The Kansas City mayor, city manager and members of the city council on Tuesday put their heads together to finalize the request for proposals to build a new, single-terminal Kansas City International Airport.
Interested firms will now have until August 10 to submit proposals — including all design and financing details. Councilman Quinton Lucas says he feels confident this plan is legally sound.
“It’s one that kind of cures any process concerns we had before, and I’m proud of what we’ve come up with for today,” Lucas says.
Under the revised request for proposals, bidders will have until July 27 to submit qualifications and designs and another 15 days to submit financing details.
Lucas says that once the council reviews the proposals, they’ll decide whether to put the issue on the November ballot.
Prior to Tuesday, Lucas has been critical of the city's process regarding a new airport.
On May 12, Kansas City Mayor Sly James announced local engineering firm Burns & McDonnell had made an unsolicited offer to design, build and privately finance an new, single-terminal KCI, assuring that the city would retain ownership and control of the airport.
After pushback from the public and from members of the city council, the city decided to open the project to bidding, with a provision that Burns & McDonnell would have the opportunity to match the best bid submitted by June 20.
That provision was later eliminated.
"I think its fair for anyone to say that the city had a bit of a convoluted process over the last few weeks," Lucas says. "I think we've come out of that and I think once we all decided to start working together we've come to a plan that is going to work better with the flying public in our region."
Lucas says he hopes the council will be able to review the plans and come to a final decision on what plan will be put before voters in November by the end of August.
Lisa Rodriguez is the afternoon newscaster and a reporter for KCUR 89.3. Connect with her on Twitter @larodrig.
KCUR's Elle Moxley contributed to this report.
