New group takes up the torch, pushing to remove highway loop north of downtown Kansas City

Imagine this: You leave your apartment along Independence Avenue to grab a coffee in Columbus Park, take a stroll over to the River Market for some ice cream and then hop on the streetcar to grab some food and drinks downtown — all without crossing a noisy high-speed interstate.

That’s a possibility a group of organizers and residents want Kansas Citians to consider. Called the North Loop Neighbors, the group is casting a sweeping vision and pushing to build momentum behind the idea to remove the north section of the highway loop that runs through downtown and carves through core city neighborhoods.

They imagine re-routing Interstates 35 and 70 through the southern section of the loop, opening up the north section for new development and public space, while reconnecting isolated areas to the river, downtown and beyond.

Alongside the ongoing South Loop Park project, which will cap the southern section with a new multi-use park, removing the North Loop would mean that Kansas City neighborhoods would be fully connected from the Missouri River, through downtown and the Crossroads, to Brush Creek and beyond. That’s how they once were, organizers say, before highways sliced through downtown in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Independence Avenue could be bolstered as an economic center, the street grid could be stitched back together with safer paths for people to get around on foot, and more land could be brought online for housing, businesses, entertainment and parks as downtown Kansas City continues to grow.

The idea may feel like a long shot, but it’s not new. It has popped up in plans and studies over the past few decades. The North Loop Neighbors are the latest to step in to lead the charge after the Buck O’Neil Bridge construction moved forward around 2020.

A 2018 study called Beyond the Loop — which addressed the future of transportation on the Buck O’Neil Bridge, Highway 169 corridor and North Loop — touches on the possibility of removing the North Loop and replacing it with an arterial road. A 2022 Downtown Council plan encourages further study of the idea.

“We started asking around about the future of this project,” said Josh Boehm, an urban planner who is part of North Loop Neighbors. “What we heard from officials that were in charge at the time was that they didn’t really have plans to advance this section of it without a strong champion or advocate, people advocating for it. So we thought, well, there’s a real need for somebody to advocate for it, and that’s how we decided to form this group.”

Removing the North Loop is not an official city proposal. If it ever became one, the removal would likely take years of study, engineering, fundraising and government approvals.

According to Metrowire Media, City Manager Brian Platt said in January that he did not foresee the city taking the removal on in the next 10 years given the amount of land taken up by surface parking lots downtown that could be redeveloped.

“We value community members taking an active role in reimagining Kansas City’s future,” said a spokesperson for Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office. “Mayor Lucas is open to fresh ideas that could improve how people connect with downtown, boost local businesses, and make our neighborhoods more livable. Of course, major changes to our highways would need thorough research, extensive public feedback, and partnership with state and federal agencies before moving forward.”

What removing the North Loop would mean for KC

Advocates with North Loop Neighbors come back to one overarching concept: reconnecting neighborhoods back to downtown, such as Columbus Park and the River Market, that were most impacted by the highway. They would be extended with new infill development and public space after opening up many acres of prime real estate for building.

Meanwhile, they say the North Loop itself has become less necessary after the Buck O’Neil Bridge was rebuilt with a new traffic pattern, organizers say.

North Loop Neighbors has connected with local neighborhood groups and leaders and collected testimony from nearby residents who enjoy their walkable neighborhoods with access to downtown, the riverfront, the streetcar and City Market, but want what they see as the eyesore, noise, pollution and danger of the North Loop gone.

“It is rare for a major city to have such prime land in its center available for redevelopment without displacing any residents or neighborhoods,” one resident reported. “We cannot let our city pass on this opportunity.”

Advocates invoke viral historic images of Kansas City that show what downtown used to look like before the highways were built, and could be again with the North Loop removed: dense neighborhoods with streetcar access and a variety of businesses with people in the streets.

The 2018 Beyond the Loop study estimated that full removal of the North Loop with an improved Independence Avenue would cost about $65 million, while freeing 27 acres of land valued at $80 million. Those costs and values have likely increased since then.

Other cities have removed highways, or could

Kansas City joins several cities across the United States that have removed highways from their downtown cores or have organizers advocating to do so.

Cities that have pulled it off include Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a riverfront highway became a riverfront boulevard; Rochester, New York, where a loop that surrounded the downtown district became a walkable neighborhood; and Boston, where a downtown highway was moved underground.

A proposal has floated around for a few years in Milwaukee to remove a section of Interstate 794 that chops the lakefront city’s downtown in half.

Carl Glasemeyer, who grew up in Kansas City and is now the land use and transportation policy director with 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, told The Star that a key piece of the momentum in Milwaukee is that a downtown highway there has already been removed, so it’s already a familiar idea to residents.

That would be the Park East Freeway, an underused spur that was removed in the 2000s and replaced by a boulevard and the Deer District, an entertainment area for sports and concerts.

Milwaukee’s campaign came about as the state has already been looking at doing costly reconstruction and repair work on the interstate section, and organizers thought it would be a good time to put some pressure on officials to consider another alternative: removing it entirely.

As Wisconsin transportation officials continue to study options, there’s optimism among organizers in Milwaukee that removal could be possible.

But such a project is complicated, Glasemeyer said, and some major questions linger — such as how to manage truck traffic. And a lot of different agencies have a stake in the outcome. Removing a highway involves the city, the county, the state and the federal government all coming together.

Highways like the downtown loop take up “so much space,” Glasemeyer said. “Our road infrastructure is so large. When you actually start to map out what could fit in the place, you go, that’s how many homes?”

In Milwaukee, as many as 4,000 homes could go where the highway is now and beef up the city’s tax rolls.

“It’s really trying to figure out questions of who the city is built for, and how do we build it to serve people who are here and facing big crises?” Glasemeyer said. “We’re in a housing crisis. Even though a lot of Midwest cities have been relatively affordable from a housing perspective, housing costs continue to go up and up.”

What comes next for highways in Kansas City

While removing the North Loop is not currently an official city proposal, such work has been underway for the South Loop park and on the Westside.

City officials say that work is expected to begin this year on the South Loop project to turn the highway into a tunnel and place a park on top, reconnecting the city to downtown to the south.

The South Loop park could feature playgrounds, entertainment venues, gardens, pop-up markets and more. The project is estimated to cost over $200 million through a mix of federal, state, local and private funding.

On the Westside, the city kicked off the Reconnect the Westside project in February. Officials are gathering feedback from residents about how to address the impact of Interstates 670 and 35 carving through the Westside, which took out over 1,000 homes and about 120 acres in the historic neighborhood and hub for Kansas City’s Latino community.

The Westside project will consider ways the city can counter the literal barriers the highways put up through the neighborhood, both shorter-term — perhaps adding sound walls to reduce noise or placing speed bumps to improve traffic safety — and longer-term, particularly what to do about the aging I-35 viaduct, which will need to be replaced in the future.

City officials will solicit resident feedback and produce a final planning report by winter 2026 that will detail possible solutions to help reconnect the neighborhood, such as adding streets back

into the grid that were severed by interstate construction — or even removing the highways entirely. The study’s actual recommendations are still to be determined.

As for the North Loop, the next step would be further discussion and rigorous study. Such a major project wouldn’t happen because a few people want it to, organizers with North Loop Neighbors say, and everyone would have to weigh in: the traveling public and various government agencies through environmental and planning reviews.

This story was originally published March 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM.