Plans for new for Kansas City Royals ballpark at Crown Center have neighbors sharing their opinions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri, including Lee's Summit. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail.

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The Kansas City Royals and Populous, a local firm that is one of the world's top sports venue designers, unveiled new renderings of the planned downtown ballpark Thursday at Crown Center.

The stadium will seat 34,000 fans.

"Our new stadium will be unique in baseball," Royals owner John Sherman said. "It's a downtown ballpark and a neighborhood ballpark."

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The Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, a recognized landmark of the Longfellow neighborhood, is featured prominently in the new renderings. The ballpark site borders the Longfellow neighborhood.

Royals/Populous

Robb Traylor, the president of the Longfellow Community Association, said residents have started to be included in the conversation about the development.

"I think that they've really tried to bring a lot of a downtown urban core baseball stadium into those renderings," Traylor said.

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He's spoken with KSHB 41 News on several occasions and is a prominent voice in the neighborhood. He said he's grateful the team's leaders got more involved with the neighborhood, but still has a few things neighborhood residents want to see.

"We want to make sure that our concerns and some of the issues that we have are addressed," he told KSHB 41 reporter Braden Bates those concerns continue to be traffic, parking, noise, and security.

But they're happy the stadium will be built in the neighborhood's backyard.

Royals/Populous

"I think they brought a lot of Kansas City and the neighborhoods and the local flavor into it," Traylor said. "It is a pretty big thing that's going to be built in our backyards."

The Royals stadium fact sheet is says, "Parking garages and premium entries will be located primarily along the south and west sides of the ballpark, with potential surface parking south and west of the site."

Traylor raised concerns about whether they will keep fans from spilling into residential areas.

"I think at the end of the day we are all going to know that if somebody can park somewhere for free, they're probably going to jump onto that opportunity and do so," Traylor said.

He said he wants the neighborhood to go to a full permitted system so the residents can park outside of their home. That already is in place on the north side of the neighborhood by Hospital Hill.

"There's already things in place to kind of help with parking and making sure that our residents have parking when they come home from work or from their errands or anything, especially during games.

Other neighbors are less concerned. Madison Spence, who lives just a few blocks from the new Royals stadium site, said recent events at the National World War I Museum and Memorial were the test.

"If fan festival can handle 20-30,000 people with no parking conversation and Chappell Roan can pull the masses in with no conversational issues, I don't think parking is going to be an issue for anyone," Spence said.

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She's lived in the area for about four years and she hopes to stay in the neighborhood to raise her son.

"Being able to build my future and his future together here at this house is something I am so grateful to be able to say," said Spence.

Spence said she is looking forward to what the stadium will bring to the area.

"We're just looking forward to bringing them home and hoping it connects down to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and stadium and building up the rest of Kansas City's community," Spence said.

Traylor said he hopes the stadium and the surrounding community will find a way to coexist and benefit one another.

"I'm in hopes that we can all live harmoniously, so to speak. When all is said and done, I mean the stadium benefits us and we benefit the stadium and things like that," Traylor said.

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