KANSAS CITY—Like many cities across the US, Kansas City has seen its urban core become a popular residential neighborhood. But the Paseo Gateway district adjacent to downtown has struggled for years with poverty and a lack of investment. All that may change thanks to a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods grant from the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development to the city and its public housing authority, which over the next five years will replace the Chouteau Courts public housing site with a mixed-income development.

Unlike the federal HOPE VI program, which began in 1993 and focused most of its attention on actual public housing sites, these grants encourage city planners to take a broader view, and aim to spark investment throughout the chosen neighborhoods, Nando Micale of Wallace Roberts & Todd, tells GlobeSt.com. WRT, a Philadelphia-based design firm of architects and planners, partnered with HAKC to lead the planning process for this grant application.

"It's a comprehensive neighborhood plan," he says, "and the idea is to rebuild the market in the area." Another difference between the HOPE VI efforts and this plan is that the former typically replaced only a portion of the public housing units lost. In this case, all of Chouteau Courts' 134 severely-distressed units will be replaced. The plan also calls for 115 market rate units and 111 affordable units. 

"One of the criticisms of the HOPE VI program was that it was not one-for-one replacement," Micale adds. However, many of these replacements, about half, will be outside the neighborhood. "The idea is we will deconcentrate poverty and build up opportunity for the residents."

And all replacement units will be mixed into the market-rate and affordable components. For example, in one planned 59-unit block of apartments, 15 will be public housing replacement units. The plans even call for some of the replacement units to be in the suburbs, as long as these are transit-oriented, amenity-rich areas that give residents access to jobs.

HUD's grant will also bring benefits to all of the roughly 5,000 people who currently call Paseo Gateway home. The neighborhood already has some tremendous existing assets such as the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. And the plan calls for improving pedestrian, bike and public transportation routes, upgrading parks, redesigning key intersections, re-purposing vacant lots, and renovating at-risk properties.

The planning process began back in 2011 when HUD awarded the HAKC a planning grant to develop a strategy. WRT then held many community meetings to present various proposals and incorporate resident feedback.

The neighborhood has been called the Ellis Island of Kansas City, and includes significant numbers of people with Somali ancestry, as well as South Asian and many other groups. And it was the proposal to transform vacant lots into community gardens that really resonated with a cross-section of residents, Micale says. "It was a breakthrough moment in the planning process; everyone began to appreciate that this was an opportunity to do something for the neighborhood and find common ground."

Northbrook, IL-based Brinshore Development LLC will be the master developer. Thirty-three cities applied for this year's Choice Neighborhood grants, and along with Kansas City, HUD chose Atlanta, Milwaukee, Memphis and Sacramento.