Council Adopts New Development Code
Yesterday the KCMO City Council finally approved a complete overhaul of the city’s outdated planning/zoning/development regulations. The new development code is a huge step towards more compact, sustainable, and multi-modal development.
Some highlights…
- Pedestrian Zones: Ensures walkable streetscapes that are safe and inviting for pedestrians.
- Reduced Parking Requirements: Businesses have to provide less parking - facilitating redevelopment of older areas, paving less green space in new developments, and encourage more transit usage.
- Bicycle Parking: new businesses and multi-family housing required to provide bicycle parking for visitors and customers, as well as enhanced bike parking for residents and employees.
- Traffic Impact: developers must now study the impact on bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit users when their projects generate additional automobile traffic.
Read more about the development code…
The new code will start being phased in over six months and be fulling enforced in one year. Advocates spent many hours negotiating with city staff and private developers, and many of you testified at public hearings or wrote letters to city officials. All of that work paid off with a much better end result.
