Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal

Target physical investments strategically and ensure that growth and revitalization are sustainable and equitable

Sustainable and equitable growth means that the city grows in a way that is environmentally responsible, with policies that aim to limit the impact of development on the environment. This type of growth is also fiscally sound, ensuring the city can provide services and meet residents’ needs into the future. And it is socially equitable – all residents should share in the benefits and opportunities it creates. If it meets these three criteria, sustainable and equitable growth can support the long-term well-being of Kansas Citians and the environment, including in areas that have experienced economic distress and disinvestment (see Development Patterns, Environmental Health and Resiliency, Displacement Mitigation, Community Development and Revitalization Objectives).

Kansas City has a variety of contexts for residents to live in and businesses to locate. This variety is one of the city’s strengths. To maintain it, Kansas City must support it with high-quality development and new investment citywide. The city must balance investments and decisions that both reaffirm and revitalize the urban core as well as advance and encourage quality suburban and rural development. Kansas City’s diverse communities are interdependent, and each must be strong for the city to attract development and grow.

Sustainable and equitable growth helps to ensure that Kansas City can capture its share of regional growth by balancing growth in new undeveloped areas with infill development. Land is a precious resource, and by promoting both infill development and strategic expansion in undeveloped areas, the city can capitalize on the potential for growth in the region. Strategic planning for new infrastructure and encouraging the reuse of existing infrastructure will help ensure the city does not outstretch its limited resources for maintenance and city services (see Development Patterns Objective). The city must support reinvestment in distressed or abandoned areas, and that development should meet the needs of existing residents and reduce economic and social inequities (see Community Development and Revitalization Objective and Diversity and Opportunity Goal).

The physical development of the city will directly affect the health of residents and the natural environment. But Kansas City can grow in harmony with natural systems and in a way that promotes public health. Protecting environmental resources and historic sites in areas of proposed development is one way to ensure that harmony. As Kansas City grows, it can ensure all people have a healthy, safe, and vibrant city to call home (see Environmental Health and Resiliency and Development Patterns Objectives).


RELATIONSHIP TO VISION STATEMENTS

The Playbook has fifteen Vision statements for Kansas City. The Playbook’s Vision describes what we want to be and outlines how we want our city to develop in the future, in line with community values and priorities. Those that are closely related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Affordable Community: We will create and nurture an affordable community and strive for abundant opportunity and employment at a livable wage for our residents.
Equitable development reduces disparities by creating and maintaining places where residents of all incomes, races, and ethnicities can meet their housing, economic, social, and health needs and live in a clean, safe, healthy environment.
Cultural Amenities: Our diverse cultural amenities, parks, and open spaces will provide a rich variety of experiences and vibrant environments.
Sustainable development will help ensure the vitality and continued maintenance of all components of the city, including parks, open spaces, and cultural amenities.
Desirable Place: Our community will attract people and employers through being a desirable place to earn, learn, live, and thrive.
By creating and maintaining equitable, high-quality neighborhoods, the city can meet the various needs of prospective residents and employers. 
Equitable and Fiscally Sustainable: Our capital investments and growth will be equitable while maintaining the fiscal sustainability of the city.
Fiscal and environmental impacts of new development must be understood and evaluated. Future policies and investments should be focused on ensuring future growth is sustainable and equitable. 
Healthy Environmental Systems: We will promote and value the health of our environmental and natural systems and protect them from degradation.
New development must occur in an environmentally sustainable way, in appropriate locations, by proactively identifying and protecting sensitive natural resources and habitats. 
History and Heritage: We will preserve places that celebrate all facets of Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage.
Equitable and sustainable development includes preserving and enhancing historic and cultural resources and amenities.
Innovation and Creativity: We will cultivate innovation and creativity in our governance, business, and educational practices related to smart city technology and physical development.
Smart city technology and data-driven decision-making helps the city to better use and maintain existing infrastructure and service delivery. With this technology, the city can monitor environmental and other conditions to determine how sustainably the city is growing.
KC Uniqueness: We will preserve and enhance those things that make Kansas City unique – the small town feel with big city amenities and the wide range of diverse environments and neighborhoods.
To preserve and enhance its unique identity, the city must retain that quality as it grows. To do that, Kansas City can support the traditions, history, and culture of its communities while it develops and modernizes. The city must make physical investments equitably citywide, in a way that preserves and builds on the city’s valued character.
Livable Neighborhoods and Diverse Housing: Our neighborhoods will be strong, livable, and authentic while ensuring diverse housing opportunities.
New development must create and sustain desirable, equitable, affordable neighborhoods citywide.
Mobility Options: Our well-connected and accessible neighborhoods and districts will be walkable and served by reliable, safe, and convenient mobility options.
Transportation investments can be used to ensure the city grows sustainably and equitably, especially when they improve safety and access to daily needs for Kansas Citians in economically distressed areas.
Physical Beauty: Our city will be renowned for the physical beauty of its streets, buildings, public spaces, and infrastructure.
Fiscally sustainable development and growth will maintain the city’s beauty through improved maintenance. Equitable development will ensure all areas of the city are aesthetically pleasing.
Regional Collaboration: Our city will continue to be the heart of the region. We will remain collaborative with our regional partners with a renewed focus on building partnerships to achieve the aspirations of this plan.
Collaborative regional planning and action improves the city’s efficiency and economic competitiveness. It addresses environmental concerns at the most effective scale, with the region working together to create a more resilient, inclusive economy that benefits everyone.
Sustainable Growth and Resilient City: Our community will grow in a sustainable manner and be resilient and adaptable to future changes.
New development must be designed to limit damage to natural resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. New development should emphasize energy-efficient buildings and must avoid environmentally sensitive areas. The city must expand the use of transportation modes that have a small carbon footprint and should encourage reuse of existing buildings, a practice that is inherently sustainable.
Thriving Economy: Our economy will be resilient, inclusive, diverse, and thriving and will position our city competitively against our national peers.
Sustainable and equitable growth is dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of Kansas Citians. It helps the economy incorporate innovation, improves access to capital and resources for business owners, and creates stable economic growth, which reduces social and economic disparities.
Walkable, Clean, and Safe: Our community will promote the health of our residents and visitors through being walkable, clean, and safe.
Safe, walkable environments are the foundation of sustainable and equitable communities. They support local economic activity and development and promote the health and general well-being of residents.

RELATIONSHIP TO EQUITY STATEMENTS

The Playbook also has a series of statements focused on equity. Those that are directly related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Addressing Disinvestment: Direct investment to communities that have been abandoned or have experienced long-term disinvestment.
Citywide Accessibility: Ensure services, utilities, and transportation options are provided to everyone.
Community Collaboration: Empower people from different parts of the KC community in working together to solve problems.
Community Engagement: Empower people to shape their communities and recognize that communities value things differently.
Complete Communities: Ensure that people can meet their needs in their own neighborhood without having to travel long distances.
Housing Affordability: Ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing.
Inclusive Design: Ensure that development incorporates design features that consider people of all abilities.
Providing Services: Commit to taking care of the built environment and providing the same quality of maintenance and services citywide.
Welcoming Spaces: Ensure that public spaces and amenities are designed to support diverse, culturally authentic, and family-friendly activities, no matter how much money a person is able to spend.

RELATIONSHIP TO BIG IDEAS

The Playbook identifies five Big Ideas for Kansas City. The Big Ideas are the essential themes of the plan. They underpin all that the plan aims to do. Those directly related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted below:

Fostering neighborhoods that accommodate all ages, lifestyles, and incomes by diversifying and densifying housing choices and creating complete communities that facilitate a high quality-of-life
Inclusive and accessible neighborhoods are a key component of equitable development.
Creating a physically beautiful city by promoting high-quality design in public spaces, parks, private development, and capital improvements
Equitable development ensures all areas of the city have high-quality design.
Respecting land as a limited resource by balancing outward growth with infill development, preserving natural resources, and developing in an equitable and sustainable manner
This big idea is central to the Sustainable and Equitable Development goal. To grow sustainably and equitably, the city must direct investments and policies to ensure new development uses existing infrastructure, growth doesn’t outstretch the city’s limited resources, and investments are encouraged in areas that need it most. The city also must ensure development advances the city’s goals for climate and environmental health.
Maximizing connections and mobility options by bridging or eliminating barriers and creating new physical connections and a robust multimodal transportation system
A well-connected city with a robust multimodal transportation system benefits sustainability and equity by promoting modes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that improve access to daily needs for all areas of the city.
Creating a  future-proofed city by better anticipating and reacting to new technologies and evolving conditions
New technology and innovation can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of urban systems and support sustainable growth and development.


RELATIONSHIP TO TOPICS

The Playbook is also structured around five Topics that organize the plan’s recommendations around specific subjects. Those topics directly related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted in grey below:



Transportation


RELATIONSHIP TO OBJECTIVES

The Playbook identifies twenty-one Objectives for Kansas City. The Objectives are the nuts and bolts of the Playbook. Each one contains detailed recommendations, strategies, and initiatives for a specific topic, framed by the overall direction the plan sets for that topic. The Objectives also set priorities and metrics for their implementation and provide supporting context, including relevant data and public input. A single Objective often supports multiple Goals and Topics.

Objectives primarily related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal:

Objectives secondarily related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal:



Target physical investments strategically and ensure that growth and revitalization are sustainable and equitable

Sustainable and equitable growth means that the city grows in a way that is environmentally responsible, with policies that aim to limit the impact of development on the environment. This type of growth is also fiscally sound, ensuring the city can provide services and meet residents’ needs into the future. And it is socially equitable – all residents should share in the benefits and opportunities it creates. If it meets these three criteria, sustainable and equitable growth can support the long-term well-being of Kansas Citians and the environment, including in areas that have experienced economic distress and disinvestment (see Development Patterns, Environmental Health and Resiliency, Displacement Mitigation, Community Development and Revitalization Objectives).

Kansas City has a variety of contexts for residents to live in and businesses to locate. This variety is one of the city’s strengths. To maintain it, Kansas City must support it with high-quality development and new investment citywide. The city must balance investments and decisions that both reaffirm and revitalize the urban core as well as advance and encourage quality suburban and rural development. Kansas City’s diverse communities are interdependent, and each must be strong for the city to attract development and grow.

Sustainable and equitable growth helps to ensure that Kansas City can capture its share of regional growth by balancing growth in new undeveloped areas with infill development. Land is a precious resource, and by promoting both infill development and strategic expansion in undeveloped areas, the city can capitalize on the potential for growth in the region. Strategic planning for new infrastructure and encouraging the reuse of existing infrastructure will help ensure the city does not outstretch its limited resources for maintenance and city services (see Development Patterns Objective). The city must support reinvestment in distressed or abandoned areas, and that development should meet the needs of existing residents and reduce economic and social inequities (see Community Development and Revitalization Objective and Diversity and Opportunity Goal).

The physical development of the city will directly affect the health of residents and the natural environment. But Kansas City can grow in harmony with natural systems and in a way that promotes public health. Protecting environmental resources and historic sites in areas of proposed development is one way to ensure that harmony. As Kansas City grows, it can ensure all people have a healthy, safe, and vibrant city to call home (see Environmental Health and Resiliency and Development Patterns Objectives).


RELATIONSHIP TO VISION STATEMENTS

The Playbook has fifteen Vision statements for Kansas City. The Playbook’s Vision describes what we want to be and outlines how we want our city to develop in the future, in line with community values and priorities. Those that are closely related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Affordable Community: We will create and nurture an affordable community and strive for abundant opportunity and employment at a livable wage for our residents.
Equitable development reduces disparities by creating and maintaining places where residents of all incomes, races, and ethnicities can meet their housing, economic, social, and health needs and live in a clean, safe, healthy environment.
Cultural Amenities: Our diverse cultural amenities, parks, and open spaces will provide a rich variety of experiences and vibrant environments.
Sustainable development will help ensure the vitality and continued maintenance of all components of the city, including parks, open spaces, and cultural amenities.
Desirable Place: Our community will attract people and employers through being a desirable place to earn, learn, live, and thrive.
By creating and maintaining equitable, high-quality neighborhoods, the city can meet the various needs of prospective residents and employers. 
Equitable and Fiscally Sustainable: Our capital investments and growth will be equitable while maintaining the fiscal sustainability of the city.
Fiscal and environmental impacts of new development must be understood and evaluated. Future policies and investments should be focused on ensuring future growth is sustainable and equitable. 
Healthy Environmental Systems: We will promote and value the health of our environmental and natural systems and protect them from degradation.
New development must occur in an environmentally sustainable way, in appropriate locations, by proactively identifying and protecting sensitive natural resources and habitats. 
History and Heritage: We will preserve places that celebrate all facets of Kansas City’s history and cultural heritage.
Equitable and sustainable development includes preserving and enhancing historic and cultural resources and amenities.
Innovation and Creativity: We will cultivate innovation and creativity in our governance, business, and educational practices related to smart city technology and physical development.
Smart city technology and data-driven decision-making helps the city to better use and maintain existing infrastructure and service delivery. With this technology, the city can monitor environmental and other conditions to determine how sustainably the city is growing.
KC Uniqueness: We will preserve and enhance those things that make Kansas City unique – the small town feel with big city amenities and the wide range of diverse environments and neighborhoods.
To preserve and enhance its unique identity, the city must retain that quality as it grows. To do that, Kansas City can support the traditions, history, and culture of its communities while it develops and modernizes. The city must make physical investments equitably citywide, in a way that preserves and builds on the city’s valued character.
Livable Neighborhoods and Diverse Housing: Our neighborhoods will be strong, livable, and authentic while ensuring diverse housing opportunities.
New development must create and sustain desirable, equitable, affordable neighborhoods citywide.
Mobility Options: Our well-connected and accessible neighborhoods and districts will be walkable and served by reliable, safe, and convenient mobility options.
Transportation investments can be used to ensure the city grows sustainably and equitably, especially when they improve safety and access to daily needs for Kansas Citians in economically distressed areas.
Physical Beauty: Our city will be renowned for the physical beauty of its streets, buildings, public spaces, and infrastructure.
Fiscally sustainable development and growth will maintain the city’s beauty through improved maintenance. Equitable development will ensure all areas of the city are aesthetically pleasing.
Regional Collaboration: Our city will continue to be the heart of the region. We will remain collaborative with our regional partners with a renewed focus on building partnerships to achieve the aspirations of this plan.
Collaborative regional planning and action improves the city’s efficiency and economic competitiveness. It addresses environmental concerns at the most effective scale, with the region working together to create a more resilient, inclusive economy that benefits everyone.
Sustainable Growth and Resilient City: Our community will grow in a sustainable manner and be resilient and adaptable to future changes.
New development must be designed to limit damage to natural resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. New development should emphasize energy-efficient buildings and must avoid environmentally sensitive areas. The city must expand the use of transportation modes that have a small carbon footprint and should encourage reuse of existing buildings, a practice that is inherently sustainable.
Thriving Economy: Our economy will be resilient, inclusive, diverse, and thriving and will position our city competitively against our national peers.
Sustainable and equitable growth is dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of Kansas Citians. It helps the economy incorporate innovation, improves access to capital and resources for business owners, and creates stable economic growth, which reduces social and economic disparities.
Walkable, Clean, and Safe: Our community will promote the health of our residents and visitors through being walkable, clean, and safe.
Safe, walkable environments are the foundation of sustainable and equitable communities. They support local economic activity and development and promote the health and general well-being of residents.

RELATIONSHIP TO EQUITY STATEMENTS

The Playbook also has a series of statements focused on equity. Those that are directly related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted in grey below:

Addressing Disinvestment: Direct investment to communities that have been abandoned or have experienced long-term disinvestment.
Citywide Accessibility: Ensure services, utilities, and transportation options are provided to everyone.
Community Collaboration: Empower people from different parts of the KC community in working together to solve problems.
Community Engagement: Empower people to shape their communities and recognize that communities value things differently.
Complete Communities: Ensure that people can meet their needs in their own neighborhood without having to travel long distances.
Housing Affordability: Ensure everyone has access to safe and affordable housing.
Inclusive Design: Ensure that development incorporates design features that consider people of all abilities.
Providing Services: Commit to taking care of the built environment and providing the same quality of maintenance and services citywide.
Welcoming Spaces: Ensure that public spaces and amenities are designed to support diverse, culturally authentic, and family-friendly activities, no matter how much money a person is able to spend.

RELATIONSHIP TO BIG IDEAS

The Playbook identifies five Big Ideas for Kansas City. The Big Ideas are the essential themes of the plan. They underpin all that the plan aims to do. Those directly related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted below:

Fostering neighborhoods that accommodate all ages, lifestyles, and incomes by diversifying and densifying housing choices and creating complete communities that facilitate a high quality-of-life
Inclusive and accessible neighborhoods are a key component of equitable development.
Creating a physically beautiful city by promoting high-quality design in public spaces, parks, private development, and capital improvements
Equitable development ensures all areas of the city have high-quality design.
Respecting land as a limited resource by balancing outward growth with infill development, preserving natural resources, and developing in an equitable and sustainable manner
This big idea is central to the Sustainable and Equitable Development goal. To grow sustainably and equitably, the city must direct investments and policies to ensure new development uses existing infrastructure, growth doesn’t outstretch the city’s limited resources, and investments are encouraged in areas that need it most. The city also must ensure development advances the city’s goals for climate and environmental health.
Maximizing connections and mobility options by bridging or eliminating barriers and creating new physical connections and a robust multimodal transportation system
A well-connected city with a robust multimodal transportation system benefits sustainability and equity by promoting modes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that improve access to daily needs for all areas of the city.
Creating a  future-proofed city by better anticipating and reacting to new technologies and evolving conditions
New technology and innovation can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of urban systems and support sustainable growth and development.


RELATIONSHIP TO TOPICS

The Playbook is also structured around five Topics that organize the plan’s recommendations around specific subjects. Those topics directly related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal are highlighted in grey below:



Transportation


RELATIONSHIP TO OBJECTIVES

The Playbook identifies twenty-one Objectives for Kansas City. The Objectives are the nuts and bolts of the Playbook. Each one contains detailed recommendations, strategies, and initiatives for a specific topic, framed by the overall direction the plan sets for that topic. The Objectives also set priorities and metrics for their implementation and provide supporting context, including relevant data and public input. A single Objective often supports multiple Goals and Topics.

Objectives primarily related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal:

Objectives secondarily related to the Sustainable and Equitable Growth Goal:



Page last updated: 14 Apr 2023, 07:01 AM