Carl Poke has spent more than two months hauling mud out of his basement after nearly every rainstorm, and he says it takes at least three hours each time just to pump it out. He and his neighbors in Kansas City’s Citadel neighborhood say runoff from the nearby 63rd and Prospect development has turned their basements into a recurring mess since the beginning of August, and they are demanding the city step in.
Poke and other residents have asked Kansas City officials for help resolving the flooding, according to KMBC 9 News. The development blamed for the runoff, known as the 63rd and Prospect master plan, was approved in 2021 as a revitalization project for the city’s east side, and it is led by Southpointe LLC, a partnership between UrbanAmerica and CJR Development Partners. Southpointe development manager Marvin Lyman told the station he was not aware of the flooding problem until Poke contacted him directly, though he said city leaders already knew about the issue by the time he raised it himself.
Heavy Rain Pushes an Already Troubled Site to the Brink
The flooding complaints followed a stretch of severe storms that hit the Kansas City metro in late September, with repeated downpours totaling one to three inches of rainfall and triggering regional flood watches, according to Hoodline. The National Weather Service had warned that consecutive storm rounds would saturate urban ground and overflow local drainage channels, conditions that set the stage for the mud now piling up in Citadel basements.
The 63rd and Prospect site, also known as SouthPointe at 63rd, has struggled with underground problems well before this fall’s storms. The Kansas City Council authorized $4.5 million in May 2025 to help Southpointe Development LLC deal with subsurface soil compaction issues and drastic elevation changes that had stalled site preparation, according to the same report. Lyman said at the time that the subsurface soil conditions proved far more costly to correct than initially projected before the pandemic, per the outlet’s reporting.
A $15 Million Resolution Stuck Behind Stadium Talk
Kansas City Council members Ryana Parks-Shaw and Darrell Curls introduced Resolution No. 260885 on September 23, directing the city manager to identify up to $15 million in city funds for the 63rd and Prospect development and negotiate cooperative funding agreements with Southpointe LLC for site preparation and infrastructure construction, according to the City of Kansas City. The resolution specifies that identified funds would be transferred to Southpointe LLC and a third-party disbursement agent with city oversight to execute pre-development and site preparation work…