On the evening of Friday, December 4, the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who will be posing for photos in Pocket Park while live music plays nearby. At around 8:45 p.m., fireworks will go up over the Missouri River. Pocket Park is a small public space at Main and 1st Streets. Main Street Parkville uses it as a stage for downtown celebrations all year, and it sits right where the City of Parkville plans to close 1st Street and turn it into a pedestrian promenade.
That makes the next two months a little unusual. The holidays on Main Street will run on the old street layout one more time, and the public survey on what replaces that layout closes on October 30.
A calendar that keeps coming back to 1st & Main
Pocket Park hosts events all year. At Parkville Days, the face painting and caricatures were set up "in Pocket Park at 1st & Main Street." In spring, the Easter Bunny greeted kids there from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Voices of Kansas City sang a patriotic a cappella set in the park on another holiday weekend.
The rest of the 2026 season on the Main Street Parkville Association calendar keeps either the park or the surrounding blocks at its center:
- Trick-or-Treat, Saturday, October 24, noon to 9 p.m. A day of Halloween fun for kids along Main Street.
- Final Friday, October 30. Live music and food at venues around downtown.
- Holiday Open House, Saturday, November 14, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Shops roll out their holiday merchandise.
- Gallery of Trees, Thursday, November 19, 5 to 10 p.m. A ticketed fundraiser for Christmas on the River. Last year's event was held at the historic VFW Post 7356 Power Plant and sold out.
- Small Business Saturday and the Mayor's Tree Lighting, Saturday, November 28. Shops are open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the tree lighting runs from 6 to 8 p.m. in Pocket Park. The association bills it as the "FIRST annual" tree lighting.
- Christmas on the River, Friday, December 4, 6 to 9:30 p.m. The festival is based at English Landing Park and includes Santa's North Pole House, a Christmas Market, costumed characters in Pocket Park, and the riverfront fireworks.
- Holiday Shop Hops, Thursdays December 10 and 17. Many of downtown's 40-plus businesses plan extended hours, open houses and specials.
The tree lighting is the item to watch. Parkville is starting a new tradition in Pocket Park this November, while the plans for how that corner will look and work in a few years are still being drawn.
Why the corner is on the drawing board
The city calls the project Redefine Route 9. It covers downtown from 4th Street south toward the Park University entrance, plus the downtown Triangle along 1st Street to Mill Street and west to S. Crooked Road. George Butler Associates and Confluence are the consultants.
The Triangle is the junction where Route 9 enters town and splits. The Platte County Landmark explained it this way. Westbound drivers either go straight into a four-way intersection or bear right and run north alongside Main Street. Eastbound drivers either go straight or bear left and stop for traffic coming out of downtown on 1st Street.
The fix the city chose builds a new street. It would leave Route 9 at a new traffic signal between Fire Protection District Station 1 and the fountain in front of White Farmhouse Flowers & Gifts at 8701 NW River Park Drive. From there it would run behind the fire station, meet South East Street north of the railroad, and connect to Main Street. Once the new street is in, 1st Street closes to traffic and becomes the promenade.
Part of the reason is underground. Mayor Dean Katerndahl told the Landmark that some of the city's infrastructure is nearly 150 years old. Ward 3 Alderman Douglas Wylie pointed to a sewer line that runs partly under 1st Street and an old steam pipe from the former power plant. Wylie explained the reasoning to the Landmark:
"If we are going to have to tear up the road to get to the sewer and the steam pipe, then we might as well fix up downtown too."
The Board of Aldermen adopted the Route 9 Corridor Study in 2016, and the stretch from Highway 45 to Lakeview Drive is already finished. The Landmark, citing the city's website, reported that the downtown portion has cost nearly $1 million so far, split roughly evenly between city tax transfers and a $500,000 Platte County grant. As of July, the total downtown cost was expected to reach $18 million.
Why this December looks like every other December
Over the summer, the working assumption was that construction could begin reshaping downtown soon after summer 2026. The latest timeline moves that back. According to the Landmark's October 9 report, Wylie said work is expected to start in spring 2027, beginning with the new street. As of the city's latest project update, no construction closures or detours are posted downtown. That update was a presentation from an August 4 work session.
So every event on this season's calendar takes place on the streets as they are now. The Triangle still splits, cars still use 1st Street, and the tree lighting will happen in a Pocket Park that looks the way it always has.
People who remember hearing the project would take a year and a half may want the update. Wylie told the Landmark that "most of the construction time will be on the new street." He said the downtown work will be done in sections. "We want all businesses on Main Street to stay open," he said, "so, while there may be construction outside one or two of the businesses, it will only last a few weeks." No firm completion date has been published. Katerndahl told the paper the city expected to hire a firm whose only job would be communicating with residents and business owners during construction.
Some downtown business owners disagree with the plan. The Landmark reported that two Main Street shop owners have gathered more than 150 signatures on a petition against the project, though it hadn't been submitted to the city, and that they doubt the construction timeline. In July, FOX4 talked with downtown owners on both sides. One worried about short-term sales during construction, and another supported the long-term redesign. The mayor's response, as quoted by the Landmark: "We are being very sensitive to downtown businesses. I live downtown and I do not want to see anything negative happen to it."
The survey asks about the Pocket Park lights
A public-input window opened at a September 30 open house at City Hall. Confluence senior principal Chris Cline told the Landmark that the design work had reached "the bells and whistles of the project." Those choices are now in Confluence's September 2026 Promenade Survey, which closes at 11:59 p.m. on October 30. That's the same night as Final Friday.
Several questions decide how the space between Pocket Park and the new promenade will look and feel at night:
- String lights. Three separate questions ask whether lights should hang over the promenade only, extend into "the existing pocket park on Main Street," or stretch across Main and East Streets.
- Lighting style. The options are Artistic Lighting, two String Lighting options, and an Underlit Precast Bench.
- Seating. The options are a Limestone Seatwall, Picnic Tables, a Precast Bench with Wood Mount, or Table and Chairs.
- Street trees. The choices are trees on both sides of the street, on the east side of Main Street, or no street trees.
- Outdoor dining. A five-point scale asks how much respondents support privately leased outdoor dining for neighboring businesses inside the promenade.
- The overall plan. Respondents pick Promenade Option 1, Option 2, or "I do not like either," and can leave comments on each. Both concept plans appear as drawings on the survey page.
Other questions cover benches, paver bands, bollards, planters, bike racks, wayfinding signs, kiosks, monument signs, and how sidewalk bump-outs should be landscaped. The "storytelling" options include bench plaques, a Boston Trail, a Discover Parkville QR code, utility-box wraps, and decorative paver inlays. Earlier meeting presentations and the city's FAQ sheets are posted on the project site.
The lighting questions are the most tied to this season. Pocket Park already hosts the Grinch photos, the holiday music and, for the first time this year, the Mayor's Tree Lighting. The survey's answers will help decide how that corner is lit for future holiday evenings.
Planning the season around 1st & Main
Next up is Trick-or-Treat on Main Street, Saturday, October 24, from noon to 9 p.m. The following Friday you can catch Final Friday music and send in your survey answers the same evening.
For Christmas on the River on December 4, free round-trip shuttles run all evening from the YMCA at 8875 Clark Avenue. Downtown shops and restaurants stay open with their own holiday open houses. Prima Facie and The Market @ Prima are on 1st Street itself, in the former Bank Liberty building at 12 E. First St. Both appear on the association's current dining list along with The Parker Hollow and Pop Culture. Parkville Jewelers and The Parlor Boutique are both on the association's downtown shopping list.
If you'd like a photo of the tree in Pocket Park the way the corner looks today, the 6 p.m. lighting on November 28 is the first chance, and Christmas on the River the following Friday is the second.
If you're weighing what a spring 2027 start means for your own corner of Parkville, from Main Street access to where you'd like to be living once 1st Street becomes a promenade, Kristi Porter and the team are happy to talk it through. We follow these local projects closely so you don't have to. Your Home Starts Here.
