KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, leaders designated nearly 350 acres in the Marlborough neighborhood as blighted as part of a community coalition and urban renewal plan.
On Thursday, the Kansas City Council approved the plan, which encompasses 348 acres generally bound by East 77th Street on the north, Prospect Avenue on the east, East 85th Street on the south, and the rear property lines of properties on the west side of Troost Avenue on the west. The entire area covers 1.236 parcels.
According to city documents, 28% of the parcels are vacant, and there were 478 open 311 cases at the time of the city's study of the area. Incidents of violent crime were 2.79 times more prevalent compared with the city at large.
The goal of the plan is to provide incentives for homeowners to invest in properties and to do something about the numerous problem properties in the neighborhood.
"Historically, urban renewal meant moving people of color and poor people out of the neighborhood, and we decided we wanted redevelopment without displacement,” Rodger Kube with the Marlborough Community Coalition told 41 Action News.
In the plan, there’s also an incentive for homeowners to improve their residences: If a homeowner invests $5,000 to fix up their house, they will be able to freeze their county taxes for 10 years.
"If big developers can take advantage of the systems that are in place for them, we thought we ought to be able to as well,” Kube said.
While housing is the first step, the next focus will be on transforming the neighborhood’s center point, where there are currently several empty buildings.
"We can rebuild downtown Marlborough into what it was, once upon a time, as a thriving community. That’s our hope as well,” Kube said.
It’s that grassroots effort that those involved are hoping will spark a change in this neighborhood.
"A kind of place where people do want to live, where they want to thrive, where they really want to raise their children,” Kube said.
It’s a change neighborhood residents like Shiloh Newsom are looking forward to seeing.
"We need our neighborhoods to be better," Newsom said.
The official blight designation goes into effect 10 days from its approval by the council on Thursday.
