City Hall
City Hall was built in 2006 and will undergo a space analysis to evaluate best practices and strategies for retrofitting and renovating the building. Water Utilities relocated to a new facility, freeing up space.
Parking The City’s 2016 Downtown Parking Study identified locations for two new parking structures downtown. One structure, located at Fourth and Main Street, and another between Second Street and Third Street along the west side of Market Street. The City has identified funding for one of the two structures as a part of a 15-year CIP sales tax approved in 2017. The City has used a portion of these funds to purchase property at 4th and Main Street along with the construction of a surface parking lot at that location. Additional property at Fourth and Main Street would be necessary to support a parking structure at that location. No funds have been identified for the City to build a second public parking structure downtown.
Driverless vehicles are projected to be in widespread use within ten years. Parking may not be needed at today’s demand level. New parking structure(s) being constructed should be designed as flexible buildings that can be converted to another use when the demand drops.
Public Safety Facilities Underway
On August 6, 2019, voters approved a $19,475,000 no-tax-increase general obligation bond to fund public safety initiatives, including:
- Police Headquarters and Court facility renovations
- police in-car video systems and body cameras
- new Fire Station No. 4 and fire apparatus
- new Fire Station No. 5
- network infrastructure
Renovation of the Police Headquarters and Courts Facility is underway, and a substation to serve the southern portion of Lee’s Summit is under consideration as the city continues to grow. The need for this facility is not immediate, but proactive planning and programming will ensure the City is ready to move forward when necessary.
Police
The Lee’s Summit Police Department provides programs and services to residents and businesses intended to prevent crime and develop partnerships with residents and businesses. There are 10 police districts that help Lee’s Summit be a safe place to live, work and raise a family.
In the 2019 Lee’s Summit Citizen Survey, 82 percent of respondents indicated they are satisfied or very satisfied with how quickly the police respond and 75 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with police visibility in neighborhoods. Technologies such as the growing use of public and private security and surveillance equipment and real-time crime alerts are preventing crime, improving response and helping officers solve crimes. To maintain and improve these satisfaction numbers and maintain response times, additional public facilities and technology will be needed as the community grows. A new public safety communications system is needed. The Lee’s Summit Police Department manages a variety of successful programs and services that support crime prevention and a culture of cooperation and partnership. As policing becomes more community-focused, facility needs may be met through collocation and partnerships with other departments and agencies.
Fire and EMS
The Fire Department offers a variety of services to residents and businesses including emergency medical services (EMS), fire suppression and fire investigation, community risk reduction, domestic preparedness planning and response and public fire and life safety education. In the 2019 Lee’s Summit Citizen Survey, 83 percent of respondents indicated they are satisfied or very satisfied with the fire department’s response time. The Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating is 2, one of the highest scores in Missouri. This rating describes how well-equipped a fire department is to put out fires and is on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best. This rating translates to lower insurance rates for residents and businesses served. The Fire Department is a Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) agency. CFAI awards this status to fire departments demonstrating a standard of excellence for service delivery and performance.
There are seven (7) fire stations in Lee’s Summit, and the Fire Department provides emergency services to more than 100,000 people across 72.42 square miles, including Lee’s Summit residents and residents in the neighboring municipalities of Greenwood and Unity Village. The Lee’s Summit Fire Department responds to over 10,000 calls for service each year. The Lee’s Summit airport also offers an air ambulance service. As the community grows calls for service will increase. As the elderly population grows, calls for emergency medical services are predicted to increase. Additional strategically located facilities will be needed to maintain service levels, the ISO rating and satisfaction levels.
The City will replace two existing fire stations (Stations 4 & 5) with plans to start construction in the next two to three years. Plans are also developed for two new fire stations. Station 8 will be in the southern part of town, while Station 9 will be constructed in the northern area. The City will continue to assess the need for new fire stations as the community grows. The map at end of this section displays existing Fire Stations.
Emergency Facilities
Safe communities prepare for extreme storm events with shelters and alert systems. Emergency management is a Fire Department program, and the fire chief serves as the emergency management director. The Department is responsible for the coordination of City services during a declared emergency in accordance with the City’s adopted Local Emergency Operations Plan (LEOP). The Department also collaborates with regional, state and federal agencies to plan, prepare, mitigate, respond and recover from natural and man-made hazards that threaten Lee’s Summit. While no City facility serves as a community-wide tornado shelter, there are 16 emergency shelters located in Lee’s Summit.
The Lee’s Summit Fire Department Headquarters houses the City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). During declared emergencies or significant events, the EOC is the coordination point for City departments to plan and mitigate situations that could affect City services and residents’ safety.
Increased frequency of extreme weather events causes risks to property, infrastructure and human safety. Identifying and planning for adverse weather events, is critical for ensuring a community’s long-term quality of life.
Solid Waste
After 37 years of operation, the Lee’s Summit landfill officially reached maximum capacity and closed on April 13, 2019. The Lee’s Summit Resource Recovery Park continues to offer residents convenient public disposal, hazardous materials and recycling drop-off. Residents and businesses contract with private haulers for solid waste and recycling who haul outside the city to regional landfills. Contracting individually for trash with multiple haulers increases the wear and tear on city streets and air pollution due to an increase in the number of trash trucks and trips. By ordinance, haulers are required to provide recycling and yard waste composting with trash service which means three trucks from one hauler are using the same street. Hauling longer distances and fewer landfill options increase costs that are passed along to the customer in monthly fees. The City is looking at converting the closed landfill to a new land use.
Shared Spaces
Cities are designing new public facilities where agencies, departments and services share facilities to stretch lean budgets and meet community needs. Sharing with other government and nongovernmental agencies maximizes the use of community buildings and spaces. Cities, school districts and libraries often manage buildings and outdoor spaces that are under-utilized. Innovative facilities designed (or retrofitted) with shared spaces can address agency needs while also meeting the community’s need for social, recreational and civic areas. Cities are also incorporating community gathering spaces and amenities near municipal buildings, such as fire stations, to increase the public benefit of city-owned facilities.
Aging Facilities
In Lee’s Summit, most City buildings are 15–20 years old, approaching the halfway point for their life expectancy, assuming a 50-year life cycle. The oldest City facility is the Fire Department headquarters, built in the mid-1970s, and renovated in the early 2000s.
Insight & Foresight
Technology
Lee’s Summit uses technology to improve operations and City services. The City is working to identify more intelligent asset management such as Building Information Modeling (B.I.M). Technological advances will impact the amount of public space needed for future facilities.
- Fewer people will need to access public facilities as more services become available online.
- Many City employees worked remotely during the coronavirus pandemic. If remote work and socially distanced work areas become long-term standard operating situations, space needs will change.
- Cyberattacks require data protection and systems security.
- Physical security enhancements may require building modifications.
- To improve the ability to manage and readily access data requires an Enterprise Content Management System to reduce the physical space required for document storage.
- Technological advancements change how facilities are managed and maintained. Digitalization, wireless communication and sensors make it possible to monitor nearly every component of a facility.
- A constant flow of data on virtually any component of a facility, means cities use real-time, data-driven actions to predict when maintenance is needed.
- Artificial intelligence and robotics will replace and augment humans in the workplace over the next 20 years. This will impact space needs and technology required in city facilities.
Accessible, Healthy and Safe Facilities
People expect accessible, healthy and safe city facilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires accessible public facilities. As our population ages, the need for fully accessible public facilities grows.
Public demand for safety features and designs that promote and protect public health is expected to continue following the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthy buildings have a high rate of replacing inside air with air from the outside (using HVAC air return processes) and filtration systems that remove potentially dangerous particles from the inside environment. Touchless technologies will replace processes or actions that traditionally required physical contact. These trends will require future modifications to existing facilities in addition to taking this design approach in new facilities.
Resilient & Efficient Facilities
Energy efficiency and public sheltering facilities are becoming increasingly important as climate changes and weather patterns shift. Lee’s Summit uses technology to leverage cost savings and improve energy efficiency and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. For example, plans are in place for solar panels at 12 public facilities. The City also uses sustainable building and maintenance practices to reduce energy and maintenance costs, such as LED lightbulbs and polished concrete floors. Facilities that rely on more diverse power sources are more resilient and can operate when one source is out of service.
Life Cycle Costs
Using a life cycle cost model encourages cities and developers to make higher initial capital investments in sustainable materials, place a higher value on environmental building practices and innovate to reduce long-term operations and maintenance costs. Evaluating projects from a whole-life perspective helps cities anticipate ongoing facility operations, maintenance and decommissioning costs.