Bootsie Martin moved to Olathe’s Cedar Creek neighborhood for the nature. “I have deer that come in my backyard. In the spring they bring their babies. There are foxes running through my backyard. It’s the wildlife, the trees, the lake. I loved how it was,” said Martin, who has now lived in Cedar Creek, near the confluence of K-10 and K-7 highways, for about five years. But a fight is brewing in her quiet neighborhood over a proposed development, with many homeowners worried that the doorstep to their slice of paradise could forever change. The sprawling neighborhood is home to rolling hills and dense woods. Modern subdivisions — with homes ranging from $500,000 to $2 million — are tucked between winding roads marked by waterfalls and limestone bluffs. “I have to drive a ways for a grocery store, but I don’t care,” Martin said. “I wanted to live out here where it is quiet, remote. It is just something to see when you live out here.” Lenexa-based Oddo Development is proposing a mixed-use project at the southeast corner of Cedar Creek and Valley parkways, including four- and five-story luxury apartment buildings with 300 units and a parking garage below. Plans also include two buildings with 11 “brownstone” townhomes, priced at $500,000 and up, as well as retail and sit-down restaurants. Oddo Development is asking city officials to approve rezoning 14 acres, which is almost entirely covered by trees, to allow the project. The site was previously zoned for a hotel development.
Source: Joco 913 News
