KC Life has a year to make progress on Midtown development plan. Will it happen?

Kansas City Life Insurance will have a year to show it will bring forward acceptable plans for redevelopment in a Midtown neighborhood — without demolishing any more buildings.

Valentine neighborhood organizers and KC Life have been at odds for decades over demolitions in the neighborhood, which took on new urgency last fall after the company knocked down over 20 buildings it owned north of 35th Street, saying they were unsafe, and left entire blocks almost entirely empty.

As KC Life looked earlier this year to demolish four more buildings, including colonnade-style apartments off Southwest Trafficway, the Valentine Neighborhood Association filed a request for the city to give part of the neighborhood historic status, which would set new rules for development and offer more protections to structures in Valentine.

The proposed Norman School Historic District, which would include a namesake school that has been turned into apartments, would cover the area between 35th Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, Valentine Road and Southwest Trafficway. Supporters plan to work toward historic designation for the full neighborhood.

That request has gone through multiple city boards and public hearings this year, culminating in a City Council neighborhoods committee meeting on Dec. 16.

Supporters of the historic district want to bolster protections for neighborhood structures in light of the demolitions while guiding future development that would fit Valentine’s character and increasing property values; KC Life has said the historic district rules could throw its planned future development of new apartments into question and that existing city oversight would be enough.

KC Life has said they plan to build new homes on its empty lots in Valentine and has presented an early vision that includes new colonnade-style apartments off Southwest Trafficway, but some Valentine residents remain skeptical.

Some individual property owners also opposed historic status and worried about how new regulations could impact their ability to do work on their homes or an outcome that could keep KC Life from building.

To get approved, the historic district request must make it through the neighborhoods committee and then the full city council. The committee delayed taking a vote in October to give the two sides time to find a way forward.

“I just wanted to strongly suggest folks work together and come back with something that could be compatible with both preservation of the historic nature of the neighborhood while also filling in some of those empty lots,” Eric Bunch, city council member for the Fourth District, said Tuesday.

The committee then opted on Tuesday to hold off on a vote for a full year. That came after KC Life proposed in a letter that the committee hold the item for a year and that the company would commit to:

• No more demolitions in the proposed district for a year.
• Maintaining the community garden it provides to the neighborhood for free.
• Moving forward with the development process for up to 42 new colonnade-style apartment units along Southwest Trafficway, as phase one of redevelopment.

David Frantze, attorney representing KC Life, told the committee that one of the reasons the company has strongly opposed historic status is that it would route proposed redevelopment through the historic preservation commission. If that board denies a project, it could be delayed for three years unless a developer takes it to court.

He said the next step for KC Life will be retaining architects and coming up with a design for an application, which will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We’re not prepared to make that commitment in the absence of knowing that we will be going through the traditional full city development process,” he said, referring to the usual set of reviews and public hearings for a development plan that would move through the plan commission and city council.

The year delay to December 2026 gives KC Life a chance to prove that they will work with the neighborhood, be transparent and come up with a master development plan that will fit Valentine.

During that time, Bunch said he wants to see multiple check-ins with the city.

“This is Kansas City Life’s opportunity here to make it right with this neighborhood, and I want to see something productive come out of this,” he said. “It is my expectation that there will be participation at every neighborhood meeting. It is my expectation that there will be substantive conversation about the first phase of this development and the next phase of this development.”

Bunch also said he wants to know what it will take to expand the historic district proposal to cover all of Valentine.

Following the committee discussion, a city staff member could attend neighborhood meetings to field questions between KC Life and the neighborhood about the development proposal.

And KC Life’s plan could see review by historic preservation officials who would offer a non-binding recommendation on it.

This story was originally published December 29, 2025 at 4:57 PM.