New development and redevelopment will happen in development priority areas. Kansas City’s population will increase. Employment opportunities will increase in density in areas identified as priorities for development.


BENEFITS

  • Ensuring future development and growth maintains the fiscal health of the city and its ability to deliver high-quality services
  • Ensuring future development and growth preserves the health of Kansas City’s environmental and natural systems
  • Ensuring land-use patterns, and transportation systems work together and are mutually reinforcing
  • Ensuring the city responsively plans for and encourages future growth
  • Advancing the city’s climate and resiliency goals
  • Creating a more equitable development pattern, reducing disparities, and encouraging investment in areas that need it most


CONTEXT

The way Kansas City grows has a major impact on its residents’ quality of life and the City’s ability to effectively maintain infrastructure and deliver services.

For more context, click HERE.


MEASURES OF SUCCESS

  • Infrastructure lifecycle costs (decrease)
  • New housing permits, infill vs. greenfield areas (increase)
  • Permit construction value, infill vs. greenfield areas (increase)


KEY CONCEPTS

Create and implement strategic development plans for priority development areas

To proactively guide development in a coordinated way, the city should prepare strategic development plans for areas that are a priority to develop. The city should identify these areas during area plan updates or other processes that involve significant community dialogue.

Selected areas should be contiguous with existing developments, or undeveloped/underdeveloped property in developed areas. Plans should include potential development partners and focus on needed capital improvements, cost, appropriate land uses, and urban design. They should also include an implementation strategy. Plans should create a future development pattern that is fiscally and environmentally sustainable, and equitable, and avoids displacing people.

Develop the tools needed to evaluate fiscal and environmental impacts of future development and infrastructure investment

As the city creates and updates land use plans and considers investing in new infrastructure to pave the way for new development, it must ensure these plans and investments are sustainable and advance the city’s climate and resiliency goals. The city should explore available analysis and modeling tools it could use to determine the fiscal and environmental impacts, both potential benefits and potential downsides, that specific investments and developments could have. The city should identify and implement the processes needed to ensure these tools inform decision-making.

Align city departments and funding and coordinate with regional agencies and jurisdictions

Several city departments and outside agencies (e.g., MoDOT, MARC, RideKC) make investments and decisions that influence when and where new development happens. It’s important for city departments and decision-making bodies to be aligned toward a common goal, so there is a coordinated, efficient approach to development patterns. The city must collaborate with regional partners, outside agencies, and adjacent communities to realize its goals.

Collaboration with internal and external partners should be directed at implementing strategic development plans for areas that are a priority to develop. Not only will this kind of alignment help achieve the Playbook’s goals, it will give developers clarity by knowing when and where the city will invest to guide new growth.


COMMUNITY SUPPORTED ACTIONS (CSAs)


Create and implement strategic development plans for priority development areas
DP-1
Create strategic development plans for undeveloped and underdeveloped areas within the urbanized area (areas which have infrastructure in place) as well as those areas contiguous to the urbanized area.
  • Priority areas for strategic development planning should be identified during area plan updates
  • Focus on maximizing utilization of existing infrastructure and upgrading and improving existing infrastructure as development occurs
  • New infrastructure investments should be accompanied by development patterns (density and intensity) that justify the new investment and/or share costs with developers as appropriate
  • Complete fiscal/life-cycle cost analysis and other strategies to plan for maintenance and new infrastructure investments
  • Emphasis should be on and fiscally and environmentally sustainable development
  • Plans should focus on underutilized areas (see also Community Development and Revitalization Objective) and consider needed capital improvements and costs, funding sources, partners, future land uses, and implementation strategy
  • Explore ways to increase implementation of rehabilitation, adaptive reuse, and infill strategies for underutilized developed and underdeveloped properties
DP-2
Complete the arterial street and boulevard system where gaps in the system exist. Use area plan updates and implementation processes to identify strategic arterial street gaps to prioritize. Strategically implement the Major Street Plan to:
  • Target emerging, logical, contiguous infill development areas
  • Link the degree of public arterial street funding to these areas
  • Require private funding for arterial street development in outlying, or non-contiguous areas
DP-3
Through the area plan process, identify areas where open space development and conservation development is appropriate and then proactively adopt requirements for these development options in these areas. Establish a measurement framework and goals for jobs-housing balance that relates housing costs to the income associated with nearby jobs. Establish goals for affordable housing preservation and production in areas served by transit.


Develop tools to evaluate fiscal and environmental impacts of future development and infrastructure investment
DP-4

Establish a procedure to periodically review city codes related to development (i.e., zoning and subdivision). Through those reviews, identify amendments to promote the goals of this Objective and the Playbook. For example, these could be in the areas of:

  • Housing diversity and affordability
  • Sustainable development and growth management
  • Climate and resiliency
  • Removing barriers to infill development (see Quality Development Objective)
  • General connectivity and multimodal transportation (see also Connected Community and Mobility Objectives)
DP-5
Obtain or develop the tools, models, and processes the city needs to evaluate land-use plans, infrastructure investments (especially roads, water, and sewers), and development proposals for equity and for fiscal and environmental sustainability. These tools should produce conclusions on whether the planned policy, project, or investment is fiscally or environmentally sustainable and equitable, and uses city infrastructure efficiently.
  • Incorporate those tools into city decision-making processes
DP-6
Assess the impacts of large format uses that consume substantial amounts of land and energy with a low density of employment. Identify criteria for appropriate location, development code considerations, and strategies to mitigate environmental impacts.
DP-7
Assess how the current development incentives provided by the city align with the city’s hazard mitigation and resilience goals and, if it is identified that some of them produce unintended consequences, implement the needed modifications.
DP-8
Develop a strategy and funding to provide new sewer lines and/or connections to developed areas that are on septic systems. Address the problems of combined sanitary and storm sewers and septic systems through the identification and implementation of innovative and equitable solutions.
DP-9
Explore development code amendments that ensure new development is in harmony with natural systems and sensitive habitats.
  • Identify new requirements for tree preservation and replacement associated with new development
  • Explore rewards that encourage developers to meet high quality rather than minimum standards
  • Designate appropriate criteria for large lot, “mini-estates,” “ranchettes,” or other exurban development forms that consume extensive proportions of open space or cause additional costs of infrastructure extension


Align city department actions, standards, and funding and coordinate with regional agencies and jurisdictions
DP-10
Enhance the feasibility of infill development, redevelopment, or development proposed as a contiguous or an efficient extension of existing development patterns through direct assistance or development incentives in strategic areas.
DP-11
Continue to "sunset" zoning and development plan approvals if the property remains undeveloped and periodically evaluate the effectiveness of these requirements.
DP-12
Develop and update sustainable infrastructure plans that include a comprehensive asset management strategy. The goal should be to keep critical infrastructure assets in good or above-average condition.
DP-13
Concentrate public capital investments, such as arterials, boulevards, parks, and public services into areas that are contiguous with currently developed land and that are currently or easily served by utilities.
DP-14
Allocate the costs of infrastructure extensions to the property owner or developer where development is proposed in a non-contiguous location, is below a defined density, or requires a non-logical extension of infrastructure unless there is a significant public benefit.
DP-15
Regularly review the city’s impact fees, dedication requirements, and fee-in-lieu of dedication requirements to ensure new development is paying its fair share of costs for new infrastructure (including trails).
DP-16
Direct development away from floodplains and establish environmentally sensitive methods for reducing flood risks by using clustering incentives, planned developments, conservation easements, or down zoning.
DP-17
Continue to address the problems of combined sanitary and storm sewers through the identification and implementation of innovative, equitable strategies.
  • Regularly review and update development standards and development code requirements that support combined sewer solutions
  • Identify supportive strategies for land use, open spaces, public spaces and development form guidelines in area plans
  • Continue to fund and implement capital improvements with an emphasis on green infrastructure over gray infrastructure solutions


RELATED LINKS

  • Affordable Community
  • Desirable Place
  • Equitable and Fiscally Sustainable
  • Healthy Environmental Systems
  • Livable Neighborhoods and Diverse Housing
  • Mobility Options
  • Regional Collaboration
  • Sustainable Growth and Resilient City
  • Walkable, Clean, and Safe
  • Citywide Accessibility
  • Complete Communities
  • Housing Affordability
  • Providing Services
Related Plans and Policies


Careful consideration must be given to how and where the city directs and accommodates growth and development. Effective development patterns recognize the importance of new growth while proactively guiding development in an equitable, sustainable way, fiscally and environmentally.

Development patterns across Kansas City should create equitable growth, maximize the use of existing infrastructure, reinforce a multimodal transportation network, and protect sensitive natural resources. Wherever new investment and development happens, the city must ensure the overall development pattern:

  • Does not overwhelm limited resources for services and maintenance
  • Maximizes the use of existing infrastructure
  • Maintains the health of environmental and natural systems (see Environmental Health and Resiliency Objective)
  • Advances climate and resiliency goals (See Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan)
  • Increases mobility options and connectivity
  • Reduces or eliminates disparities (and doesn't create new disparities)
  • Incorporates the elements of quality development (see also the Quality Development Objective)

The city uses several tools to guide and encourage new growth and development, including:

  • Land use planning and zoning
  • Investments in major streets and transportation systems
  • Sewer and water utility infrastructure
  • Financial incentives and tax abatement
  • Acquisition or sale of property for redevelopment

Each of these elements is handled by multiple city departments (and regional or state agencies outside the city government). That means ongoing collaboration and cooperation is needed to ensure future development is well-placed and well-designed, and functions with the highest possible level of sustainability and mutual benefit.

Development patterns and growth should:

  • Grow equitably and sustainably
    • Accommodate new growth by encouraging reinvestment and infill development
    • Use land use policies and infrastructure investments to guide growth in a fiscally and environmentally sustainable way
    • Capture Kansas City’s share of regional growth and ensure the city's future vitality, while balancing growth in new undeveloped areas with infill development
    • Encourage reinvestment in distressed or abandoned areas (see also the Community Development and Revitalization Objective). Reinforce equitable development that meets the needs of underserved communities
    • Reduce disparities by creating and maintaining places where residents of all income levels, races, and ethnicities can meet their economic, social, and health needs and live in a clean, safe, and healthy environment
    • Engage and empower residents and neighborhoods in decisions that shape their community (see also the Community Development and Revitalization Objective)
  • Use existing infrastructure
    • Concentrate new and maintenance-related public capital investments (e.g., arterial streets, boulevards, trails, parks, water, and sewer) in areas that are contiguous with already developed land and are served by utilities (see also the Mobility Objective)
    • Use existing transportation and infrastructure assets so the city delivers services efficiently and cost-effectively without exceeding its ability to maintain those services (see also the Mobility Objective)
    • Avoid a “leapfrogging” development pattern by discouraging publicly funded extensions of utilities and infrastructure into undeveloped areas
  • Reinforce multimodal transportation systems
    • Reinforce and enhance a multimodal transportation system (see also the Mobility and Public Transit Objectives)
    • Maintain a high level of connectivity that incorporates roadway, bike, trail, and pedestrian connections. Enhance or restore connections where possible (see also Connected City and Mobility Objectives)
  • Develop in harmony with natural systems and historic resources


INDICATORS OF SUCCESS

Successful implementation of this Objective will result in equitable, sustainable growth. New development and redevelopment will happen in development priority areas. Kansas City’s population will increase. Employment opportunities will increase in density in areas identified as priorities for development.


BENEFITS

  • Ensuring future development and growth maintains the fiscal health of the city and its ability to deliver high-quality services
  • Ensuring future development and growth preserves the health of Kansas City’s environmental and natural systems
  • Ensuring land-use patterns, and transportation systems work together and are mutually reinforcing
  • Ensuring the city responsively plans for and encourages future growth
  • Advancing the city’s climate and resiliency goals
  • Creating a more equitable development pattern, reducing disparities, and encouraging investment in areas that need it most


CONTEXT

The way Kansas City grows has a major impact on its residents’ quality of life and the City’s ability to effectively maintain infrastructure and deliver services.

For more context, click HERE.


MEASURES OF SUCCESS

  • Infrastructure lifecycle costs (decrease)
  • New housing permits, infill vs. greenfield areas (increase)
  • Permit construction value, infill vs. greenfield areas (increase)


KEY CONCEPTS

Create and implement strategic development plans for priority development areas

To proactively guide development in a coordinated way, the city should prepare strategic development plans for areas that are a priority to develop. The city should identify these areas during area plan updates or other processes that involve significant community dialogue.

Selected areas should be contiguous with existing developments, or undeveloped/underdeveloped property in developed areas. Plans should include potential development partners and focus on needed capital improvements, cost, appropriate land uses, and urban design. They should also include an implementation strategy. Plans should create a future development pattern that is fiscally and environmentally sustainable, and equitable, and avoids displacing people.

Develop the tools needed to evaluate fiscal and environmental impacts of future development and infrastructure investment

As the city creates and updates land use plans and considers investing in new infrastructure to pave the way for new development, it must ensure these plans and investments are sustainable and advance the city’s climate and resiliency goals. The city should explore available analysis and modeling tools it could use to determine the fiscal and environmental impacts, both potential benefits and potential downsides, that specific investments and developments could have. The city should identify and implement the processes needed to ensure these tools inform decision-making.

Align city departments and funding and coordinate with regional agencies and jurisdictions

Several city departments and outside agencies (e.g., MoDOT, MARC, RideKC) make investments and decisions that influence when and where new development happens. It’s important for city departments and decision-making bodies to be aligned toward a common goal, so there is a coordinated, efficient approach to development patterns. The city must collaborate with regional partners, outside agencies, and adjacent communities to realize its goals.

Collaboration with internal and external partners should be directed at implementing strategic development plans for areas that are a priority to develop. Not only will this kind of alignment help achieve the Playbook’s goals, it will give developers clarity by knowing when and where the city will invest to guide new growth.


COMMUNITY SUPPORTED ACTIONS (CSAs)


Create and implement strategic development plans for priority development areas
DP-1
Create strategic development plans for undeveloped and underdeveloped areas within the urbanized area (areas which have infrastructure in place) as well as those areas contiguous to the urbanized area.
  • Priority areas for strategic development planning should be identified during area plan updates
  • Focus on maximizing utilization of existing infrastructure and upgrading and improving existing infrastructure as development occurs
  • New infrastructure investments should be accompanied by development patterns (density and intensity) that justify the new investment and/or share costs with developers as appropriate
  • Complete fiscal/life-cycle cost analysis and other strategies to plan for maintenance and new infrastructure investments
  • Emphasis should be on and fiscally and environmentally sustainable development
  • Plans should focus on underutilized areas (see also Community Development and Revitalization Objective) and consider needed capital improvements and costs, funding sources, partners, future land uses, and implementation strategy
  • Explore ways to increase implementation of rehabilitation, adaptive reuse, and infill strategies for underutilized developed and underdeveloped properties
DP-2
Complete the arterial street and boulevard system where gaps in the system exist. Use area plan updates and implementation processes to identify strategic arterial street gaps to prioritize. Strategically implement the Major Street Plan to:
  • Target emerging, logical, contiguous infill development areas
  • Link the degree of public arterial street funding to these areas
  • Require private funding for arterial street development in outlying, or non-contiguous areas
DP-3
Through the area plan process, identify areas where open space development and conservation development is appropriate and then proactively adopt requirements for these development options in these areas. Establish a measurement framework and goals for jobs-housing balance that relates housing costs to the income associated with nearby jobs. Establish goals for affordable housing preservation and production in areas served by transit.


Develop tools to evaluate fiscal and environmental impacts of future development and infrastructure investment
DP-4

Establish a procedure to periodically review city codes related to development (i.e., zoning and subdivision). Through those reviews, identify amendments to promote the goals of this Objective and the Playbook. For example, these could be in the areas of:

  • Housing diversity and affordability
  • Sustainable development and growth management
  • Climate and resiliency
  • Removing barriers to infill development (see Quality Development Objective)
  • General connectivity and multimodal transportation (see also Connected Community and Mobility Objectives)
DP-5
Obtain or develop the tools, models, and processes the city needs to evaluate land-use plans, infrastructure investments (especially roads, water, and sewers), and development proposals for equity and for fiscal and environmental sustainability. These tools should produce conclusions on whether the planned policy, project, or investment is fiscally or environmentally sustainable and equitable, and uses city infrastructure efficiently.
  • Incorporate those tools into city decision-making processes
DP-6
Assess the impacts of large format uses that consume substantial amounts of land and energy with a low density of employment. Identify criteria for appropriate location, development code considerations, and strategies to mitigate environmental impacts.
DP-7
Assess how the current development incentives provided by the city align with the city’s hazard mitigation and resilience goals and, if it is identified that some of them produce unintended consequences, implement the needed modifications.
DP-8
Develop a strategy and funding to provide new sewer lines and/or connections to developed areas that are on septic systems. Address the problems of combined sanitary and storm sewers and septic systems through the identification and implementation of innovative and equitable solutions.
DP-9
Explore development code amendments that ensure new development is in harmony with natural systems and sensitive habitats.
  • Identify new requirements for tree preservation and replacement associated with new development
  • Explore rewards that encourage developers to meet high quality rather than minimum standards
  • Designate appropriate criteria for large lot, “mini-estates,” “ranchettes,” or other exurban development forms that consume extensive proportions of open space or cause additional costs of infrastructure extension


Align city department actions, standards, and funding and coordinate with regional agencies and jurisdictions
DP-10
Enhance the feasibility of infill development, redevelopment, or development proposed as a contiguous or an efficient extension of existing development patterns through direct assistance or development incentives in strategic areas.
DP-11
Continue to "sunset" zoning and development plan approvals if the property remains undeveloped and periodically evaluate the effectiveness of these requirements.
DP-12
Develop and update sustainable infrastructure plans that include a comprehensive asset management strategy. The goal should be to keep critical infrastructure assets in good or above-average condition.
DP-13
Concentrate public capital investments, such as arterials, boulevards, parks, and public services into areas that are contiguous with currently developed land and that are currently or easily served by utilities.
DP-14
Allocate the costs of infrastructure extensions to the property owner or developer where development is proposed in a non-contiguous location, is below a defined density, or requires a non-logical extension of infrastructure unless there is a significant public benefit.
DP-15
Regularly review the city’s impact fees, dedication requirements, and fee-in-lieu of dedication requirements to ensure new development is paying its fair share of costs for new infrastructure (including trails).
DP-16
Direct development away from floodplains and establish environmentally sensitive methods for reducing flood risks by using clustering incentives, planned developments, conservation easements, or down zoning.
DP-17
Continue to address the problems of combined sanitary and storm sewers through the identification and implementation of innovative, equitable strategies.
  • Regularly review and update development standards and development code requirements that support combined sewer solutions
  • Identify supportive strategies for land use, open spaces, public spaces and development form guidelines in area plans
  • Continue to fund and implement capital improvements with an emphasis on green infrastructure over gray infrastructure solutions


RELATED LINKS

  • Affordable Community
  • Desirable Place
  • Equitable and Fiscally Sustainable
  • Healthy Environmental Systems
  • Livable Neighborhoods and Diverse Housing
  • Mobility Options
  • Regional Collaboration
  • Sustainable Growth and Resilient City
  • Walkable, Clean, and Safe
  • Citywide Accessibility
  • Complete Communities
  • Housing Affordability
  • Providing Services
Related Plans and Policies


Page last updated: 20 Sep 2023, 02:59 PM