INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.
The video above is from a previous report on Nov. 5.
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One day after I spoke with residents to highlight the ongoing closure of Bly Road near a controversial data center in the Little Blue Valley, the redirected street was opened to local traffic and emergency vehicles, according to residents.
Independence declined an on-camera interview last Thursday for my story with concerned Bly Road residents but said instead offered a statement that said, in part, “the City has been working with the developer to encourage progress and reopen the roadway as soon as possible.”
I received a video from city council member Cody Atkinson on Friday, which showed him driving on the newly opened stretch of Bly Road south of a neighborhood that vehemently fought against the data center development and has sued the city over the project.
When asked if the road had been opened, Atkinson said the city would send a press release. Independence posted information announcing that Bly Road had reopened to local traffic later Friday.
“Local access means drivers may use Bly Road only if their destination is located along the roadway,” the city’s release said. “Through traffic is not permitted at this time.”
But controversy remains even with the road’s reopening, according to residents, who noted that NorthPoint Development, which sold the property to Nebius and is overseeing the private construction of the redirected Bly Road, added a new construction delivery site off the new stretch of road.
Despite being unable to access the site from the north until Friday, trucks have regularly come south down Bly Road and, with access restored, neighbors fear truck traffic will only increase.
“There's an entrance into the job site, so this has just become another thoroughfare for a lot of the trucks that have already been misguided in coming down this way,” Bly Road resident Daniel Moorehead said.
The Independence City Council considered a resolution at a Study Session on Monday, which would direct the city manager’s office “to review and take appropriate administrative action to address the current truck traffic situation on Bly Road.”
Section 18.20.008 of Independence City Code outlines the city’s authority related to truck routes, so Councilwoman Jennie Vaught questioned why such a resolution was necessary.
“It’s more a matter of this being a priority of the council and directing staff to shift,” deputy city manager Lisa Reynolds said. “We have one traffic engineer and several traffic-control studies, lots of requests for traffic calming throughout the city and things like that. It would redirect that person to this investigation and away from those things.”
Atkinson expressed skepticism that Bly Road should rank that high among Independence’s priorities and listed a series of other issues in the city.
“I just don’t know where this sits,” he said. “I’m fine moving this to the agenda, trying to get a little bit more information and see what we can do and work on trying to reduce truck traffic. I just don’t know that, given all of the work that we have to do as a city.”
Atkinson pivoted to saying it wasn’t part of the city’s strategic plan, “so I worry about setting a precedent about really skipping the line in a lot of ways. So, I’m just going to need a little more convincing going forward.”
Reynolds said the city “doesn’t typically get involved with these private developments and the truck traffic related to them.”
Carson Buchanan, a deacon at the church on Bly Road, relayed some of the issues that truck traffic already has caused and concerns about continued truck traffic leading to further deterioration of the road.
Moorehead, who spoke with me last week, also spoke in favor of limiting truck traffic on Bly Road on behalf of the Independence GUARD Alliance at the Study Session.
“Without an ordinance or penalty, we will remain a main route for a construction site over the next six years,” he said. “We are exhausted by how much our area’s peace has been disrupted.”
Cindy Gamble, another Bly Road resident, noted that truck traffic has actually increased in recent days since the new Bly Road opened.
The council unanimously voted 6-0 to move the resolution to the Nov. 16 agenda, when it’s expected to receive a first reading.
Bly Road, which dead-ends to the north at Bundschu Road with a steep hill that can become impassable in severe weather, was closed in the area of the Nebius hyperscale AI data factory development, which is located east of Little Blue Parkway and north of Missouri 78, on April 1.
The road, which used to bisect the 400-acre site where the data center is being built, was redirected to stay north of the property and empty at a new stoplight along Little Blue Parkway.
Residents said they were initially told the private construction project, which is being overseen by NorthPoint Development with Superior Bowen serving as lead contractor, would be completed in August.
I asked the city via email if it was aware of a revised timeline for the project, since it was apparently delayed by three months, but Independence didn’t address that question in its statement.
One day later, the city apparently had received clarity, acknowledging that work on Bly Road remained, “including traffic signals, sidewalks, pavement markings and signage. Based on the developer's latest construction schedule, the roadway is anticipated to reopen to all traffic in early December.”
Neither NorthPoint nor Super Bowen responded to multiple requests for comment about the project.
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