Lift restriction on Westport athletic field

The need for more off-street parking has surfaced as an obstacle to the proposed purchase and innovative use of Westport High School.

About 70 residents of area neighborhoods heard plans Monday night for the vacant school at 315 E. 39th St. and Westport Middle School to the north to become a new campus called Westport Commons: Center for Creativity and Innovation.

But the potential owners, Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners, found that the property they wanted to buy from Kansas City Public Schools included a 20-year restriction on any reuse of the track and athletic field in back of the high school.

The developer wants to put nearly 400 surface parking spaces on part of that land. Neighbors spoke up, both in support of and against the plan. It’s clearly a touchy issue.

The schools closed in 2010 because of dwindling enrollment. Neighbors want the schools to be reused as a multimillion-dollar incubator for nonprofits and start-up businesses. But many were unwilling to sacrifice parts of the athletic field and track. Others didn’t want parking for the commons to overflow in the already densely populated neighborhoods with scarce on-street parking.

The school board could make a decision as early as Wednesday night. To move the project forward and reduce its inventory of closed schools that are for sale, the school board should lift the restriction.

If no vote is taken Wednesday, the issue may have to wait until after the April 5 school board election when four new persons will join the nine-member board. The developers want to have the issue resolved as soon as possible.

Bob Berkebile, a principal of BNIM architects and a lead partner in the Westport Commons project, said banks won’t finance the development without the additional parking. The middle school building will have about 300 parking spaces. The high school has about 100 now. The additional spots would accommodate the needs of people in the commons, which is to include an early childhood education center, live-work places for artists and entrepreneurs, a culinary institute, health and wellness center, forum space, gardening, and grocery and food start-ups.

Westport Commons is an example of “urban acupuncture,” drawing together public and private groups to creatively work together. If the restriction on the athletic field use isn’t lifted, Berkebile said the project would “retreat to the middle school and that will be it.”

The loss of the second building would be a blow to the community, too.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Lift restriction on Westport athletic field."