Carl Poke has spent more than two months hauling mud out of his basement after nearly every rainstorm, and he says it takes at least three hours each time just to pump it out. He and his neighbors in Kansas City's Citadel neighborhood say runoff from the nearby 63rd and Prospect development has turned their basements into a recurring mess since the beginning of August, and they are demanding the city step in.
Poke and other residents have asked Kansas City officials for help resolving the flooding, according to KMBC 9 News. The development blamed for the runoff, known as the 63rd and Prospect master plan, was approved in 2021 as a revitalization project for the city's east side, and it is led by Southpointe LLC, a partnership between UrbanAmerica and CJR Development Partners. Southpointe development manager Marvin Lyman told the station he was not aware of the flooding problem until Poke contacted him directly, though he said city leaders already knew about the issue by the time he raised it himself.
Heavy Rain Pushes an Already Troubled Site to the Brink
The flooding complaints followed a stretch of severe storms that hit the Kansas City metro in late September, with repeated downpours totaling one to three inches of rainfall and triggering regional flood watches, according to Hoodline. The National Weather Service had warned that consecutive storm rounds would saturate urban ground and overflow local drainage channels, conditions that set the stage for the mud now piling up in Citadel basements.
The 63rd and Prospect site, also known as SouthPointe at 63rd, has struggled with underground problems well before this fall's storms. The Kansas City Council authorized $4.5 million in May 2025 to help Southpointe Development LLC deal with subsurface soil compaction issues and drastic elevation changes that had stalled site preparation, according to the same report. Lyman said at the time that the subsurface soil conditions proved far more costly to correct than initially projected before the pandemic, per the outlet's reporting.
A $15 Million Resolution Stuck Behind Stadium Talk
Kansas City Council members Ryana Parks-Shaw and Darrell Curls introduced Resolution No. 260885 on September 23, directing the city manager to identify up to $15 million in city funds for the 63rd and Prospect development and negotiate cooperative funding agreements with Southpointe LLC for site preparation and infrastructure construction, according to the City of Kansas City. The resolution specifies that identified funds would be transferred to Southpointe LLC and a third-party disbursement agent with city oversight to execute pre-development and site preparation work.
The resolution was scheduled for the city finance committee meeting the Monday before October 6, but it was held because of prolonged discussions regarding the Royals stadium, per KMBC. Parks-Shaw, who is Kansas City's mayor pro tem and is spearheading the resolution, said the city is taking the flooding matter seriously and that the delay will give the council more time to work out the details. She described the resolution as requiring a $15 million investment in the project, and the council now plans to consider it at its next meeting on October 20.
“It's time for him to step up,” Poke said of Mayor Quinton Lucas, according to KMBC's reporting, arguing the city could instead use money allocated for the Royals stadium — which Poke said carries a reported $600 million price tag — to address the flooding problem. Fellow resident Linda Bass pushed back on linking the two issues, noting that the Citadel neighborhood's problems predated the Royals stadium discussion entirely.
Decades of Blight Set the Stage
The tension over funding priorities sits atop a far longer history of disinvestment at 63rd and Prospect. City plans for tax increment financing at the site date back to 1994, marking 30 years of stalled redevelopment attempts before SouthPointe at 63rd finally held its official groundbreaking in January 2024, according to The Community Voice. Local officials have noted the area suffered for decades from illegal dumping, dead trees, and abandoned lots before current construction began.
That blight traces back to an earlier failed effort. Between 2001 and 2006, the Community Development Corporation of Kansas City demolished roughly 140 historic homes for a $103 million project called Citadel Plaza, but work halted abruptly in August 2006 after urban rubble tested positive for uninspected asbestos, according to UMKC Urban Planning & Design. The city reached a legal settlement over that collapse in 2012, completed state-monitored soil cleanup in 2015, and began re-marketing the site to private developers in 2016, eventually paying $15 million to settle outstanding debt and legal claims tied to the original developer's collapse.
The neighborhood's vulnerability to runoff is also tied to the highway that runs alongside it. The Citadel neighborhood borders Bruce R. Watkins Drive, a 10.2-mile freeway built through Kansas City's east side that physically cut off Prospect Avenue neighborhoods and contributed to long-term economic isolation, Hoodline has previously reported. Civil rights leader Bruce R. Watkins himself warned in the 1970s that the highway route would wall off predominantly Black east side neighborhoods.
Stormwater troubles are not confined to Citadel. Kansas City Council also evaluated a separate proposal on September 30 to seek $40 million in federal grant funds to combat severe street flooding and traffic risks along the nearby East 63rd Street corridor at The Paseo, reflecting broader citywide efforts to shore up drainage infrastructure in the area.
Residents Want a Permanent Fix, Not Just a Patch
Lyman told KMBC that east side residents deserve long-overdue attention from the city, echoing frustrations that have simmered through three decades of unfulfilled redevelopment promises. Parks-Shaw said she hopes the eventual outcome will be a long-term solution that addresses the root of the flooding problem rather than a temporary patch.
For now, Poke and his neighbors are left bailing mud after every storm while they wait for the council's October 20 vote. Poke directly urged the mayor to take action on the flooding problem, framing it as a test of whether the city will finally follow through on decades of promises to the Citadel neighborhood.
