Granite Springs includes first leg of thoroughfare

A Vision 20/20 idea to link communities in southeast and southwest Greene County via a thoroughfare is one step closer to reality. As part of the 150-acre planned development named Granite Springs, developer Mark Eck has agreed to construct the first leg of an east-west arterial road starting at Highway 65 and Evans Road.

Eck said the road will get built as demand dictates. He's hoping when two home builders Vanguard Homes and Weber Home & Land dig into four lots at his subdivision this month, others will follow suit.

A flurry of activity will speed up construction of the road, he said.

Eck's development comprises 95 acres of residential land and about 55 acres of commercial property across from Millwood Country Club. The road runs through his property.

City and county planners have adopted design of a four-lane road stretching from Highway 65 to Kansas Expressway, possibly ending in the town of Battlefield. The goal is to provide southern access to National and Campbell avenues for residents of Granite Springs, Millwood and other nearby subdivisions.

"This road is intended to serve as a circulation route in the southern part of the community," said Ralph Rognstad, Springfield's assistant director of planning and development. "We have to provide these major roads."

Eck is responsible for two lanes, but he is building four lanes near Highway 65 "to jump-start some commercial development there," Rognstad said. Eck will be reimbursed two-thirds of the cost of the additional two lanes; one-third from property owners to north and south and one-third from public money, Rognstad said.

Per the developer's agreement, there are two triggers to get the road started: if Eck begins commercial development or when there are 75 homes built in the subdivision. City officials would like to see the road developed in two to four years.

The first phase has 41 lots and there will be 220 lots in all, Eck said, which will range in price from $42,500 to $72,300. Most are three-fourths acre, walkout-basement lots. Home prices will start at $250,000.

"Right now we're focusing on the residential," Eck said.

Other residential plans comprise 40 to 50 townhouse villas and up to 300 apartments.

But Eck knows the road will be essential to the commercial development, which will be anchored by "neighborhood retail," he said. The commercial property is visible from Highway 65.

"It's essential for the retail," Eck said. "It's going to provide great access to my property and the homeowners here."

Eck said the planned development "requires offices in the retail center to be more upscale. I want the offices to complement the homes."

According to Kent Morris, Greene County planning director, the county recently approved plans for a Ron Stenger residential development west of Campbell Avenue and Steinert Road. Morris said the Lion's Gate subdivision calls for 300 homes. That residential influx requires the new road system, he said, and county planners have designed the road west of Campbell, which will serve as the west leg of the arterial. He expects its construction to begin within three years.

However, it is unknown when the east-west connection will occur.

"We don't anticipate doing that for some time," Rognstad said. "It's not even on our capital improvements program."

But the road is becoming a necessity, he said, as development progresses south.

"We're slowly pushing south," Rognstad said. "The road is sort of at the edge of where the development is occurring. It certainly shows if we had not planned for the road, this development that is occurring, like Eck's and Stenger's, would have closed off the corridor and we wouldn't have been able to get the road."

A name for the arterial has not been determined, but officials are considering Veteran's Memorial Boulevard, Rognstad said.