A project bringing a mix of hundreds of single-family homes, townhomes and apartments, as well as more than a dozen industrial buildings, in southern Olathe is moving ahead.
The Olathe City Council on Tuesday voted 7-0 to approve a rezoning and preliminary site development plan for the roughly 250-acre development, dubbed Park 169, near U.S. Highway 169 and 167th Street.
Previously, the Olathe Planning Commission recommended approving the project. Subsequently, a group of neighbors submitted a protest petition that was determined by city staff to be invalid due to a lack of sufficient certified sign-on from adjacent property owners.
Park 169 plan includes 700+ housing units
- The Park 169 plan shows three different residential zoning districts on the eastern portion of the property.
- At the center, there are two separate medium-density districts.
- The first will have five, three-story apartment buildings each with 30 units and 33 townhomes with four units each for a total of 282 units.
- A second district will have 13 more townhome structures with eight to 10 units a piece, totaling 118 units.
- To the east, another area with 94 lots will be zoned for duplexes, for a total of 118 living units.
- To close out the housing portion of Park 169, an additional subdivision of 113 single-family homes is also planned.
Industrial elements dominate Park 169 plan
- Still, most of the project — roughly 140 of the total 250 acres — is dedicated to industrial development, with 13 general industrial buildings planned on the western side of the property.
- Those buildings will range in size from about 60,000 square feet to nearly 265,000 square feet, but their specific uses remain unclear.
- Burlington Northern Railroad tracks are located just west of the Park 169 site.
- Some uses — like power plants, recycling centers and storage facilities — that would typically be allowed in a general industrial district will be prohibited in this particular development because the city considers them too intense for this site.
Developer will have some infrastructure work to do
- Chief Development Engineer for Olathe Charlie Love said a new traffic study will be required between each of the four planned phases of construction.
- Additionally, the developer will be responsible for building out Barker Road, running through the middle of the site, which will divide the industrial and residential sections of the project.
- Plus, they will need to add turn lanes, add a traffic signal at 159th Street and Barker and upgrade parts of 167th Street.
- Outside the development area, the developer will need to help upgrade the intersection at 159th Street and US-169.
- Ahead of the final phase of the development, a long-awaited 167th Street overpass must first be built, city staff said. That’s still several years away, according to the capital improvement plan.
Councilmembers worried about traffic
Multiple councilmembers indicated their concerns about increased traffic in the area.
In particular, they were worried about the potential for congestion stemming from trucks that will originate from the industrial side of the project, as well as the regular vehicle traffic from the residential side.
“It is a good project,” Councilmember Dean Vakas said in explaining his affirmative vote. “You just have to keep up with [the traffic] as the phases go by.”
Mayor John Bacon said he liked the idea of having employers in such close proximity to housing, giving people an opportunity to live and work in the same neighborhood.
Looking ahead:
- Olathe will still need to sign off on a final site development plan for the Park 169 project in the future.
- Additionally, according to a report in Tuesday’s city council agenda, the developer — Blue Springs Safety Storage South, LLC — has requested the city issue $252.9 million in industrial revenue bonds and approve a 10-year, 50% property tax abatement on the industrial side of the Park 169 development.
- The city council is set to formally hear the request for those incentives and vote on a resolution of intent to issue them on Sept. 3.
Looking back: Olathe commission OKs 250-acre plan that includes apartments, homes and industrial sites
