The Neighborhood
The parcels proposed for rezoning are located on the block bounded by Troost Ave, Gillham Rd, 45th St, and Brush Creek Blvd. The entire block is part of the South Hyde Park Historic District, a designated district on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP #07001186).
This block presently contains diverse uses, including single and multi-family homes, a small apartment building, and commercial buildings.
A restored 1925 fire house sits near the middle of the Troost face of the block, and the vintage 1929 Auto World building is at the corner of Troost and Brush Creek Blvd. Outside of the KC Outlook parcels, with one exception the buildings on this block are historic, built between 1909 and 1929, and are identified as "Determined Historic Resource" by the city in the Midtown/Plaza Area Plan. The apartment building at 1000 Brush Creek Blvd. is the most recent addition to the block and was built in 1959.
The proposed project shares property lines to the west with historic single and multi-family homes on Gillham Rd. These homes are classic Kansas City residential architecture, ranging from one-story bungalows to two-and-a-half story Kansas City Shirtwaists. All are were built between 1909 and 1926.
These houses range from 15' to 30' tall, while also sitting on land several feet lower in elevation than the parcels on Troost.
The block immediately to the east is bounded by Troost, Forest, 45th St., and Brush Creek Blvd. The Troost-facing portion of that block includes The Wayne D. White Recovery Community Center, the Christian Fellowship Church, and CVS. Historic single-family and multi-family homes built between 1905 and 1935 occupy the southeast quadrant of this block along Forest and Brush Creek Blvd.
The larger neighborhood includes South Hyde Park and Manheim Park, with Ivanhoe neighborhood further east and Rockhill neighborhood further west.
It is notable that the tallest buildings in South Hyde Park or Manheim Park are the Auto World building, adjacent to the proposed project, and the Bancroft School Apartments on the 4300 block of Tracy Ave. Both of these buildings are three-stories and approximately 40' tall. The proposed KC Outlook buildings are one story and 10' taller than even the tallest buildings in this neighborhood, and have no precedent in this area.