photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

The entrance of De Soto's Sunflower Nature Park. The park, located five miles east of Eudora, will be considered as part of a land exchange by Johnson County and the Sunflower Redevelopment group that could lead to expanding a road through the park and the protection of 210 acres of land southwest of the site.

As De Soto envisions expanding the industrial park near the massive new Panasonic factory, a small nature park near the Douglas County border could literally be in the way of that growth.

The Sunflower Nature Park in De Soto — a 58-acre park about five miles outside of Eudora — sits just south of Edgerton Road and is adjacent to the site of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant. Brian Nowotny, the superintendent of parks and golf courses for the Johnson County Park and Recreation District, said if De Soto went through with extending Edgerton Road, it would cut “straight through the park” and could leave the natural area surrounded by industrial development.

“That really would change the nature and character of the entire park,” Nowotny said.

With that in mind, the Johnson County parks department is considering a land exchange with Sunflower Redevelopment — the group that owns much of the land of the former ammunition plant. The exchange would trade the 58-acre park for 210 acres of land that would be southwest of the current park and very close to the Douglas County line. The parks department will hold a public meeting in a couple weeks to get feedback specifically regarding the land exchange.

photo by: Johnson County Parks and Recreation District

Details of the 210-acre tract of land southwest of Sunflower Nature Park that could be transferred to the Johnson County Parks and Recreation District. The site — located less than a mile from the Douglas County border — would add land to the De Soto Wilderness Park.

The potential exchange would provide a net return of 152 acres for public use, and the land is adjacent to the De Soto Wilderness Park — even closer to the Douglas County line. Nowotny said the opportunity for this land was first explored in the county’s Greater Kill Creek Park Master Plan effort, and the county is working with the Sunflower Redevelopment group already to transfer 2,000 acres from the former munitions plant to create a massive park that would ring around the development.

Nowotny said that plans for the area could include hiking and mixed use trails, while parks department plans suggest potential to add disc golf and a bird watching area on the site. Nowotny said the potential land that would be exchanged has “almost 100 acres of wooded area” that would be protected, and the fact it could connect to a larger park means more potential recreational opportunities for people in the area.

“There are really beautiful natural areas on these acres,” Nowotny said. “There is some real potential.”

But currently, it is just potential. Nowotny noted that before the county would accept the transfer of 2,000 acres from Sunflower Redevelopment, it would need to make sure all land is “certified as clean to residential standards by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.” After decades of cleanup efforts by the U.S. Army, the majority of cleanup around the plant is expected to be finished by 2028 or 2029, as the Journal-World reported.

The Johnson County parks department has also heard public feedback from residents that celebrate the potential to protect more land, but also many people who have said they really liked Sunflower Nature Park and were concerned about it not being protected, Nowotny said. He said the open house dedicated to the Sunflower Nature Park land exchange potential will be a key way to get that specific feedback regarding the transfer from residents from either side of the county line — especially since a potential trailhead for the land in the southwest could be next to 127th Street, which is 1100 Road in Douglas County.

The public meeting will be held at the De Soto City Hall, 32905 W. 84th St., on Wednesday, Jan. 14, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.