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Council endorses $19M First Street West BUILD grant resubmission; residents and businesses raise design concerns
Summary
Independence City Council authorized staff to submit a BUILD grant application for the First Street West corridor (project ~ $19M) and approved a consultant amendment; councilmembers raised concerns about trail/sidewalk width, business impacts and grant scoring implications.
The Independence City Council voted to endorse submission of a federal BUILD grant application to rebuild First Street West, a corridor project whose overall cost the city pegged at about $19 million. Council also approved Amendment No. 1 to the Ritland & Cooper contract to support continued design/grant tasks.
City staff told council the project would use $1.3 million in Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) funds as part of the local match and that the city’s projected outlay would be roughly $700,000–$800,000 if the federal award is successful. Staff emphasized BUILD program scoring favors projects that include active-transportation elements such as an 8-foot-wide trail and 5-foot sidewalks; removing those elements could reduce the city’s competitive score.
Several council members and business representatives expressed concern that an 8-foot trail and 5-foot sidewalk schematic might not fit in some business frontages and could require further design work to avoid taking private property. City staff said concept plans had been shared with business owners and that final alignment and design details would be resolved in design phases if the grant is awarded.
The council discussed flexibility in the application language; staff noted the application is presently general and concept-based and that details would be refined if the city is successful. Council approved endorsing the grant submission by roll call (unanimous) and approved the professional-services amendment to Ritland & Cooper to support the application process and design refinements.
Council members said they expect more detailed design and outreach after notification of any federal award, and some said they will continue constituent outreach about trail/sidewalk impacts.
