Decades ago, developers eyed Shawnee plot for shopping center. What happens now?

The Shawnee City Council has approved a request for a piece of land once eyed for a new shopping center to be rezoned again, potentially setting the site up to be developed in the future.

On Monday, the city council voted 7-0 to approve rezoning the roughly 29-acre plot in the 16000 block of West 59th Terrace, what city officials refer to as one of the “last large” plots of undeveloped land in the area.

In particular, the vote approves rezoning the site from Commercial Highway, a designation that would allow for a variety of commercial and mixed uses, to Agricultural.

Councilmember Kurt Knappen was absent Monday.

The land is currently owned by Buzzard Ranch Properties LLC, a subsidiary of Lenexa-based Van’s Holding Company.

Despite the new Agricultural zoning classification, city officials cast the move as a reset of sorts on the property that would allow for future commercial or mixed-use projects to be proposed for the site.

Rezoning gives the property a fresh start

In March 1986, the city rezoned the land to allow for a regional shopping center to be built there.

The project didn’t move forward, but the zoning remained, leaving the the property open to “a variety of commercial uses that could be developed in a piecemeal (unplanned) manner,” city documents said.

Rezoning the property back to agricultural uses after nearly four decades allows it to act as a “holding zone” where future expansion is possible, but not yet feasible, according to city documents.

“(Rezoning) would allow the property to be held until a later date when it could be combined with surrounding properties for a master planned, mixed use development,” city documents stated.

If future development for the property was proposed, rezoning it to the agricultural uses category would allow for neighbors to be notified.

“If anything were to be proposed other than a horse barn or something that’s allowed in AG, it would require rezoning, so there would be a notice to neighbors,” said Doug Allmon, Shawnee’s community planning director. “We would send letters, there would be signs posted and posting in our legal record. And so, there’s some protection there.”

City Council had little to say about it

Saying that she wanted the city to be intentional about the use of the land, councilmember Laurel Burchfield asked Allmon about what would happen if someone approached the property owner with plans for something like a mixed-use development.

“20+ acres is a considerable size and amount of land to do something with,” Allmon said. “If you were approached by a developer with the right price and the right plan that met our comprehensive designation of mixed-use, staff would work them through the system.”

“The place has been zoned for decades as a [Commercial Highway] type use,” he added, referring to the property’s old zoning classification. “Nothing has happened. So this will allow us to better plan and better facilitate it. This is one of our last large pieces of area with great highway access, great access to the airport. So we don’t want to do this piecemeal. We want to do it correctly.”

Go deeper: After failed shopping center plan, Shawnee land will be kept for farming use