UPDATE 10:30 PM 2/26/2019: After more than three hours of discussion, the Planning Commission approved the proposal with revisions including improvement to parking and sidewalks. The proposal for the pool and clubhouse was not altered. It now goes to the full City Council for a vote.
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Residents in Gardner, Kansas are gearing up for a fight over a proposed pool.
A meeting Tuesday night in the south metro suburb will include residents expressing disappointment over a proposed pool that's part of a development project next to a subdivision.
Jessica Strom and her husband moved to the Waverly Point subdivision on W. 175th street in Gardner last year to raise their young children.
"It’s right on the edge of town near the schools and it has a very good community vibe," Strom said.
They always knew some type of development would go up next to them.
The Bristol Groupe, who oversees several shopping centers around the metro, has owned the land for more than a decade.
Besides retail space, there were plans for a grocery store, but those fell through.
Now, 144 luxury apartments are being proposed.
"Gardner as a whole needs more rooftops as its apartment marketplace is very sparse," Bristole Groupe partner Greg Divilbiss said. "there’s not any availability at all so there’s a market for that."
Those new plans also call for a clubhouse and pool, which is where the proposal gets murky.
"It’s a small space, and if you see all the homes are in a horseshoe, you put a pool right there it’s going to amplify all the noise," Strom said.
"One way we’re going to address that is through various sound barriers, whether that’s natural vegetation or potentially some type of fencing," Divilbiss said.
Strom and her neighbors who are against the pool voiced their opposition at a recent meeting with the developer.
"This is such a huge problem, and if the city doesn’t listen to us approve this plan, we’re going to have to look at some other options," Strom said.
The developer said they're trying to accommodate their future neighbors.
"People are upset," Divilbiss said. "They think of my property as their backyard, so I’m going put something in it that they’re not appreciative, but at the same time, it is our property and so we’re going try and do it in a way that we can be the best neighbor possible."
"We don’t believe that right," Strom said. "There’s no integrity in that just because he can doesn’t mean that should."
41 Action News asked Divilbiss why the proposed pool couldn't be built across the street where the proposed apartments will be. He said there isn't space.
In the meantime, Divilbiss hopes to break ground by mid-Spring.
