Key hire casts broad vision to boost economic development in KCK, Wyandotte County
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Following a two-year vacancy for the key position, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, has hired a new director to guide its economic development department.
Chelsee Chism, a former assistant city manager in Shawnee and Overland Park, was chosen last month to lead the department during a crucial time for the county.
Residents have witnessed tremendous growth out west fueled largely by tourism attractions partially funded with state sales tax dollars. But challenges remain in many neighborhoods, such as in northeastern Kansas City, Kansas, spanning from shortages of affordable housing to a yet-to-be-realized revitalization of the Quindaro Boulevard corridor.
During an interview with The Star, Chism and County Administrator David Johnston cast a broad vision for the benefits the role will offer Wyandotte Countians.
On the long list of early priorities: creating plans to address housing specifically, as well as strategies tailored to some of the biggest needs within Wyandotte County’s neighborhoods. A few others include clearer communication about the benefits of large-scale projects to the community, finding support for local businesses, redeveloping downtown Kansas City, Kansas, and maintaining the area’s diversity, history and culture.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Chism told The Star. “I think it’s exciting. And building a team, and starting to get all those pieces in place, I really look forward to engaging and focusing on those areas.”
Chism still has a bit of catch-up to do. Her department, funded for four other positions in 2025, is still down two jobs — something Chism hopes to fix early on. She is also taking the reins a full two years after Katherine Carttar, the Unified Government’s last economic development director, resigned amid an exodus of top-level staff in 2022.
Chism’s work will oversee development strategies around the county’s land bank properties, many of which were acquired by the Unified Government through foreclosure.
The land bank’s stock has ballooned in recent years to amass roughly 4,600 lots, about 13% of which are considered unbuildable. Many are clustered in northeastern Kansas City, Kansas.
The land bank policy has long been under review. One significant change being considered concerns expansion of the approved uses for those properties to allow neighboring homeowners to buy them and maintain them. For the Unified Government, that could put the maintenance of those lands back into private hands, turning an annual cost into some level of property tax revenue.
Over the past 25 years, the momentum behind building the Kansas Speedway has been credited as a catalyst for other major commercial development that followed, such as the Legends Outlets and, more recently, the sprawling Homefield project, which includes a youth sports mecca and an under-construction Margaritaville resort hotel.
Other goals of Johnston and Chism’s: Take better stock of the Unified Government’s use of economic development incentives, and create a greater understanding of economic development among residents.
“Everybody likes to talk economic development, but it is a complex concept for a community to be successful,” Johnston said, pointing to the differences between new development versus redevelopment of older pockets of the city.
Meanwhile, county and city leaders have sought ways to spur greater growth in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, and the oldest parts of the city grid. One project underway that aims to expand workforce training is the new branch of Kansas City, Kansas Community College.
County Administrator Johnston pointed to that project as one of the players stepping up to the plate to help make Wyandotte County an even greater community. But those efforts need to be made on a “grander scale.”
“I think that’s one of the benefits of having (Chism) here, is that you have somebody within the major government that’s going to be coordinating those efforts,” Johnston said, adding that Wyandotte County should be marketing itself as “the best place to live, work and play in the region.”
