Meadowbrook site described as ‘very clean’ after environmental review

An environmental review has largely cleared the former Meadowbrook Golf and Country Club in Prairie Village of the dangerous pesticide and herbicide contamination that sometimes afflicts old golf courses and would short-circuit plans to turn the property into a public park.

Johnson County Park and Recreation District officials updated the Prairie Village City Council on the study at a meeting Monday. Prairie Village plans to use tax increment financing to buy the 80-acre site from developer VanTrust Real Estate and hand the land over to the district to create the park.

“Overall, this is a very clean piece of land,” said Jill Geller, the district’s executive director.

Council members had requested the two-phase review, worried that the long use of chemicals on the site — it’s been a golf course since the 1930s — might have built up to toxic levels or involved substances that are now banned.

Thomas Buchanan, an attorney representing the district, said both the district and VanTrust oversaw the review. He said they didn’t test every square foot of the property because of cost but focused on areas where pollutants were most likely to be found, such as the golf course greens and a series of ponds on the site.

While those searches found nothing of concern, Buchanan said the review did find some contamination at the site of a former maintenance shed in the southern part of the property where lawn mowers and other golf course equipment were refueled. At one time, the site held underground and above ground fuel storage tanks that probably leaked, he said.

He said early estimates indicated that the contamination affected one-third to one-half acre. He added that initial studies indicated some groundwater contamination but engineers are fairly confident the contamination is minor and doesn’t spread beyond the immediate area.

Consultants for the developer and park officials, as well as city attorneys, are working on a remediation plan that describes the extent of the contamination and steps being taken to clean up the site. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment will have to approve that plan.

Representatives for VanTrust said the developer plans to foot the bill for the remediation efforts, assuming they are limited to the identified site. If subsequent reviews find more widespread contamination, the developer and city would need to renegotiate.

The parks district and city officials want to have the remediation agreement in place before Prairie Village signs off on selling bonds to buy the park property, which is currently scheduled in May.

VanTrust plans to develop the remaining 45 acres of the golf course into a senior living community and a mix of single-family lots, luxury apartments, twin-home units and a boutique hotel.

In other business, the council:

▪ Approved a memorandum of understanding to sell a 0.9-acre piece of the Municipal Complex at 7700 Mission Road to the Consolidated Fire District No. 2 for the 2015 appraised value of $275,000. The district plans to build a new fire station on the property, which currently holds a parking lot, to better serve the central part of Prairie Village.

▪ Overruled a “dangerous dog” determination by the city’s animal control officers. In February, a Labrador/boxer mix attacked and severely injured a neighbor’s 4-month-old Papillon after climbing under a fence that separated the neighbors’ yards. The Papillon was eventually euthanized because of the severity of its injuries.

Under city law, owners of dogs determined to be dangerous must either remove them from the city within five days or meet a long list of requirements, including obtaining a special permit and maintaining $500,000 in liability insurance.

The dog’s owner, Bernard Cline, told council members that the dog has never attacked another dog before, that he is getting the animal training to prevent a similar attack in the future and that he reached a financial settlement with the Papillon’s owner. He said the costs for keeping a “dangerous” dog would be too high.

Council members ultimately sided with Cline, saying that while they believed the animal control officers were doing their jobs, the dog had not shown a history of aggressive behavior or past attacks so shouldn’t be considered “dangerous.”

▪ Instructed city staff to move forward with putting the city’s trash contract out for bid, expanding the number of yard waste pickups to 12 containers a month all year. Currently, yard waste is limited to 12 containers a month for six months of the year and eight containers a month for the remaining months. This will be the first time the contract has gone out to bid since 2002, which Deffenbaugh Industries won the contract.

Council members also asked staff to institute stricter customer service requirements and stiffer fines for poor service and agreed to hire a consultant to help prepare the bid documents. Assistant City Administrator Wes Jordan said he hoped to send the contract out for bids in May and have the council select a trash hauler in July.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Meadowbrook site described as ‘very clean’ after environmental review."