Keep the EPA in KCK
The decision by federal bureaucrats to yank the regional Environmental Protection Agency headquarters out of downtown Kansas City, Kan., appears highly questionable.
The move makes little sense for taxpayers. It would separate the headquarters from the EPA’s nearby lab, reducing the agency’s efficiency. And the EPA could miss out on any high-speed Internet improvements that Google has pledged to make in the city.
Most notably, pulling EPA out of downtown Kansas City, Kan., would defy the longstanding and fundamental federal tradition of locating important buildings in urban cores, to help breathe life into them. As Mayor Joe Reardon notes, the EPA’s decision to come to his city just over a decade ago has helped attracted new businesses to downtown.
Despite the EPA’s positive presence there, the federal General Services Administration recently endorsed a move to a taxpayer-subsidized office building in Lenexa. The GSA claimed that a new lease there would save taxpayer funds. However, as more information emerges about the proposed deal, those supposed savings in the early years may be wiped out by longer-term lease costs.
In addition, Reardon says his city likely would have to use federal, state and local incentives to help rebuild its core if the EPA leaves. All of that would impose additional costs on taxpayers.
Working with owners of the current EPA headquarters, city officials are prepared to strongly protest the GSA’s decision. That could include a request for the nation’s solicitor general to investigate. With so much at stake, the city is right to aggressively try to retain the EPA and to preserve the progress made in reviving its downtown.
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