Olathe land had belonged to one family since Civil War. Soon it will be a city park

Land that has been in the hands of Olathe’s Hoff family since the Civil War is set to become the city’s latest neighborhood park. Construction starts on Pioneer Park later this year, with the goal of being done by next summer.

The 16.7-acre piece of land where the park will sit is immediately north of College Boulevard and slightly west of Woodland Road and the Stone Pillar Winery.

Marcie Hoff and her husband Tom Hoff had decided to will the land to the city back in 2005, but they later resolved to give it earlier.

“We decided to go ahead and make the donation while we were still living so maybe we could see it become a park,” she said.

They donated the land in 2019, but Tom Hoff died in 2021 and did not get to see the plan come to fruition.

The park idea was special to him, his wife said. When they drove around the city, Tom Hoff would recall all the different farms that once flourished on plots of land that now hold housing or shopping areas.

“He wanted something to remain like it was. The farm had been in his family since the Civil War, and he just didn’t want it all turned into housing,” Marcie Hoff said.

Part of the original farm now houses the Stone Pillar Winery, the Hoffs’ family business. Another piece that was once part of the farm sits south of College Boulevard. That one they did sell to a housing developer.

Some of the farm’s land had been part of the Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program, but Marcie Hoff said that the introduction of new requirements to keep the land in the program were difficult to implement. They decided to get rid of the land at that point.

Still, selling the whole thing commercially didn’t appeal to them.

“We didn’t want someone to come in and use the whole parcel and put houses on little bitty lots: big houses on small lots. We prevented that by making a donation to the city,” she said.

She likes that the plan calls for trails and other amenities, like a shelter for gatherings, that preserve the feel of the farmland.

“That was our intent — to keep it something that was kind of open with walking trails that families could enjoy,” Marcie Hoff said.

The park will also include a pond, a playground and a bathroom, as well as parking. A new firehouse will share space on the property.