KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Neighbors that live near the Business Park area reached out to Ryan to share their concerns. Cass County's growth and development is a top reporting priority for Ryan and he wants to share your voice. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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Communities in Cass County, Missouri are changing each week, especially in Belton with new development projects popping up.
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The city is continuing its strategy to manage its infill properties and plan for future development and growth in its 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
"I’ve always anticipated growth coming someday," Chuck Kestner said.
Kestner lives off 195th Street south of the North Cass Parkway exit of Interstate 49. He's not a city resident but is being faced with development changes in his neighborhood.
His neighbors Jim and Denise Shipley are also concerned about the land use changes and reached out to KSHB 41 Cass County Reporter Ryan Gamboa to share their voice.
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At the end of March, Belton held a "Neighborhood Meeting" for a proposed amendment to the city's comprehensive plan.
The Shipley's explained the neighborhood meeting held in the Council Chambers in downtown Belton was overflowing with people.
Those same neighbors looped Gamboa into an email thread where they expressed their concerns to the city's planning department.
In their neighborhood, they estimate there is about 100 homes and another development north of them houses upwards of 200 in a retirement community.
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The area is identified in the Comprehensive Plan as "Graham Effertz Property" which is a total of 1,200 acres and half is annexed in the city of Belton.
The proposed land use change the three are concerned about is a "Business Park" outlined on the south east side of the property.
They live directly across the street from a plot of farmland, that if the amendment is passed by the Planning Commission and City Council, it could be the future home of a warehouse development.
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"We can see warehouses already," he explained. "At night I can see the lighting over there, if you look our of our kitchen window you can see warehouses over there, that’s how high they are, and they’re a mile away."
Kestner is referring to the Raymore Commerce Center, it's four major warehouses, the largest one nearing completion over one-million square feet in size.
It's a topic KSHB 41 Cass County Reporter Ryan Gamboa has reported on in the past.
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"I wish they would take some time and give us a couple moments to breathe and to ask questions and get some answers and then go from there," Kestner said.
The Shipley's told Gamboa, if the Business Park development would come to fruition, it would drastically change their way of life.
"We moved out here to get away from all of that," Jim Shipley explained.
They've lived in their home for 35 years.
"Seeing what we have seen across I-49, with the warehouse there, they are huge," Denise Shipley added.
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City of Belton, Community Development Director Matt Wright sat down with Gamboa on Thursday morning to address the proposed changes to the comprehensive plan.
"With the various interest we have received, we are proposing to bring forward a land use development, based on the feedback we’ve gotten from developers interested in that area," Wright said.
The interest is along the Interstate 49 corridor.
"We limited business park land elsewhere currently in the city limits," Wright said.
But the land in question is not currently within Belton's city limits, it sits just south of the boundary, according to Wright.
He told Gamboa, that the property owner would need to voluntarily annex the 500 acres of land.
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KSHB 41 left a message for the land owner to include them in this story and has not heard back.
Wright explained, the city has not received any interest in annexation from the property owner, but the city must plan for the future.
"We kind of envision this area being a large-scale mix of uses, commercial along the frontage of interstate, multiple different types of residential to Mullen Road and some business park to compliment what is going on the Raymore side of the interchange," he told KSHB 41. "We're trying to make sure that we have the jobs to support future housing development, and then housing development supports future retail development. It all works together, so we can’t really have one without the other."
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Wright did not compare any future development to the scale of the Raymore Commerce Center, but to that of the Southview Commerce Center on Belton's North side — home to Chewy and Ipsy warehouses.
The kinds of jobs are in question by the neighbors and if those employees would live in the community.
"I don't know if anybody who works there lives in Raymore," Kestner said. "Sometimes the pay is such that it takes more than one person to maintain a household."
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KSHB 41 Photojournalist Will Shaw pointed out at the Southview Commerce Center a banner promoting the occupants hiring push with wages starting at $19.50 per hour.
"Most of these people don't live in the area," Kestner added.
The Shipley's and Kestner are not opposed to growth in their neighborhood, but ask the planning emulate the community that's there.
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"Warehouses don’t fit the character of this area," Jim Shipley said.
Shipley would like to also see the city change the name of the "Business Park" to an "Industrial Park" if it were to stay. He said the marketing of the area is misleading. As they all have height and road buffer concerns and a potential developer taking those into consideration.
"It’s like they’re trying to soften what they’re calling the land use as a business park, knowing full well there will be warehouses built," he added.
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The proposed amendment to the comprehensive plan are expected to go before the Planning Commission on April 21st — if it passes, the city council could approve the changes in its next batch of meetings.
"We are very aware of the concerns," Wright went on to add. "Those are all items we take into consideration when working with the developer."
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