Kansas City may help fund privately owned playground in fast-gentrifying Beacon Hill
Kansas City may help fund a playground to be privately owned by a homeowners association in a quickly gentrifying neighborhood just east of Troost Avenue.
Some City Council members had expressed concern about using public money for a private enterprise. But on Wednesday, their committee voted for the project, after they added provisions to ensure the playground would be open to everyone.
Beacon Hill, which lies between Troost and The Paseo just south of downtown, was long a target for redevelopment and has changed drastically in recent years. Brand new, architecturally striking homes there can sell for more than $500,000, on the same block as small 100-year-old homes.
As part of redevelopment agreements the city signed with the neighborhood, it promised to provide recreational amenities, city officials said.
Now, the city is considering using proceeds from the sale of three lots in Beacon Hill to provide $115,000 for the playground, which will be owned by the Beacon Hill Homeowners Association.
The measure cleared the City Council’s Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee in a matter of minutes Wednesday, and the full City Council is expected to consider the plan Thursday. But last month, it ran into some opposition.
“We’re building a private HOA playground is what it sounds like even though it’s open to the public,” Councilman Dan Fowler, 2nd District, said to the committee last month.
He said the cost was relatively minimal, though he questioned the need for public investment in a neighborhood that seems to be burgeoning on its own.
“$115,000 in the overall scheme of our budget is not a lot of money,” Fowler said. “It’s a drop in the bucket. But why is the city investing in this when it seems like it’s going to be an HOA sort of deal? That’s what my concern is.”
At the time, Councilman Brandon Ellington, 3rd District at-large, noted playgrounds across the city are inadequately maintained or lack amenities.
“So I have extreme concerns,” Ellington said, “in particular knowing the amount of public playgrounds we have in my district that don’t have slides, that have holes in the plastic.”
But David Sisney, president of the Beacon Hill Homeowners Association, said at the time that the group would insure and maintain the playground. And he said the group was open to a binding agreement with the city to make sure families who don’t live in the neighborhood could still play there.
“There’s no fences going up. Anyone can come to the playground,” he said.
Councilwoman Andrea Bough, 6th District at-large, suggested last month adding a deed restriction to ensure the playground remains open to the public.
“It’s the same as a public park,” she said. “It’s just that the ownership is somewhat different.”
The committee adopted her amendment to do just that on Wednesday.
Fowler on Wednesday said his concerns were assuaged by Bough’s amendment and said that made it a better deal for the city.
“It’s a public park that we’re paying for, but … we don’t have to maintain it, and that’s a crucial thing,” Fowler said.
Ellington did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.
The historic Beacon Hill neighborhood sits just east of Truman Medical Center with boundaries from Troost to The Paseo and from about 22nd to 27th streets. It has been home to an urban renaissance, with dozens of new homes built in recent years.
But Mary Quackenbush, a member of the HOA board, said only 60 of the neighborhood’s 300 homes were new builds. The other 240 are older homes and more economically diverse, she said.
Likewise, she said the new playground would welcome families from nearby neighborhoods like Longfellow and Wendell Phillips.
“This park is for all members of the community. And it’s not just in the 60 homes that there are kids. There are kids in many, many of the other homes. … There’s not going to be some gatekeeper there. Anyone is welcome to use the facility.”
