North Loop Neighbors is a coalition of downtown residents seeking to remove the North Loop highway from downtown Kansas City and replace it with parks, public space, and infill development. You can sign up as a supporter by filling out our email subscription sign-up form. If you need to get in touch with us for more detailed inquiries, email us at hello at northloopneighbors dot com.
The North Loop is the northern section of the downtown freeway loop located in Kansas City, Missouri. This section of freeway is officially designated as I-35 and I-70.
No. Our proposal is to remove the North Loop and replace it with more of our neighborhoods. While there is an up-front cost associated with this work, we believe that it would remove highway maintenance and repair costs and generate tax revenue in the long term.
Yes! The Beyond the Loop study was a Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study aimed at studying the future of the downtown loop, closely related to the construction of the new Buck O'Neil Bridge. The PEL study was led by the Mid-America Regional Council with support of consultants. The removal of the north loop was studied and advanced as a reasonable alternative recommended for further study.
A PEL study sets up projects for environmental studies (NEPA) that develop a preferred alternative. An Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement would develop an official position on the removal of the North Loop. Extensive data analysis, community engagement, and engineering would be an important part of this effort. The process would involve looking at multiple alternatives (including doing nothing) and enable broad participation by agencies, stakeholders, and the general public.
In our view, this proposal is not in conflict with other Kansas City highway projects, including the South Loop Link deck park and efforts to address I-35 and US-71.
The downtown street grid would continue to carry local traffic from the highway system into downtown. However, there are many alternate routes with ample capacity for traffic that just passes through the north loop and on to other destinations. Our view is that investing in transit, walking, and biking are a better choice for downtown and the region. The north loop project would eliminate an outdated system with complicated access that creates dangerous and inefficient mixing in the highway loop. Further investments in traffic incident management and intelligent transportation systems to support more reliable traffic would help the traveling public make smarter decisions about their travel patterns to and through downtown. Traffic impacts were studied extensively as a part of the Beyond the Loop study and would be studied further as a part of future NEPA analysis.
