Nov

29

Mission moves towards livability through traffic calming

November 29, 2007 |

The small suburb of Mission, KS took a big step towards making itself more livable last night when the City Council voted to take back space from cars and give it to pedestrians.  The city plans to narrow Johnson Drive from four to three lanes between Roeland Drive and Nall Avenue. The reclaimed space will be used for wider sidewalks, benches, and landscaping.  It’s a very short segment, but the city is already studying the next segment between Nall and Lamar Avenues.

Mission already has a popular “Main Street” type of atmosphere along Johnson Drive, and this traffic calming project should enhance that feeling.   This is only the latest step in a process that is transforming Mission from a run of the mill tract house suburb into a progressive inner-ring semi-urban community.  The old shopping mall adjacent to the traffic calming project has been demolished and is being replaced with an ambitious mixed-use project called The Gateway.

For those freaked out about the idea of taking away space from cars, keep in mind that Johnson Drive is parallel to the traffic sewer known as Shawnee Mission “Parkway” - so there is still a place for the cars to go.


Comments

7 Comments so far

  1. Tim on November 29, 2007 7:59 am

    I’m glad this is happening. I spent a year on the KCATA advisory board, and Mission was the only Kansas suburb that expressed a lot of interest in improving public transportation. Let’s hope this is the first step in that direction. Everything boils down to funding, however.

  2. Craig on November 29, 2007 2:25 pm

    Excellent post, and a glimmer of hope for progressive planning in the Metro.

  3. DaveKCMO on November 29, 2007 6:48 pm

    hooray for mission! let’s hope roeland park follows suit. the interior ‘burbs cannot survive as auto-gutters.

  4. Sarah on November 30, 2007 9:34 am

    Kudos to the Mission City Council. This plan will help keep Mission home values strong and keep their town a desirable place to live in the metro. I live in KCMO, but as a Realtor I will definitely keep supporting and promoting Mission to clients.

  5. New Plans for Johnson Drive in Mission on November 30, 2007 9:56 am

    [...] you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!I read an exciting post today on BlogKC.com about the City Council’s plan in Mission, Kansas to turn Johnson Drive into more of a [...]

  6. ScooterJ on December 1, 2007 4:28 pm

    Missionites who are opposed to the plan should look to the example set by North Kansas City. Armbour could have been a highway through downtown NKC, instead they made it 1 lane in each direction, gave it wide sidewalks, and banned trucks. Their downtown district is thriving!

  7. Tim on December 3, 2007 10:00 pm

    Narrower streets will cause slower driving speeds and increased pedestrian traffic, both of which will help businesses. You miss a lot by driving fast. People will notice businesses they never knew were there.

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