Oxford on the Blue to Be Home of Great Opportunity
By Mary Wilson
Developers for the upcoming Oxford on the Blue property,
located north of 87th Street between I-49 and I-435, presented
updates to neighbors at the Southern Communities Coalition meeting on
Wednesday, April 16.
“I guess it could be described as a saga, because it’s been
going on for a long, long time,” said Kerr.
Starting his career with the city planning commission in
1955, Kerr has been in the Kansas City development industry nearly 60 years.
According to Kerr, with the history of the interstates in the metropolitan
area, the approach to acquire the right-of-way on the Kansas side was different
from what the Missouri Highway department’s philosophy was.
“If you think about I-35 on the Kansas side, they bought
enough right-of-way to create service roads on either side of the interstate,”
said Kerr. “On the Missouri side, we built triangles at the on and off points
that were not connected with the service roads.”
Many industrial buildings were then developed to be situated
along the service roads in Kansas, therefore leading the way to the take-off of
Johnson County, according to Kerr, who was involved in the development of
Corporate Woods. The Oxford on the Blue project provides a unique situation for
developers due to the proximity to both I-49 and I-435, along with the
completion of 87th Street connecting both interstates.
“The property has a unique set of infrastructure advantages,”
said Kerr. “We want to save as much of the natural beauty of the site as
possible. Instead of having great big surface parking, we’d like to develop
structured parking so we don’t have to just scalp everything.”
Eight years ago, James Stowers showed interest in the
property, and after a year of negotiations Kerr sold the property to Stowers,
who felt that the neighborhood of Jackson Hills should also be acquired due to
the sub-standard housing developments that did not comply with the subdivision
development codes of Kansas City.
“There were 39 houses there, and we have now bought all but
two,” said Kerr. “One of the two is owned by the housing authority, and we’re
very close to closing on that. Within the next few weeks, I think we’ll have
all of them, which will complete the land assemblage.”
The area comprises of about 320 acres. In addition to the
land owned by Stowers for the Oxford on the Blue project, another 25 acres
remains and is currently being negotiated. The mixed-use project will involve commercial,
office, and both multi-family and single-family residential. It is a large
project that will be implemented over a long period of time.
Scientists working at the Stowers Institute come from all
over the world, and Stowers envisions a campus for them. After spending a year
and a half in England, he envisioned Oxford on the Blue (next to the Blue
River) as an oasis for these scientists.
“This will be a campus where these scientists can think and
live,” said Kerr. “The idea is to incentivize these scientists who are in
Kansas City at the Stowers Institute, to keep the ideas in Kansas City.”
The idea is a scientific development that can continue to
expand over a period of decades. With the system of interstates providing
access to it, Kerr stated that it is accessible across the metropolitan area.
The ability to further the connectivity remains, with the Country Club
right-of-way ending less than a mile from the property.
Attorney for the project James Bowers stated that the
project, despite the correlation with James Stowers, is not related to the
Stowers Institute. A proposal to the City of Kansas City planning commission,
in the form of an application for an Urban Renewal (UR) zoning designation, is
currently pending for the project. The plan divides the property into proposed
lots for development purposes. The development will happen in phases, and a
timeline for those phases has not been determined.
The hearing for the project to go before the planning
commission is Tuesday, May 6. The next and final meeting for the school year
for the Southern Communities Coalition will be on Wednesday, May 21.
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