Johnson County is developing a transportation connection plan for the rural, southwestern fringe, all in response to the new Panasonic Energy Electric Vehicle Battery Plant in De Soto about to come online at the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.
The county’s transportation plan — the draft of which can be found here — seeks to connect the site of the former plant, now dubbed Astra Enterprise Park, to neighboring southwest communities Olathe, Gardner and Edgerton as well as Douglas County to the west.
At focus is identifying and developing a major north-south corridor to connect Kansas Highway 10 to 159th Street, and reviewing the County’s Comprehensive Arterial Roadway Network Plan for the Kill Creek and 111th street corridors.
Shirley Allenbrand, county commissioner representing the sixth district, told the Post the county is trying to get the word out to receive feedback from affected residents.
“We have tried to do as little confusion and disruption as we can,” Allenbrand said. “This was going to be developed…When they (Sunflower) left, they donated property to the county for redevelopment again, and it has sat here all this time.”
Allenbrand said the county’s role is to partner with neighboring communities in helping with roads and bridges, including building more roads for projected traffic growth and connecting them throughout southwest Johnson County to help divert and ease more traffic away from the K-10 Highway corridor.
“We have to do something — the growth is so fast,” Allenbrand said.
The road map plan for southwestern Johnson County
Officials with Johnson County and the Kansas Department of Transportation met with local residents at an open house on June 11 in De Soto, and shared proposed maps that would create access to arterial and county roads from neighboring Edgerton, Gardner, Olathe, Eudora, and unincorporated parts of Johnson and Douglas counties to the new Astra Enterprise Park and $4 billion Panasonic Battery Plant in De Soto.
Kip Strauss, transportation planning director with HNTB, said the county has many more steps to take before the proposed road plans come to fruition.
“But we have to be proactive and be good stewards to the county and residents,” Strauss said.
Strauss said Lawrence and Douglas County representatives have been also been involved with the study.
“I think their biggest interest was they wanted us to know how important 143rd Street was,” Strauss said. “They saw it as important linkage to Olathe.”
changes from the current plan. Image via county documents.
Key focus areas of the transportation connection plan
Focal points of the county’s plan are generally:
- Reconnection of the Astra Enterprise Park via a few east-west routes and building a new major north-south corridor through the site
- Expanding the Kill Creek corridor between K-10 Highway and 143rd Street
- Expanding 143rd Street between the Johnson/Douglas county line and Moonlight Road — including making 143rd a four-lane corridor between Edgerton Road and Four Corners Road
- Expanding Moonlight Road between 135th and 175th streets to a four-lane corridor
A comprehensive list of recommended changes can be found here.
Future land use for the area is also being studied by the county in regards to sewer challenges, continued hazardous materials clean-up from the U.S. Army, expanded parks and more development.
The land use also recognizes environmental constraints from floodplains, topography, county parks, oil and gas wells, and hazmat sites.
The U.S. Army Corps has been working to decontaminate and clean up the hazardous site in the years since taking it over in 2005. Officials have stated they expect the land to be fully remediated by 2028.
In the meantime, county officials said they expect the population of the immediate surrounding area to grow from 26,000 people in 2020 to 147,000 people in 2050, and 13,000 employees in 2020 to 71,000 employees in 2050.
KDOT also has its own plans with the $1.16 billion K-10 Capacity Improvement Project for the 16.5 mile stretch of the state highway connecting the Douglas/Johnson county line to I-435 in Johnson County. The stretch from Lenexa to De Soto has been seeing redevelopment growth in recent years.
KDOT’s site plans for K-10 Highway include widening the highway from four to six lanes, interchange improvements, pavement and bridge replacements, system improvements and non-roadway solutions.
County officials said the plan will also be used as a blueprint for future development and infrastructure improvements in southwestern Johnson County.
De Soto annexed 6,000 acres of the site in 2022 and renamed it Astra Enterprise Park. (https://www.desotoks.us/392/Astra-Enterprise-Park). The park includes 2,700 acres set aside for parks, 1,350 acres for industrial development, 3,000 acres for a utility-scale solar park and 2,500 acres for multi-use/light industrial development. A new fire station for the park is also being built.
Allenbrand said 2,000 acres of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant had also been annexed to the county for park use after it closed over 30 years ago and connecting the neglected roads to the area was even more important.
“That is going to be the most innovative park when it is completed,” Allenbrand said.
Pushback from rural county residents
A projected traffic study of the area shows the county expects traffic volumes on Edgerton Road to increase by five to six times its current use within the next few years.
Still, several local residents at the open house earlier this month, most of whom live on Edgerton Road, were alarmed with the county plans to turn the two-lane 35 to 45 mph road into a four-lane 55 mph road.
Lisa Huppe of Edgerton, who lives near the corner of 175th Street and Edgerton Road, said the county’s plans for expanding Edgerton Road to four lanes will cut through her property and take out her house.
“I am so sick of fighting Johnson County,” Huppe said. “They are looking at this backwards. I do not want a four-lane highway.”
Strauss said the road changes in certain marked areas will only occur when development occurs.
“If it doesn’t develop, it is not going to change from how it is today,” Strauss said.
Strauss noted if the traffic volumes increased for people traveling roads to and from Panasonic and Logistics Park in Edgerton, then road changes would also be made.
Chad and Krista Wilson, who own Prairie Center Meats on Edgerton Road, said they were “very frustrated”, and 60 of their neighbors would also be impacted. They said they do not know how they can plan their future as business owners.
“How do we develop, how do we grow?” Krista Wilson said. “That land is everything to us. That is how we feed our family and how we feed other families.”
The Wilsons said they are passionate about preserving rural Johnson County, but feel the rural part of the county no longer exists.
“Everybody is really happy here,” Krista Wilson said. “We don’t want this.”
The Wilsons said they worry about having to move from the home and business they have always known and, if they moved further out, whether their customers would follow.
“I don’t know where we would go,” Krista Wilson said. “We have worked to build a business that we are really proud of, and we have a great customer base where we are.”
James Thomas, who has lived on the east side of Edgerton Road in an unincorporated area for over 50 years, said it didn’t make sense to him to use Edgerton Road as a connecting thoroughfare in southwestern Johnson County.
“They should go Evening Star and County Line Road, as there is less families and houses that are going to be impacted,” Thomas said.
Some property owners on Edgerton Road complained the county hadn’t sent out information about the proposed changes and believed the changes would be implemented before the county’s proposed timeline of 2060.
What’s next?
Strauss with HNTB said the study and comments from residents will be sent to the county commissioners this fall.
Comments on the plan can be emailed to PWKGeneralEmail@jocogov.org.
Each community within the study area of the Johnson County Transportation Connection Plan may use the plan to update or further study its own comprehensive and transportation plans.
Additionally, more communication to elected officials as well as constituents may take place, as well as coordination between communities in the study area for planning and building future developments and infrastructure.
Go deeper: Read about the Comprehensive Arterial Road Network Plan (CARNP), which was originally
published in 1999, here.
