Demolition begins Monday morning for KCPD’s East Campus project

• KCPD
• A rendering of the East Campus development.

Three homes will be torn down this morning on Kansas City’s East Side in the first phase of the Kansas City Police Department’s East Campus project – the $57 million complex that will house the East Patrol Division and a new crime lab. KCTV Channel 5 reports that the Kaw Valley Wrecking Co. is scheduled to begin demolition today.

Back in August, The Pitch’s Matt Pearce talked to East Side residents about why this project hasn’t been universally supported. The city utilized its eminent domain powers to purchase 66 homes over a four-block radius (in the Wendell Phillips neighborhood between Prospect and Brooklyn avenues, between 26th and 27th streets) to make room for the campus.