The City of Merriam is taking the first steps to develop a new vision and master plan for the downtown area, starting with seeking out a professional firm to partner with.
Last week, City Administrator Chris Engel told the Merriam City Council about the city’s plans to seek a professional planning and design firm that can help build a downtown master plan — a guiding document to shape the future of downtown Merriam.
At the same time, the city is still deciding how to removed downtown Merriam — which runs along Turkey Creek — out of the floodplain.
The city has been trying to make a flood mitigation plan for downtown Merriam for years. While waiting for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to finish designing a solution to mitigate flooding, Merriam also sought a different opinion from a private engineering firm.
Early solutions from Kansas City, Missouri-based HNTB propose razing all the buildings in historic downtown to remove it from the floodplain. These potential solutions have drawn criticism from downtown business owners.
Still, city officials said they first want input and direction from the public on a downtown master plan to inform the city’s decision on flood mitigation solutions.
“We have told the Corps that it’s been many many years in the making, so we will take as much time as we need to have a good community conversation about what the future of downtown should be,” Engel told the city council last week.
City staff said they hope to partner with a planning and design firm by February 2026 to begin work on the downtown master plan.
What is a downtown master plan?
Similar to master plans for public art or parks and recreation, the city’s idea for a downtown master plan envisions a public process that results in a guiding document to shape downtown Merriam’s future.
City staff wants to issue a request for qualifications in order to see the interest and experience of potential partners for the master plan.
The drafted document staff presented on Nov. 10 calls for significant public engagement and stakeholder participation, such as a city-appointed steering committee and a statistically valid survey.
Additionally, the city envisions a plan that focuses on the following areas:
- Establishing an identity for downtown Merriam
- Attracting and retaining businesses for economic development
- Improving multi-modal accessibility, wayfinding and parking
- Visioning future redevelopment and land use
- Enhancing pedestrian safety, public infrastructure and branding
The city council signaled to city staff that the request for qualifications appears nearly ready to send out to solicit potential partners.
Councilmembers Staci Chivetta and Jacob Laha said they support a request for qualifications over a request for proposals because it offers more collaboration opposed to telling professional firms what the city wants in a master plan.
“It’s a once-in-a-multiple-generation opportunity,” Laha said.
Flood mitigation efforts lead city to downtown master plan
Engel told the city council that part of the reason for staff’s interest in a downtown master plan at this time is because of the yearslong flood mitigation efforts.
The city expects 65% of the Army Corps’ project design to be ready by January, Engel said.
Once the Army Corps shares that plan with the city, Engel said Merriam will be expected to decide at some point whether to move forward with the Corps project. The early solutions developed by HNTB are also still on the table for additional review and, ultimately, the city’s consideration
Regardless of which flood mitigation solution the city pursues, Engel said he believes the city needs to have a “robust public conversation” about the future of a downtown that is “free of the constraints of a floodplain.”
Watch the entire city council discussion in the embedded video below starting at 55:10.
Downtown business owner remains concerned
Some downtown business owners have expressed trepidation about the city’s plans to fix flooding issues, saying they fear the city is actually trying to push them out in favor of redeveloping the area.
Downtown business owner Anton Krutz, who is also the vice president of the Downtown Merriam Partnership, has been vocal about his concerns that city leaders want to use flood mitigation as an excuse to transform the downtown area’s commercial offerings. (Downtown Merriam Partnership LLC is a collective of businesses that works together for the area’s betterment and representation with the city.)
Krutz, who owns KC Strings and KC Fret Shop, told the Post in an email last week that he sees the downtown master plan as confirmation that the city is “using the necessary public good of flood mitigation as the engine” for private economic redevelopment. Earlier this year, Krutz said he is particularly concerned about the city’s potential use of eminent domain to seize their private properties.
Now, Krutz said he sees Laha’s comment about a “once-in-a-multiple-generation opportunity” as a clear sign of city leaders’ “true objective.”
“This makes it unequivocally clear that the city views their planning not as a response to a flooding problem but as a singular, sweeping interconnected opportunity for transformative, long-term private economic redevelopment in Downtown Merriam,” Krutz told the Post in an email on Wednesday.
Next steps:
- Engel told the city council on Nov. 10 that staff plans to bring the item back on Nov. 24 for consideration.
- If the city council approves it, then the city will put out a request for qualifications the following day.
- That means city staff could potentially start interviewing firms who respond to the request by early February, Engel said.
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