In September 2017, Kittelson’s John Paul (JP) Weesner served as part of an eight-member technical advisory panel led by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to offer critical urban planning analysis and recommendations to the City of Kansas City for the future development and economic revitalization of its North Loop area and surrounding neighborhoods (Downtown, River Market, Columbus Park, and Crossroads Arts District).
The panel, chaired by Glenda Hood, former Florida secretary of state and former mayor of Orlando, included representatives from Trammell Crow Company, Forum Studio, and local agencies. JP Weesner, an urban planner and Director of Landscape Architecture at Kittelson, focused on the reconnection of Independence Avenue, an 1890s boulevard severed by later-built interstate highways. In “National experts: Redevelop Downtown’s North Loop to spur growth – just not yet,” an article by Rob Roberts on the panel’s efforts (Kansas City Business Journal, September 22, 2017), Hood states, “We’re trying to get Kansas City to think differently about itself, especially about how downtown development occurs and how you knit that development with all the surrounding areas.”