LS Lowdown: 🏆 Officially a Best Place to Live (and other LS wins)

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Hey Lee’s Summit! Here’s what’s happening this week!

Welcome back to the Lee’s Summit Lowdown! I’m so glad you’re here. Here’s a quick peek of our topics for the week!

  • Outlaws & Infrastructure: Balancing $900M in growth with a 100-year-old legacy.

  • The New Shop in Town: Where exactly the new Dillons is heading (and the traffic talk).

  • A Local Hero: Meet our 11-time State Champ chasing Olympic dreams.

  • Cleaning Up: What’s actually happening to the water at Legacy Lake.

  • Scoreboard: Our new ranking as one of the best places to live in America.

  • The Lineup: Your full social calendar for Feb 22–28.

🏘️ The House That Took a Road Trip

If you’ve driven near 470 and Douglas lately, you’ve seen the bulldozers prepped for the $900 million Discovery Park. But before the steel goes up, a piece of Lee’s Summit history had to hit the road.
A 100-year-old farmhouse with ties to the family of outlaw Cole Younger was recently lifted onto platforms and moved seven miles away to Grain Valley. It’s a literal “move” to preserve a legacy while the city grows around it.

🛒 Move over, Hy-Vee and Price Chopper.

A developer has officially filed plans for a massive 100,000-square-foot Dillons supermarket west of Lee’s Summit North High School (near Tudor and Douglas).

  • The Scope: It’s not just groceries – we’re talking retail space and a gas station.

  • The Timeline: Neighborhood and Planning Commission meetings are slated for March and April. Expect some “Tudor Road traffic” talk to hit the Facebook groups soon.

⚠️ Targeting the “Gas Station Candy” Drugs.

The Planning Commission is fast-tracking regulations to pull a synthetic drug known as “07” or “70” off local shelves. Reported to be 7x more potent than OxyContin and often disguised as gummies or candy, this stuff has no business near our kids. Expect a new Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) in March to give the city more teeth to crack down on sales at local gas stations.

🚧 Next Up: Olive & Orchard Improvements

Just when you thought you’d mastered the Ward Road detours, another big project is hitting the radar. The City is hosting a public meeting this Wednesday, Feb. 25 to discuss the Olive & Orchard Improvements Project.

Why it matters: This isn’t just a quick patch-up. We’re talking new curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and storm sewers for a stretch of road that’s seen a lot of wear and tear. If you live nearby, you’ll want to drop by City Hall between 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM on Wednesday to see how this will affect your property line and your morning commute.

🏞️ Legacy Park: Sucking Up the Sludge

Why Legacy Lake is looking a little… empty.
If you’ve noticed the water levels looking low, it’s intentional. The city is spending $1.8 million to dredge Legacy Lake.
The Problem: 23 years of neighborhood runoff has filled a third of the lake with 50,000 cubic yards of “sludge.”
The Solution: A massive hydraulic vacuum is sucking it out to restore the water we use to irrigate the sports fields. It should be back to its former glory by May.

🏅 Local Legend: Jeremiah Mangels

Defying the limits, one push at a time.
Huge shoutout to Lee’s Summit North junior Jeremiah Mangels. Born with spina bifida and adopted from China at age six, Jeremiah hasn’t just joined the track team – he’s dominated it with 11 straight state championships. He was recently named a Para High School All-American, and we’re officially on “Olympic Watch” for this hometown hero.

🏆 The Big Win: Lee’s Summit Hits the National Stage

We aren’t just a “Regional Hub”—we’re one of the best in the U.S.

It’s official: U.S. News & World Report just ranked Lee’s Summit in the Top 250 Best Places to Live in the U.S. They specifically highlighted our mix of high-quality schools, the charm of Downtown, and the fact that we have more park space than some cities twice our size. It’s a nice reminder that while we’re debating 40-minute public comment caps and navigating Ward Road detours, the big picture of our city is looking better than ever. Check out the full scorecard here.

⏪ The LS Loop

What happened while you were living your life last week.

There was no City Council meeting this week.

While the main Council was dark, a reader tipped me off to some interesting chatter over at the Rules Committee (jump to the 22:55 mark for the good stuff 😉). They’ve been workshopping a new playbook for how public comment works at City Hall. The big talk? A potential 3-minute limit per speaker and a 40-minute total cap on public hearings. It’s a move toward efficiency, but it’s definitely sparking some ‘transparency’ debate among the those highly engaged in our city affairs. I’ll keep an eye on this as it moves toward a final vote.

⏪ While the Board of Education didn’t meet formally this week, they did host a a “Dinner with the Board” as they are gearing up for a major decision on the April 7 ballot. You’re going to hear a lot about “Missouri Proposition C” over the next month, so let’s break down the jargon before the flyers start hitting your mailbox.

The Background: Prop C is a 1-cent statewide sales tax from the 80s that goes to schools. Here’s the catch: the state requires school districts to “roll back” (reduce) their local property taxes based on how much sales tax they get.

The April Question:
The Board has voted to ask us for a full waiver of that rollback.

The Why: Lee’s Summit currently doesn’t have a full waiver. Each year between approximately $3 million and $5 million a year is given back to the taxpayers by reducing the next year’s tax levy.

The Goal: The district intends to use that “recaptured” money specifically for staff salaries and benefits to keep our teachers from being recruited away by neighboring districts that already have full waivers.

The Bottom Line: It’s not a new tax, but it is an adjustment to your current tax bill. For a $300,000 home, a full waiver would cost about $71 more per year in property taxes to keep that $5 million in our local classrooms.

🎸 Live & Local

Where to find the best tunes this week.

Know a local musician I missed? Hit reply and let me know who’s playing next weekend!

📝 The Weekly Lineup

Put these on your radar so you don’t miss out.

Sunday, Feb 22

Tuesday, Feb 24

Wednesday, Feb 25

Thursday, Feb 26

Friday, Feb 27

Saturday, Feb 28

✍️ Help Me Shape the Lowdown

This week, a reader tip led me straight to the Rules Committee’s debate on public comment. It reminded me that the best stories in Lee’s Summit don’t always make the front page – they start with you.

Is there a “closed door” discussion or a neighborhood mystery you want me to look into? Whether it’s a construction project that’s gone quiet or a local hero who needs a shoutout, hit reply and let me know. I’m here to do the digging so you don’t have to.

Nominations Open: I want to highlight the people you care about. Use our new Community Nomination Form to tell me which local business or neighbor I should feature next!

Thanks for being part of the Lowdown crew!

– Jen

 Editor, Lee’s Summit Lowdown

P.S. Now that we’re officially a “Top 250” city, does this mean we have to start acting more sophisticated? Because I’m still wearing my Chiefs hoodie to the grocery store. Stay classy, Lee’s Summit! 🏆💪

How did we do in this edition?

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