Johnson County town makes way for industrial park expansion despite neighbors’ pleas
The Edgerton City Council dealt a blow to surrounding homeowners on Thursday as it agreed to rezone hundreds of acres of rural land to make way for a large expansion of its industrial park.
Hundreds of residents, many of whom live outside of Edgerton’s city limits in unincorporated Johnson and Miami counties, have been fighting the expansion. They are frustrated that Edgerton leaders continue to annex more farmland, making way for the development of more warehouses at the ever-encroaching Logsitics Park Kansas City.
They say their quiet, rural way of life is threatened as the industrial park continues to expand south of Interstate 35. That has led about 300 residents to petition to form their own city in Miami County. They hope that incorporating into their own town will help protect their borders, so that surrounding farmland is preserved.
The developers argue that the industrial park’s growth has overwhelmingly benefited the entire region, bringing 4,800 jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue.
The multi-modal Logistics Park Kansas City took shape in 2013, bringing a major hub of employment to the small town of 1,700 residents. Now, the park spans across dozens of buildings, occupied by industry giants like Amazon, Walmart and UPS.
NorthPoint Development, a national developer of commercial and industrial projects based in Riverside in Kansas City’s Northland, is working to expand the second phase of the park. In 2018, NorthPoint added warehouses south of I-35 for the first time, that are now home to Hostess and Kubota Tractor Corp.
And now it has purchased nearly 800 acres south of the interstate to make way for at least 11 new warehouses. The Edgerton City Council last month approved the rezoning of more than 130 of those acres, from rural to industrial land.
And on Thursday night, the City Council agreed to rezone 540 more acres. Another 106 acres will be voted on this summer.
The City Council was split on whether to approve the rezoning requests, with Councilman Joshua Beem voting against all of the proposals, and Councilman Ron Conus voting against many of them.
A Change.org petition fighting to stop the industrial park expansion has garnered nearly 3,000 signatures.
The rezoning approval is only the first step for developers.
NorthPoint could next bring a site plan for the new warehouse development to the City Council. Any projects built in the second phase of industrial park development will be granted a 10-year, 100% property tax abatement, the City Council previously decided.
In the meantime, residents continue to speak out against the industrial park expanding closer to their homes in Miami County. They have submitted a petition to form their own town to the Miami County Board of Commissioners, which will consider it on June 23.
If approved, the new city would span nine square miles, near Spring Hill, Gardner and Edgerton, and have more than 700 residents.
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 2:32 PM.
