A new mixed residential neighborhood with single-family homes and duplexes planned near 172nd Street and Metcalf Avenue in southern Overland Park has cleared a key hurdle.
Earlier this week, the Overland Park City Council voted 11-0 to advance the required rezoning and preliminary development plan, paving the way for the Blackhawk Trail development on the mostly untouched property at 17205 Metcalf Pl.
The property is east of U.S. Highway 69, and the Blue River runs through the site.
Since it came with a unanimous recommendation from the Overland Park Planning Commission, the rezoning application was part of the city council’s planning consent agenda on Monday. That means the city council didn’t individually discuss the item before approving it alongside a series of other applications from the planning commission.
Councilmember Sam Passer was absent from the meeting.
Blackhawk Trail will feature 150+ units
- Blackhawk Trail will have 134 duplex units and up to 17 single-familly homes (though the homes are purely conceptual at this point).
- To allow that forward, the developer, Domino Acquisitions LLC, needs approval to rezone a rural and mostly undeveloped property for residential use.
- A previous version of Blackhawk Trail included a partial rezoning for low-density, garden-style apartments, but the applicant removed that component from the proposal.
- Plus, a trail is planned at the western edge of the site, and three ponds will be created in the neighborhood.
- Major traffic improvements are not required for this development, but the developer will need to realign a portion of Metcalf Place.
Neighbors fret about suburban sprawl
Blackhawk Trail is one in a series of developments that have popped up around that area of US-69 and Metcalf.
The projects have typically come with pushback from neighboring residents living in the more rural parts of southern Overland Park and in the unincorporated community of Stilwell.
Many residents have said they’d prefer to see that area maintain its existing character. Others have said they see developments like the Blackhawk Trail neighborhood plan as a suburban invasion.
Since the rezoning was on the consent agenda Monday, there wasn’t an opportunity for public comment specific to that item. However, Marlene Carter, a Stilwell resident, used the regular open comment at the start of the meeting to speak against the project.
She worried that the plan was “not safe” because of potential flooding and what she viewed as shortcomings in the traffic plan.
Keep reading: OP commission endorses plan for nearly 900 apartments on corner that’s seen proposals come and go before
