Kansas City is set to take another hard look at the ongoing problem of vacant buildings and land across the city and coordinate steps to get empty properties back to use for housing, businesses or amenities.
The city’s finance committee advanced a proposal on Tuesday to launch a new “vacant land activation initiative.” If approved by the full City Council, officials across city departments and other organizations would work together to draw up ways, both short-term and long-term, to address the problem while getting various efforts on the same page.
Vacant land could be a property with nothing on it or one that is underused, such as an empty storefront or a house no one lives in. The city estimates there are more than 17,000 vacant parcels across KC, including about 3,500 properties owned by the city’s land bank and the city-controlled homesteading authority…