The County Commissioners delayed until December 12 consideration of a developer's request to build homes in a floodway and floodplain at 167th and Nall in Johnson County, KS. [Click for definition of floodway and floodplain.] The developer wants to rezone land to residential which is Master Planned as park/recreation/open space.

An engineer for the County, who had written that the proposal conformed to current regulations, said that he was "philosophically opposed" to the development because of the danger of flooding and because of the detrimental environmental effects of the proposed project. This came out under intense questioning from Commissioner Wood.

Mr Wood was particulary concerned about several proposed homes that were in the floodway itself. The developer said that was financially necessary to have, but would look into it.. Mr. Wood made it clear he had real problems with the whole project, but also stated he had not yet made up his mind.

Commissioner Wood also said he wanted the consultant the County had hired to review this project to show up at the next meeting.

Citizens Present Compelling Evidence

Several residents living near the area presented evidence against the project, much of it centered around the massive flooding that has taken place in the area. They were able to point out that the County had already had to buy out one homeowner at taxpayer's expense because of the damage to his home from flooding. The residents had dramatic photos which had been blown up to poster size showing just how bad the flooding was. One neighbor pointed out her backyard was over 15 feet deep in water after a major flood. Another resident pointed out flooding occurs regularly after typical rain storms.

Liz Hendricks, who had just finished serving a year on a Task Force which looked into water issues and related regulations for Overland Park, spoke authoritatively on the failings of this project. Although Liz does not live in the affected area, she made contact with neighbors through her membership in the Johnson County South Coalition, a four year old citizen group in Johnson County which is helping to manage growth in the County.

Traffic Is An Issue

Commissioners had given the impression that they did not believe traffic was much of an issue, since so few homes were being built. A neighbor was able to overturn this belief. She pointed out that there is a blind entry from the Fox Chase subdivision onto 167th where a hill completely obscures on-coming traffic and hides entering vehicles. A neighbor from Blue Valley Riding then stood up to confirm that the intersection was a real problem and that furthermore it was heavily used by Blue Valley Riding to take children to a nearby elementary school.

A Commissioner then emphasized that they did not mean to dismiss the issue, but had simply wanted to cover the water issue first.

Attorney and Resident Demolish Developer Claim

Charles Benjamin, the attorney representing the neighbors, was familiar with the University of Kansas professor and his graduate student who used the land in question as part of an investigation into restoring land to its natural state. From the study Mr. Benjamin found that the soil was not clay, but loam, which made it particularly unsuitable for disturbing.

The developer's hired consultant then popped up to say he had borings that showed there was only a few inches of loam covering the clay.

A neighbor, however, immediately pointed out that they had just sunk piers to support their home and had to go through many feet of loam to get to a stable base.

[Experience with developer's hired guns is that they will gather and report on data only when it supports their client. No doubt there is some place on this property that you can find to take a boring that has only a few inches of loam.]

Attorney Wrap Up

Mr. Benjamin ended his testimony by saying he would tell his clients to start getting annual appraisals so they could get a fair price when they sued the developer and the County for flood damage, if this project were approved. When the Commissioners suggested postponing to December 5, Mr. Benjamin politely asked that it be delayed for a week, because he would be questioning the Commissioners of Harper County on the witness stand in a trial in which he was the attorney for a neighborhood group. The Commissioners agreed.