Lenexa shows off updated comprehensive plan to residents

LENEXA, Kan. — The quickly-growing Johnson County city of Lenexa showed off it’s updated comprehensive plan to residents Wednesday night, setting a guide for the next 20 years of development and land use.

“Lenexa has development pressures, and so this helps guide everybody the entire community forward in the future about that,” said Lenexa Community Development Director Scott McCullough.

It’s why he was walking residents through the updated maps and roughly 25% of the city land that he says is still to be developed.

“We believe this Comprehensive Plan’s Land Use Map would project out a full build out population of about 110,000 people ultimately,” McCullough said. “We’re at about 60,000 right now. That could be the expectation. That will take decades worth of development to get there and we were adjust the plan several times in the meantime but that’s what the current data is telling us about the population.”

The intersection at K-7 and K-10 is the largest concentrated area of change on the maps and McCullough says that’s best left for business park development to capitalize on the access to highways. He expects upgrades to both roadways and the interchange between them in the next few years.

But that means other parts of town are left to shoulder a growing population that is only expected to keep expanding.

In February, FOX4 talked to residents in southwestern Lenexa frustrated that a high-density development was about to be approved for the greenspace behind their homes.

Rob Matthews already houses some of that growing population in his two duplexes while he notices more units going up on various parts of town.

“It’s interesting to see how many apartment buildings,” Matthews said. “That’s kind of been a surprise to see how many there are but Lenexa is growing as quick as it is.”

Wednesday night, Sydney Bergeron told FOX4 she understands the need for high-density housing.

She wants to see more and better connections for pedestrians and cyclists in her part of eastern Lenexa, but she also has struggled to find a mid-range, single family home.

“My house is a starter home and I’d like to move out of there but there’s really no place to go because I get that [starter home] or the step up is those big homes I don’t need and really can’t afford,” Bergerson said.

Elected leaders are expected to review the plans over the next few weeks and could formally adopt them by the end of May.

You can read the plans here .

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