KC Light Rail

Tidy first-tier suburb Mission made big news this week by passing a Transportation Utility Fee that focuses local taxation on infrastructure impact instead of assessed value.

By assessing fees based on the amount of car trips generated by each parcel — and, hence, the wear and tear on local roads — Mission has fired the first, tangible warning shot that Kansas City's sprawling days may be numbered. While other cities fiddle with form-based codes, climate protection plans, and a lot of greenwashing, Mission's new taxation method is binding and very real.

Comparing a McDonald's (2,700 trips per day) and a single-family home of equal lot size (9.5 trips per day), the one with drive thru service pays much more. Even churches and schools will pay the fee.

The most interesting beneficiary of this new approach will be the Metcalf/Shawnee Mission Parkway bus rapid transit route, currently in planning stages. Mission's contribution will now be a stable $1.2 million per year, far more reliable than sales or property taxes (both of which are down everywhere, with "down" being "the new normal").

Connecting Kansas City's Country Club Plaza, existing (Main) and new (Troost) BRT routes, Metcalf BRT will be another thread that stitches together a functional, regional transit system one line at a time.

SmartMoves is actually playing out slowly and without much drama, instead of the typical big splash (or public vote) of a major transit proposal. Overland Park has yet to decide how they will fund their portion of the BRT service.

This move is not the penultimate step towards an urban growth boundary — which is what naysayers of smart growth fear most, yet unlikely to ever occur — but a very practical solution for an aging population and a shrinking tax base in a land-locked city.

Mission officials and residents (whose property tax bills will be lower, as a result) should be commended for their innovation and leadership.

The Star reports that Overland Park, Mission, and Johnson County Transit will host a public meeting from 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20, to discuss transit along Metcalf Avenue and Shawnee Mission Parkway.

Those two streets will eventually be served by something resembling "lite" Bus Rapid Transit, like KCATA's MAX on Main and (soon-to-be) Troost. The corridor recently got a boost as part of a $50 million TIGER grant, which will also benefit the State Avenue corridor in Kansas City, Kansas. All routes are part of MARC's SmartMoves Urban Corridors plan.

The JO has yet to ask for a dedicated funding mechanism, instead relying on the good graces of the Johnson County Commission to dole out whatever annual subsidy they see fit — although that amount has grown in recent years.

Coincidentally, US DOT is seeking a third round of TIGER funding for next year. Let's hope the metro creates more compelling applications that will encourage more elected officials in Kansas to make transit funding a real priority.

We recorded the above message for advocates with Dan Johnson-Weinberger, a lobbyist for the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, at their annual meeting over the weekend. Dan's message is basically to keep it local by talking to your local elected officials first (mayor, council, aldermen), then having them talk to their state and federal counterparts.

While Sens. Bond or Brownback may not take a personal call from you, they will take one from your mayor.

Feel free to pass the message on to others.

A perfect example of this groundswell is the recent success in Kansas. Bipartisan majorities supported a bill that enables (but does not fund) state-sponsored passenger rail service in the state… something that, until recently, was widely touted as forbidden by the state's constitution. Grassroots advocates sought resolutions of support from every city council along the proposed route, encouraging their legislators to act.

The Kansas Department of Transportation and Amtrak released a feasibility study today outlining costs and ridership potential for a new state-sponsored passenger rail route between Kansas City and Fort Worth.

Four alternatives were studied, daytime and nighttime, each with varying price tags and connections to existing Amtrak services. The clear winner is Alternative 3 — a daytime train that provides a direct, 12-hour trip between Fort Worth and Kansas City — but the Kansas Legislature must decide which option to advance for state and federal funding. Alternative 3 has the highest ridership (174,000) and highest capital cost ($479 million).

Any option terminating in KC would use Amtrak's existing facility at Union Station. Station stops include Lawrence, Topeka, Emporia, Wichita, and Oklahoma City.

The chosen option will need to win political and financial support from Oklahoma and Texas, which will also benefit from the additional service.

Annual operating costs for all four options range from $3.2 to $8 million. Missouri currently pays Amtrak $8 million to operate two round-trips between KC and St. Louis. Oklahoma and Texas share the $2 million cost of one daily round-trip between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth.

This week also marked the first official legislative approval for the effort: SB 409, authorizing KDOT to enter into passenger rail agreements, was approved by both chambers and is on it's way to Gov. Mark Parkinson for signature.

The Lawrence Journal-World has the best recap of today's press conference. History of this effort can be found at northflyer.org/.

UPDATE: We also have comments about the study from Northern Flyer Alliance President Deborah Fischer-Stout about the study.

We'll be covering the follow-up TIGER press conference in Mission tomorrow at 10 a.m. Follow us at http://twitter.com/kclightrail. Local officials from Johnson and Wyandotte counties — recipients of most of the transit portion of the TIGER grant — will hopefully provide more detail on when improvements will begin and whether there will be operational support for expanded bus service along the Metcalf and State corridors.

There's also a major press conference in Topeka on Thursday to unveil the Amtrak feasibility study for passenger rail service in Kansas. We'll be at KDOT headquarters covering that event as well.

• Kansas City's Hail Mary pass (Prime Buzz)
• ATA plans to cut some service from Wyandotte to Johnson counties (Kansas City Star)
• Audio ads will soon debut on buses (Kansas City Star)
• Upgrades coming for North Oak Trafficway (Kansas City Star)
• Sen. Bond secures $2 million for KCATA bus replacement (scroll to bottom of article) (RealEstateRama)
• UG holding special meeting Monday (Kansas City Kansan)
• Transportation Outlook 2040 Call for Projects (MARC)