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Proposal calls for development on site of deadly 2015 fire

Posted at 11:31 AM, Dec 06, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-06 21:36:01-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new development has been proposed at the northeast corner of Independence and Prospect avenues in Kansas City, Missouri.

That is the location where a building that burned down in October 2015, claiming the lives of two Kansas City firefighters, once stood.

The proposal by B+A Architecture would include a two-story building with an outdoor dining patio, retail space on the first floor and apartments on the second floor. Parking would be located in the back of the building.

Plans include keeping a memorial dedicated to the two firefighters memorial, honoring Larry Leggio and John Mesh, on the lot with a visiting space in front.

It's a plan the neighborhood is getting behind.

"We're very excited," Whitney Barnardo, acting president of the Pendleton Heighs Neighborhood Association, said. "I think it takes it from a sleeper community where people just come to live and sleep to a place where people come to work and play as well, and that's always a goal of a thriving neighborhood."

Those who live and work in the area also are tired of looking at the empty piece of land.

"As it being blank, it just reminds me of sadness," Angelia Bosques, a cashier at nearby Snyder's Supermarket, said. "It brings us back to a tragedy. Once they fill in the blank, then that past is gone and new life is brought into it."

A previous proposal by Midwest Associated Contractors in the summer of 2018 for a one-story, commercial-only lot were scrapped after neighbors complained.

This $2.2 million dollar proposal will go before the KC City Council on Jan. 7.