Despite vocal opposition from nearby residents, the Olathe City Council last week unanimously approved a roughly 109-acre expansion of a rock quarry southeast of 151st Street and Old 56 Highway.

The expansion will extend the quarry northwest, closer to the Oak Run and Lakestone Estates neighborhoods across Old 56 Highway.

The existing 555-acre quarry currently operates under a permit approved in 1988 with no expiration date.

That permit required a 100-foot setback from the property that will now be the expansion, which was owned by a separate entity at the time. The new special-use permit removes that requirement, allowing the quarry to expand onto the setback.

The Olathe Planning Commission recommended approving the expansion 6-2 and the new operating requirements 7-1, respectively.

How they voted

Here’s how members of the planning commission voted:

Expansion approval:

Wayne Janner: Yes
Taylor Breen: Absent
Chip Corcoran: Yes
Keith Brown: Yes
Tony Bergida: No
Jim Terrones: Yes
Megan Lynn: No
Ken Chapman: Yes
Scott Seeling: Yes

Operating requirements amendments:

Wayne Janner: Yes
Taylor Breen: Absent
Chip Corcoran: Yes
Keith Brown: Yes
Tony Bergida: No
Jim Terrones: Yes
Megan Lynn: Yes
Ken Chapman: Yes
Scott Seeling: Yes

As part of the agreement, quarry owner Johnson County Aggregates agreed to a list of stipulations that would update the almost 40-year permit, which has fewer and less strict regulations.

At the Olathe City Council meeting on Oct. 6, councilmembers said rejecting the expansion would leave residents to deal with the issues they already face with the existing quarry. But residents expressed concern that the expansion would only worsen those issues.

Neighbors said they already experience dust around their homes and blasting that rattles their windows. Additional concerns raised by neighbors included impacts on air and water quality, the risk of lowered property values and the possibility that the city won’t enforce blasting rules.

Twelve people addressed the Planning Commission on Sept. 14, and seven spoke at the city council meeting. Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Dean Vakas said he received at least 35 emails from residents.

Some residents asked why stronger protections depended on allowing the quarry to expand and wondered whether the city would enforce the new requirements.

“Mayor [John] Bacon, earlier tonight you said Olathe is committed to creating a community where people are safe,” nearby resident Angela Myers said. “I’m asking you to keep us safe.”

The proposal

The expansion property sits northwest of the existing quarry and is currently used for agriculture.

The approval allows surface quarrying there for 10 years. Underground mining would be allowed for 15 years after it begins or through Dec. 31, 2051, whichever comes first.

Johnson County Aggregates will donate the expansion property to the city after quarrying ends, as part of the agreement. Possible uses for the reclaimed land stated in city documents include parks, open space or underground warehousing.

Curtis Petersen, an attorney for Polsinelli who represented Johnson County Aggregates, said the company developed the improvements in response to concerns from neighbors and city staff.

“Dust mitigation was the number one thing we heard,” he said.

The special use permit came with two-and-a-half pages of stipulations, including:

• Upgrades to dust suppression equipment
• Increasing street sweeping along 159th Street from twice a week to daily
• All quarrying must be completely screened from public view using berms
• The company must continue to monitor dust levels, submit quarterly laboratory testing to a third-party lab and provide annual reports to the city
• Adding operating hours
• Work at the surface of the quarry will now be limited to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
• Surface blasting will be limited to once daily between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, with exceptions for immediate safety hazards that need to be addressed.
• Property owners within 1,500 feet will be notified before the blasting
• The company must keep a complaint log that will be available to the city upon request

The 1988 permit required quarrying to stay 600 feet from Old 56 Highway to the north and west, which will be maintained under the new permit.

It also mandated tree barriers from the quarry and some measures to prevent road dust like street sweeping.

City staff did say rock, dust and mud carried onto 159th Street, which they said was a safety concern. They also acknowledged that some trees required of the original permit to be preserved were removed to redirect drainage.

City staff said the existing quarry has complied with federal and state air-quality limits, however, which are checked through annual inspections by Johnson County’s Environmental Division.

City documents say the existing quarry is over 1,000 feet from the nearest residential property. With the expansion, that distance will be reduced to 700 feet.

Residents are still concerned

The additional stipulations and regulations didn’t fully ease residents’ concerns, however.

“In an ideal world, everything they say will come true,” Oak Run resident Jennifer Boudreaux said to the city council. “But we cannot leave that to chance.”

Blake Koger, who also lives in Oak Run, asked the city council to require air testing before expansion work begins. He shared a concern with other residents that timing and location of baseline air testing would skew future tests.

“Measure the air before you let them dig,” he said.

Lakestone Estates resident Nancy Bottlemy said she is already affected by the sound from the quarry.

“If I have a day off and I want to go sit out on my back porch with a cup of coffee, I do think twice about that,” she said.

“Boxed into a corner”

Councilmembers emphasized that rejecting the expansion wouldn’t close the existing quarry.

Councilmember LeEtta Felter said she understood residents wanted the city council to vote against the request, but said the new stipulations would be an opportunity to improve existing conditions.

“I know you want a ‘no’ vote tonight,” she said. “But let’s look at this and see, are we going to make your lives better with these controls?”

Councilmember Jeff Creighton said he felt city council was being “boxed into a corner.”

“It just frustrates me that almost forty years ago a decision was made and now we’re trying to fix it,” he said.