ShawneeDispatch.com

The city's Public Works and Safety Committee was scheduled to hear details Tuesday concerning a proposed $300 million golf course and upscale residential development, the committee's chairman said.

Tuesday's presentation of the proposal, to be called The Links at Mill Creek, was to include further information concerning about 700 upscale homes and a 7,100-yard championship city-run golf course projected for the development, according to the agenda.

The golf course, which would cost about $11 million, would be located on about 250 acres at the southeast corner of 75th Street and Monticello Road, according to the developer.

Another 430 acres of land will be under contract for residential development, said Mark Simpson, principal for MillCreek Land Company, LLC.

The project isn't new to members of the governing body, said Bryan Newby, Ward IV Councilman and chairman of the committee.

Representatives with the applicant began meeting with Council members individually late last year concerning the development before Tuesday's formal introduction to the city.

On the surface, the project looks attractive, Newby said.

The developer has projected increases in property values in residential areas near the development and revenues of more than $1.1 million in annual property and sales tax for the city, based on current mill levy and city sales tax information.

In addition, Simpson said more than $600,000 in annual course revenues are projected for the course.

"I think it has the potential to raise the quality of life in Shawnee," Newby said Monday.

Committee members Tuesday were expected to learn more about the city's role in the project.

Initial plans call for two points worth review, Newby said, and City Council members still need to weigh the benefits of having the course with how much it will cost to run it.

Developers were expected to explain Tuesday whether the city would be asked to condemn some land for the golf course. The land is zoned residential, and the owner hasn't expressed a desire to sell it in the past, said city manager Gary Montague.

The majority of the golf course already is under contract, Simpson said, but negotiations with the landowner, who doesn't live in Shawnee, continue on a key piece of land.

"We are in ongoing discussions," Simpson said, "but without it we can't build it. We're hoping we'll be successful, but if we're not, we're asking that the city use its powers to condemn the land."

Details concerning the condemnation process were few before the meeting, but Newby said that condemnation would make sense on some levels but not without further consideration.

"My biggest concern is understanding it," Newby said Monday.

Nevertheless, city officials understand that the project, targeted for a fall construction start date with a grand opening tentatively scheduled for late 2006, would face substantial setbacks without the land.

"The schedule is probably doable if everything falls into place, but one of the sticky points is the land acquisition," Montague said. "That's critical right now."

Additionally, Shawnee officials likely would redraw its southern city limits at 83rd Street to allow for about 5 acres of the golf course that are planned to be within the current Lenexa city limits, Montague said.

If the city's obligations are acceptable, Montague said Shawnee would benefit from the addition of upscale homes, some of which Montague said could sell for $1 million.

"That is in the later phases on some really tremendous lots," Simpson said. "We don't anticipate that in the first phase, which is near the corner of 83rd and Woodland in the summer of '06."

Simpson said homes in the first phase could sell in the upper $200,000s. Homes on the golf course could start at $400,000.

"This would give us that inventory that we don't currently have," Montague said. "It really would help our housing market, and people in Shawnee would move into those homes if given the opportunity."

Montague said the land is best suited for a golf course because of its hilly terrain, which is restrictive to many residential developments.

A recommendation to approve the item by Committee members Tuesday would give developers another step toward building the development, but the project still must be proposed to the Shawnee Planning Commission and the City Council.

"It's a very unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city," Simpson said. "There is not one other tract of land in Shawnee that could accommodate this sort of course. Shawnee would not only have a municipal course, they would have the best one."