ORDINANCE NO. 120096

Enacting Chapter 53, Code of Ordinances, entitled Parks, Recreation, and Boulevards, and repealing Chapter 64, Article VI, Parks and Boulevards.

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:

Section 1. That Chapter 53, Code of Ordinances of the City of Kansas City, Missouri, is hereby enacted, to read as follows:

Chapter 53. Parks, Recreation and Boulevards

Sec. 53-1. System of parks, parkways and boulevards.

The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, as established in the Charter, shall have the power, and it shall be its duty, to devise, extend, develop and maintain a system of public parks, parkways and boulevards, for the use of the city and its inhabitants; to select and designate lands to be used and appropriated for such purposes within or without the city limits and to improve the same; to select routes and streets for boulevards and to cause the same to be opened and widened, improved and maintained; and by and with the approval and authority, by ordinance, of the council, to lease, purchase, condemn or otherwise acquire, in the name of the city, lands, easements and other interests in lands for parks, parkways, boulevards, and public squares; and by and with the approval and authority, by ordinance, of the council, to establish, change or re-establish the grade of any boulevard or parkway, and to require any railway upon or across any boulevard or parkway to be brought to the grade as established, changed or re-established. No change shall be made in the grade of any street upon which any park land abuts, unless the board shall approve such change of grade.

Sec. 53-2. Management of parks and boulevards.

The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners shall superintend, control and manage any and all parks, parkways, boulevards and highways and public grounds belonging to or under the control of the city which are under the control and management of the board, and such others as the council may, upon recommendation of said board, place under its control and management; and may construct, improve, adorn, regulate and maintain the same in such manner as it may deem best. The board may establish standards for the construction of parks, boulevards and parkways. The council shall have power to pass ordinances for the regulation and orderly governance of parks, parkways, boulevards and public grounds, and to prescribe fines and penalties for the violation of such ordinances. The council, upon recommendation of the board, may regulate the traffic on all boulevards, parkways and highways under its control, and, upon like recommendation, it may regulate the kind and character of all vehicles used on or passing over the same, and the width and kind of tires used thereon, and may exclude heavy traffic or any kind of vehicle used or operated for commercial purposes from boulevards, parkways and parks. The council may provide that all trees and shrubs on all or any of the streets, avenues and highways and public grounds of the city not under the control and management of the board shall be planted, cared for and maintained by the board. In that case the council shall make provision for the funds necessary to be used for that purpose.

Sec. 53-3. Recreation.

The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners shall have charge of the operation of all public playgrounds, beaches, swimming pools, wading pools and grounds for games or sports and other recreational facilities.

Any moneys appropriated by the council to the department of parks and recreation for recreation purposes or a recreation program shall be expended for said purposes only and for no other purpose or function within the department.

Sec. 53-4. Building restrictions.

It shall be the duty of the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, and they shall have the power, to recommend to the council the enactment of ordinances, and the council may pass ordinances establishing restrictions as to the use of lands abutting upon and adjacent to parks, parkways and boulevards, or other highways under the control of the board and within one hundred and fifty feet thereof. Such restrictions may exclude the erection of, and may regulate the use and character of, houses or buildings or other structures within such areas and within any part thereof; and may restrain and prohibit the carrying on of manufacturing, storage or other business enterprises of any kind, or of certain kinds of businesses, within such areas and within any part thereof, and may regulate or exclude billboards, gas tanks and gasoline filling stations within such areas or any part thereof, and may regulate and prescribe the height and bulk of buildings and the area of any tract of land that may be occupied by buildings or structures within such areas and in any part thereof, and the uses to which they may be put. Whenever the board shall recommend to the council an ordinance establishing or extending a park, parkway or boulevard, it may recommend the establishment at the same time of such restrictions named in this section, or any of them, in the use of land fronting or abutting on or adjacent to the proposed park, parkway or boulevard.

Sec. 53-5. Contracts for construction, improvement or repairs.

The doing of all work and the furnishing of all material for the construction, improvement, maintenance or repairs of any park, public square, parkway, boulevard or avenue, or parts thereof, which may be under the control and management of the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, may be let by such board in the manner provided in the city Charter and in this Code. All materials necessary for such construction, improvement, maintenance or repairs not furnished by contract as provided in this section may be purchased by the board in such manner as it may deem best insofar as such provision does not conflict with the Charter.

Section 2. That Chapter 64, Article VI, Parks and Boulevards, which comprises Sections 64-201 through 64-208, is hereby repealed.

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Approved as to form and legality:

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M. Margaret Sheahan Moran

Assistant City Attorney