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Northland Takes Off With the importance of transportation in general and Kansas City International Airport in particular, it was appropriate that the Kansas City Aviation Department hosted the second Northland Commissioners Economic Development Assembly April 29. Begun two years ago, the series drew a larger gathering for a wide-ranging and sometimes intense discussion of the Northland trends. Just as in the first session, Platte County Presiding Commissioner Betty Knight and Clay County Presiding Commissioner Carol McCaslin chaired the meeting. Ingram’s Executive Editor Jack Cashill served as moderator. Taking Care of Business Along with forecasts for the future, it was clear from the start the group also was concerned with maintaining Northland basics. Asked by Cashill about the area’s biggest challenge, the less-than-glamorous topic of maintaining infrastructure easily competed with glossier topics such as new retail hotspots or KCI business parks. “Our older areas are important,” Pete Hall said. “Without some attention there, we’ll never be able to continue our new growth.” Jim Hampton said a wide range of services often is overlooked and that keeping infrastructure in position to accommodate the growth is critical. “Roads, streets, schools, police and fire are all important,” he said. Mark VanLoh said that aspects of the 11,000-acre KCI involve such basic infrastructure. “We don’t have the basic infrastructure to get across what is now farmland,” he said. Rosemary Salerno and Tom McKenna both saw the challenge involved with coordination of the area’s separate communities. “Getting them all together is a challenge.” Others saw the issue as a marketing question—of positioning the Northland as central to the region’s growth. “Our biggest challenge is taking the Northland from the corner of the map to the center of the map,” Pete Fullerton said. But doing that requires both good leadership and a willing community. Several jurisdictions have experienced problems when residents felt they had been left out of the discussion about development or funding issues and frequently made their displeasure felt at the polls. “Our biggest challenge is keeping the pro-growth attitude not only among the leaders but among the citizens as we grow,” Jeff Samborski of NKC noted. “Congestion is an issue, especially with closing the Paseo Bridge; we need to make sure people want growth and will support it.”
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