Still a wide gulf between Catholic Diocese, neighbors on student housing plan at 53rd and Troost

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An impasse remains between the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and a neighborhood group near where the former wants to build a large student housing development, at 53rd and Troost in Kansas City.

The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council earlier this year suggested that the diocese and concerned neighbors go into non-binding mediation with former Jackson County Circuit Court Judge John O’Malley to resolve the matter.

The diocese wants to build a student housing development at the former site of the St. Francis Xavier School, with no fewer than 220 units between University of Missouri-Kansas City and Rockhurst University. The project developer says anything less than 220 units is financially unviable and that the old school building is too far gone to be saved.

Neighbors, however, think something in the range of 67 units is more appropriate. They have the Kansas City Plan Commission on their side, which has now three times rejected the diocese’s plan. Critics of the diocese’s housing project believe it’s too dense, out of keeping with the nearby surroundings and does not follow the tenets of the Troost Corridor Plan.

O’Malley told the City Council that mediation resulted in nothing resembling a plan that both sides could agree upon. The City Council is expected to vote on the diocese’s original plan within the next two weeks.