An assortment of drive-thru restaurants and retail shops are headed to the southwest corner of 135th Street and Antioch Road near the brand-new OsLo Living apartments.
The latest portion of the larger mixed-use OsLo project—which is tied to developer Ryan Companies’ 400 apartments next door—comes from the Frey family trust. The family ran a garden and tree nursery on this corner for multiple generations.
Last week, the Overland Park City Council voted 8-4 to approve a revised preliminary development plan for the OsLo Marketplace commercial hub. Councilmembers Melissa Cheatham, Drew Mitrisin, Logan Heley and Richard Borlaza voted against the plan.
OsLo Marketplace will be mostly drive-thrus
- A total of three drive-thru restaurants are proposed, according to the site plan.
- That includes a 7Brew, an Arkansas-based coffee chain that only operates as a drive-thru.
- There will also be a Chase Bank branch as well as an additional multi-tenant retail building.
- No other tenants have been announced for the two remaining drive-thru spots or the additional tenant spaces beyond the 7Brew and Chase Bank.
- In the previously approved plan for OsLo Marketplace, there was one fewer drive-thru restaurant, but the bank was going to have a drive-thru.
‘We have to live with these decisions’
Councilmembers who opposed the development plans posed a myriad of concerns, though many seemed to hesitate over the auto-centric use and the development’s divergence from some principles in Framework OP, the city’s new comprehensive plan that guides decisions on land use and development.
Previously, city staff had raised several concerns about the project as well, chief among them a skepticism of its fit with the city’s comprehensive plan. Still, the Overland Park Planning Commission ultimately recommended the plan’s approval.
“We have to live with these decisions for a long time,” Mitrisin said last Monday, noting that small-scale drive-thrus such as what’s planned in the OsLo commercial hub are hard to redevelop.
Even Councilmember Chris Newlin, who supported the project as presented in the end, voiced hesitancy as well, though he ultimately seemed hopeful that the hold-ups could be addressed as individual buildings come to the planning commission for final approval.
“My mind has flipped over to 51% of leaning in favor of this,” he said.
Councilmember Inas Younis expressed similar sentiments, also noting that this part of the city is already geared towards automobiles.
“This corner is very auto-centric, and I don’t think that changing one or two components or elements of the plan is going to change that,” she said. “It’s just something that is very organic to that area.”
Next steps:
- Now that the revised preliminary development plan for the OsLo Marketplace has gone through the city approval process, final development plans come next.
- Those will likely be divided up and submitted by individual pad site in the wider development,
- First up is Chase Bank, which has a final development plan on the planning commission’s agenda on Monday, Feb. 10.
- The 7Brew final plan is scheduled for March.
More about OsLo in Overland Park: Developers break ground on new 400-apartment complex at 135th and Antioch
