Kansas City, Kan. ? The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., is considering building the city’s first major levee in more than 50 years.

The project first surfaced 20 years ago when the city was considering building a development north of Wyandotte County Lake Park in a Missouri River flood plain called Wolcott Bottoms. Building a levee would have cost millions, and federal funds weren’t available.

But now the Unified Government believes it can build the levee without federal help. It has started talking with the Army Corps of Engineers about building the levee, said LaVert Murray, the Unified Government’s development director.

The levee would provide 500-year flood protection, meaning that every year there would be one chance in 500 that water would top the levee. The city currently has two such levees: one on the Missouri River protecting industries in the Fairfax district and another on the Kansas River for businesses in Armourdale.

To pay for the levee, the Unified Government would use sales-tax revenue from a mixed-use project that would complement the Village West development by Kansas Speedway. Unified Government officials estimate it would cost about $30 million to build the levee and a new interchange at Interstate 435.

“This is an area that’s been talked about for development prospects for a long time,” Mayor Joe Reardon said. “We do think there’s good potential there, but there are infrastructure needs that are unique and challenging for the site.”

Officials won’t provide details about the mix-use development project, including its cost. All they say is that they’re considering a development that would include retail, residential, recreation and entertainment on a 2,000-acre site.

Like the Village West development, which attracts more than 10 million visitors a year, it would use tax increment financing to help pay for infrastructure, including the two- to three-mile levee.

The Unified Government has scheduled a May 3 public hearing to discuss creating a tax-increment financing district at the largely agricultural site.