JCCC wants a road south of campus through park to offer access to emergency vehicles

Johnson County Community College wants to build a paved road south of campus through part of Thomas S. Stoll Memorial Park in Overland Park to provide an extra route to evacuate campus or get vehicles on site during emergencies.

Jill Geller, executive director of the Johnson County Park & Recreation District said her office is in early discussions with the college, which has looked at connecting with 119th Street through the park for more than 10 years and mentioned an emergency route through Stoll Park in its 2016 master plan.

Those prior plans had called for a road through the park that remained open at all times, which was opposed by both the park district and nearby residents.

“The difference in this request is that it is designed for emergency situations only,” Geller said during Wednesday’s meeting of the Park & Recreation District’s Board of Commissioners.

The proposed 12-foot-wide paved path would extend from South Campus Road down an existing walking trail to a parking lot in the northern section of the park. That parking lot uses an access road to connect to 119th Street.

Geller said metal bollards would block off either end of the path and could be removed only during emergencies. She said the park district’s law enforcement agency would need to coordinate with removing those bollards.

She said the college wants to build the path between February and September of next year and would reimburse the park district for the cost.

The commissioners were largely supportive of additional discussions with the college.

Commissioner Steve Baru said he was one of the nearby residents who raised concerns about the college building a potential thoroughfare in the park when the subject last came up before he was on the board.

“You’re going to want to make sure you’re very open and transparent and talk to the homeowner associations for the subdivisions around there, and you probably want to do that very early in the process,” Baru said. “It does sound like a reasonable request.”

In other business, the board voted 5-2 to amend the park system’s proposed 2019 budget after the Johnson County Commission last week voted to reduce the tax levy for park operations. The commission cut the levy from 3.112 mills to 3.083 mills as part of a larger effort to reduce the county budget. Geller said the reduction for the park levy could likely require a $300,000 cut from the budget that the board approved during a special Aug. 6 hearing. She said the cut could potentially shrink depending on the when property valuations are finalized in October.

To make up for the cut in revenue, Geller recommended delaying a master plan for the Kill Creek Park in Olathe and reducing funding for trail development partnerships. The board won’t finalize those delays until later this fall.

Commissioners Mike Pirner and Leslee Rivarola voted against the budget, saying they felt it was too high.

The board also received an update from the company overseeing construction of Meadowbrook Park in Prairie Village. Tim Harmon, CEO of Harmon Construction Inc., said construction is still on target for most of the park to be open to the public by the end of September. Some parts of the park, such as the Great Lawn and Grand Pavilion, the activity center and parts of the several miles of trails, will take longer to complete.

The park is part of a larger development on the former Meadowbrook Golf and Country Club, which will also include single-family homes, duplexes, apartments, a senior living facility and a boutique hotel.

This story was originally published August 21, 2018 at 12:00 AM with the headline "JCCC wants a road south of campus through park to offer access to emergency vehicles."