Kansas City officials learned today that the city will not be receiving a critical $25-million federal grant to help fund a proposed downtown streetcar project.
Mayor Sly James said the city would look for other funding sources, but losing the grant will delay the proposed plan to run streetcars from the City Market to Crown Center along Main Street. The project is estimated to cost $100 million.
Kansas City was one of 704 grant applicants requesting a total of $10.2 billion. The total grant awards were less than $500 million.
Also today, ballots were mailed to local voters for approval of a downtown taxing district for streetcars. Only 555 downtown residents registered to receive the ballots, which are due back to the city on July 31. If approved, property owners in the district could be assessed a tax to help fund streetcars.