Kansas City gave Urbavore farm the OK - on official letterhead. It must keep its word | Opinion

Imagine this: You’re a small business owner in Kansas City, and you’re considering expanding your operations into a related industry.

You read the city’s zoning code and you see a requirement with which you cannot comply, but you’re not sure whether that requirement applies to you. So you reach out to the City Planning and Development Department, which is responsible for interpreting and enforcing the zoning code.

The department does its research and tells you that the requirement you identified does not apply to you. You receive confirmation of zoning compliance in writing. On official Kansas City letterhead.

Having this assurance in hand, you invest nearly half a million dollars expanding your business operations.

Two years later, the Planning and Development Department sends you a letter. Remember that requirement you asked them about? The one they said — in writing, on official city letterhead — does not apply to you? Well, officials have decided that it does apply to you and that you’re in violation of the law. And because you cannot comply — as you told them at the outset — this effectively shuts down the operations in which you just invested half a million dollars.

This is exactly what happened to Urbavore Urban Farm, a small business run by a local husband-and-wife team also raising two young sons. The family operates an urban farm, as well as a composting service for area residents.

If you’ve heard of the Urbavore saga, then you know that in some ways, it is complicated.

But in one aspect, it is very simple: The zoning violation against Urbavore is improper, and it should be reversed by the Board of Zoning Adjustment at the appeal hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

The facts do not support any other conclusion. See for yourself.

In the letter sent to Urbavore, the Planning and Development Department assured the farm that Section 88-328 of the Code of Ordinances does not apply to Urbavore’s composting operations up to a volume of 1,500 cubic yards. (The city recently confirmed that Urbavore has not exceeded this threshold.) So the department necessarily erred when it cited Urbavore for violating that code just two years later.

(For a deeper dive into the facts, you can read this letter that I sent to the mayor and City Council in 2023.)

If you’re new to the Urbavore saga, you may be thinking that this seems pretty clear cut and that Urbavore is certain to win on appeal.

You would think. But so far, you would have been wrong.

The Urbavore family has been fighting this zoning violation for nearly two years. They’ve been dragged through three concurrent legal proceedings before multiple bodies in city government. The family has been drained thoroughly of time, money and spirit.

As a small business owner, myself, Urbavore’s plight makes me question whether it’s prudent to build my business in Kansas City. If you cannot trust guidance you receive from the city — in writing, on city letterhead — and rely on that guidance in making major business decisions, then how can any entrepreneur run a business here?

And unlike Urbavore, my business is portable — it’s not tied to a specific plot of land — so I can pick up and move a few miles west across the state line.

I have heard other small business owners express these very same sentiments as a result of witnessing Urbavore’s plight.

If the city values small businesses — if it wants to attract, protect, and retain them — then it needs to start showing it.

If you agree, tell city leadership. Tag the mayor and City Council on social media. Call or email them. Here is their contact information.

And keep an eye out for the Board of Zoning Adjustment’s decision on Jan. 8. Many concerned residents and small business owners will be watching closely to see whether the city’s process for remedying improper agency actions can be trusted.

The Urbavore saga presents an opportunity for real leadership. The zoning violation should be set aside, and once it is, city leaders can engage all parties involved in a transparent discussion of the challenges at hand and work toward a solution that is fair to all the parties.

This is the path to healing relationships and restoring trust in our local government, and it can start Wednesday, Jan. 8.

This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 11:35 AM.