If you enjoy a community that’s a mix of houses, businesses, and rural scenery, consider yourself lucky in Platte County.
Commercial development has proceeded along the I-29 corridor slower than what was expected when KCI was built a half century ago. As things were built, it was a project here and another there. The result is considerable variety in designs and the landscaping for offices, hotels, and other businesses. Compared to what I’ve seen along interstates near other big cities, our airport corridor looks fairly people friendly.
Bill Graham
Now, we may be in for something different, fast growth and acres upon acres of featureless giant boxes with token or no green landscaping. I hope not. But our demand for fast delivery to our doors of anything and everything that can be ordered online is driving the need for “distribution facilities,” also known as giant warehouses. So is the strategy of manufacturing and retail business to keep minimum inventory on hand and instead rely on trucks, trains, and airplanes to move product as needed, from warehouses.
In my driving vacation travels in recent years,I’ve noticed areas on the fringe of big cities that have acres and acres of featureless warehouse type structures. They are imposing. They don’t look people friendly. They are coldly industrial, without smokestacks but also without charm.
Now in Platte County, we have plans and dirt moving for the 3,300-acre KCI 29 Logistics Park south and east of Platte City on the east side of I-29. Logistics seems to be a substitute term for products moving through warehouses. Like a developer’s plans for the Tiffany Springs Logistics Park along Missouri 152 west of KCI. The immense dirt work on the north side of Missouri 92 east of Platte City is for the Platte International Commerce Center, for which an artist’s rendering posted on the Kansas City Business Journal website shows gigantic rectangular warehouses.
I don’t want central Platte County to turn into Warehouse City just because land is cheaper on the metro area’s edge and interstate highways are available, plus an airport. These projects are underway. But what comes after? More? How much more?
A 2022 headline from the New York Times says, “As Warehouses Multiply, Some Cities Say: Enough.” Or a headline from the Wall Street Journal, “Americans Are Pushing Back on the Warehouse Construction Boom.” Reasons for the pushback varies: increased truck traffic adding to air pollution, congested highways, and stress on highway pavement. Losing a sense of community and place. Ugly structures replacing a once scenic landscape.
We’ve yet to see Platte County, Kansas City, or the several towns surrounded by city of KC push back on any type of economic development. The biggest effort is in recruiting any and every development.
Warehouse development does have benefits. The tax base grows, although many large projects are given big state and local tax breaks. More jobs. Although the residential and retail growth that follows more jobs increases the cost burden for taxpayers to provide services for schools, roads, and law enforcement. When the bigtime developers, bankers, and lawyers push projects through the planning and zoning process, the challenges they pose for a community are not mentioned.
Growth is going to happen because of Platte County’s location and infrastructure. The goal should be a healthy balance in types of developments. Also, in this era of climate change, are elected officials and public servants pushing for growth with sustainable qualities? Do projects address air and water quality? Is a project going to have native plant landscaping that looks nice and benefits butterflies and songbirds? Does the architecture incorporate green design?
Some things you may require, but some of the best you can only ask for and hope a developer wants to make an investment in community welfare. Bottom line, it’s up to voters and taxpayers to ask these things of the people they elect to city, county, and statewide office. It’s also important to keep track of what’s going through planning and zoning processes and show up at hearings on such matters. We won’t avoid Warehouse City and get the best possible growth for people and the future unless the public consistently and persistently asks for it and cast their preference at the polls.
Bill Graham is a long-time commentator on Platte County and its history. He lives in the Platte City area and can be reached at editor@plattecountycitizen.com.