Stop the handouts. It’s time to reform how Kansas City gives incentives to builders
Kansas City’s eight-month effort to rein in development incentives has gone on long enough. It’s time for the City Council to make a decision.
The council’s Neighborhood Planning and Development Committee meets Wednesday, and is expected to discuss the restrictions ordinance, which was first introduced way back in June.
Various parties have lobbied for and against the measure since then. It has changed.
But the time for discussion has ended. Kansas City must have incentive reform. While the measure now on the table isn’t perfect, it’s a good-faith effort to reduce tax abatements that developers routinely seek in this community.
The committee should send the measure to the full council Wednesday. The City Council should approve it by next week.
The ordinance was introduced by council members Melissa Robinson and Ryana Parks-Shaw last June. As the measure now stands, abatements offered to developers would be generally capped at 70% of taxes for 10 years, then 30% for five years after that.
That’s lower than current law, but not substantially so. The caps are also higher than originally contemplated, which represents an effort by supporters to reach an acceptable compromise.
Equally as important — and perhaps less well understood — are provisions in the ordinance that would allow the City Council to approve bigger incentives for projects with “extraordinary qualifications.” Those projects would be built in distressed areas, or those that create jobs in poor neighborhoods or provide affordable housing.
It’s sad those exceptions must be written into the ordinance. Incentives were created to provide developers a reason for building in distressed areas. Incentives were never meant for projects in wealthy areas for wealthy people, or for places where developers faced little risk.
That idea has long been turned on its head in Kansas City: Incentives are handed out like candy for big office buildings or fancy apartments built in well-to-do areas, but little for neighborhoods that need help.
That’s why some groups originally supported a tougher ordinance. “Those who most need are not currently receiving their fair share of economic development,” wrote Jan Parks of the Coalition for Kansas City Economic Development Reform.
“We have disparity between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots,’ “ Parks wrote last week. “We oppose (the bill) as currently written.” Kansas City Public Schools is also worried.
Developers have also pushed back against the proposed ordinance, which is to be expected. Millions of dollars are at stake. Some have said the affordable housing exemptions are too costly, and will mean fewer homes, not more.
We think those concerns are overblown. Kansas City needs more places for people to live — and anyone seeking tax breaks to build projects should be prepared to build those places.
We also understand why some Kansas Citians think this proposal doesn’t go far enough. Absent a petition drive, however, it’s the best we’re likely to get for some time.
Some opponents are worried the effective date of the ordinance may be pushed back to mid-summer, ostensibly to give the city time to work on other development tools. The effective date should not be a deal-breaker, however.
If particularly egregious proposals surface between now and the effective date of the ordinance, the City Council can just say no.
Indeed, in a perfect world, elected officials would have the courage to always reject development incentives in non-distressed areas, period. We don’t live in that world, yet, which is why the City Council should adopt the new policy within the next two weeks.