Northwood Trails just lost woods for new JoCo office. Neighbors feel blindsided.
Johnson County dignitaries held a groundbreaking ceremony Dec. 13 for a new medical examiner facility, complete with speeches and accolades for the long-awaited project to improve death investigations.
But while they were celebrating, residents who live next to the site near 119th Street and Ridgeview Road in Olathe were feeling misled and blindsided as the construction work was just getting underway.
They were outraged by the recent destruction of an acre of trees that buffered their neighborhood from the county’s government campus where the new facility will be built.
Residents point out their neighborhood was not properly informed, as required by Olathe city code, that the project involved this tree removal. And they say it severely harms the natural forest character that attracted them to their Northwood Trails neighborhood in the first place.
“Please keep in mind that we were told those trees were not going to be touched,” resident Kathy Kocour chastised the Johnson County Board of Commissioners in public testimony on Dec. 13, just a few hours before the groundbreaking. “ I believe that my neighbors and myself were completely misled about the direction of this project.”
County officials acknowledge they failed to communicate clearly with the neighborhood about the tree removal. They say they are now exploring a landscaping and tree replacement solution to remedy the situation.
“We thought we had indicated that scope to them, but we recognize now that we did not,” Brad Reinhardt, the county’s facilities management director, told The Star. “We acknowledge that we did not communicate as well as we could have to them. It was unintentional. We’re committed to improving on that.”
The residents say they appreciate the new attentiveness to their complaints, but their trust in county government has been shaken and they’re watching to see if the remedies will really work.
The $21 million medical examiner facility is being built around 119th Street and South Sunset Drive, within the Johnson County government campus that sits just east of the Northwood Trails neighborhood. It is part of a package of facilities, including the new $193 million county courthouse in downtown Olathe, that are being funded by a 1/4-cent sales tax approved by voters in November 2016.
The new medical examiners building will give the county its own modern facility for autopsies and death investigations that until now have been performed in private facilities in Wyandotte County.
As part of the construction process, Olathe city code requires that developers, including the county, hold a neighborhood meeting ahead of time to inform nearby residents of the impacts of any developments.
The county and construction officials held such a neighborhood meeting with Northwood Trails on Sept. 13. But resident Scott Green, who attended the meeting, says it wasn’t complete.
“They showed us some pretty pictures,” Green said, referring to the renderings for the building itself. What residents weren’t told, Green said, is that the project would involve removing a large swath of trees and foliage that buffered homes with backyards just west of the government campus. The trees were particularly useful in hiding the base of a 500-foot-tall radio tower on that government campus.
Green says he specifically asked about the trees on the edge of his backyard and was told they would not be affected.
So he says he was shocked in early December to come home one evening from work and see the trees had been cut down. He said more than acre was clear cut, although the county doesn’t yet have a count of how many trees were removed.
The medical examiner’s building will be built on a parcel that for several years has contained giant dirt piles left over from a 2012 crime lab construction project. When the medical building was being planned, the county thought a third-party contractor, Emery Sapp & Sons, would remove those giant dirt piles free of charge, to use on a private project.
But Reinhardt explains that after Emery Sapp removed 25 percent of the dirt, it alerted the county in late August that it didn’t need any more. Hauling away the rest of the dirt would have cost $300,000 that wasn’t in the budget, Reinhardt said. So the decision was made to turn the rest of the dirt into berms between the neighborhood and the medical examiner project. Those berms will go where the trees were removed.
Bryan Kelling, vice president of the Northwood Trails neighborhood association, said the woods and trails are a big part of the neighborhood’s ambiance. He worries the tree loss also affects the homes’ property values.
“We need answers, we need trust and we need a process in which we can get something back,” he said.
When she realized what had happened, Kocour called Janice Phillips, the project manager for the county.
Phillips agreed to halt construction on that parcel. The county met Dec. 12 with neighbors upset over what had happened. In addition to the tree removal, they also raised concerns about bright lights now visible from the site and potential drainage problems from the loss of the trees. County officials, along with drainage and landscape experts, agreed to come back with solutions.
On Dec. 19, about a dozen neighbors met with Phillips, Reinhardt and other county officials to discuss possible remedies.
Responding to neighborhood drainage concerns, Pat Kullberg, with McClure Engineering, told the group that his modeling of the berms shows they will actually reduce the water runoff into the neighborhood compared to current conditions.
Hank Moyers, with the Confluence landscape architecture firm, showed neighbors options for covering the berms not only with native grasses or fescue but also with trees such as oaks, elms, redbuds and evergreens that could create an attractive replacement to the lost trees. Phillips said the county will work with the neighbors, including walking their backyards with them, to determine desirable plantings.
The county said it will come back to the neighbors in January with more detailed plans.
Green said he was feeling somewhat reassured.
“I was very upset,” he said. “I am happier with the way the process is going now,” although he said the county must continue to provide accurate and complete information. He said the proof will be in how the berms are built and maintained.
Residents questioned how the county can address their concerns without going over budget.
“We don’t have a blank check” admitted Assistant County Manager Joe Waters, “but this is a priority for Johnson County.”
The county commission wants the complaints property addressed, he said, and the county can dip into its contingency if necessary for these improvements.
Waters acknowledged the county has work to do to turn things around.
“We will finish it right,” he said. “We did not start it right.”
