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April 18, 2024 |  By: Allison Kite - Missouri Independent

Legislation designed to kill Kansas City landfill clears hurdle in Senate, nears final passage

landfill

By Allison Kite - Missouri Independent

Legislation pivotal to killing a proposed landfill project in south Kansas City took a huge step forward this week in the Missouri Senate and is now just one step away from the governor’s desk. 

Missouri senators passed the legislation, which would prohibit a landfill from being built in Kansas City within a mile of its borders unless any adjacent municipalities approved the project, by a vote of 24-7 Wednesday night. 

The Senate vote represented a significant step forward in the effort to pass the legislation. House members have approved similar bills before, but they have stalled in the Senate following filibusters. 

The bill was amended in the Senate and needs a final House approval before it can go to Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s desk. The bill is ready to be debated by the House, but was not taken up before the chamber adjourned for the week on Thursday.

Parson’s signature would bring to an end an 18-month battle by nearby communities to keep a landfill out of south Kansas City.

“It’s too soon for a victory lap, but 9,000 or so people who live around the proposed landfill woke up with more hope today,” a political action committee formed in opposition to the landfill said in a social media post Thursday.

Residents, city governments and legislators from the suburbs of Kansas City have been fighting for well over a year to keep a proposed landfill from moving in less than a mile from the city’s border with Raymore. 

The 270-acre landfill, proposed by KC Recycle & Waste Solutions, was planned for a site just south of Missouri Highway 150 in Kansas City. It’s less than a mile from the Creekmoor golf course community, located in Raymore, with homes priced as high as $1 million. 

When the landfill plan became public, Raymore and other Kansas City suburbs were outraged, saying the project would harm their communities’ health and ruin their property values.

Under current law, a landfill can’t be built within half a mile of Kansas City’s boundaries without approval from the adjacent community. But the project proposed by KC Recycle & Waste Solutions — run by Jennifer and Aden Monheiser — would have been between half a mile and one mile from the city’s boundary with Raymore. 

Starting last year, critics of the landfill pushed legislation at the Missouri General Assembly to increase that buffer one to one mile. But it was repeatedly filibustered in the Missouri Senate. The Monheisers have donated tens of thousands of dollars to state and local races and political action committees.

After another filibuster earlier this month, Raymore city officials revealed they had struck a tentative deal with developers of the landfill to stave off the landfill. Raymore City Council members voted unanimously on Monday to approve an agreement to pay more than $3.7 million to the Monheisers to scrap the project, including $440,000 for the city to acquire one of the parcels currently owned by the developers. 

But the deal is contingent on the passage of the state legislation and the Monheisers’ agreement to impose restrictive use covenants on the property they’ve acquired to prevent it from being used for a landfill in the future. 

Monheiser said in a statement that she appreciates the discussions with Raymore officials that led to the deal. 

“We’re hopeful that the governor signs the legislation that will be sent to his desk so that all parties can move forward,” she said. “We will have more to say in the coming weeks about plans for the future, but for now, we’re happy to have an agreement that closes this chapter.”