Kansas City Neighborhood Advisory Council: Board of Directors (June 20, 2026)

By Jordan Gloor, Kansas City Documenter

See more about this meeting at Documenters.org

Summary

• The council heard a presentation about questions on the Aug. 4 election ballot. These included two bond requests of $750 million each for water and sanitary sewer improvements and $100 million in bond funding for the Housing Trust Fund.
• The board made plans for the annual meeting of neighborhood associations on Sept. 12. Neighborhood leaders across the city are invited. The event is open to the public.
• The board will hold elections for the term starting Oct. 1. Several seats are open, but few candidates have applied.

Notes

• Presentations
  • Assistant City Manager Tammy Queen gave a presentation on the Aug. 4 ballot questions. Queen was accompanied by Dion Lewis, deputy director of Housing and Community Development.
    • Question 1 asks for $100 million in general obligation bonds to fund affordable housing.
      • This is a continuation of the Housing Trust Fund (HTF), which voters approved $50 million for in November 2022. The fund was established to address housing shortages for people who earn 60% or less of the area median income.
      • Queen said the HTF often fills funding gaps in housing developments that otherwise could not be completed. To date, 365 affordable units have been completed. These include units at Amethyst Place and Forest Hill Village.
    • Question 2 involves the issuance of bonds limited to $100 million to cover costs to renovate and maintain city facilities that were built before 1950. These include Municipal Auditorium and City Hall.
      • City Hall turns 90 years old this year, Queen said. “You can imagine what a building like that would be in terms of maintenance costs,” Queen said. “We deal with every single day something fun and new in the building, where you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s leaking now.’”
    • Queen said the bonds would replace ones that are expiring, resulting in no increase in taxes for voters.
    • Question 3 is a request to renew the Central City Economic Development 1/8-cent sales tax for another 10 years to fund economic development in the central city area: Ninth Street on the north, Gregory Boulevard on the south, The Paseo on the west and Indiana Avenue on the east. The sales tax generates about $13.5 million a year.
      • “Like the Housing Trust Fund, CCED often ends up just being a way to close a gap in a project,” Queen said.
      • The CCED contributed to projects including the Linwood Shopping Square, Neighborhoods United and Zhou B Arts.
    • Questions 4 and 5 are for water and sewer bonds of $750 million each. The water bonds would be used to rehabilitate, expand and improve the city’s drinking water system. The sewer bonds would be used to rehabilitate, expand and improve the city’s stormwater and sanitary sewer system. 
      • Queen said the city was requesting the bonds because they offer “the lowest cost of financing so that the city can meet its capital requirements for these two systems that are vast.”
      • The city can finance these projects in various ways, including revenue bonds, appropriation debt and state revolving fund loans. But the revenue bonds the ballot questions request are the most affordable and accessible options.
      • The Environmental Protection Agency mandates the city to make certain sewer upgrades because of a 2010 consent decree, Queen said. These revenue bonds would help with that.
      • At the end of the presentation, Queen took questions.
        • Stephanie Greene, 5th District board member, asked whether expansions to the sewer system affect homes on septic systems.
          • “It probably does not because those are often done through a special assessment to the property owner,” Queen said. “Now, they might expand the mains with the money that would come from the bond issue, so the mains then to actually connect would require a cost to the person who owns the home.” 
          • “In the middle of the city there are a great deal of families on septic,” Greene said.
  • Due to technical difficulties, some directors connected via Zoom were unable to ask questions about the HTF before Queen and Lewis concluded and left the meeting.
    • Denise Hart, 6th District board member, asked how many more affordable units would be built, when and where because of the ballot question, and what the income basis would be.
      • Drew Rogers, at-large board member, said that based on the ballot language, it appeared anything built with the money from these bonds would be built two to three years after the bonds’ approval.
      • Jane Brown, 1st District board member, said, “What affordable housing is depends on the project.”
      • After explaining how HTF initiatives are approved, Brown said that she thought the HTF had done a lot of good things for the city but that she was disappointed in the lack of applications from the Northland. “As with most things in the city, the majority of applications come from south of the river,” she said. “… Why is that? Well, I think that the Northland has historically not had the same connection that the south has had to City Hall. I hope that at some point that changes, at least as a Northlander.”
      • Olivia Meade, 4th District board member, said she thought “the Northland just doesn’t have as much organization as the Southland does.” Meade underscored a need to create neighborhood organizations in the Northland. “It’s really difficult to kind of create that from the ground up when you don’t even know where to start.”

• New Business
  • Vice Chair Erin Royals, at-large board member, was nominated to serve as interim chair, and Rogers as vice chair for the term’s remainder. The motions passed.
  • Plans were discussed for the board’s annual meeting, scheduled for Sept. 21 in the Truman Auditorium at the Plaza Library. There will be a tabling event for neighborhood organizations. Catering will be provided.
    • Rogers said, “In the past there’s been a very successful tabling effort from a variety of organizations, and it’s great for neighborhood leaders to get in touch with folks they maybe haven’t seen in some time.”
    • Neighborhood leaders interested in tabling can contact any board member. A planning board meeting for the August meeting and the annual meeting is scheduled for Aug. 6.
  • The upcoming board elections were discussed. The next term starts Oct. 1.
    • The board is recruiting four or five directors for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th districts. New board members do not necessarily need to be from those districts. A current at-large member could move to a district position to make room for a new at-large member.
    • “We really need applications,” Greene said. There may not be enough applicants to do interviews in August. Greene said she expected voting and presenting at the September meeting.
    • “If you are aware of any neighborhood leaders looking to do one more thing, this is the organization to do that,” Rogers said.
    • The link to apply to be a board member is on the city’s KCNAC webpage.

• Committees
  • The board returned to planning for the annual meeting. This included deciding who would contact organizations that tabled last year, including city planning, animal services and Historic Kansas City, about tabling again this year.
    • Board members aware of any other neighborhood organizations that make sense for the event are encouraged to reach out on their own.
  • The next board meeting is scheduled for Aug. 17 at Woodneath Library Center. The streetcar director has been contacted for a possible presentation.

Observations & Follow-Up Questions

• What direction will the council take in its next term given that this was the first board meeting with a quorum in months and applications are lacking for the next election?
• How will the distribution of HTF-funded projects change if Question 1 is approved? The question doubles the bond size, and council members noted a lack of applications coming from north of the river.
• How likely are voters to approve the two bonds totaling $1.5 billion for water and sewer system improvements?

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