KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Friday, Aug. 1, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the City of Kansas City $6 million to improve 47 vacant lots in the Washington-Wheatley neighborhood.
The funding includes a $4 million cleanup grant, one of only eight awarded nationwide, and a $2 million revolving loan fund grant to support environmental cleanup projects throughout the city.
"It's really great to just see progress," said Robin Humphrey, president of the Washington-Wheatley Neighborhood Association.
According to the City of Kansas City website, brownfields are any vacant or underused properties where reuse is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.
Contamination can include a former gas station, an office building with asbestos and lead paint, a closed steel plant, or a former dry cleaner and contribute to health risks, blight, economic decline, and environmental burdens, especially in communities of color.
"We are a neighborhood that is rich in culture, rich in history, but we are plagued with issues that a lot of urban core neighborhoods face, which are blight, crime, litter and a number of other issues," Humphrey explained. "We could have developers come into the neighborhood and actually have one less thing to worry about when building the community."
Kansas City 3rd District Councilwoman Melissa Patterson Hazley told KSHB 41 that this is an accomplishment that hasn't been done before.
"We’ll be able to remediate those and prepare them for development, which is one of the biggest impediments to reactivating vacant lots is the soil remediation that’s required," Patterson Hazley said. "We are going to remove that barrier, and this is a pilot, and we can make it a citywide approach."
In addition to cleaning up the 47 vacant lots in the Washington-Wheatley neighborhood, the money will also fund 16 public meetings.
The Revolving Loan Fund will be contributed to 11 cleanup projects, which are either completed or in progress across the city. The new funding is expected to help complete even more projects, including some at the Parade Park Homes redevelopment site and the Unity Campus.
Patterson Hazley went on to add that this new funding will fill broken promises to constituents across her district.
"We found a report from 1980, where they were talking about vacant lots in Washington-Wheatley and how they were going to reactivate them," she said. "I think this era of the city council is more motivated to look at the problem and to invest in it, and City staff are certainly interested in creative ways to get it going."
Mayor Quinton Lucas sees this as an opportunity to show his collaboration with the federal government and ensure taxpayer dollars are being distributed locally in Kansas City.
Since the EPA Brownfields Program began in 1995, it has helped create more than 220,500 jobs.
Mayor Lucas anticipates this revitalization effort will be a stepping stone to bringing more industry to Kansas City's east side.
"What we want to do is return the neighborhood to the way it was in the 1950s. Full population, corner stores at a lot of intersections in the intercity, and more than anything, a lot of neighborhood life, people walking around and having vibrance," Lucas added.
The project is set to begin immediately by administering contracts with construction partners, but work is expected to take off next year.
"I would definitely say it’s a burden that’s lifted," added Humphrey. "We understand it costs millions of dollars to do this environmental work, knowing that someone went out on a limb for us to make sure that it gets taken care of, so we can live in a home that’s clean, healthy, and safe. That’s everything."
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KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
