Save Swope Park, Kansas City, MO

[Rob Martin]

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveswopeparkdiscgolf

Swope Park in Kansas City, MO is set to be removed.

The original deal was that because of a $10 mil donation from a (now dead) millionaire, a no-kill shelter was going to take the land of 4 holes at Swope Park. While not ideal by any means, the Kansas City Flying Disc Club has been cooperative with the city planning.

Plans have now changed and the city wants to put the shelter in the middle of the course effectively shutting down the course permanently.

Swope Park is the cornerstone of the Kansas City Wide Open which is over 30 years old, and at 36 years old is the oldest course in the metro area.

We simply are asking the city to stick with the original plans and leave us the remaining 14 holes.

Please consider signing the petition, especially if you have ever played this iconic course.

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=1890

 

[Three Putt]

What is wrong with Missouri? First Creve Coeur, now Swope? What's next, Albert-Oakland? Hell, if you get those three you can wipe most of the history of Disc Golf in Missouri away.

 

[joots]

Even if you are not a midwesterner, have never played this course, or do not have it on your course bucket list, please get on the petition site and sign. It is a bummer that the course is going to disappear, and maybe, just maybe, we can make it a jagged pill for those who have decided that the course is not needed. Just sign. Sign anonymous it you so desire. Let's puff out our disc hucking chests and sign. Oh, and pass on the news. #saveswopedgc

 

[pauldst]

My home course for 2 years. I miss this course! There isn't a course that I've played in California that I wouldn't trade 2 or 3 of for Swope. I may not be there still, but I own a house there. That makes me a taxpayer. I'm not just going to sign a petition, I'm going to make a few calls.

 

[Major Tomahawk]

Isn't there a bunch of room across the street for a shelter? Anyway, I signed. Love Swope. Played my first worlds there in 1998.

 

[Golden Tuna]

What is wrong with Missouri? First Creve Coeur, now Swope? What's next, Albert-Oakland? Hell, if you get those three you can wipe most of the history of Disc Golf in Missouri away.

Creve Coeur is being retained and re-designed... again...
Whit Birch is the real "historic" course in St. Louis.

 

[Three Putt]

White Birch is...White Birch. :\ Don't get me wrong, I love the place. I worked for Hazelwood in the 90's and ran that course. Before Creve Coeur went in, the only "professional" events St. Louis had were at that goofy temp course in J.B. pitching putts into barrels. Creve Coeur allowed the St. Louis Disc Golf Club to run PDGA events and really get established so it could implode and be reborn as the River City Flyers club that hosts an A tier. White Birch was never going to get St. Louis there. So far as the scene that St. Louis has now, the key essential course in that history is Creve Coeur.

In terms of Missouri disc golf circa 1990, the courses were Swope, Albert Oakland and Creve Coeur. Everything else was a niner or a pitch and putt. Actually a couple were niner pitch and putts.

The big dog was Swope. It was a monster. It was so long for the time , it was golf on a whole different level. It was the mid-90's before Sioux Passage went in and gave the other side of the state anything to compare to it. The original Creve Coeur was heavily wooded and not as long as the course was after the '93 flood. For the first 13ish years Swope was around, it was THE course around here. It also had the weird factor that somebody had the contract to run it that wasn't the Club so the KC Wide Open would use temp courses and Rosedale while Swope was just sitting there, which kinda took something away from the whole scene.

At any rate, Swope really is a huge historical course in this region. That it is even vulnerable to being redeveloped is a big wake up that even though disc golf has become a lot bigger, we have a long way to go.

 

[TheOtherBill]

It is no longer accepting submissions -
We're sorry, your signature cannot be recorded at this time. Please contact [email protected] for further assistance.

 

[Dire Wolfy]

Guys, even if you lose the course, at least it was to a good cause....

 

[Broken Shoulder]

Isn't there a bunch of room across the street for a shelter? Anyway, I signed. Love Swope. Played my first worlds there in 1998.

I was at Am Worlds there in 99. 98? Am Worlds in either 98 or 99.
But yeah, I signed also.

 

[Three Putt]

There is a ton of room across the street. There is a ton of room in Kansas City in places that are not a park, so the park can be used for, you know...park stuff? Recreational activities. For people. Which is what parks are for. An animal shelter could literally go anywhere.

 

[Three Putt]

It is no longer accepting submissions -
We're sorry, your signature cannot be recorded at this time. Please contact [email protected] for further assistance.

Worked for me just now. Hopefully they won't notice that I signed twice.

 

[Rob Martin]

Media is getting involved.

http://www.kctv5.com/story/36833472/disc-golfers-fight-to-save-course-at-swope-park

 

[Rob Martin]

Guys, even if you lose the course, at least it was to a good cause....

Both of my dogs came from no-kill shelters. (Don't know if this shelter will be no-kill or not).
I'm for dog shelters. Big Time.

But Swope Park is 1800 acres. The disc golf course takes, what 75 of that? There is room ALL OVER THE PARK to put this shelter. H3ll, there's even a ball golf course directly across the street from the dog park if they want it to be in walking distance. There is ample room to the west and south to put the shelter.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION.

 

[sjberry2017]

To put into perspective just how big Swope Park is, there's a USL soccer club which plays their home games there (although I would be remiss were I not to say go FC Cincy!) who are named the Swope Park Rangers...there's more than enough room to build an animal shelter, or twenty of them, and not affect anything else.

 

[Three Putt]

Yeah, it sounds like the disc golf course just happens to be between the dog park and the Zoo.

If they take the disc golf course, are you at least going to get a bunch of land for a new course?

 

[Rob Martin]

This is a tough spot. The city has really put the notion of this as something that is needed, but the KCPet Project has shown that they have no desire to work within the boundaries that were first set out. Initially there was to be use on about 3-5 acres at the corner (taking away basically from hole #15 long pins up to #17), our thoughts, were, thats fine we can work on creating some new golf holes and expand. As we move forward a couple of years later, it is no longer a project in how to work together, but rather, you need to take your stuff and go....Now this stance hasn't been dictated yet to us entirely, but we need to have voices speak that this is something that we should be working towards a benefit for all.

The members of the disc golf community have made that portion of the park what it is today. That has been done with continued partnership from KCMO Parks and Recreation over the years as well. This relationship is what has afforded Kansas City so many other great places to play our sport. Without Swope as the cornerstone, it is hard to envision that we would be where we are today as an organization (KCFDC.org) as a community of disc golfers, and how many of you reading this have played Swope, or know of it because of Disc Golf.

Our ask is quite simply this. Initially were were asked if we would be ok with losing a portion of our park, 3, 5, maybe even 7 acres. We felt we could adapt and encapsulate the shelter and redesign Swope. Now we are being asked to find alternate location because they believe that they need our entire footprint that we have worked on for almost 4 decades. Generations of disc golfers have grown up on this piece of land within the park, we are simply asking why it needs to go RIGHT ON TOP of our existing footprint, in its entirety.

Please help us get some better answers. Fight for our voice, and most importantly, share, share with all that love the sport, love the history and want to see a part of it not destroyed, when really a conversation leading to a more combined use was what we came with, and left being asked to leave is sad, sad for us all.

Jack

===o {>[]----
Jack Lowe

From one of our past club presidents and previous Worlds TD.

 

[LifelongResident]

Park Land use

My friends,

I am glad that you've rallied to this cause. I too have been playing disc golf since before the invention of the baskets, played the old Antioch Park Course where you threw into the birdbath on the island of the small lake there.

This is a bigger issue however.
Swope Park is one of tracts of land that were given to the city to be used as a park, often posthumously, and those gifts were for a designated purpose.
As a retired professional land surveyor, it's my belief that any time a locked gate, or door is constructed on park lands, it brings into question whether or not the conditions of "park use" mandated in the original title transfer are violated, and could thus actually cause the grantee (the city) to lose title in the property.

A dog pound is not a park function. It is a public safety function, not recreation, or any of the other activities that qualify as "park use".

I contend that the city has already exceeded this in the construction of other facilities on park property allowing privately owned businesses to operate on public lands thus diminishing our tax revenue, and giving unfair advantage over competition. This "Pet Project" is a proverbial avalanche down that slippery slope.

Some of those of us that use the current off leash dog park across the river from the Disc Golf Course are also concerned that the dog pound being nearby will bring dog walkers from the pound thus leading to an increased use that would be detrimental to their enjoyment of the facility.

Keep up the good work. You will not just have strength in numbers. The law too is on our side.

 

[Three Putt]

This is really similar in some ways to the weird deal with the course in Creve Coeur. A group got together to build a big massive hockey complex and they for some reason set their sights on Creve Couer Park, specifically the back 9 of the disc golf course. It made you wonder "Why there?" It's across the street from the lake in a very natural area. Putting a big massive building there made no real sense according to the park master plan. The ball got rolling, the back nine was pulled and the place was bulldozed. THEN the National Park Service stepped in and said they had yeah or nay over projects on the land due to the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, and they had not approved the project. Now the hockey complex has a new proposed home (in the flood plain of course, but that's another conversation) and Creve Coeur Park had been bulldozed for no reason. A bunch of really ridiculous things have to happen at the Municipal/County/State levels to screw up a project like that. Hopefully somebody in Kansas City has more common sense than the people in charge of St. Louis County. I'm not holding my breath, though.

 

[Nova P]

Hopefully somebody in Kansas City has more common sense than the people in charge of St. Louis County.

I grew up in one and live near the other. I think among the two governments there's enough brainpower to make a night-light flicker. A little.