Royals stadium rezoning clears first hurdle with unanimous Planning Commission vote
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
The Kansas City Planning Commission’s meeting audience showed a clear “split down the middle” public, pro and con, in its discussion of moving a rezoning proposal forward for a proposed Royals stadium on Wednesday morning.
The proposed rezoning plan would expand the current Urban Redevelopment (UR) boundaries by around 90 acres in and around Crown Center.
Construction would advance in 10 stages starting in 2026 and continuing through 2041. The stadium has a target opening date of 2030.
After about two and a half hours, commissioners unanimously voted to approve the proposal with conditions:
Project leadership must make all plans available to the public, and traffic, noise, and light impact studies need to be conducted.
Royals’ President of Real Estate and Development, Brooks Sherman, agreed the organization would create a build-tracker website. He was unclear on when the website might be accessible to the public.
He said after the meeting, “We’re going to be highly engaged with the public as we move forward through whether it’s a website, whether it’s showing updated renderings as we move through this, as our master plan develops. We want to be engaged with the public, and we will do that. I think it’s especially important, as we were listening and as we’ve listened to all along with the neighbors nearby.”
Many future stadium neighbors live at the San Francisco Tower, which is located about 350 feet from where the Royals’ new home will be built.
Though the Tower isn’t in the rezoning proposal, hundreds of residents will bear the effect of constant construction.
Residents say they feel the public hasn’t been included well, that the 81 games will impact them each season, and that the 30,000 fans who come for a hometown baseball experience will be affected.
San Francisco Tower resident David Byrn says, “The plan itself provides for construction through 2040, but also could be beyond that. We’re moving into this where we don’t have answers. I’d like to say we have promises, but we don’t really even have that. We certainly don’t have any definitive agreement that we can count on and rely upon.”
Initial rezoning plans were filed with the city on June 29, 2026, under the case ID CD-CPC-2026-00100. A list of all project proposal documents to date can be found here:
The Royals organization and private investors will foot nearly $2 billion of the project, with about $600 million being committed by the city of Kansas City through tax increment financing.
Millions more may come from the state of Missouri due to the passage of the “Show Me Sports Investment Act” in the last legislative session.
It can be found here. It will not be a statewide new tax. Those funds will come from existing tax revenues, such as property or income taxes.
Neighbors in the area surrounding Crown Center have started an informational group to share information about this massive project. The public can email royalsneighborhood@gmail.com to receive project updates.
The rezoning proposal will now head to the City Council for discussion and possible approval.
The date for that meeting has not been set at this time.