The following article is copyrighted by The Olathe News and displayed here with permission. The author is Steve Vockrodt .

Merits of Olathe soccer site disputed

Olathe could have been good fit as the site of the proposed Johnson County soccer complex, perhaps a better one than Overland Park. That’s what the owner of land near the Great Mall of the Great Plains where the $75 million soccer complex had been proposed said.

L.E. Huckleberry told The Olathe News on Thursday that Johnson County’s Park and Recreation District misrepresented facts about the property he partly owns as managing partner of the Olathe/Santa Fe Partnership. That property had been a possible site of a proposed 24-field soccer complex until the proposal recently went to Overland Park.

He said comments from Michael Meadors, county park and recreation director, were inaccurate in a Sept. 18 Kansas City Star article. The article was partly about why Olathe/Santa Fe Partnership’s land wasn’t chosen for the soccer complex. Meadors told the newspaper that only 62 acres on the Olathe site could be developed into soccer fields, which would leave room for 10 tournament-caliber fields.

“The truth is there were 135 acres, roughly, and would accommodate 24 or more tournament-quality fields,” Huckleberry said. He also said his land wasn’t more expensive to develop the soccer complex than the Overland Park site at 159th Street and U.S. Highway 69.

“The other assertion that somehow it would cost more money to develop is truly ridiculous,” Huckleberry said. “Our property is sewered and completed with streets and infrastructure, and there is no way in the world it could be more expensive to develop our property than a vacant property.”

A letter from Tim McKee, vice president of economic development for the Olathe Chamber of Commerce, to the Johnson County Commission underscores the point that the Olathe location had enough infrastructure in place to make the land in Olathe viable for development.

“In other words, with the infrastructure in place, the project’s cost would likely be considerably less than a site lacking infrastructure or funding in place for new infrastructure,” McKee’s letter, dated Sept. 27, states.

The letter continues and asserts that access to the Olathe site was adequate. “I might point out, too, that, unlike the impression readers might have from reading The Star articles, access at this Olathe site is excellent,” McKee’s letter reads. “It has immediate access to an interstate highway, I-35; an interchange at 151st and I-35 is already in place and another is funded and will soon be constructed at 159th/Lone Elm.”

Meadors, who was attending a conference in Seattle, was not immediately available for comment. He issued a statement in response to McKee’s letter that didn’t address specific points in the letter.

“Our primary objective at the District has always been to locate the park in the most viable location to ensure its ability to maximize the taxpayers’ investment,” Meadors said. “We are confident the proposed Overland Park site, more so than any of the others that were presented to us for consideration, is capable of doing just that.”

McKee had little to say about his letter Thursday afternoon.

“I believe the decision makers on every level acted on good faith to choose the Overland Park site over Olathe’s, and I am well aware of Michael

Meadors’ professionalism and integrity in this and every project he undertakes,” McKee said. “My letter to commissioners disagreeing with the way the Olathe site was described in The Kansas City Star was to set the record straight about an essentially excellent site for whatever type of development comes our way.”

The letter turned into fuel for a group of Johnson County residents weary of the $75 million proposal that voters will decide on Nov. 7.

For Wayne Flaherty, treasurer of Homeowners Against Soccer Welfare, the letter reinforced his belief that the soccer plan has been sprung upon voters without enough information from the district.

“If you can’t do it any other way, misinformation is the way to do it,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty, the one-time bistate tax naysayer, said McKee’s letter indicates to him that the Olathe site was ditched in favor of the Overland Park site because the Overland Park site was preferred by the Kansas City Wizards.

“This is not about the kids; it’s about the stadium,” Flaherty said. “That’s the reason they wanted it over there.”

McKee’s letter also surfaced Thursday night at a forum at Blue Valley Baptist Church.

Soccer proposal opponent Shirley Phillips brandished the letter and reiterated the belief that the soccer complex is an anchor project to attract a stadium for the Wizards.

“This proposal is not about kids; it’s about commerce,” Phillips said.

About 150 people attended the forum, most voicing their opposition to the soccer deal. Speakers for both sides opened by presenting their usual viewpoints about the stadium. Johnson County Commissioner David Lindstrom, who has supported the project, and Kevin Gray of the Kansas City Sports Commission, both left 30 minutes after the meeting started to attend another engagement.

That left Terry Goodman, Overland Park councilmember, to speak on the side of soccer supporters. He said he was there not to advocate on one side or another, but to let people know how and why Overland Park was involved in the project. It turned the forum essentially into a rally for the anti-soccer-proposal crowd, as audience members had questions mostly for the soccer supporters, of which there weren’t any to answer questions.

As for Huckleberry, he couldn’t say what the land near the Great Mall would be used for.

He said he wasn’t so much bitter that soccer didn’t arrive in Olathe, but that he believed the facts of the property in question weren’t accurately portrayed by the district.

“We would have loved to be chosen,” Huckleberry said. “But we are a little bit offended that they chose to mischaracterize our property rather than discuss the merits of their own.”