To meet World Cup 2026 deadline, more money for temporary jail approved in committee
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Committee moved $3.83M from general fund to boost $22M temporary jail budget.
- Committee waived building-efficiency requirement to meet May 2026 World Cup timeline.
- Mayor proposed ordinance amendment excluding detention projects from the standard.
The cost of Kansas City’s temporary jail facility could jump by nearly $4 million as a city committee recommend additional funding and waiving environmental building standards to keep the project on track for completion before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The recommendation came on Tuesday during the City Council’s finance, governance and public safety committee meeting and would move $3.83 million from the general fund to add to the $22 million for the project.
The request for additional money was made after underground utility and other site placement needs were identified while designing a new floor plan.
Kansas City officials approved the initial funding for the temporary facility in October, using funds from the public safety sales tax.
The request for more money also includes the waiving of a city requirement that new city facilities meet specific building efficiency requirements. City-owned buildings over 5,000-square feet that are being renovated, or any new construction, are required to meet that standard based on a city ordinance passed in 2004 and amended in 2011.
City architects said they could not meet the May 2026 timeline for the project before the start of the FIFA World Cup, if the requirement was not waived, said city architect Roxana Reyes.
While the temporary jail facility will not be subject to the city ordinance requiring the standard, the permanent facility that is also planned will be.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said there is an urgency for the completion of a permanent municipal jail. The new building standards would cost more, he said.
Lucas said he would like to see that requirement waived in any facility that uses public safety sales tax money.
“I think we can still meet good environmental standards without meeting this one articulated industry standard,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something we should implement to slow down our public safety programs that the taxpayers approved.”
Lucas offered to amend the ordinance, removing the requirement for detention facilities, as well as for other facilities or buildings paid for with public safety sales tax money.
The committee approved Lucas’s amendment and approved the recommendation to increase funding for the temporary jail. The measure will later go to the council for full approval.
Following the meeting, Lucas said that it was important the committee took action to modify the building standards.
“As described, that’s a checklist,” Lucas said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re not fulfilling certain sustainability goals. It doesn’t mean that we’re not doing some great things. It means that we don’t think we have to go through a bureaucratic checklist to deliver what the people of Kansas City want, which is a detention facility.”
