Olathe ? Johnson County officials agreed Thursday that the public would be banned from meetings to evaluate development plans for the defunct Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.

On a 5-2 vote, county commissioners agreed to form a separate group to analyze proposals from six private development companies. The newly formed group of four analysts will make a recommendation next month to commissioners on the viability of those plans. But the group’s meetings won’t be open.

The 9,065-acre site near De Soto has been declared surplus property by the federal government.

Johnson County is trying to acquire the land to transfer to a private company for a business and residential development, which would include a town center and nearly 3,500 acres of park space.

The site also will require tens of millions of dollars to remove hazardous waste left from the manufacture of munitions.

Several county commissioners said the county needed to quickly pick a development partner in time to go to Congress and seek cleanup funds. They said keeping the evaluation process behind closed doors would speed a decision.

“I am vehemently opposed to delaying the issue any longer,” Commissioner Doug Wood said.

But others on the commission favored another procedural route — appointing a redevelopment authority that would oversee the site development and be subject to state laws requiring that meetings and records be open to the public.

“This issue has been around so long, I don’t want to tune anyone out now,” Commissioner John Toplikar said.

But those in favor of a separate group to screen the applicants said a redevelopment authority could be selected in the future.

Those who will serve on the group include Chief County Atty. Don Jarrett, County Economic Resource Institute director Dennis McKee, a representative of the county’s financial advisers and a representative of environmental interests.

The group will analyze the six proposals to test the companies’ economic ability to develop the property in an environmentally sound manner.

Jarrett told the commissioners they had a “narrow window” to get the land by October, the end of the federal government’s fiscal year.

A critical deadline is to get their proposal in front of a Senate committee that deals with military appropriations by March 1, he said, in order to apply for approximately $29 million to remove potentially “explosive” waste. Even larger cleanup appropriations will be needed in ensuing years.

Jarrett’s evaluation group will present its findings next month to the commissioners, who then will hold public hearings on the proposal.

The six companies that have expressed an interest in developing the Sunflower site are Kessinger Hunter, Hunt Midwest, Kansas Wind Power, Pollution Risk Services, LS Commercial Real Estate and investor Doug Dowell.