Lee’s Summit OKs plan for $1.5B development on 1,000 acres — with tax breaks
Lee’s Summit City Council members have signed off on a plan for a swath of infrastructure work, tax breaks and a new taxing district to pay for road upgrades and other improvements on a massive chunk of land owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The 1,000-acre section of land, known as Arborside, is sandwiched between Interstate 470 and Lake Jacomo along Todd George Parkway. The land is owned by Land Reserve Inc., the church’s for-profit development arm, which is expected to sell the property as it is developed into residential, commercial and industrial areas, with parks and trails.
City documents estimate the full development would cost around $1.5 billion to build out. Work would be done in phases, with construction expected to begin in 2027. Current estimates indicate work would be done in 2047.
The area needs significant road, sewer and water improvements before it can be developed, according to the city, which estimates those projects would cost around $103 million. About $34.5 million of that money has already been secured, city staff said at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. Among the projects envisioned throughout the development are a widened Todd George Parkway, sewer pumping plants and lines, and water mains.
According to a plan City Council members approved Tuesday, the project would receive variable property tax abatements for 20 years and a 100% building materials sales tax exemption during construction, with a combined benefit to Land Reserve of about $136 million. A new community improvement district that borders the 1,000 acres would implement a 1% sales tax for 27 years and special assessments ranging from 20-25% for 20 years to help fund the infrastructure projects.
The specific mix of how the land would be built out hasn’t been finalized, but a conceptual plan that Land Reserve has presented showed 310 acres of residential land, 10 acres of senior housing, 109 acres of mixed-use land, 88 acres of town center property, 289 acres of light industrial space, 88 acres of park land and 142 acres of commercial/retail space.
‘We grow, or we die’
Land Reserve president Tyler Buswell noted to City Council members that the church invested in about 4,000 acres of property around Lee’s Summit going back 30 to 40 years.
“Lee’s Summit is a wonderful community, and we invested in it a long time ago,” he said. “This was a community we believed in, the growth, the jobs, the people, the government.”
Mayor Beto Lopez hailed the project and said it was a unique opportunity that “most cities in the entire Kansas City metro area would salivate over, including some of the larger, faster-growing cities on the Kansas side.”
“Either we embrace it, and we grow, or we die,” he said.
Council member Shari Frazier said she felt the development had been planned out thoughtfully and said she appreciated the range of housing options that would be available.
“So many projects have failed because folks have failed to plan,” she said. “We have an opportunity here to look into the future.”
