BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — A developer wants to build an apartment complex and some retail space in an empty Blue Springs plot, but it is receiving pushback from neighbors in the area.
Bridgewood Plaza II filed a request to rezone the area along Adams Dairy Parkway and Duncan Road to allow for high-density housing. The development company submitted plans to the city to build 360 multi-family units spread across 10 apartment buildings. In the second phase, it would like to add retail space and a hotel.
According to the documents submitted to the city council, the city staff report recommends approving the rezoning request. It took into account a traffic study for the intersection and other factors like property values, which the staffer stated they believed would not be negatively impacted.
However, when the first public hearing was held on Monday, Dec. 11 at the Planning Commission meeting, there was noticeable opposition from residents who attended. The meeting lasted for more than three hours. Those who oppose are worried about the traffic, property values decreasing and they claim it would impact the school district’s population. The Planning Commission voted against the request to rezone and the plan concept, sending it on to the second public hearing that will be at Monday’s city council meeting.
George Ferguson is one of the people who spoke at the Planning Commission meeting. Ferguson shares similar worries, but his main issue is with the traffic study. He believed there were other factors and intersections not taken into account when grading. That is why he plans to speak again, this time at Monday’s city council meeting.
“The original promise was that that area would not be high-density multi-family. And it seems as if that promise is being broken. There's more suitable area to the east. The impact on the surrounding neighborhoods would be basically much more negative,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said he is not against developing that plot of land, but he would like to see single-family homes in place, instead of high-density apartments.
Neighborhoods in the area have been encouraging homeowners to speak out, like in the Waterfield neighborhood. There were signs posted at entrances asking people to attend the meeting.
When KSHB 41 News spoke with a city official to get clarification on the agenda items, they said opposition to high-density zoning is not uncommon from residents.
Monday’s city council meeting is at 6 p.m. inside the council chambers located at 1100 Southwest Smith St., in Blue Springs, Missouri.
The city council will vote on the rezoning request and the concept plan.
