The Platte County Commission voted Monday to withdraw from any involvement in the public financing of the Zona Rosa shopping district.
The county government previously won a lawsuit previously that confirmed that it was not obligated to pay shortfalls in sales taxes used to repay bonds.
“With today’s agreement, the county government will withdraw completely from public financing of Zona Rosa,” said County Commissioner Joe Vanover. “The bank, the developer, and all parties agree that the county government did not default on the Zona Rosa bonds.”
UMB Bank and the present owner of Zona Rosa are suing each other over the repayment of bonds and maintenance of three parking garages within the shopping complex. (EDITOR’S NOTE: UMB Bank later clarified it is capacity as bondholder trustee). In early 2025, they issued a notice that they wanted to settle their lawsuits by extending the special sales tax for Zona Rosa.
Platte County hired attorney Todd Graves and intervened in the lawsuit.
“For the last few months, we have been negotiating a way for the county government to get out of the public financing of Zona Rosa completely,” Vanover said.
The settlement agreement says, “The parties acknowledge that the county is not and has never been in default on any obligations related to Series 2003 Bonds, Series 2007 Bonds, or any agreement named in the county complaint, settlement agreement, or this addendum to which the county was a party.”
As part of the agreement, the county will transfer the parking garages to the transportation development districts in Zona Rosa. The bank and developer agree that Platte County can withdraw from the public financing.
Around 20 years ago, the county had issued $32 million in revenue bonds to build two parking garages at Zona Rosa. A one percent sales tax was imposed on all items sold at Zona Rosa to go toward paying of that debt. But Zona Rosa has struggled to generate enough revenue with that sales tax to cover the bond payments.
A lawsuit in 2018 resulted in the county being determined not to be legally responsible for that debt.
Scott Fricker, presiding commissioner, said at Monday’s meeting that the parking garages “are falling apart and a liability.”
Fricker drew an analogy between the Zona parking garages and the county-owned community center buildings in Parkville and Platte City.
Fricker said: “We (the county) own those community center buildings. They are getting old. Somewhere down the road there will be a lot of expenses (in building maintenance and repair),” to the community centers.
The YMCA operates the county-owned centers, rent free, Fricker said.
Fricker said when he first got elected he tried to give the community center buildings to the YMCA, to the City of Parkville and to the City of Platte City. All declined, he said. “They don’t want them because they’re a liability.”
He said it’s an example of why county government should “stay out of development deals.”
