Council Dude Dan Fowler Wants Kansas City To Buy Busted Bridge

Today we are BLESSED to have one of the smartest people we know share insight into a BEHIND THE SCENES KANSAS CITY DEAL that threatens to burden the local budget. 

We won't stand in the way of this AMAZING writing from one of our our all-time best readers.

Check-it . . .

Fowler's Follies

Like most Northlander do gooder types, at the end of his 8 year term, the only thing Dan Fowler has given a damn about is taking care of his buddies and their clients.  The City has already dumped over $20M in road and interchange improvements using TIF money from everyone building a bunch of new roads near 152 and Platte Purchase.  A deal giving Sporting KC nearly $40M to build a sports complex for rich parents can avoid having to go to Swope Park was also done last year to improve the value of the land at the Platte Purchase interchange.  That's not enough for Councilman Dan.

If all of that money spent building new things while the East Side of Kansas City continues to fall apart wasn't enough to help Dan's lawyer and developer friends, he sponsored an ordinance obligating Kansas City to take ownership of a freeway interchange bridge and anchor the future replacement costs onto Kansas City residents so Johnson County developers can make tons of money.

This is all because unlike the City Council and Councilman Dan, MoDOT won't bend over for developers and their lawyers and screw up traffic in the interchange with a bone headed plan.

Ordinance and documents: 

https://clerk.kcmo.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5960790&GUID=4EA067ED-8070-44A3-9496-0AA767B3A5D6&Options=&Search=

The ordinance memo even flat out states the reason why:

The Twin Creeks commercial development proposed for the corner of Tiffany Spring and Platte Purchase requires an intersection improvement and permitted driveway on a section of roadway currently under the jurisdiction of MoDOT. 

MoDOT will not allow a full-access driveway due to traffic concerns regarding the newly constructed diverging diamond interchanges (DDI) at Rt. 152. The only path for the developer to obtain driveway access is for KCMO to obtain jurisdiction of N. Platte Purchase from approximately 350-ft south of Tiffany Springs to NW 88th Street.

According to the presentation about the project, Kansas City will take off MoDOT's hands: about 2,000 feet of roadway Bridge over Route 152
Two new signalized DDI intersections
New Sidewalks on both sides
New Trail under N. Platte Purchase
Two new overhead sign structures

No one thought this ordinance was going anywhere, but the City Council that talks about sprawl, deferred maintenance, and managing assets is going to rubber stamp another awful idea from Councilman Dan without any hesitation.

Kansas City has hundreds of miles of streets falling apart and hundreds of bridges it cannot afford maintain so why did the City Council approve taking another bridge and a bunch of traffic signals off of MoDOT's hands?

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Developing . . .