Community input on how to redevelop 63rd & Prospect

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Residents near 63rd and Prospect in Kansas City, Mo., got the conversation started Tuesday night on how to redevelop the area. The area's latest developer has bailed, and it cost the city millions to get the properties back.

More than sixty people came with ideas on how to revitalize the troubled area. The majority of people want to see more parks, owners rather than renters and a grocery store.

Before any redevelopment, the site has to be cleaned up from an asbestos contamination, which is at least a 10-month process.

Four years ago, the city thought they had a developer and a plan to build a shopping center at  63rd and Prospect. 

Four years later, the developer has bailed, there is no shopping center and the homes are gone.

Mr. C's Vac and Sew is the only business left and he is waiting on a new and fair deal from the city to buy his business.

"(It took) five to six years to get into a fair, decent agreement in '08, so who knows how long this one will be," said Cooper.

First-term City Council member Michael Brooks inherited the Prospect development disaster.

"A lot of mismanagement a lot of lawsuits, a lot of contracts that were not honored," said Brooks.

He plans to make this project his number one priority and have at least a groundbreaking before the end of his first term in 2014.

"I think this is one of the biggest blighted areas that we have.... (With) the history of all the bad deals, it's just time for us to do something positive and make that right," he said.

Another redevelopment meeting will be held Saturday at the Swope Parkway Health Center from 10 a.m. to noon.