After outcry from neighbors, another Johnson County city nixes apartment development
The Overland Park City Council voted to block a new $65 million apartment complex near the Deer Creek Golf Club.
The vote came after 1 a.m. Tuesday after the council heard hours of testimony from the developers and neighbors who opposed the apartment construction near Metcalf Avenue and 133rd Street.
GreatLIFE Kansas City and EPC Real Estate Group were seeking a rezoning and a special use permit to build 220 apartments on the site of the golf course’s current clubhouse. A motion to approve the request failed on a 4-8 vote.
Developers pitched the project as a means to save the decades-old public golf course while also funding overdue improvements and erosion control along Tomahawk Creek.
But neighbors were well organized in their opposition, even presenting a slideshow to the council. Residents said the rezone request from single-family residential to multifamily was too dense for the area. And they rejected promises to rehabilitate the golf course, calling that a distraction from the debate over the best use of the land.
“This has been a great PR scheme,” said Barbara Riedel, who lives near the clubhouse.
She presented photos of the neighborhood’s existing high-end homes set on the lush golf course, noting that buildings in the area were only one or two stories tall, not the five-story apartment complex developers proposed.
“This is not an appropriate use of this land,” she said.
A majority of the council ultimately agreed, saying the development didn’t fit the character of neighborhood, was too dense and would negatively affect nearby homeowners.
It’s the latest apartment project to face fierce opposition in Johnson County.
Last year, Overland Park rejected a $55 million apartment complex at the Ranch Mart South shopping center following opposition from neighboring homeowners.
In November 2020, Shawnee nixed plans for a five-story apartment complex at the old Wonderscope Children’s Museum near downtown.
In 2018, Lenexa City Council members unanimously rejected nearly 300 apartments proposed for the northwest corner of Canyon Creek Boulevard and Kansas Highway 10.
While the apartments at Deer Creek have long been opposed by neighbors, city staff and the planning commission both recommended approval of the rezoning and special use permit requested by the developer.
But council member Jeff Cox said elected officials should defer to the will of neighbors who opposed the project.
“We keep talking about demand for apartments. Demand from who?” he said. “We could probably build a million apartments and fill them up and ruin our community. I don’t care about demand from outside of Overland Park to live in apartments in Overland Park. I could care less.
“We get a lot of close calls up here. I my opinion, this isn’t one of them.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 1:01 PM.
