Surprising, yet good news...Grandview is getting bigger.

[KCgridlock]

The suburb has been stagnent for years as Belton, Raymore and Lee's Summit have taken most of the southland growth and Grandview has had issues being tied to Ruskin etc.

Well this city is in the top ten metro area for housing permits and the population is increasing. This should only get better with the new Grandview Triangle and retail redevleopment along US 71.

Anyway...

Posted on Sat, Jul. 12, 2003

Census reveals burgeoning Southland
By EYOBONG ITA
The Kansas City Star

The Southland's city and civic leaders are hailing recent Census estimates that show population growth in their communities.

The U.S. Census Bureau examined cities with 10,000 or more residents. It ranked Raymore, Grandview, Belton and Lee's Summit among the fastest-growing cities in the metropolitan area. Officials see the growth as a positive development.

"We've always heard the word "rooftops," and I think rooftops are coming," Raymore Mayor Juan Alonzo said. "The number of family home permits issued this year indicates that we're growing."

Alonzo is hoping that the growth will attract retail development.

"We have stayed in the top six of building permits issued" on the Missouri side of the metro area, he said. "It's a good thing that we continue to grow in this fashion."

In the one-year period beginning July 1, 2001, Raymore recorded a 6 percent increase in population. The Census estimates that Raymore attracted 712 new residents, increasing from 11,900 to 12,612.

The Census credits Lee's Summit with the highest number of new residents in the Southland -- 1,646, a 2.2 percent increase. Its population went from 73,302 to 74,948.

"That means more sales tax for the city and more commercial development over time," said Jim Devine, president of Lee's Summit Economic Development Council. "We're exceeding all expectations because we serve a market that has been under-served for quite some time, from a retail sales point of view."

Kim Curtis, executive director of the Grandview Area Chamber of Commerce, also believes the growth should attract retail.

"Retailers are always looking for growth potential, and this is very positive all the way round," Curtis said. "Growth for the most part is always good."

Grandview recorded a 3.4 percent increase, from 24,713 to 25,542 residents. In large part, Curtis credited Grand Summit, a $35 million, 225-acre golf and residential community at the southeast corner of U.S. 71 and Missouri 150. Now with 450 apartments, it is expected to have 900 luxury apartments when completed.

Belton Mayor Bob Gregory, who expressed concern about rapid growth before the April election, said the 3.2 percent jump -- from 22,485 to 23,214 -- pleases him.

"It's a low enough number that the city can hopefully accommodate those people," Gregory said. "It's positive growth both socially and economically. I'm glad it's not in the double digits."

[dangerboy]

Good news that things are filling in there and the growth isn't totally leap-frogging out into Cass County. I didn't realize Grandview had much undeveloped land left.

Although it's kindof ironic that with all of the criticism of sprawl in southern Johnson County, places like Belton are further out on the fringe than the hinterlands of Overland Park. Even Grandview is way out on 135th St.

[Rooster_Ties]

Count me as one who thinks that development as far south as Grandview isn't necessarily all a good thing. Or maybe I'd say that there are both good and bad things about it. (And warning, the rest of this post focuses on the ‘bad’, without probably enough focus on the ‘good’. Just wanted to be upfront about that.)

Think about it!! The Grandview Triangle is being improved now, because it had reached its capacity limit. It's now being fixed/expanded/improved, so it can handle lots more cars. In turn, that feeds more development interest in Grandview, which increases the need for even more cars to pass through the new Grandview Triangle every day, possibly/probably to the point where 10, 15, or 20 years down the road, it becomes just as much of a traffic mess as it is today. And, as a result, people are all the more dependent on their cars, since they live in yet another bedroom community, which is what Grandview is, for the most part.

Yeah, I'm glad there is some more development going on in the area, and I recognize that this is generally a good thing (for the most part), better tax-base, better schools, etc... But much of that comes at a cost, which will eventually be born by everyone, when they have to do further improvements to that crazy interchange, to handle all the additional traffic from all the additional development in Grandview.

I, for one, would like to see more development - especially of denser, urban housing – inside the 435 loop.

It seems to me like most development projects in the area never look at the real impact of that development on the entire metro area, far out into the future. 25 years, 40 years, 60 years.

I know, I know –the larger issues are much more complicated than just what I’ve discussed above. Many people want to live in newly developed areas that are in good – or at least relatively good school districts. So as things stand now, that means most new development is going to happen outside of the City. And even if you could get more urban development, that almost automatically keeps out many families with young children, unless they can’t afford to live anywhere else (meaning it’s lower income development), or unless they can afford to send their kids to parochial or private schools. Or else it attracts singles, and couples who don’t want kids (certainly a minority in this part of the country - I’m know, I’m in it!!), and empty-nesters, and gay/lesbian couples who have kids far less frequently then their straight counterparts.

I didn’t mean to go off on such a tangent in this particular thread – and I don’t want to sound like I’m against development in Grandview, in particular. But it’s the same with development in the far-reaching suburbs, all over Kansas City, St. Louis, and a couple hundred other similar-sized cities, all across the country.

Any thoughts? Reactions??

[KCgridlock]

Good responce Rooster. I totally agree with you. My main point was not that Grandview is growing, but it's stablizing.

You see, even though Grandview is on the outer edge of the metro area, it's older than most of JoCo, the Northland, LS and even some of KC within 435. Grandview has a lot of empty store fronts and still has plenty of vacant land for both commercial and residential growth. Yet the growth in Cass County south of Grandview has left Grandview in it's dust for close to 15 years.

There is now a ton of retail going up in the Belton/Raymore area even though Grandview is in need of major redevelopment. Leapfrog sprawl and decay. KC will have suburbs, we must accept that. Developing them as smart as possible is what needs to be done and keeping cities like Grandview, Gladstone, Raytown, Mission, Prarie Village, NKC, western Independence, etc as vibrant suburban communities is part of make the metro area a nice place to live.

I agree with you though. We need to fill in and even though Grandview is as far south as 155th St, with continued growth in Cass County and LS, it's fill in devleopment. Grandview need to resurge along with SKC.

The triangle will be a mess in less than ten years, a few years after it is complete. But the biggest problem with be pushing all the traffic through the triangle at a high capacity will cause brand new massive back ups on 470 near hwy50 and 71 near the Cass County line.

Anyway, good and bad, but it's better and a big fast growing Cass County and a horribly decaying Grandview and SKC to the north.

[dangerboy]

Yeah the Triangle is going to be a continual mess. Four-laning 291 between Lee's Summit and Harrisonville would help, but most commuters from the south will still be going into the Plaza, Downtown, or Johnson County. Better four lane east-west connections between 71 Hwy and 69 Hwy would also help by moving the Kansas-bound commuters over to 69.

The 71 Hwy corridor seems like a good candidate for commuter rail, but it isn't even on the radar screen yet. Park and rides in Harrisonville, Peculiar, Belton, and Grandview could feed into a line going Downtown, and maybe someday connect with an east-west rail or bus rapid transit line going from Lee's Summit to Overland Park.

[phxcat]

I see a whole lot more good than bad here. You are building up a nglected part of Jackson County, and the stress on the Triangle will occur, wetherit is in Grandview or farther south. As a teacher, I see the potential for one of the stronger school districts in the area- a diverse, semi-urban district with suburban money- and it would be one of the more integrated districts in the area. I love those loder suburban area too. All in all, its good news!

[ShowME]

I'm still wondering where the undeveloped land is in Grandview. I have several friends who moved into new houses in River Oaks South. I know they also just cleared a bunch of land on the NE corner of 71 hwy and 135th Street. But other than that area I really can't think of big parcels of land that could be developed for single family housing. Also the Grandview School District is probably one of the most diverse suburban school districts in the metro. Keep in mind alot of there funding also comes from South Kansas City (Red Bridge, Verona Hills, Blue Hills, Martin City etc.)

[dangerboy]

It's cool to see such a diverse suburb. Grandview, Hickman Mills, Raytown, and Center are about the only racially balanced school districts in the metro. Most of the others are pretty heavily skewed one way or the other. Much of southern and south-central Jackson County has a very interesting dynamic as the black middle class has moved into what were traditionally working class white areas. So far people seem to be getting along OK, right?

[kc_devotee]

Well, one reaction I have to the growth of Grandview, Lee's Summit, Independence, Blue Springs, is that it points to the need for a unified KC-Jackson County Government....we need to figure out how to tap into that tax base to help the metro region overall...