Plans to build a light rail line though Historic Northeast came to an abrupt end last week.
A light rail route through Northeast along Independence Avenue had been suggested and researched by members of the Citizens Light Rail Task Force but later dismissed as a majority of the group seemed to favor adding an east-west route down Linwood Boulevard instead.
“We made a good run at it,” said Will Royster, Northeast’s representative to the task force.
Forced by a vote of the people in November 2006, city officials started reviewing options for building a light rail system in Kansas City. Mayor Mark Funkhouser, along with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, appointed residents and community activists from around the city to the task force to determine where specific tracks and light rail stations should be built.
Royster was appointed to represent Northeast and lobbied hard to have one of the routes built down Independence Avenue, which has consistently had the largest number of bus riders in the metropolitan area.
As the deliberations began, task force members knew the main light rail starter line would consist of a north-south route that would travel from possibly Kansas City, North, to as far south as the Plaza or Brookside neighborhoods.
While some details, such as exact streets the north-south route will use, are still being discussed, the larger debate among task force members centered on what east-west corridor should be built for the in the starter plan.
Initially, three routes had been proposed by managers from the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority. The closest east-west route to Northeast would have traveled along 18th Street and possible connected to the main line at Grand Boulevard. Other routes were also considered along major east-west thoroughfares farther south.
But Royster said the final decision came down to the fact that neighborhood’s along Linwood Boulevard had a higher density in the area being studied by the KCATA.
Although an Independence Avenue light rail route had entered the discussion fairly late in the game, some are still disappointed light rail won’t be coming to Historic Northeast in the initial phase of the project.
“At one point we even had as part of our community center project plans to have a light rail line nearby,” said Nancy Kwilas, Old Northeast Inc. director. “Well, with some of the other plans we have in the works however, maybe they will be begging us in the future to bring it here.”
