Legoland 2.0 Updated

With Legoland "Stuck in the Mud" for the last couple of months, news of the development has been hard to come by, but the drought was broken last week when both Lee's Summit newspapers published articles concerning a revised Legoland plan.

RED has the difficult job of keeping both City and State governments as well as the Merlin Entertainments Group all interested in the Legoland project. And the project has been delayed because of the schedules of the various government entities that must be contacted and cajoled in order to be considered for TIF money. The most recent delay concerns a ruling by the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) on whether the newly proposed site for Legoland, the former site of the ill fated City Walk project, near 50 Highway and South 291, is "at or near downtown" Lee's Summit.

Last week, the DED dealt a critical setback to the project when it ruled that the newly proposed site for Legoland could not be considered "at or near downtown Lee's Summit". While not totally dead, it is certainly starting to look that way. RED could appeal the Department of Economic Development decision, change the site back to the original project site, or even try to eliminate the need for TIF funding all together. Regardless of what RED chooses to do, I wish them well. Lees Summit needs visionary developers like RED moving the city into the future.

Hopefully RED will find a way to work out its difficulties and present another LEGO plan to the City Council. The city needs the $11.2 Billion in new revenue the project was projected to bring to the Lees Summit economy over the 23 years of the TIF Process. Not to mention the prestige the community would gain by being the home of a world class theme park.

But even if RED is successful with their latest challenges and Legoland is presented again to the City Council, after the council's latest deliberations on the Ritter Plaza project, I have my doubts that they can successfully navigate the city council maze. The Ritter Plaza deliberations proved that some on the council are more interested about getting reelected than doing what is best for the City and I doubt they will treat Legoland any differently.

Some members of the council were so concerned about the potential traffic on a side street (Swan Road) that they were willing to endanger the entire project because of it.

No one mentioned that for many years Swan Road was a favorite shortcut to and from the AMC theater which occupied the space where Office Max currently stands. At the time, theater traffic on Swan Road was likely greater than any that will be generated by the Ritter Plaza development.

Good thing the council in power when the AMC theater was built thought more about the good of Lee's Summit than the current council, or the AMC theater may never have been built. And if the current council members can't look beyond their local constituencies, and do what is best for the City it is unlikely that Legoland will be built either, simply because you'll never be able to please everyone in the immediate vicinity of the project, nor the small, but vocal lobby of people who think Lee's Summit is already too big.

Maybe term limits are not such a bad idea after all.

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