Several neighborhood leaders in northeast Kansas City are concerned after learning the plans for a group of century-old apartment buildings.
The Colonial Court apartments, a group of five 6-plex buildings on Maple were recently bought by the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. The university told 41 Action News the apartments were vacant before they were purchased and that the plan is to turn the lot into parking, green space and a new academic building.
“Those buildings are in a very poor state of disrepair,” said Elizabeth Alex, spokesperson for the university. “It really would not be feasible to renovate them for any purpose."
Some in the area would like to see the buildings saved for student housing.
"Nothing you could replace these with would be anything as great as what's here right now,” said Michael Stringer, Scarritt Neighborhood Association member.
But some are still optimistic.
Whitney Barnardo, who is is part of the Pendelton Heights Neighborhood Association (where Colonial Court is located) said they’ve been in talks with the university.
"We definitely have strong opinions about reckless demolition but that's not what KCU's proposing,” said Barnardo. "Luckily they have a lot of our same common goals to make this an even better place to live, work, study, play, all of those things."
And some compromise may be there. The university told 41 Action they’re working on a plan towards some sort of historical preservation.
“I can't give you the details on that yet because it's a lot to work out but we feel we're working closely with and moving forward with the local neighborhood,” said Alex.
The case will be heard by the city’s Planning Commission on January 17.
----
Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com
