Sunflower Ammo redevelopment plan survives challenge from Johnson County leader
The latest plans to redevelop the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant into a massive new industrial business center survived a challenge this week from one Johnson County leader critical of a major tax incentive component of the project.
The vote by a majority of the Board of County Commissioners on Thursday to support the project effectively clears the path for a series of construction and tax incentive plans to advance this spring, which officials hope will bring the first substantial construction at the contaminated former U.S. Army site since it made rocket propellant during the war in Vietnam.
The new plans, led by the city of De Soto and the Sunflower Redevelopment company, envision bringing 10 million square feet of new industrial and light manufacturing space to thousands of acres on the site that are poised to receive their final environmental cleanup certifications this year.
“I appreciate what the city of De Soto is going through and this area, the old ammunition plant, if there’s ever an area that’s been blighted, I would suggest that this is it,” County Commission Chairman Ed Eilert said. “Even though the U.S. Army is involved in removing the toxic and explosive aspects of the old ammunition plant, there is still work that needs to be done to clean up to standards that are required by (the state environmental agency). I think this is a good step forward.”
De Soto initiated the latest series of plans for the long-decaying site by annexing 6,000 acres of the total 9,000-acre into its city limits — doubling the acreage of the town — and striking a new set of development agreements with the Sunflower Redevelopment group that has been working alongside the army to clean up the site since 2005.
Although the army’s cleanup efforts are expected to continue through at least 2026, state environmental officials are expected to designate northeast portions of the site as free of contaminants within the year, so officials jump-started new plans to begin construction on the first industrial space as soon as those state certifications are issued.
At the crux of those plans is a tax-increment financing district, or TIF, that includes all of the new acreage brought into the city for the next 20 years, which will allow Sunflower Development to keep a large portion of the money that would otherwise be paid to the city in rising property taxes as the value of the land rises and instead reinvest that into infrastructure at the site. That funding also will help offset more than $105 million in environmental cleanup costs not covered by the army’s federally funded $200 million cleanup efforts.
But County Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara has been a vocal critic of such incentives, arguing instead that the federal government should fund every penny of the cleanup. She asked the commission to consider vetoing the tax-increment financing district, which the county is permitted to do under state law if it can establish it will be “adversely impacted.”
“I do have great concerns about public money from property taxes here in Johnson County being diverted to clean up what the federal government has an obligation to do,” O’Hara said.
The majority of the commission disagreed, however, and most voiced enthusiastic support for the plans now decades in the making. The commission ultimately rejected O’Hara’s request and instead voted 5-2 to voice their support of the project, with only O’Hara and Commissioner Michael Ashcraft dissenting.
“I think it probably is the value-added, justified use of TIF, but by maneuvering it this way, I am not getting satisfaction in terms of the potential impact on the county,” Ashcraft said.
With the new tax district now fully approved, Sunflower Redevelopment expects to submit specific development plans for its first phase in late spring or early summer, officials have said. City leaders in De Soto will review those specific plans and county leaders will adjust their specific agreements with Sunflower Redevelopment and their comprehensive plan on the southern 3,000 acres of the site to reflect the newest developments.
Still outstanding, however, is the ongoing fight in Topeka over the secretive multi-million incentive package state lawmakers are considering to attract a mystery $4 billion factory to the state.
Some have speculated the former ammunition plant — the largest single tract of remaining undeveloped land in the Kansas City metro area — could be connected to the secret deal. Officials have released very little public information about the incentive project, however, and Sunflower Redevelopment and De Soto leaders have declined to discuss further specifics about their plans for the site.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 5:49 PM.
