When Kansas City officials moved Tuesday to fast-track a modular jail ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the headline item was money: nearly $4 million more to address newly identified design, utility and site placement needs.
But also included in the discussion was a signal — not the first — that City Hall may be inching toward a broader rethinking of the building and energy standards it adopted just a few years ago.
To meet the World Cup deadline, the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee recommended waiving the city’s long-standing requirement that new public buildings meet the LEED Gold environmental standard. Mayor Quinton Lucas went further, suggesting the requirement should not apply at all to facilities funded by the city’s public safety sales tax…