Viable Light Rail For The Viable Third

By Airick Leonard West The Kansas City Post For economic development, transit, safety and funding reasons, Kansas City should place lightrail along the Chouteau/Prospect Corridor. This is the corridor starting north of the river at Antioch Mall near Chouteau & I-35 and proceeding south along Prospect and eventually to Bannister. Economic Development In a time when economic development patterns in KCMO continue to sprawl in all directions, lightrail is a reasonable approach to organizing residential development and population density. In three similarly sized markets that have recently started or extended track-based transit systems (Portland, OR; Denver, CO; St Louis, MO), local officials have credited recent lightrail extensions for continuing to catalyze a resurgence in urban development and density. If we are strategic in our implementation, we can expect to see similar benefits here. The Chouteau/Prospect Corridor epitomizes corridors that are under-utilized and under-invested. The entire length of the corridor provides ample space for new development as well as a strong mix of neighborhood anchors on which to build. Required transit Kansas City is a long city north and south with many of its employment centers located near downtown. Evidence of Kansas City's elongated development pattern is that Troost and Prospect are the most traveled bus lines. It is somewhat likely that lightrail will eventually be located on the Main/Grand corridor. If that happens, it makes sense to have two north/south routes that take advantage of existing development as well as stimulate new development. For this reason, a Chouteau/Prospect Corridor alignment is more logical than a Troost alignment -- it would be unwise to have the two routes too close to each other. In addition to serving a strong workforce ridership, the Chouteau/Prospect Corridor has many significant anchor institutions either already in place or under development. These shopping centers, community centers, educational institutions and medical facilities are critical destinations for Kansas City families. Safety A recent commission on violent crime concluded that rising unemployment is a major factor in rising violent crime rates. Much of the violent crime in Kansas City occurs along its most under-developed, relatively jobless corridors. Bringing lightrail to the Chouteau/Prospect Corridor would spur population density which would eventually result in substantial increases in retail density/jobs and likely a corresponding reduction in violent crime. This direct link between track-based mass transit and increases in retail development/employment opportunities has been observed in each of the three comparison markets. Funding Strategy Denver self-funded its starter line and after leaving downtown, rather than running it to nearby commercial nodes, ran it to a nearby neighborhood node -- five-points. Their strategy worked and has spurred several extensions to the system and catalyzed economic growth along those extensions. Part of the wisdom of this strategy was that federal funding guidelines favor projects that are extensions of an existing system rather than startups. In other words, we should self-fund a starter line because an existing track-record makes it easier to attract federal funding. We could enjoy similar success if we self-fund the starter line within the next three years and put ourselves in a position to go after federal dollars to extend our system. Another major consideration is determining which routes federal transit dollars are more likely to support. Clearly, once federal transit money is part of the equation, we will always want to build extensions that are in federal grant-eligible areas. One of the ramifications of this is that very low density areas often will not qualify under federal guidelines. For this reason, it would be most advisable to self-fund a starter line along a highly desirably alignment that would potentially *not* qualify for federal funding since that alignment would otherwise never get built. Because of the low density of population and development along a few sections of the Chouteau/Prospect Corridor, federal funding is questionable. but because of the many other attractive characteristics of the Corridor, it would behoove Kansas City to build lightrail along this alignment. These correlated realities collectively suggest that our initial, self-funded route should occur along the Chouteau/Prospect Corridor. There are only two absolute requirements to pass a reasonable lightrail plan in Kansas City: 1) It must cross the river to address the increasing work commuter congestion of getting into downtown; and 2) It must serve Kansas City's existing transit users -- the bulk of which are currently coming from east of Prospect between Independence Ave and Brush Creek Blvd. Route Map & Further Information A map of the proposed alignment along the Chouteau/Prospect Corridor is available at www.airick.com/lightrail/map Recent data about bus ridership in KCMO is available at www.airick.com/lightrail/busdata Additional thoughts about the purpose of track-based transit is at www.airick.com/lightrail/purpose ViableThird.com will be hosting a public meeting concerning lightrail along the Chouteau/Prospect Corridor on Thursday, November 1 from 6pm-8pm at Pioneer College (18th & Prospect). All are invited.