Kansas City spent $1.1 million on streetcar expansion planning

Kansas City spent more than $1 million on engineering studies and other planning for streetcar extensions that voters then staunchly rejected in the August election.

That was the accounting that Public Works Department staff provided Thursday to the City Council, along with assurances that no further spending will be authorized.

“At this time, we’re not moving forward,” public works Director Sherri McIntyre told the council.

Back in May, the City Council approved contracts totaling more than $8 million with HDR and Burns & McDonnell to do advanced engineering on potential streetcar expansions. HDR had a $3.7 million contract to study routes on Independence Avenue and Linwood Boulevard, while Burns & McDonnell had a $4.4 million contract to study expansion on Main Street from Union Station to the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The city sold bonds to pay for those contracts.

A council majority approved the spending even before members knew whether voters would go along because they said they needed to gather the data to apply quickly for federal funds if the local vote was positive.

But it wasn’t.

So McIntyre said those contracts have been halted. Still, prior to August, HDR tallied $226,667 in expenses and Burns & McDonnell tallied $835,166. For that spending, they completed detailed route planning, environmental studies and some engineering and public outreach tasks.

McIntyre said some of the information will be useful if the city proceeds with other street improvements along those routes.

City Treasurer Tammy Queen said the bonds don’t need to be fully paid back until June 2017, although the city could pay them back much sooner. If the council and the bond purchaser approve, the money could be spent for purposes other than streetcar expansion. The annual interest-only debt payments are currently less than $100,000.

Dan Coffey, part of a group that fought the streetcar expansion at the ballot box, said Thursday he thought the city should pay the money back as soon as possible. But he also questioned the council’s decision to approve the expensive planning contracts in the first place.

“I think the prudent thing would have been to see what the voters wanted before they went out and spent all that money,” Coffey said.

This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Kansas City spent $1.1 million on streetcar expansion planning."