Developers want to build a commercial site along Interstate 35 in southern Gardner, much to the chagrin of surrounding homeowners.
The city’s planning commission already denied the proposed project twice earlier this year. It goes again before the Gardner City Council on Monday for consideration.
The newly proposed commercial development faces I-35 and borders Waverly Road and 199th Street. Homeowners nearby have been urging the city to reject the plan, saying it will create congested truck traffic and unwelcome industrial light and sound pollution.
“We planned on this being our forever dream home,” said Melissa Lathrop, whose property shares a border with the project.
Changing from rural land to a possible heavy commercial warehouse district
The proposed multi-phase development calls for rezoning 57 acres at I-35, Waverly Road and 199th Street, from residential rural to heavy commercial land use. The proposal, which spans just over 200,000 square feet, includes:
- Three outdoor retail sales buildings ranging from 52,500 to 96,250 feet each
- Three storage buildings
- Four double-sided double-stacked digital highway billboards approximately 45 feet high
Behind the project are three local developers, including Lynn Baker with L&J Development LLC, Fred Wingert with Advantage Development and Wingert Billboards, and John and Theresa Voelk with F&M Properties, who also owned CT Transportation Inc.
The remaining 34 acres would remain rural with possible plans for dedicated green space and a recreational trail. The developers said proposed tenants for the buildings have not been disclosed at this time.
The site is located on land annexed last year into Gardner.
A presentation given to the Gardner Planning Commission and city council stated the developers were looking at placing lawn and garden type businesses similar to Grass Pad into the buildings, along with other light industrial warehouses and offices that will be known as the 199th St. Commerce Center.
Baker said he originally tried to farm the land when he bought the property 20 years ago, but it sits in the floodplain of a nearby creek.
“The real question is this property isn’t really good for farming, and what are you going to do with a property along I-35,” Baker said. “People aren’t going to be able to build houses along there.”
Baker reiterated the developers are also local farmers, and he expected the truck traffic to be minimal with box trucks not semi-trucks.
“We aren’t somebody who is trying to make a fast profit and skate on this thing,” Baker said.
Planning Commission denies the development twice
Commissioners denied the proposal 5-1 at the June meeting through three separate votes for the rezoning from residential rural to CP-3 (Planned Heavy Commercial), a preliminary development plan and a conditional use permit.
Community Development Director Dave Knopick told commissioners staff had denied the proposal because it was “too intense for the area”, the city had denied a previous proposal for a pet lodge at the site last year and the development would become “an origin or a destination point for commercial traffic” that doesn’t conform with the Gardner Comprehensive Plan and making commercial traffic enforcement difficult while “compounding the issue”.
Commissioners agreed with the staff findings that the current proposal didn’t fit the neighborhood, but some commissioners noted the strip of land next to the highway wasn’t suited for anything outside of commercial development or a park.
The city council remanded the proposal to the planning commission at a Sept. 2 meeting after a lengthy debate about the city’s need for revenue and attracting more businesses to the area.
Councilmembers requested planning commissioners look at the difference between the different commercial zonings for general retail sales, outdoor retail sales and light manufacturing, along with finding a way to reduce potential truck traffic.
Councilmember Kacy Deaton preferred to instead reject the project outright over her concerns with truck traffic.
“That’s basically all of our years of fighting the truck traffic, and then we are basically saying, ‘That’s OK, trucks can come here now,’” Deaton said.
However, the planning commission reaffirmed its denial in a 6-0 vote during the commission’s Sept. 22 meeting.
Notes in the meeting agenda go into detail about how the item was pulled by Mayor Todd Winters from a scheduled July public hearing, as the city met in private meetings with the developers to discuss ways to work around the 199th Street banned truck traffic ordinance, before rescheduling the public hearing for Sept. 2.
Winters and Shute disclosed at the Sept. 2 meeting they had ex-parte communications with the developers.
“Please respect your citizens of Gardner”
Lathrop and her husband, Todd, purchased 10 acres off of 199th Street eight years ago after leaving Overland Park with plans to retire in the rural part of the county.
Since 2017, the Lathrops have invested in their 10 acres, including a recent million-dollar pool and backyard renovation.
Melissa gave the Post a tour of their property and pointed out how the proposed project, including billboards on the western end, would ruin their visual sight lines and cause truck traffic, among other issues.
“Once these leaves fall, it is all that we will see,” Melissa Lathrop said. “We did not move out here to be neighbors with giant commercial property and billboards.”
The Lathrops and several of their neighbors were annexed into the city of Gardner last year in order to protect themselves from industrial warehouse development down the road in Edgerton.
Two years prior to the annexation, Gardner posted No Truck Traffic signs on 199th Street to curb unwanted semi-truck traffic on the two-lane road after years of residents’ complaints. Truck traffic is currently prohibited along this stretch of road.
“Gardner came to us and said if we annexed in voluntarily, they would be able to protect what happens with the property around us, and so we thought that was a good idea,” Todd Lathrop said. “All we are asking is for the city to follow through with that protection.”
Gary and Lisa Lee live on the south side of 199th Street in unincorporated Johnson County directly across from the proposed site. The couple said they fear they will have to sell their home of 11 years if the city goes through with the development plans and cited concerns that the site is already poorly managed and sits on a floodplain.
“The floodplain continues right across the street also, so everything they put in that is asphalt will increase the water run-off, and that run-off is coming from them to my property,” Gary Lee said.
Frank Bannister lives at the other end of 199th Street on Gardner Road and shared his concerns for the safety of children at Nike Elementary School as he sees semi-truck traffic back up on Gardner Road daily with a lack of law enforcement.
“It might be the right thing, but it is in the wrong place,” Bannister said.
Bannister also said he felt because Mayor Todd Winters and Councilmember Steve Shute had previously received campaign donations in 2021 from two of the developers taht they should “ethically recuse themselves” from voting.
The Post found 2021 campaign contributions through the Johnson County Election Office, including $500 from Lynn Baker, one of the developers, to Mayor Winters, and $500 from Fred Wingert, another developer, to Shute.
Mary Freund and her family, who live nearby along Gardner Road, also expressed frustration with the proposed commercial plan, saying, “we elected Gardner because we thought we were promised and (the city) was telling us they would protect us and not let the trucks and warehouses invade our privacy and our property. Please respect your citizens of Gardner.”
