This Kansas City park could become site of future Ronald McDonald House expansion

Voters could decide whether to turn a city park near Crown Center over to a nonprofit to help families with children undergoing life-saving medical care.

Board Secretary Karmen Houston confirmed that the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board voted on Tuesday to recommend asking voters to approve the sale of Longfellow Park, 502 E. 26th St., to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City, which provides services and lodging for traveling families with children receiving medical care at nearby hospitals.

The organization’s Longfellow House overlooks the park along Gillham Road and is just a quarter mile from Children’s Mercy’s downtown campus, which houses the region’s highest level neonatal intensive care unit and only top-level pediatric trauma center.

CEO Tami Greenberg told the board last month that Ronald McDonald provides services to about 5,000 families a year, but has to turn away 1,000 more families who could otherwise be near their children due to lack of space. The site is full every night, she said.

“When Ronald McDonald House is full, sometimes families leave their child alone in the hospital and wait for a room to become available. Sometimes families sleep in their car,” Greenberg said. “Sometimes families delay medical treatment for their seriously-ill child because there’s not a room available at Ronald McDonald House.”

The parks board passed a resolution that calls for selling the 3.4-acre park to Ronald McDonald House for the expansion. At least 1.5 of the acres would have to remain accessible to the public, the resolution says, and Sheila Kemper Dietrich Park is across the street to the south.

The resolution goes to the City Council next, and voters would have the final say: Selling the park would require voter approval in a future referendum.

Further details about a possible construction timeline, sale price and a referendum date are to be determined, pending final approval.