The Columbus Park Neighborhood Workbook serves as a community-driven Action Plan designed to uplift community assets and address long-standing challenges in a historic neighborhood adjacent to Downtown Kansas City. As property values and rental cost burdens rise, Columbus Park faces growing development pressures and a heightened risk of resident displacement. Because the neighborhood’s last comprehensive plan was adopted in 1999, key issues surrounding traffic, infrastructure, public safety, and funding have persisted for nearly three decades. With grassroots funding by the neighborhood through Kansas City’s Neighborhood Empowerment Grant, Columbus Park partnered with Hoxie Collective to create an actionable, resident-led strategy to improve quality of life, strengthen neighborhood identity, and build long-term stability.
 
With a modest scope and limited funding, this project adopted a unique "train-the-trainer" engagement process to build productive, neighborhood collaborations with local government departments, the Port Authority, Community Improvement Districts, and peer neighborhoods. A volunteer Planning Task Force composed of residents and business owners created a dialogue agreement to ground all interactions in mutual trust and respect. Over a multi-phase planning process spanning data discovery, community surveys, and walking tours with elected officials, the task force strategically designed each meeting around specific invited guests (such as KCMO Public Works, Planning divisions, and public safety leaders). This approach built working relationships with city staff and empowered residents to co-create and prioritize solutions based on feasibility and community impact.
 
The plan’s recommendations are organized across four core pillars: Traffic Calming and Infrastructure, Neighborhood Safety and Security, Anti-Displacement, and Pathways to Community Revenue. Implementation follows a phased roadmap, with immediate next steps focusing infrastructure grant applications for traffic calming interventions and safety upgrades at Columbus Square Park. To protect existing residents, the plan outlines anti-displacement tools like Community Land Trusts and targeted code enforcement. Columbus Park is collaborating with Pendleton Heights neighborhood, “next door,”  on these strategies. Finally, to secure sustainable funding for ongoing stewardship, Columbus Park is actively building a strategic relationship with Port KC to evaluate the optimal structure for a future  Improvement District , while piloting smaller event-driven community revenue initiatives in the near term.