Funds could be on their way to bolster 18th & Vine. Kansas City leaders will decide
The long-awaited decision about whether to create a community improvement district in Kansas City’s 18th & Vine neighborhood goes before the City Council Thursday.
The petition for the Vine Street Community Improvement District — where an extra sales tax is levied to provide a pool of money to pay for safety and beautification efforts — was heard before the Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee on Wednesday. Committee members unanimously voted to advance the ordinance for a vote in full council on Thursday.
In Kansas City, CIDs are credited with maintaining and improving areas like downtown, Westport and Waldo, where large districts were created to provide a common benefit to businesses and visitors. The money is typically focused toward landscaping, security, trash collection and marketing.
If approved, the Vine Street CID would encompass the area south of 18th Street, north of the railroad tracks, West of Highland Avenue and east of The Paseo.
Members of the district have long hoped a CID can bring in consistent funding for security and general improvements that can lift up the storied entertainment district.
Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, who represents the 3rd District, who gave a nod to Councilman Brandon Ellington for getting the project underway, said they’re hoping to establish the CID before the state’s Aug. 28 deadline.
Requests for a CID in 2020
The 18th & Vine neighborhood is a staple of Kansas City’ Black community and home to the American Jazz Museum, the historic Gem Theatre and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
In recent years, the neighborhood and the stretch of businesses in the Jazz District have sought more policing and other resources from the city.
Discussions around an 18th & Vine CID gained momentum in summer 2020, as community members looked for solutions after two shootings left two young men dead.
In the weeks after the homicides (in a city that suffered a record number of killings in 2020 with 182) Robinson received approval for the city to fund off-duty officers at 18th and Vine on weekends through the summer months of 2020.
Had that funding not been approved, local business owners in the 18th & Vine District would have been left to consider how to hire off-duty officers themselves, as some had in the past.
“Why do we have to pay for private security when everyone else is getting it for free or they have a CID to help them pay for it?” Henry Service, an attorney who owns the Historic Lincoln Building at the corner of East 18th and Vine streets, told The Star at the time.
Last year, Robinson and other 18th & Vine committee members attempted to expedite an application for a CID program. But it was not approved in time for the following summer — a season that typically sees an uptick in violence across many American cities.
In April, Gary Taylor, a beloved personal trainer and gym owner, was fatally shot in the district.
The weekend before Taylor was killed, the 18th & Vine Development Policy Committee, a division of City Hall, approved a safety plan in lieu of the CID in the hopes of preventing area shootings. The plan, funded by the city, funnels just shy of $150,000 toward off-duty officers and private security on weekends.
Robinson said she hopes that, over time, the CID can fund the additional security.
A ‘fabulous’ idea
18th & Vine District community members have also advocated for reducing the amount of car traffic in the area, which often caters to large crowds on weekends, to make it more walkable — offering stronger parking instructions, placing barriers for vehicle entry, patrolling for litter and generally cleaning up the area.
But funding has always been a main concern. A CID again has been pointed to as a solution.
Kelvin Simmons, who owns land on Vine Street where he plans to development apartments and retail, told the committee Wednesday that there’s a need in the district for a variety of tax incentives “so that the actual capital investment that would come in would be able to subsidize and bring the vision to fruition.”
Last September, Simmons, a former Kansas City councilman and state economic development director, told the Kansas City Business Journal that One Nine Vine, a $68 million redevelopment proposed for an area south of 19th Street and east of The Paseo, is just one in a series of planned 18th & Vine developments.
He told the business journal a year ago that he predicted the developments would lead to more than $100 million of new private investment within the neighborhood.
Simmons said developers like himself will take on the cost of security at first. The CID is intended to enhance the private security around the district and make it more consistent.
He said his immediate priorities are using the CID to invest in parking and security in an area that’s expected to see more retail and development in the coming years, including Vine Street Brewing, the first Black-owned brewery in the city, headed to the neighborhood in 2022.
“This just gives the entire district an opportunity to be so much more than what it has been,” Simmons said. “So this is significant and it jumpstarts and it is a catalyst for what can also take place in the rest of the 18th & Vine area.”
Councilwoman Teresa Loar, 2nd District at-large, called the CID a “fabulous” project, adding that she hopes a pool and playgrounds will be incorporated down the road.
“I think this is probably the best thing that’s come along in a long time,” she said. “You have my whole-hearted support on this.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 5:38 PM.
