50th & Rainbow Mixed-Use

[Chris Stritzel]

Karbank Real Estate and Perspective Architecture are proposing a mixed-use development on the current Joe D. Dennis park at the southwest corner of 50th and Rainbow. The project includes 90,000sf of office space, around 26,000sf of retail space (11,900sf of which is featured in two pavilion buildings) and 296 parking spaces spread out between a below-grade garage and surface parking.

As part of the project, and the associated TIF, a new, and larger, 3.5 acre park will be built on the vacant school property immediately west.

The development is up for review at the Westwood Planning commission on September 11th. If approved there, the City Council will take up whether or not to approve it in October.

If approved and built, this will be one of a few modern buildings constructed using glazed terra-cotta as a primary facade material. Sure, it's multi-colored, but developments in New York, London and Chicago have used a variety of colors of glazed brick and terra-cotta, and it looks classy.

The KC Star is reporting that NIMBY opposition is strong to this one with Westwood Resident of 57 years, and former Mayor (2006-2008), Karen (LOL) Johnson saying...

“I’m horrified, absolutely horrified. It has no business here".

Of course most of the opposition revolves around height, traffic generated by the parking, and the safety threat posed to children due to the project scope. Others say that since a portion of the property is zoned for residential, single-family homes should be built there. Another lady says that if the design better matched the look and feel of Brookside, she wouldn't complain as much. The head NIMBY admits that stopping the project is a long shot since it seems to have the political support, but signatures are still being gathered with the hope that the approval vote changes from a simple majority to 75% of the City Council and Mayor voting to approve it.

If you want to see a bunch of people complaining about this project, read the Star story here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/busines ... 71854.html

If not, I saved you the time and headache

Personally, I think this project is solid. It diversifies the source of tax income for Westwood and creates a neighborhood meeting spot with the inclusion of retail and a larger, and likely better, public park. If suburbs wish to survive in the future, they'll need mixed-usages and not just single-family houses. While the project could be slightly better, I wouldn't change much about it. It's bold and the terra-cotta will 100% look better in real life than the renderings portray (I imagine it'll be darker with the blue and green being a rich and dark color).

Current Conditions...




Site Plan...



Elevations...




Renderings...

[FangKC]

I like the colors.

[TheSmokinPun]

Bringing more people into a rapidly aging sector of the county & all they can do is complain. Saw the headline before I saw the site & thought it was hilarious. I drive by here all the time & there isn't even foot traffic, it's all older residents that are stuck in their ways.

[smh]

I'd like to see the project come up to Rainbow and 50th. Hide the parking behind, take inspiration from what has been build at Armour and Troost. No more surface parking between pedestrians and the street!

[Chris Stritzel]

I like the colors.

It's putting the "Rainbow" in "Rainbow Boulevard".

Bringing more people into a rapidly aging sector of the county & all they can do is complain. Saw the headline before I saw the site & thought it was hilarious. I drive by here all the time & there isn't even foot traffic, it's all older residents that are stuck in their ways.

Funny you say that because they interviewed an older resident, in their mid-80s, about this and that resident is like, "I've lived here for 60 years. My mom died in this house. My kids were born here. I want to live out my final years in peace". And I get that, but wanting to halt progress on a project nearby for that reason is odd to me. M

I'd like to see the project come up to Rainbow and 50th. Hide the parking behind, take inspiration from what has been build at Armour and Troost. No more surface parking between pedestrians and the street!

That's too common sense. Get out of here with logic. The NIMBYs don't take kindly to that anymore than they do this proposal

[smh]

That's too common sense. Get out of here with logic. The NIMBYs don't take kindly to that anymore than they do this proposal

Haha touche, lol

[FangKC]

What's funny about this project is that there will probably be medical-related tenants in these buildings and many of the NIMBYs will end up going there for health services and it will actually be very convenient for them.

[FangKC]

Funny you say that because they interviewed an older resident, in their mid-80s, about this and that resident is like, "I've lived here for 60 years. My mom died in this house. My kids were born here. I want to live out my final years in peace". And I get that, but wanting to halt progress on a project nearby for that reason is odd to me. M

That resident will probably be dead before this project is even started.

[Chris Stritzel]

^Shhh. Don't say the quiet part out loud like that.

On another note, here are the original plans from March of this year. I went back and found them linked from a Shawnee-Mission Post Article. Public reception back then was negative for the same reasons as the current plan. I feel that the latest plans are much more appropriate than the old.

[empires228]

Bringing more people into a rapidly aging sector of the county & all they can do is complain. Saw the headline before I saw the site & thought it was hilarious. I drive by here all the time & there isn't even foot traffic, it's all older residents that are stuck in their ways.

I wouldn’t say that quite yet. Westwood View elementary is packing kids in there and SME is pretty much at capacity with only Highlands Elementary being underutilized. They’re talking about redrawing the boundaries to send more kids to south because east is out of usable classrooms.

Anyways, this isn’t quite in my neighborhood, but this part of the county desperately needs more modern and larger parks whenever possible. This project helps with that. The parks in Mission and Roeland Park aren’t great. Streamway is choked out with Honeysuckle and only has open space because the power lines run through it.

[Chris Stritzel]

In the face of huge opposition, the Westwood Planning Commission approved this 7-2. Onto the City Council next month where it'll likely get final approval.
https://shawneemissionpost.com/2023/09/ ... ct-212530/

[Imarealperson]

Bringing more people into a rapidly aging sector of the county & all they can do is complain. Saw the headline before I saw the site & thought it was hilarious. I drive by here all the time & there isn't even foot traffic, it's all older residents that are stuck in their ways.

I wouldn’t say that quite yet. Westwood View elementary is packing kids in there and SME is pretty much at capacity with only Highlands Elementary being underutilized. They’re talking about redrawing the boundaries to send more kids to south because east is out of usable classrooms.

Anyways, this isn’t quite in my neighborhood, but this part of the county desperately needs more modern and larger parks whenever possible. This project helps with that. The parks in Mission and Roeland Park aren’t great. Streamway is choked out with Honeysuckle and only has open space because the power lines run through it.

Mohawk is being renovated right now and R park is now really nice. Waterworks Park, Broadmoor and Streamway are next

[Chris Stritzel]

The colorful, glazed terra-cotta and brick has been swapped out in favor of wood and limestone accents. A bummer, but it still looks nice. This was the plan approved by the Westwood Planning Commission on September 11th.

[FangKC]

They removed the only thing that made this project interesting for me.

[missingkc]

The color? If so, I agree. Without it, it looks like '80s Johnson County.

[moderne]

Approved by Westwood city council.

[Chris Stritzel]

Despite the loss of the colorful terra cotta, this is good for Westwood. They get a new park out of it and new office and retail space to boost some tax revenue.

[mjbauer95]

Lots of residents are upset about this. It's the city's only park so I think people are especially protective over it. Shawnee Mission Post has a thorough summary of all that's happened:

https://shawneemissionpost.com/2023/12/ ... nk-221403/

[Midtownkid]

I'd love to see a project with similar architecture, especially the terracotta cladding come to the Crossroads. That giant parking lot at 20th and Grand could be built out with a colorful 'village' like this. I like the variety of sizes and the interstitial spaces it creates. Of course the parking should be hidden underground if built in the core.

[FangKC]

Judge's ruling gives Westwood green light to make park into offices

Developers now can move forward with plans to transform Westwood’s sole city park into a commercial development.

On Friday, Johnson County District Judge David Hauber ruled that a petition filed by residents seeking to overturn the city’s plans to redevelop Joe D. Dennis Park was invalid.
...
Neighboring property owners later began circulating a petition calling for a public vote before the park land could be sold. They questioned whether state statues allow for such a sale, citing a law that requires cities and municipalities to publish a public notice for the sale of park land.

The petition claimed that Westwood did not follow the correct procedure. However, the city newspaper listed notice of the sale on Nov. 7 and 14, according to court records.

On Jan. 17, the City Council unanimously voted to declare the petition invalid. The city later requested Johnson County District Court issue a declaratory judgment to determine if the petition could be placed on the ballot and if the state law cited by the petitioners applied to the sale of Joe D. Dennis Park.

Hauber ruled the petition couldn’t be put on the ballot because it did not meet formatting requirements and lacked a formal question for residents to vote on.
...
Since the petition was ruled invalid, Hauber determined that the question of whether the land could be sold was moot.
...

https://www-bizjournals-com.kclibrary.i ... valid.html