This story is part of an ongoing series, Powering Change: Panasonic and De Soto. If you'd like to share your excitement or concerns about the electric vehicle battery plant, you can do so here.
—
The city of De Soto is reducing the minimum lot size for units in single-family residential districts from 7,500 square feet to 6,000 square feet. The city hopes this lot reduction will lead to more homes at a lower price.
This comes as De Soto is preparing to welcome the Panasonic electric vehicle battery plant this spring. Officials said the plant is expected to create 4,000 jobs and could bring thousands of housing units to the area.
"It's going to bring more rooftops to the people that want to buy here in town,” Sherelle Witt, a realtor, business owner and resident of De Soto, said of the lot reduction. "Especially with the Panasonic plant coming in, we need more houses that even on that smaller lot can cost less."
De Soto Mayor Rick Walker said the construction of the Panasonic plant has increased the cost of development in town.
"Land price is a key driver in what makes housing affordable,” Walker said.
He said the hope with smaller units is to lead to more affordable units.
"Smaller lot sizes then would allow a denser development in areas where it's appropriate, and then thereby doing a little bit to help with the affordability of new housing coming to the market,” Walker said.
Data shows homes under $300,000 are already hard to come by in Johnson County.
"The concern for some people is more traffic, more noise, and so, you know, with growth, that is going to come, Witt said.
Witt knows there will be growing pains, but she understands that's a part of change.
"We're only 6,500 people out here, so even if we double, we're still a small town. We're still gonna have maybe three or four stoplights,” she said.
—
KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers the cities of Shawnee and Mission. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of health care, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.