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John “Jack” Helin
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TAB 5
stays open because they calculate they’ll lose customers, said City Manager Jack Helin. “We’ve
amended our budget this year to take into account some lost revenue,” said Helin, who
acknowledged that the city has been watching the Roeland Park issue closely. “We hope that our
customers who come to Bonner Springs will continue to come.” Shawnee officials are excited
about the addition of the city’s second store, this one near Kansas 7 and Johnson Drive. It means
more money for the De Soto School District and hopefully more commercial development for
the area, they say.
The project had been on hold for years. It was first announced in 2005, and then the recession hit
in 2008, putting it off even longer. Last year, the city said Wal-Mart would reduce the size by
about 45,000 square feet. Meanwhile, as nearby residents learned about the plans to build a Wal-
Mart, they cried foul. They said Rodrock, the developer, had promised a walkable community
with nearby shops, doctors’ offices, a library, an assisted living facility and no supercenter. They
put together a petition and pooled money to hire an attorney. Tom Langhofer, general manager
for Rodrock, had no comment.
Neighbors’ concerns, which continue today:
• Traffic would increase greatly and flow into their neighborhood, bringing in strangers.
• Residential property values would decrease.
• Prairie Ridge Elementary School would be only about three blocks from the supercenter,
causing problems for children trying to navigate to and from school through the traffic.
• The store is only a block from the neighborhood community center with its swimming pool and
a volleyball sand lot. Some neighbors are concerned about sending their kids to the center
because of the many strangers nearby and the vehicles driving by.
When a legal challenge failed, the neighbors brought in engineers to try to get the design of the
project changed so traffic would flow away from the neighborhood by blocking off streets and
using other methods. But their pleas fell on deaf ears, neighbors said. The council “rammed this
through, and when we did oppose it, we didn’t really get anywhere,” said Ryan Cohoy, a
resident. “Do I want a Wal-Mart in my backyard? No.” Several neighbors said the city council
failed to support them. They also said a council member was wrong when he was quoted in a
newspaper article a few months ago saying neighbors embrace the project. “We resigned
ourselves to it, but I don’t think we embraced it,” Befort said. “We would move, but with the
economy and all we invested in our house, we would lose too much.”
Mayor Jeff Meyers said he thought neighborhood problems had been resolved. “I haven’t heard
anything from anyone as far as the Wal-Mart project is concerned for a long, long time,” Meyers
said. And now with bulldozers at work off Kansas 7, the mayor said many in the community are
waiting for the new revenue to roll in.
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