Brian Platt, city manager, City of Kansas City, Missouri, strives to respond to what the residents of Kansas City want and need. But, he said, it’s difficult at times to figure out what the true sentiment of the people is at any given time. Platt was the featured presenter at a luncheon last week hosted by the KC Downtowners.
When Platt started his job 37 months ago, he immediately heard complaints about snow removal and potholes. Platt quickly went to work to address these issues.
“We totally revamped our snowstorm response in a few really important ways. We added a bunch of new drivers, a bunch of new trucks and we started a 24-hour-a-day 24/7 snow-clearing operation. In the past, we had not really done a lot of overnight stuff. We also have a more aggressive plan of curb-to-curb. The point is, we’ve got to clear as much snow off the streets as we can. We also have a very aggressive pretreating plan. Before the snow even falls, we’re putting a layer of salt down,” he said.
Platt said the city is using existing resources, to the extent possible, to make these improvements, including retrofitting and upgrading existing trucks to plow snow and reallocating city employees to drive the plows.
“General rule of thumb for us is 12 to 24 hours after the snow stops, we want to get the whole city cleared,” said Platt.
To alleviate the pothole complaints, the city is resurfacing streets, rather than just filling the potholes. According to Platt, the city resurfaced 496 lane miles in calendar year 2023. Platt said no one has asked in the last year or two about potholes.
“We’re just fixing the problem rather than just putting band-aids on top of it. Instead of trying to fill these potholes, we’re just redoing all the streets. We used to do 100 to 120 miles a year. We are exponentially above where we used to be. Part of that is that we just have to catch up. We’ve just deferred maintenance for years,” he said.
Addressing sustainability has been a priority for the city, Platt said. The city has undertaken to replace streetlights with LED energy-efficient bulbs, which will save the city $5 million a year in energy costs, reduce carbon emissions and create a safer environment.
Another sustainability initiative is to plant 10,000 trees in three years in Kansas City.
“In six months since we’ve started, we’ve planted almost 4,000. We set a goal hoping it was sort of aggressive but also reasonable and feasible and we are going to blow it out of the water” Platt said.
In addition, the city is working to establish one of the largest solar arrays in the United States on city-owned land at the Kansas City International Airport. Platt said the city presently is working on the details of the project and negotiating the contract, with hopes of breaking ground this year.
“It’s probably a 10-year buildout. There’s going to be a lot of hurdles along the way, but we’re moving in that direction. We’re being bold and innovative and aggressive with these things because now is the time to move this stuff forward,” said Platt.
Platt discussed some major projects on the horizon for Kansas City, including the $200 million South Loop Project covering four blocks over I-670 which will reconnect the central business district to the Crossroads. According to Platt, nearly $100 million already has been raised from private sources, and the city has committed $10 million to the project.
Platt said there also are plans to renovate Barney Allis Plaza.
“The vision is to make that a much more accessible green space and park on top. Instead of having these big brutal sort of concrete walls around a couple of the sides there, make it street-level accessible. You keep all the parking or some of it, and you’ve got this beautiful iconic park in the middle and potentially some high-rise vertical development on top of part of it too,” he said.
Platt said the city plans to break ground this month on long-abandoned vacant city-owned land at 63rd St. and Prospect Ave. with the hope of catalyzing development to the west along 63rd St. and also to the east.
According to Platt, there are 16 or so redevelopment projects in a variety of phases at 18th & Vine.
“We just cut the ribbon on a new apartment building, one of the first in years... (There's) Just so much energy and activity, and we’re really excited about it,” he said.
Platt said he is seeking a sizeable amount of funding in this year’s city budget for Vision Zero KC, the city’s plan to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries on Kansas City streets by 2030.
“It’s not just bike lanes. I know we get a lot of controversy around that. It’s crosswalks. It’s stop signs and speed humps, intersection improvements, visibility improvements and streetscapes. It’s all the things that make a city walkable and more comfortable,” he said.
Platt praised the strides made in the Kansas City, Missouri Fire Department (KCFD). KCFD just graduated its largest and most diverse recruiting class in its history.
“One of the big reasons why we’re really proud of this fire recruiting class being diverse is because we want our employees and our team to reflect the communities that they serve,” he said.
One of the issues Platt wants the city to tackle is incentive reform. He said the process must be made more clear, transparent and simple.
“One of the challenges that we hear from developers is that it takes a long time, there are a lot of pathways you can take and there’s a lot of uncertainty with it. What we want to do is make it more obvious. If you build this, you get that. If you build some amount of affordable housing and ground floor retail, and the amount of parking that you have, whatever, then you get these incentives,” said Platt.
Platt said he is not the one on the policy side to decide what those parameters should be. Ultimately, it will be up to the mayor and city council.
“What an amazing community that we’ve got here. But also, what amazing opportunities. We’ve got to continue to build on that success and grow and react and respond to the ever-changing needs of people, and that’s what we’re here to do,” he said.