A controversial plan to build apartments, townhomes and new commercial spaces in northwestern Olathe’s Cedar Creek area is going to the Olathe Planning Commission this week.
The commission will take up the rezoning and preliminary site development plan for the proposed 14-acre mixed-use project called Cedar Ridge on Monday during its regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m.
The proposal from Lenexa-based Oddo Development envisions a large multifamily complex and several thousand square feet of new commercial development near Valley Parkway and Cedar Creek Parkway, near the entrance to the high-end Cedar Creek community.
300+ multifamily units are planned
- A total of 300 apartment units are proposed in the initial E-shaped five-and-a-half-story building, which will also contain 5,000 square feet of commercial on the ground level.
- Additionally, the project calls for two townhome buildings: one with five units and the other with six units.
- Plus, three additional commercial buildings are proposed, totaling nearly 40,000 square feet on Valley Parkway.
- The Cedar Ridge project is expected to be built in two phases, starting with the primary multifamily housing building.
- The staff report said 55% of the existing green space will be preserved with the development plan, nearly three times more than what is required.
Development plans have roiled Cedar Creek community
Some neighbors have strongly opposed the development plans, with hundreds writing letters and emails in opposition, according to city documents.
In a 406-page packet of correspondence related to the project from the public, multiple letters cited concerns about how the development could contrast with the existing character of the neighborhood.
There were also complaints about potential crime, environmental issues and traffic. Some worried that potential residents of the apartments and townhomes might feel entitled to use the resort-style amenities available to Cedar Creek homeowners.
“I am diametrically opposed to [Oddo’s] plan. I do not want apartment buildings in my neighborhood,” Abraham Allen Sygman wrote in one email. “There’s not a single thing in this plan that benefits the current homeowners of Cedar Creek. Not one!”
Additionally, a group of residents are also planning to arrive early to Olathe City Hall on Monday to protest the project, per a Facebook event circulating in a Cedar Creek community Facebook group. As of Monday morning, about a dozen people had indicated their plans to attend.
Cedar Creek property once identified for hotel, event center
Today, the property is zoned as a community center district. Oddo wants to re-designate it under the Cedar Creek special zoning overlay, in line with the roughly 3,000-acre long-range development plan for this area of the city.
Before that, according to city documents, the property was part of a large annexation in the 1980s as part of what was called the Cedar Hills Village plan, later changed to Cedar Creek.
A subsequent plan, entitled the Green Book, called for mostly single-family homes and some commercial office development. The property now planned for the Cedar Ridge apartments was, at the time, identified for a hotel and event center development.
Eventually, the Green Book was converted to the Cedar Creek overlay district, which turned the focus of future development to nonresidential and mixed-use projects. In the area plan that came out of that process, the Cedar Ridge project property falls into one of the two Mixed-Use Town Centers.
Next steps:
- The planning commission meeting is at 7 p.m. Monday in the council chambers at City Hall.
- It will make a recommendation on whether to approve or deny the rezoning.
- The Olathe City Council will take up the Cedar Ridge mixed-use project after the planning commission.
- That body could approve the project, reject it out right, table it or send it back to the planning commission for further review.
- Then, if approved, the project will require a final site development plan.
Keep reading: Plan for 300 apartments in northern Olathe moves ahead
