Plans are being made to destroy approximately 100 acres of wildlife habitat, watershed and forest for a proposed 87th Street Logistics Center industrial complex that would be located east of I-435 to Oldham Road between 83rd and 87th Streets. The proposed development, which abuts residential neighborhoods, would include 1.2 million sq. ft. of warehouse space including one mega-warehouse with 176 loading docks and over 400 semi-trailer spaces and three additional buildings with 100 loading docks.
The property, described by the developer as vacant, is a tract of green infrastructure: a biodiverse ecosystem, a hackberry, oak, locust, walnut forest, supporting populations of deer, raccoon, fox, and other wildlife, which cleans our air, cools our environment, sequesters carbon dioxide and removes pollutants from the air.
The land provides a buffer against the negative health impacts that occur from being close to a highway as well as decreasing highway noise . This proposed development would replace this green infrastructure with approximately 100 acres of impervious surface, resulting in increased stormwater runoff, produce a heat island effect, reduce air quality, and generally decrease the life expectancy of those who live in Oldham Farms and the surrounding neighborhoods.
If constructed, the industrial complex would bring hundreds of semitrailer trucks into South Kansas City neighborhoods, arriving and departing the complex, clogging streets and highways, increasing threats to children and others on our roads, damaging road surfaces (resulting in higher taxpayer road repair), and increasing carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, diesel soot and particulate matter in the air resulting in increased rates of asthma, lung and heart disease, stroke and cancer, premature birth, adverse pregnancy outcomes and other negative health impacts related to diesel truck exhaust.
The land is zoned residential and the developers will seek to change that zoning to allow them to destroy and replace the forest with a speculative, unnecessary threat to the well-being of area residents.
Concerned citizens can take a stand with south Kansas City neighborhoods and oppose the change in zoning for the 87th Street Logistics Center. Stay informed by emailing: [email protected], and express concern about the impact of this proposed urban habitat destruction at the this zoom meeting:
- March 29th, at 5:00pm CT
- Join by Computer: https://polsinelli.zoom.us/j/97249092830
- Or join by phone: (312) 626-6799
- Meeting ID: 972 2909 2830
- Passcode: 410821
