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Landscaping works grows out of Vision Metcalf
By: Loren Stanton, Staff Writer
Implementing Overland Park’s multimillion-dollar dream for remaking the Metcalf Avenue corridor might involve a long journey, but several baby steps were taken in the past week.
The biggest recent investment in stimulating the city’s Vision Metcalf plan came with a City Council vote last week to approve a $445,000 bid for landscaping the avenue between 95th and 103rd streets.
Among key elements of Vision Metcalf, which proposes extensive redevelopment and revitalization between Interstate 35 and 123rd Street, are plans to make the corridor more aesthetically pleasing and more pedestrian and environmentally friendly.
The landscaping work, which will include plantings in the median and along both sides of the street, will cap an extensive road widening and improvement project that is nearing completion.
The plan approved last week was described in a staff report to the council “as a first prototype for landscaping of the Metcalf corridor with some aspects to be applied to future Metcalf improvements.”
Those aspects will include large canopy trees and more extensive ornamental plantings than in the past.
Scores of trees will be planted as part of the newly approved Metcalf project, including 83 red oaks, more than 60 maples, 45 redbuds and 14 crabapples.
An underground irrigation system and stone walls will be installed.
An asphalt trail has been constructed along Metcalf from 97th Terrace to 103rd Street, where it connects to the Indian Creek streamway trail system.
Townhomes enter vision
Officials broke ground Thursday for a private residential project that also is considered a product of Vision Metcalf.
Summerfield Development will build a 22-unit, $5.3 million infill housing project on the edge of the city’s downtown shopping district at the northwest corner of 78th and Conser streets.
Though it will be several blocks west of Metcalf, the company’s Townhomes at Buckley Court development fits within the boundaries and mold of the city’s plan.
Vision Metcalf proposes an array of multiuse projects that allow and promote good pedestrian access from residential areas to offices and shopping. Buckley Court will be a short walk from downtown stores and services.
John Foudray, Summerfield director of development, said the city’s ambitious plans for Metcalf and surrounding areas encouraged his company to proceed with the project.
“We think downtown Overland Park is on the verge of a great revitalization, and we wanted to be a part of that,” Foudray told the gathering at the groundbreaking.
City Council President Jim Hix said projects like Summerfield’s can act as catalysts for Vision Metcalf.
“It has to start somewhere, and it’s those early jump-starters that can make it happen,” Hix said.
Two other multifamily housing projects are under way in the downtown area – Mission Lofts at 7300 W. 80th St. and The Phoenix Building at 7924 Santa Fe. The latter project already is under construction. It is located at the former home of the Gil Rumsey art studio, which was destroyed by fire in March 2006.
“I look forward to the day 15 or 20 years from now when our complaint is that there are too many pedestrians walking on our sidewalks,” Hix quipped at the groundbreaking.
The Buckley Court units will range in price from the $130,000s to the $290,000s and in size from 930 to 2,300 square feet. The project is slated for completion late next spring.
Metcalf plan enters master plan
The City Council also further formalized its commitment to the Vision Metcalf plan by approving the annual update of the city’s Master Plan last week.
The Master Plan charts development patterns and policies for the future. New to the document this year is an introduction to the Vision Metcalf plan and the adoption of its goals, objectives and recommendations.
Among other objectives is implementation of a public transportation system serving the corridor, a large park, a civic center, and some kind of dramatic gateway at both ends of the Vision Metcalf area.
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The biggest recent investment in stimulating the city’s Vision Metcalf plan came with a City Council vote last week to approve a $445,000 bid for landscaping the avenue between 95th and 103rd streets.
Among key elements of Vision Metcalf, which proposes extensive redevelopment and revitalization between Interstate 35 and 123rd Street, are plans to make the corridor more aesthetically pleasing and more pedestrian and environmentally friendly.
The landscaping work, which will include plantings in the median and along both sides of the street, will cap an extensive road widening and improvement project that is nearing completion.
The plan approved last week was described in a staff report to the council “as a first prototype for landscaping of the Metcalf corridor with some aspects to be applied to future Metcalf improvements.”
Those aspects will include large canopy trees and more extensive ornamental plantings than in the past.
Scores of trees will be planted as part of the newly approved Metcalf project, including 83 red oaks, more than 60 maples, 45 redbuds and 14 crabapples.
An underground irrigation system and stone walls will be installed.
An asphalt trail has been constructed along Metcalf from 97th Terrace to 103rd Street, where it connects to the Indian Creek streamway trail system.
Townhomes enter vision
Officials broke ground Thursday for a private residential project that also is considered a product of Vision Metcalf.
Summerfield Development will build a 22-unit, $5.3 million infill housing project on the edge of the city’s downtown shopping district at the northwest corner of 78th and Conser streets.
Though it will be several blocks west of Metcalf, the company’s Townhomes at Buckley Court development fits within the boundaries and mold of the city’s plan.
Vision Metcalf proposes an array of multiuse projects that allow and promote good pedestrian access from residential areas to offices and shopping. Buckley Court will be a short walk from downtown stores and services.
John Foudray, Summerfield director of development, said the city’s ambitious plans for Metcalf and surrounding areas encouraged his company to proceed with the project.
“We think downtown Overland Park is on the verge of a great revitalization, and we wanted to be a part of that,” Foudray told the gathering at the groundbreaking.
City Council President Jim Hix said projects like Summerfield’s can act as catalysts for Vision Metcalf.
“It has to start somewhere, and it’s those early jump-starters that can make it happen,” Hix said.
Two other multifamily housing projects are under way in the downtown area – Mission Lofts at 7300 W. 80th St. and The Phoenix Building at 7924 Santa Fe. The latter project already is under construction. It is located at the former home of the Gil Rumsey art studio, which was destroyed by fire in March 2006.
“I look forward to the day 15 or 20 years from now when our complaint is that there are too many pedestrians walking on our sidewalks,” Hix quipped at the groundbreaking.
The Buckley Court units will range in price from the $130,000s to the $290,000s and in size from 930 to 2,300 square feet. The project is slated for completion late next spring.
Metcalf plan enters master plan
The City Council also further formalized its commitment to the Vision Metcalf plan by approving the annual update of the city’s Master Plan last week.
The Master Plan charts development patterns and policies for the future. New to the document this year is an introduction to the Vision Metcalf plan and the adoption of its goals, objectives and recommendations.
Among other objectives is implementation of a public transportation system serving the corridor, a large park, a civic center, and some kind of dramatic gateway at both ends of the Vision Metcalf area.