Not Hiring

Most economic-development projects, Harrell says, have been good for the schools and the Northland. But a generation of children can pass through the school system before a TIF expires. This year, TIF plans will divert $5 million in property taxes from North Kansas City schools to developers.

The school districts within Kansas City's borders get to vote on projects when they come before the TIF Commission. But for the past eight years, the schools and other taxing agencies were always outnumbered by appointees of Kay Barnes, a mayor who seemed to think that developers and their attorneys walked on water and healed the blind.

In 2005, a proposal to build a new shopping center where Antioch Center stands came before the TIF Commission. The schools opposed the TIF request, as did representatives from Clay County and other taxing jurisdictions. But with the political appointees in the majority, the proposal went to City Council with the TIF Commission's recommendation. The council approved the project, which provides a $24 million subsidy for the developers.

The plan, incidentally, promises to create 517 jobs.

"Maniac," the song from the movie Flashdance, is blaring at Dick's Sporting Goods, reminding shoppers of synthesizers and leg warmers. The store at Zona Rosa is large enough to require escalators. Seemingly every brand of golf club and fishing rod is on display and reasonably priced.

Tim and Shannon Cunningham, a couple from Holt, Missouri, leave Dick's with their hands full. She found a pair of turquoise Crocs she liked, and he grabbed a beverage cooler from a sale rack.

The Cunninghams used to shop at the Dick's at Barry Towne, a center near U.S. 169 and Barry Road. The Dick's at Barry Towne closed after Zona Rosa opened in 2004. The new Dick's adds four miles to the Cunninghams' drive — a fair distance to go for the pleasure of shopping at Zona Rosa, a "lifestyle center" with more stores, restaurants and flourishes (like red phone booths) than a dull big-box center like Barry Towne.

"It's more convenient because there are other shops around," Shannon says before she and her husband toss their merchandise in their truck and go exploring.

By moving from Barry Towne to Zona Rosa, Dick's Sporting Goods — a national chain of 250 stores — jumped from one city-assisted project to another. Barry Towne is a TIF project, while the city issued tax-exempt bonds to help pay for roadwork around Zona Rosa.

The city created the Barry Towne TIF in 1996. The main attraction is a Target store. Most of the taxes captured by the TIF pay for road and bridge expansion.

Mindful that building a Target and a Kohl's on pastureland hardly represented cutting-edge economic development, city officials reduced the depth and the length of the TIF payouts.

Still, in City Auditor White's report on TIF, Barry Towne came out as one of the real duds. The audit showed that the project is generating $24 million less than original projections.

The project cost $292 million and was supposed to create 3,900 jobs. But according to paperwork filed with the state, it has added only 1,749 jobs.

In 2001, the city extended the life of the TIF to give the developer, MD Management, a better chance to recoup its investment. The extension means the city will have to wait an additional eight years before the development pays full taxes.

MD Management owns Metro North Shopping Center and other properties along Barry Road. It's possible that Barry Towne will reach its original goal of 3,900 jobs. The most recent development plan calls for more retail and the construction of six office buildings.

But Dick's' departure after just five years at Barry Towne seems an ominous sign. A new tenant has yet to fill the space left since the sporting goods were packed in trucks and moved four miles down the road.

Richard Ringer drives a Ford Explorer over gravel. The rough road causes his Ozarka water bottle to bang against the mobile-phone cradle bolted to the cup holder.

Ringer has veered off Parvin Road onto land owned by Hunt Midwest, a real-estate and mining company owned by the family of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt. A California native, Ringer has worked for Hunt Midwest for 14years. His office is inside SubTropolis, an underground city scooped out of a limestone mine. Now, nearly 1,400 people work there, handling coffee beans, film canisters and postage stamps in stable humidity.

Ringer is driving over the ground above SubTropolis, with the Mamba roller coaster at Worlds of Fun in the distance. Ringer has taken his vehicle off-road to illustrate the difficulty of developing the rugged ground east of the amusement park. The constant jostling makes his point.

The city approved Hunt Midwest's plan in 2000 to improve the mine surface. TIF money has paid to extend Parvin Road and build a new cross street, Kentucky Avenue. Hunt Midwest put up a business center along Kentucky where 100 people work. On the west side of Interstate 435, townhomes are springing up around cul-de-sacs built on top of a former ditch.