Parking complaints are stalling construction on a $95 million apartment complex in River Market

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A $95 million apartment complex project in the heart of the River Market is stalling construction due to parking complaints.

The proposed City Harvest development will have 300 residential units – 15% of those for affordable housing. The project doesn’t have FAA approval regarding the height yet either and people are voicing their opinions to city leaders about it all.

Several people shared their testimony at the Kansas City, Missouri’s Neighborhood and Development Committee meeting on March 8 calling out parking mostly. Back in October, some residents and River Market attendees said they approved of the project itself to bring more life to the city, but parking is the issue.

Port KC’s Joe Perry expected a final designation from the FAA in early December and construction starting up around this time in 2023, but they are in a holding pattern with what the city wants to do for the affordable housing and parking aspects.

They said they are in favor of the complex, and that won’t change, but they have to wait for committees and the city’s final decisions.

The City Council voted in favor in 2021, but the City Plan Commission denied the motion for a recommendation. Port KC said the developers will talk more about the development strategies at this week’s meeting.

Resident and Owner of Hyper KC in the River Market David Lindahl shared his testimony. He said, “We the people own City Market, we own that parking lot. I hope all of the original RFP (request for proposal) terms regarding parking for City Market as well as parking for the people who will be moving into the neighborhood in City Harvest, all of those terms for parking in that original rfp need to be met and not altered in any way.”

This project will feature the 13-story building with 307 parking spaces including street and public parking, as of right now.

The city’s public works team put together an analysis and shows around 3,000 total parking spaces in the River Market with around 1,300 being public available off-street spaces. Business owners want to make sure all of those – even more if they could – are accessible for all.

Tony Miller with Troppito Miller Griffin, LLC said, “To take away all of these surface parking lots that are not just being in this project, but we know that are dominos that will fall, I don’t know what we’re going to do. People can’t get down here, people can’t do business and although it’d be nice to live in a utopia where nobody has to have a car, that’s not where we’re at right now.”

The spokesperson with Flaherty and Collins said they’ve held 11 stakeholder meetings including 5 public meetings with neighborhood groups to try and meet in the middle. A solution to this is the streetcar access just south of the bridge on Main Street and 7th where payable parking lots are.

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