City of Olathe Project RZ25-0007 — a 140-foot-tall cold storage warehouse bordering Lone Elm Park — is winding through the city’s approval process. The owner, the $18 billion corporation Lineage, Inc., expects public incentives: industrial revenue bonds, tax abatements, sales tax waivers and a community improvement district tax increase.
The Olathe Planning Commission voted against the project, citing overburdened traffic infrastructure. Yet the project now heads to the City Council for a vote on Sept. 16, where its members can override that decision.
A traffic study was performed by a consultant — but it wasn’t paid for by the city’s planning commission. Despite the possible conflict of interest and flaws in the study, the best spin offered was that the development would generate 500 new semitruck round trips daily. But that’s not the full story.
Lineage’s existing facility in Olathe doesn’t operate on a simple load-and-go model, attendees at a recent council meeting said. Instead:
• A semitruck drops off its trailer.
• The truck leaves and waits offsite.
• The driver returns once notified the trailer is loaded.
• The truck picks up the trailer and departs.
That’s two round trips per truck. So the claimed 500 round trips are actually 1,000.
And that’s just Phase 1.
Phase 2 adds another 695 semitruck round trips. Including employee, maintenance and delivery vehicles, so the total balloons to 2,974 daily trips. Since each is a round trip, that’s 5,948 separate vehicle movements on local roads — every single day.
Anyone familiar with southwest Olathe knows the current infrastructure can’t absorb that volume without major upgrades. Yet the city’s cost-benefit analysis conveniently omits road improvement costs. If those were included, the project wouldn’t pass the economic feasibility test.
As the council vote approaches, it’s time to remind elected officials: using manipulated data to justify a private development — especially when omitting key costs — can constitute fraud, misrepresentation or bad faith.
Public officials who knowingly misrepresent facts are not shielded by sovereign immunity. They could face personal liability in state and federal court.
For too long, public funds and incentives have been handed to private developers for projects that fail basic scrutiny. It’s time our leaders face the consequences of their decisions.
Before voting yes, they should make sure they look good in orange.
About the author: Jeff Walters is a former civil and structural engineer and private business owner with more than 40 years experience in engineering, finance and internet consulting. He lives in Olathe.
