A slightly modified version of the controversial mixed-use plan in Olathe’s high-end Cedar Creek area goes to the Olathe City Council after several weeks of waiting.
On Tuesday, the city council will consider the requested rezoning and a preliminary site development plan for Oddo Development’s 14-acre Cedar Ridge project, which includes 300 apartments, townhomes and some commercial zones.
The project is proposed near the Cedar Creek neighborhood’s entrance, near Valley Parkway and Cedar Creek Parkway off Kansas Highway 10.
Previously, the Olathe Planning Commission narrowly recommended a slightly different version of the project for approval, 4-3.
Since the planning commission meeting, neighbors — who have strongly opposed the Cedar Ridge project — have filed a valid protest petition. That means the city council will need to have six of seven councilmembers vote to approve the project over the petition.
What’s proposed in the Cedar Ridge project?
- The plan still features 300 apartment units in the main building.
- That being said, changes in the complex’s placement on the property have eliminated one townhome unit, expanded planned amenity zones and increased the preservation zone by about 6,000 square feet.
- Additionally, Oddo has reduced the footprint and moved one of the standalone commercial buildings planned.
Cedar Creek neighbors largely oppose the mixed-use plan
Residents from Cedar Creek communities neighboring the Cedar Ridge project have forcefully spoken out against the project over the past couple of months.
During public comments before the planning commission and on social media, neighbors have cited concerns about their property valuations, potential environmental impacts and traffic increases as their primary reasons for opposing the development.
Some residents have said they fear that the apartments and the people who would live in them could spell the end of Cedar Creek’s “uniqueness” as a community with private resort-like amenities.
“If you allow this to go through, you will destroy [Cedar Creek],” resident Nick Payne said in March.
Rezoning would bring property in line with community, Oddo says
- The property is zoned as under Olathe’s community center district, or C-2.
- Oddo wants to have it rezoned under Cedar Creek’s special zoning overlay, or CC.
- That would bring the zoning designation in line with the roughly 3,000-acre Cedar Creek Area Plan that Olathe adopted for this part of the city in 2012.
- Under that Cedar Creek plan, the property at the corner of Cedar Creek and Valley parkways was identified as one of two designated future “Mixed-Use Town Center” zones.
Looking back: Project bringing apartments and shops to Olathe’s Cedar Creek ekes out narrow win
