The Unified Government of Wyandotte County is going to court to keep a regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency in downtown Kansas City, Kansas.
Like the George Costanza girlfriend who refused to accept a breakup, the Unified Government is challenging the EPA's decision to move to Lenexa. A lawsuit filed today in U.S. District Court argues that the relocation goes against the federal policy that government agencies should stay true to urban areas.
The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's real-estate matters, announced in April that it intended to move the EPA office into a "green" building in Johnson County that had been designed for Applebee's. (The restaurant chain became willing to vacate the space after being acquired by the California-based International House of Pancakes in 2007.)
GSA officials said at the time that they were not able to work out a new lease with the owner of the building in Kansas City, Kansas, that the EPA has used since 1999. The decision to abandon the site was criticized by U.G. officials, anti-sprawl advocates and the editorial page of The Kansas City Star.
The U.G. now wants a federal judge to issue an injunction, stopping the move. By executive order, federal agencies are supposed to give first consideration to locating in central business districts. Green features aside, a building on the west side of Interstate 435 does not exactly square with this directive.
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