The Hyde Park Power & Light District

By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Gatekeepers. In sales, that term is used to describe the person(s) who wields enough power to make or break a deal. A gatekeeper could be someone that signs the checks and has the ultimate decision making power all the way down to the receptionist who may or may not pass along the message that you called. Find the gatekeepers, address their concerns, pay them the proper respect and the sale is yours. Skip anyone in the chain and you'll find yourself wondering how you managed to blow the deal. The Hyde Park neighborhood is finding out what it's like when there are no gatekeepers in City Hall. Kansas City Power & Light is planning on building a substation at 32nd Terrace & Troost. Not just a transformer and a few lines, the plans show an entire complex with multiple high voltage lines scattering out to feed the growing electricity demands of midtown. The map shows an entire city block consumed with a monolithic structure. The rendering, while cleverly lightening and blurring the power lines and giant metal poles, shows a stark wall running the length of the exterior. One more structure turning its back on the street. One more industrial use building further dooming Troost to be a high speed commuter corridor rather than the pleasant, mixed-used avenue it was originally intended to be. This substation is urban planning (or the lack thereof) at its worst. I understand that as the population begins to return to the urban core that power usage is growing. I appreciate that our aging electrical grid will not be able to keep up with the rapidly surging power demands of a growing populous. What I don't understand is KCP&L's short-sighted strategic planning in continuing to distribute power in the same way it's been done for a hundred years. To use an old business term from the 90's, "the paradigm is shifting." Large centralized coal burning power plants are giving way to smaller, more efficient, regionalized power sources that are cleaner, more fuel efficient and don't require the giant overhead high-voltage power lines. Most of all I'm disappointed with the cavalier attitude of our public utility that Troost and Hyde Park are worthy of being dumped on. Granted, that has been the case for the last 20-30 years, but that doesn't make it right. Even more disturbing is the lack of leadership from City Hall in protecting one of our city's most historic and vibrant neighborhoods. Where are the gatekeepers? In any council district there should not be brick put upon brick without first approaching the city councilperson. It should be standard operating procedure that before the permits are applied for, before the letters of intent are drafted, the financing put into place, and the final plans drawn and stamped the community's leadership must be consulted. Hopefully it's not too late for Hyde Park. Neighborhood leaders are working the phones trying to get their concerns heard. It shouldn't have come to this. But now that it has, let's take notice and work to assure it doesn't happen again. Update #1: Toellner Tells it has a very good post about this same subject. Check it out here. Update #2: From the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association website: Important Meeting with KCP&L—July 9th Please plan to attend HPNA’s meeting with KCP&L regarding the proposed Hyde Park Electrical Substation at 32nd Ter-33rd & Troost and high–voltage power lines along Troost from 48th Street to 27th Street. July 9, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at Central Presbyterian, 3501 Campbell. Update #3: Nancy Lewis of Fox4 News (as I predicted) aired a story reporting that KCP&L has relented on their self-imposed timetable and will now meet with neighborhood leaders to discuss alternatives. So for now it looks like the crisis has been averted. Thanks to all the readers and thank you KCP&L for exercising some diplomacy.