Lockton construction is ‘traumatizing’ parkgoers. City says tree loss is temporary
When Sally Webb Pittman recently went to Leawood’s dog park, she said she was shocked to see so few trees along State Line Road.
Then, during her time at the park, more came crashing down.
“They just steamrolled these trees down, and I started looking around because I really couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It was very traumatizing.”
Webb Pittman has been a south Kansas City resident for more than 50 years and has been visiting the Leawoof Dog Park for the last 15. During her most recent visit, she took her year-old rescue dog, Domino, to help him socialize with people and other dogs. When the trees started coming down and construction started ripping through the ground, she said she had to take him home “because he was so scared.”
“They didn’t even leave a treeline,” she said. “Now the dog park has no shade.”
The downed trees and excavated land came because of Lockton’s multimillion-dollar project to build a new 444,000-square-foot headquarters in Leawood.
Dubbed the Hallbrook North project, the prominent Kansas City insurance brokerage firm is leaving its current headquarters on the Country Club Plaza to build its new home, which is expected to be the tallest building in Leawood and will feature a new hotel, luxury apartment buildings, restaurant and retail space, a child care facility and structured parking.
The 34-acre project on College Boulevard and State Line Road sits just north of the dog park and Leawood City Park.
Although the downed trees and landscape changes may be “striking,” the conditions will change as the developer meets its requirements to plant more trees to replace the ones lost as the project progresses, City spokesperson Beth Breitenstein said.
“We recognize the community’s concerns about the recent tree removal at the Hallbrook North site,” Breitenstein said. “While the site may appear stark today, this is a temporary condition as the project progresses through grading, infrastructure installation and ultimately landscaping and tree planting.”
Tree replacement plan
The approved landscape plan for the new headquarters requires Lockton and VanTrust, the developer building the project, to plant 718 new trees, and additional trees and landscaping will be incorporated as the project’s phases move forward, she said.
Cut trees with trunks bigger than 12 inches will need to be replaced by a tree with a similar sized trunk, or multiple trees that add up to the total diameter of the one lost, according to city code.
All newly planted trees are required to have a minimum diameter of 2-and-a-half inches.
Trees are not required to be replaced if they are removed to build public and private streets, stormwater facilities or utility lines. If the trunk size of the total trees removed exceeds 132 inches per acre, Leawood allows a 50% reduction in replacement to ensure the site isn’t overcrowded and to help young trees grow strong and healthy.
“Our tree replacement standards are designed not only to replace lost canopy, but also to promote the long-term health and viability of new trees by ensuring they are planted in locations and quantities that allow them to thrive, rather than creating overcrowded conditions that can limit growth and longevity,” she said.
After her experience watching the trees get plowed down and now lacking any coverage from the summer sun, Kansas City resident Webb Pittman said she’s going to go to a different dog park for the time being.
“This is where my dog was trained. Dogs are adaptable, but I doubt (I’ll come back) because there’s no shade,” she said. “You can’t run your dogs in the blazing heat with nothing. Plus my dog’s kind of traumatized. … I will go back there when they’re done.”
