Saint Luke’s wants a new parking lot in Westport. KC officials aren’t thrilled

As a local hospital prepares to demolish a hotel in Westport, Kansas City officials want the institution to think bigger than parking lots as the city strives to become more walkable — and hospital officials say they will.

Saint Luke’s Hospital owns the site of the former Embassy Suites hotel at 220 W. 43rd St., just off Mill Creek Parkway. The hospital system has owned the property since the 1970s and previously leased it out for hotel operations. The hotel building was constructed in the mid-1970s.

The Embassy Suites closed last fall after the company running the hotel opted to close it and vacate the property, the hospital has said, after the company found the building to be “functionally obsolete.”

Saint Luke’s later explored alternative uses for the building, including conversion to housing or continued hospitality use, but decided they wouldn’t be feasible. The hospital plans to demolish the building and use the site for hospital parking while considering long-term options.

That brought the property before the City Plan Commission on Tuesday, with Saint Luke’s proposing a 157-space, gated parking lot for employees that would include new landscaping and fencing.

The owner would need a special permit, approved by the Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Adjustment, to allow for the parking lot.

City staff recommend denying parking lot permit

City planning staff recommended denying the special permit. Planning documents for the midtown area discourage new surface parking, call for more walkable development and encourage filling in areas between neighborhoods like Westport and the Plaza that are already stuffed with parking lots.

“There has been a pattern in this neighborhood already of destroying buildings in favor of surface parking, which is the opposite of what the Midtown/Plaza Area Plan calls for,” city planner Luke Ranker said during the hearing.

The hotel building is expected to be demolished within the next month. Hospital representatives said allowing the parking lot plan now would get employee vehicles off neighborhood streets while preventing a vacant site or boarded-up building from sitting there for years.

Surface parking already exists on the site.

The plan commission approved the special use permit for the future parking lot. The Board of Zoning Adjustment will have the final word at a later date.

The plan commission set a limit of three years on the permit to help make sure Saint Luke’s comes back to the city swiftly with a plan for how the hospital will develop its campus in the years to come.

The hospital’s current master plan dates back to 2009 and does not include the hotel property because it was not expected to close at that time. The updated version will include the former hotel and ideas for what to do with it long-term, officials said.

“We believe we will be coming back to the community and to you all with a plan that shows what this use will be,” said Aaron March, attorney representing Saint Luke’s.

Saint Luke’s is interviewing design consultants now for a planning process that could take up to 18 months.

Land may not be surface parking lot forever

Exactly what the hotel property will look like several years from now is to be determined, but hospital officials suggest it may not be surface parking forever, saying there are better uses of the land.

“The land north of 43rd Street is worth too much to be long term surface parking,” said Director of real estate Matt Hanson. “The hospital has an interest in re-stitching the urban fabric of that area, and we have engaged not just a facility master planner, but actual urban planners as part of this process to help us with this master plan.

“I understand the frustration of not knowing what that is going to look like, and that’s why we believe, in the next three years, we will be coming back to this commission with a master plan development for the entire campus,” Hanson said.

In a letter, the Plaza Westport Neighborhood Association said that it understands that the building will be demolished and that redevelopment needs to occur. The site is near a streetcar stop.

But the association wants to ensure that Saint Luke’s does come forward with a plan for future development phases. They note the recent sale of the nearby Temple Slug building, which appears to be headed for demolition, to the real estate arm of St. Luke’s Foundation.

“Our neighborhood has been decimated by acquisition and demolition of structures by Saint Luke’s or their affiliates,” said Amelia McIntyre of the neighborhood group. “It is carving out an area that was once populated. We respect Saint Luke’s as an institution, but they do need to be a good neighbor, and a plan with some measured phases is an important part of being a good neighbor.”

The Westport Plaza group also calls on the city to change its zoning rules and definitions around parking lots to more easily open up hospital parking lots for the public when they are not needed by employees.