Plans for a nearly 42-acre subdivision in an open field in western Shawnee are underway. However, nearby homeowners worry that the surrounding streets will be unable to accommodate a possible spike in traffic.
The Shawnee Planning Commission, at its meeting earlier this month, advanced plans for rezoning and a preliminary plat for Village at Clear Creek, the planned development proposed by Prieb Homes Inc. of Olathe.
Located on the northwest corner of 71st Street and Clare Road, the proposed neighborhood includes 62 single-family residential lots on six tracts of land and a public street right-of-way.
According to a project narrative, the plan also leaves 15 acres undeveloped along Clear Creek, to the west of the homes, for native grasses and open green space.
Despite some concerns from neighboring residents, the planning commission voted 9-0 to recommend approval of the project, with commissioners Paul Goode II and John Hanson absent.
Olathe-based engineering firm Phelps Engineering is the applicant.
The project will be built on undeveloped land
The site consists of two unplatted parcels totaling about 41 acres of undeveloped land, including wooded grassland, overgrown pastures and a small pond.
The property once contained a farmhouse, several barns and other structures at the southwest corner of the property off 71st Street, according to city documents. The last farmhouse was removed in 2010.
The site was home to the Old Virginia Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1877 and then relocated around 2005 to near Mize Elementary off Mize Road, according to city documents.
Currently zoned agricultural and residential suburban, the site would be rezoned to single-family residential (R-1) if approved by the Shawnee City Council.
A previous proposal for the site
In 2005, the Shawnee City Council approved rezoning the land from agricultural to residential suburban as well as a final plat for a residential project that comprised 74 lots on more than 70 acres, according to city documents.
In 2008, the developer abandoned that project. Since then, the land has sat vacant and undeveloped.
The northern 30 acres of the original 70-acre plan has since been transferred to an unnamed owner who intends to develop the property one single family home, according to city documents.
While the original residential project was still moving forward in 2007 and 2008, Johnson County Wastewater installed public sewer mains throughout the site, which are still in place.
Traffic concerns remain with Clare Road
During the planning commission meeting on March 3, residents expressed concerns that building a new development alongside Clare Road would cause traffic safety issues, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.
Clare Road is currently a narrow, unimproved two-lane road, classified by the city as a “Minor Arterial” (which means it gets 10,000 to 30,000 vehicles per day, according to the city’s Achieve Shawnee comprehensive plan).
During the meeting, Janelle Clayton, a co-owner of the engineering firm Merge Midwest Engineering, noted that a recent traffic study conducted by her firm on that stretch of Clare Road snowed the street likely sees about 200 vehicles per day.
Meanwhile, 71st Street is classified as a “Minor Residential Collector,” meaning it gets roughly 3,000 vehicles per day, according to the comprehensive plan.
The city has no plans in the immediate future to improve 71st or Clare. However, both streets are flagged in the city’s comprehensive plan as “Green Collector Streets,” which means that Shawnee would preserve the right-of-way to allow for future street widening to accommodate an increase in traffic.
Regardless, some residents said allowing the new homes to be built before the roads can accommodate the traffic increase made no sense.
“We have no sidewalks there. I can’t even walk my dog off my street safely,” said Kathy Inkley, who lives near the proposed development. “I have to take my life into my hands on Clare Road or on 71st Street, or walk down into the ditch, at which point I have almost twisted my ankle numerous times doing so.”
John Dudgeon, a resident at the nearby Greens of Chapel Creek neighborhood, expressed similar worries, saying he and his dog walk in the ditch when heading to the nearby Erfurt Park.
Jack Krizman, also a nearby resident on Arapahoe Drive, worried about how construction vehicles will navigate the narrow roads.
“What road are they going to use? Are they going to go through our neighborhood, which is 67th Terrace onto Clare Road?” he said. “If there’s a construction vehicle on Clare Road, no one’s going anywhere until that vehicle’s out of the way, period.”
He added: “Those roads aren’t built to carry heavy equipment and those roads are going to get torn up, and then Shawnee is going to have to rebuild those roads.”
The city is looking into the roads
Commissioners acknowledged concerns about adding more traffic to the already narrow Clare Road.
Responding to those concerns, city staff said they’re planning future traffic projects in the area, including a roundabout at 71st and Clare, as well as ensuring the developer builds a shared-use path along the north side of 71st.
While the road improvements to 71st and Clare are not included in the city’s current capital improvement program, they will likely come along as the development does, said Doug Allmon, the city’s community development director.
“It’s almost a chicken-before-the-egg type thing,” Allmon said. “If you don’t have trips and density, there’s not a necessity, compared to other parts of the city, necessarily, for road improvements.”
“So every time a subdivision is approved — and in this case, (the project is) at least on an intersection that has the ability to do some improvements — each time a subdivision is approved, that just puts more pressure on the Capital Improvements team to get roads done,” he added.
Comparing the development of Village at Clear Creek to the development of Greens of Chapel Creek decades ago, Allmon said they’ve seen this kind of change happen as new subdivisions are constructed.
“When Chapel Creek was developed, Gleason (Road) was improved to a collector (road) standard. So there is a rhyme and a reason for that,” he said. “And I will say Gleason was thought to be a traffic carrier back in 2010 (or) ’12, when Chapel Creek was done, because it was improved to a wider standard. And no homes, if I recall, face that street.”
What’s next
The Shawnee City Council will consider the rezoning and preliminary plat during its meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday.
Other Shawnee land news: Decades ago, developers eyed Shawnee plot for shopping center. What happens now?
