Vickie Holland of Steck Plantation writes:

David & I want to share the latest news about the neighborhood with you. It is not good. On March 10, John Rod sent a memo to all the homeowners in Stecks soliciting their input on the future land use of the neighborhood with a deadline of March 26. With deadline approaching and no responses sent, one of the neighbors arranged a neighborhood meeting with Mary Hunter from the Planning Department.

The meeting was held on March 25 and most of the neighbors attended. Mary presented the situation from the Planning Department's perspective and did a good job. I guess we (all of us who spoke against changing the neighborhood to commercial at the hearings) can take credit for the derailing of it in the 2003 Master Plan. However, at the end of the night, it was clear that we were the lone dissenters in the neighborhood and that, most likely, all we have done is to delay the commercialization, not prevent it. When we started our crusade to save the neighborhood, there were several people in the neighborhood who were either on the fence or against selling out to commercial. However, in the meantime, they have all gone to the other side. It seems that the lure of profit, concern about property value, opinions and rumors stated as facts and who knows what other personal factors, have swayed them to the other side. It also seems like this issue is lined up to be decided by the residents of the neighborhood based on the process that was outlined.

Other bad news is that the sell off of the neighborhood is already underway. The current owner of the property at the SW corner of Metcalf and 159th, Clay Blair is in the process of purchasing 4 houses in the neighborhood.

Mary said that the next steps would be for the residents to forward their input on: 1) whether they are in favor of Commercial on the Master Plan; 2) whether they would support "all or nothing" or "partial" development of the neighborhood; 3) If they support "partial" development, what kind of conditions would they want to see to protect the remaining neighborhood. There will be workshops in May on the overall plan and specific workshops looking at Stecks as a study area later in June.

We will, of course, provide our response. It is still the same. We don't think that the neighborhood should be commercial, but we believe rezoning to commercial and redevelopment, if it occurs, should be "all or nothing". However, you can see the situation. Clay has nearly enough properties now to propose rezoning and redevelopment (with the assumption that partial development would be allowed). We have 1 vote out of 13. Also, it sounds like the process starts over with a "clean slate". That is, the inputs that were shared at 2003 hearings are not automatically included in the record for the new study.

We want to thank all of you for your efforts on behalf of the neighborhood. The Oxford Township Zoning Board and Johnson County worked very hard and did a great job protecting the character of the neighborhood in past years and we are very grateful for your support. Thanks to everyone who spoke on our behalf--Roxanne Morse, Annabeth Surbaugh, Martin Seem, numerous others from the surrounding neighborhoods and especially Bob and Shirley Phillips, who worked so hard to rally support and get press coverage. We also greatly appreciate the City Council members who supported us during the hearings -- Dan Carberry, George Kandt and John Thompson. Without your support Stecks would already be shown as commercial on the Master Plan with partial development allowed. We hope that we can count on your continued support to require "all or nothing" development of the neighborhood so that the homeowners are protected until commercial development finally occurs.

With the neighborhood solidly behind Commercial on the Master Plan, it seems unlikely that it can go any other way. We will continue to participate in the process and provide our input, but based on the prevailing sentiment, and the fact that we are the minority voice, we will not continue to fight against commercial as it seems that battle has been lost. We expect that the best we can hope for is a decision that redevelopment would be "all or none". We hope that we can count on your continuing support towards this goal.

Thanks again for all your support.

Vickie & David Holland

[return to top]