Olathe considers incentives for frozen food facility neighbors fear is hazardous

Editor’s note: This story and headline have been changed to reflect that the Olathe City Council held a public hearing to discuss granting incentives to the proposed cold storage facility project but did not yet vote on those incentives. The initial version of the story relied on information from an Olathe spokesperson who told a reporter that the council had approved the incentives on Tuesday. After publication, that spokesperson contacted The Star again and said he had misspoken, clarifying that the council will vote on the incentives next month.

Weeks after the Olathe Planning Commission denied a proposal for a massive cold storage facility, residents who live by the proposed site poured into the City Council chambers, pleading with council members to deny the project over concerns of it posing an environmental hazard.

In a meeting Tuesday night, the City Council held its first public hearing for the project to discuss tax incentives to help fund parts of construction. The final approval for both the development proposal and the incentives will come back to the dais at later dates.

Lineage Logistics, a global cold storage warehousing company, is requesting a rezoning and preliminary site development plan to build an automated freezer facility on nearly 146 acres on West 175th Street and Lone Elm Road in southern Olathe for the storage and distribution of cold food products. The company has warehouses across the country, including one in Olathe used by Tyson Foods just 2 miles northwest of the proposed project site.

“Approving this plan that caters to Lineage jeopardizes the safety of myself, my family, my neighbors and citizens that you’re trying to help improve things, not make things worse,” said Brain Sweetman, one of the residents who spoke during Tuesday’s City Council meeting to voice opposition to the proposal. “You can throw all the money you want at this. It’s not going to eliminate our concerns.”

The 140-foot tall building would include more than 35,000 square feet of cooler space and more than 184,000 square feet of freezer space primarily storing ready-to-eat foods. The facility would have 24-hour operations, seven days a week. If approved, construction would begin in 2026 and 2027.

Residents from Nottington Creek, an Olathe subdivision that sits a half mile from the proposed facility, oppose the project because of traffic, air quality and safety concerns.

During the August Planning Commission hearing, commissioners heard residents’ concerns and ultimately denied the project, saying Lineage first needs to address roadway and general safety concerns.

The City Council’s public hearing this week allowed residents to share their thoughts on the tax incentives specifically. Nothing has been approved at this time.

Tax incentives

As part of its proposal, Lineage requested a 10-year, $310 million in industrial revenue bonds for the construction of a 400,000 square foot refrigerated warehouse facility in the business park under development by Commercial Reposition Partners 17, LLC. It would be the first single-series of bonds issued to cover the land, building and other costs for the project.

According to the Olathe city staff report, it would cost $8 million to acquire the land; $175 million to construct the building; $134 million for furniture, fixtures and equipment in the building; and $10.8 million to cover development costs like site work.

The warehouse will help create 200 new jobs over the next 10 years, with a starting salary of $58,240 in the first year, and create approximately $110 million in new wages over the life of the bond.

Alongside the IRBs, the City Council also approved Commercial Reposition Partners’ request for a 2% community improvement district sales tax for the development of about 60,000 square feet of commercial and retail space on the same site as Lineage’s facility. The tax would last for up to 22 years.

Residents’ frustration

But Nottington Creek residents are concerned about the lack of investment going to improve Lone Elm Road – a two-lane road residents use to commute on a regular basis.

During the meeting, residents claimed that the road isn’t built to handle 24-hour truck traffic and an increase to 1,000 one-way trips by semi-trucks.

“We have kids and people in parks trying to enjoy life, and we’re catty-corner to the park or to the new location,” resident Janice Walters said during the meeting. “It’s not just a Nottington Creek issue, all those other people behind us are just as important as we are.”

Walters worried that the increase in traffic would cause more fatal accidents and make it difficult for first responders to get to the scene because of the road’s size.

“We are compromising our health, we’re compromising our safety,” she said.

In other parts of the country, Lineage has a history of releasing harmful chemicals into the air, causing fires and other health impacts to communities across the country, Walters said. She, alongside many others, want to see this project move to an already established industrial area to keep their neighborhood safe.

“It’s important to save lives. I don’t want to be looking at these people and knowing they’ve lost a loved one or two or three or whole family because they got killed in a semi crash,” she said. “But it’s a bad location. I’m sorry, that location is not a good fit for this facility. Nobody wants industrial in their backyard.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 5:47 PM.