Developer moves forward with south KC landfill despite Kansas City Council opposition
Developers have contacted Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources about a plan to build a landfill in southeastern Kansas City, a DNR employee told The Star Tuesday.
“This morning we received a meeting request for a new landfill in the south Kansas City area,” permit specialist Dave Drilling wrote in an email. The meeting request comes after months of controversy around the rumored landfill plan, which has faced opposition from residents and lawmakers in the area.
The DNR employee described the meeting as “informational” and said it could be the first step in a lengthy permitting process that typically takes seven to eight years. The developer has not filed any official permit applications, according to the DNR.
If the developer moves forward with an application, the project would be the first brand-new landfill proposal the state has seen in decades.
“There’s usually quite a bit of resistance to those,” Drilling added. “We haven’t done a (brand new facility) permit in, I want to say 20 or 30 years.”
What do Kansas City officials think about the proposed landfill?
After months of opposition from residents and neighboring municipalities, Kansas City Council passed a resolution last week opposing a potential landfill project in the area south of Longview Lake.
The resolution gives City Manager Brian Platt six months to research Kansas City’s solid waste needs and report back to the city council. During this time, the city has put a hold on “the approval of any permits, plan review, project plans, and zoning changes for such landfills or transfer stations.”
The resolution passed 11-2, with only Lee Barnes, who represents the 5th District At-Large, and Brandon Ellington, who represents the 3rd District At-Large, in opposition.
“Don’t talk about regionality and regionalism when it’s convenient for you,” Barnes told landfill critics from the nearby municipalities of Raymore, Grandview, Lee’s Summit and Belton, suggesting that some of the same opponents of the landfill plan likely voted to exert state control over Kansas City’s police funding in November’s election.
With a six-month ban on new landfill project approvals in place, here’s what could be next for the potential South KC landfill.
Will the KC resolution alone stop the proposed landfill?
No. Resolutions are not enforceable laws — they’re merely statements of the city’s intentions or position on an issue. Besides, a six-month ban on new landfills wouldn’t disrupt the South KC project on its own, becausr even if it moves ahead as planned, it would take years to develop.
City spokesperson Sherae Honeycutt told The Star that any new landfill would first have to undergo the city’s complex rezoning process in order to be built on privately owned land.
Owners would then have to obtain permits from the city both to build the landfill and to operate it within city limits. That’s in addition to following other guidelines like state permitting and federal environmental standards.
“The permitting process for a solid waste landfill takes, at a minimum, five years from application to final approval,” said Dave Drilling, head of the permits unit for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ waste management program. “Typically, the application and review process is closer to seven to eight years.”
Complying with local authorities is one step in the 16-part process the state requires of developers before they can receive a state-level operating permit for a landfill.
How would Kansas City be involved in approving a private landfill?
After acquiring land in the proposed landfill area, developers would have to petition the city to rezone it for use as a landfill space rather than residential land. The rezoning process requires a number of steps, including:
A pre-application conference with a city planner
Application paperwork and fees
A required meeting with “impacted residents”
A six-week waiting period
A public hearing on the proposed project
Testimony at a city committee hearing
Approval from the City Plan Commission, the council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee and the full Kansas City Council
Developers would then have to submit their development plans to the city in order to obtain the building and construction permits needed to construct a landfill.
According to city codes, no one can operate a private landfill in Kansas City without first getting an operating permit from the city. Landfills also can’t be operated where they would be “a nuisance, annoyance or inconvenience to the residents of the vicinity.”
These restrictions could come into play during future debates over whether local developer Jennifer Monheiser’s company, which is behind the landfill effort, should receive a permit to operate a landfill in South Kansas City.
The Star’s Mike Hendricks contributed to this report.
Do you have more questions about the proposed landfill project? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
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