Looks like the Northland might be getting yet another retail development.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... Journal%29

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... f-for.html

If the Northland can support another million sq feet of retail, then it had better be at the 169/Barry area (around metro north mall).

If the city tiffs out this greenspace for another giant retail development, it will only kick the blight occurring at Metro North into even higher gear. It will also make it nearly impossible to ever redevelop metro north because there will be no room left for additional retail in the Northland. The city will essentially subsidize a brand new development at the expense of an aging area of the northland, creating excessive urban blight in a suburban area. The retail blight will eventually spread into the surrounding neighborhoods.

In order for this new area to be considered for a TIF, it must be declared "blightened". How do you declare an undeveloped plot of land near a fast growing suburban area blightened? You say the platting is out of date "obsolete platting and “other blighting conditions” Read the article. It's beyond ridiculous.

I am all for using tif to redevelop metro north mall into a mixed use development or something, but you can't do both (greenfield and brownfield tifs).

Say no to this development KCMO. If the developers want to build this, they can do it on their own. If they want to use a TIF, tell them to look at Metro North, Antioch Center, North Oak Trafficway etc.

Metro North and the shopping areas around it (some of which are tifs themselves) are failing. You are talking about 2-3 million sq ft of retail space that could go completely vacant if this new development happens. Can you say Bannister Mall? The area around Metro North has very good demographics so to destroy that and create middle class flight by letting all the commercial property deteriorate would be a dissaster for all of the northland.

This crap is out of control in KC and its suburbs.

Gotta love TIF:

Ummm......"inadequate street layout"? Yes, it is farmland. "obsolete platting"? Yes, because it has never been platted.

It seems like there are extremely low standards for blight. I think it was Summit Fair maybe, but I remember that one place getting TIF money recently was just like this. It was completely undeveloped, but they found a few pieces of trash and "evidence of partying" or something equally dumb like that, and it was enough to call the area "blighted".

Metro North = blighted. Unused farmland? No.

Also, Towne Center?!

Besides the stupid e at the end of the name, there's already a "Town Center" in KC... and many other cities.

I'm opposed to this project getting TIF as well. If they want to build it with their own money, fine. If the County wants to kick in development money, that's their choice. But no City support.

In the Northland, at this point, TIF should only be used in situations like Metro North redevelopment, or Antioch Center. It shouldn't be used for greenfield development.

The definition of blight in this case is just ridiculous.

It gets counter-productive when so many older neighborhoods in the City don't even have a decent grocery store nearby. TIF should be used for things like luring a grocery store to these neighborhoods--like the Aldi on Prospect, or perhaps a building something that brings jobs back to the central and east side neighborhoods, where they are needed.

This type of TIF support only encourages people to move further out from the core to far-flung neighborhoods that should be years away from being developed to begin with--in parts of the Metro that KCMO shouldn't have added on.

Agree 10000000000%. It's a travesty.

The TIF legislation was written by lawyers, for lawyers. The legal definition of blight has nothing to do with what most common folks consider blight. Furthermore, if a proposed TIF area is not actually blighted by the definition written in the ordinance, it may meet TIF criteria as a "conservation area", which is an older area where the potential for future blight exists. So, you may wonder, does there exist an area in this world where there is not the potential for future blight? Blight studies are done by companies who are payed to prove there is blight and you better believe they will find it, if needed.

For quite some time now, the city has been ignoring the Antioch and Metro North area in favor of Zona Rosa and Tiffany Springs areas when it comes to TIFs. It's like the city think investing is newer areas is better than redeveloping older areas. It's sad.

Politicians also have a hand in this matter. Hand-in-hand they have allowed blight to be property that is underutilized, or in other words property that can bring in more tax dollars if something new is built.

One problem is that if KCMO does say no to this development, they might just cross I-35 and do a tif project in Liberty instead. This is where regional cooperation needs to come into play.

This is KC, dude.