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LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — The Lee's Summit Housing Authority (LSHA) is down to one full-time employee, and tenants have lots of questions.

The only permanent staff member is a maintenance employee.

The three-person administrative staff was fired after an internal investigation.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Inspector General is investigating fraud potentially linked to the previous employees.

The last executive director resigned in October. The entire board of commissioners resigned a month later.

KSHB 41 has done stories on the dysfunction at the agency.

The struggles for tenants to get their concerns addressed during the agency's challenges are why Sandra Esry is trying to bring residents together.

"Instead of one or five people being brave enough to go up there and complain about the conditions here and lack of help there, I see a resident council," Esry said.

Esry has lived in Lee Haven, a public housing community overseen by the housing authority, for several years.

Tenants have complained about the lack of maintenance and poor conditions of the homes for years.

Esry has been researching how to form a Lee Haven resident council for a month.

The council is an official tenant-led organization that can be a bridge between residents and leadership at a housing authority.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has bylaws and a comprehensive process tenants must follow.

Esry thought it was long overdue for an effort like this.

"Nothing has changed for us. Maintenance is still putting out fires where it can, doing what it can. We're living in our homes falling down around us and scared to death to say anything," Esry said.

Esry started a Facebook page for the council she is trying to form and plans to go door-to-door to ask tenants for their support.

"When 50 people are expressing concerns, questions and ideas, it's hard to ignore that," Esry said. "That's not just old people complaining."

The agency's new interim director, Tina Bartlett, said she's fully supportive of a council.

She remains the executive director of the Independence Housing Authority (IHA) while temporarily working for LSHA.

Bartlett has seen residents organize in the same way.

"The residents live here, so they know what the issues are and what’s going right and wrong," she said. "It gives them the ability to meet with management and staff in an organized way. ‘Hey, we have concerns about this.’"

Bartlett has been the interim for LSHA for about a month. Her staff from IHA are helping her run the Lee's Summit agency.

They were shocked by the workload they inherited.

"It was definitely a lot more than we expected," Bartlett said. "We knew the agency had been in trouble."

At LSHA's board of commissioners meeting on Wednesday, tenants complained about their March rent payments not being processed.

A staff member from IHA, who recently started assisting Lee's Summit, said they will try to process the payments within two weeks. It's on a list of many tasks they are focusing on.

HUD's Office of Inspector General was also present at the meeting. They would not confirm or deny a fraud investigation with KSHB 41's Alyssa Jackson.

"As a matter of course, the HUD Office of Inspector General does not confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of investigations. That’s not to say that there is or isn’t one in this instance but rather that, regardless, this is not the type of information that we provide."

Job positions for the fired LSHA employees have been posted.

"The biggest thing is to be patient – Rome wasn't built in a day kinda thing," Bartlett said.

As tenants in the housing authority hope for their issues and concerns to be fixed with new leadership, Esry believes change can start with them.

"Those people will carry the voice of 50 units," she said. "When they speak, they will speak for 50 voices, not three."

—

KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Prairie Village and Leawood. Share your story idea with Alyssa.

Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The Lee’s Summit R-7 School District is asking voters to approve a $225 million bond that would allow it to update school buildings and address deferred maintenance.

If the bond passes, the district would replace Hazel Grove and Greenwood elementary schools, do major work at a yet-to-be-determined elementary school, expand Pleasant Lea Middle School and upgrade some high school athletic fields, among other projects.

While Lee’s Summit schools need voter approval to borrow the money, the district says passing the bond wouldn’t raise the tax rate, nor would rejecting the bond immediately lower it.

However, passing the bond would add to the district’s debts that taxpayers are committed to repay. Property tax bills can also still go up for other reasons, such as home value increases.

All four Lee’s Summit school board candidates support the bond and the current board unanimously approved putting it on the ballot.

It would allow the district to update buildings that fall short of modern standards for accessibility, safety and learning, said Steve Shelton, the district’s associate superintendent of operations.

Feedback from the district’s teachers has influenced how the district designs its most updated buildings, he said.

“It’s not because somebody wants to have a certain type of building look,” Shelton said. “It’s because our teachers have said, ‘These are the things that we want to do with our students, and this is the type of space we need to do those things.’”

Lee’s Summit serves nearly 18,000 pre-K-12 students as of the current school year. It has grown from a district of around 9,000 in 1991. Enrollment peaked at about 18,400 in 2019.

Here’s what to know ahead of the vote on April 8.

What would the bond cover?

Some of the largest expenses would be:

Greenwood and Hazel Grove were originally built in 1910 and 1940, respectively.

The plan also calls for:

The district is still finalizing part of the plan after parents pushed back against an initial proposal to close Lee’s Summit Elementary School and merge it with Westview Elementary School.

Depending on the results of community feedback and the board’s final decision, the district could use bond funding to do a major project on Lee’s Summit Elementary, Westview Elementary or Pleasant Lea Elementary, Shelton said.

No matter the result, those buildings would all still receive necessary repairs, such as a roof replacement for Lee’s Summit Elementary, he said.

Why were those bond projects chosen?

A committee of about 160 staff members and stakeholders identified priority areas and $560 million worth of needs in the district, Shelton said.

The smaller Citizens Advisory Committee then narrowed that list down to $311 million worth of projects that the district could afford if it passed a $225 million bond, he said.

Shelton said Greenwood was selected for replacement because it’s the oldest building in the district, with a small campus and an inaccessible layout for people with mobility issues — requiring them to leave the building to access the gym or main office.

Because of space constraints, Shelton said, about 150 students who would otherwise attend Greenwood go to Woodland Elementary, which is about four miles away. A new elementary school would be big enough to serve those students, located on land the district has picked out in the Greenwood attendance area.

Renovating the building would have cost about $36 million, 80% of the cost of a new building.

Hazel Grove is also one of the district’s older elementary schools and has similar size and accessibility problems, Shelton said. The district is still identifying the location for a new school.

At Pleasant Lea Middle School, Shelton said the district wants to build an addition specifically for sixth graders. Lee’s Summit has found that grouping students by grade is beneficial, so other building changes would also give seventh and eighth graders their own sections of the building.

High school athletics and activities upgrades would affect baseball and softball fields at Lee’s Summit North and Lee’s Summit West and add soccer and band fields to all three high schools.

The project at the airport is meant to support the district’s Aerospace Academy.

“Our students will be there at the airport, in a hangar, working around the industry,” Shelton said. It will “kind of immerse them in that experience.”

Other spending would include taking care of basics like roofs, HVAC systems, parking lots and outdoor lighting and projects to improve security and accessibility.

The district also wants to purchase land for future schools in anticipation of predicted population growth as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sells off land within Lee’s Summit.

Will my vote affect whether Lee’s Summit Elementary School closes?

The decision about whether to close Lee’s Summit Elementary is a separate question from whether the bond passes, Shelton said.

The ballot language doesn’t specify a list of projects, so the board would have leeway to leave Lee’s Summit Elementary open or to close it.

What happens if the bond fails?

If voters reject the bond, it will severely constrain what the district can accomplish, Shelton said.

The district would have to find money in its budget for the most essential projects only, focused on keeping buildings warm, safe and dry.

How does the bond affect my taxes?

Lee’s Summit says it can afford to pay back the bond without raising the tax rate.

A bond still means that the district is taking on more debt that has to be paid off with property taxes over time.

But rejecting the bond won’t immediately lower tax rates.

Shelton said that’s because the district is still paying off past bonds. As a result, the portion of the tax rate devoted to paying off debts would hold steady until 2035 even if the bond is rejected. Passing a bond further extends the time frame that voters are committed to the current tax rate.

What will I see on my ballot?

Here’s the language you’ll see on your ballot:

“Shall Reorganized School District No. 7 of Jackson County, Missouri (Lee’s Summit R-7) issue its general obligation bonds in the amount of $225,000,000, estimated to result in no increase to the District’s debt service property tax levy, for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, improving, repairing, renovating, furnishing and equipping new and existing school sites and facilities and the purchase of land?

“If this question is approved, the District’s debt service property tax levy is estimated to remain unchanged at $0.87 per $100 of assessed valuation of real and personal property.”

Where can I find more information?

The district has a web page about the bond with more information.

Type of Story: Explainer

Provides context or background, definition and detail on a specific topic.

Lee's Summit Crossing secured commitments for two new-to-Kansas City retailers: a golf concept and food market. Here's what else is planned for the $400 million development.

Persistence has paid off for a $400 million-plus master development proposed in Lee's Summit, as fewer apartments and more new-to-market tenants have the City Council onboard with the full sum of the project's parts.

Officials now could review incentive and development agreements for the Lee's Summit Crossing project in the second or third quarter. During the same window, TriStar Properties, of St. Louis, could start building the $63.4 million Montage at Lee's Summit, with 112 townhomes and 114 courtyard villas for residents 55 and older, on about 54 acres of land bordering Shamrock Hills Golf Club to the south.

Those milestones were shared in late January during a conceptual presentation for Lee's Summit Crossing — the fourth such showcase of different master plans by the project team, headed by sporting industry leader Robb Heineman of 635 Holdings LLC, since December 2022.

The City Council also was bullish after the third presentation in May 2024. But in July, it balked at providing a portion of incentives for the Montage project, voting against it 5-4. Some officials at the time said there was too much rental housing in the area.

The broad strokes of the 185-acre Lee's Summit Crossing plan did not change between then and now. But during a Jan. 21 meeting, the developer answered a council desire for unique project attractions by sharing commitments by two new-to-market retail concepts.

One concept, UnderPar Life (UPL), is a Fort Worth-based golf startup backed by LIV champion Bryson DeChambeau. Its golf venues are similar to Topgolf but put more focus on golf enthusiasts, with high-end golf performance centers, full-service bars and upscale restaurants.

UnderPar Life would take about 15 acres east of Missouri Route 291, in a part of Lee's Summit Crossing where past sports-focused project elements fell through — a fieldhouse and fitness center for the city's Parks and Recreation department, and a Mammoth Fieldhouse concept.

Developer representatives also announced a letter-of-intent with Look's Marketplace. The market traces its roots in downtown Sioux Falls to 1883 and includes a butcher shop, bakery, deli, restaurant and brewery under one roof.

Look's Marketplace would anchor what plans have shown as a 29,800-square-foot retail phase just northeast of Missouri Route 291 and Missouri Route 150 with its first Kansas City-area location. Another store elsewhere in the metro may follow, the representatives said.

The balance of Lee's Summit Crossing could have 190,300 square feet of commercial space — including inline retail, restaurants and medical offices — plus a 100-room hotel and future residential phases that may include a 300-apartment complex and up to 60 acres of single-family homes. Past documents peg overall plan costs at $407.9 million, but they predate the removal of the sports-focused elements.

Incentives for the master development could total as much as $52.3 million, from tax increment financing, community improvement and transportation development districts around commercial areas, plus sales tax exemption on construction materials and property tax abatement for the multifamily phases. Within that total, $19.6 million would help fund $22.3 million in public infrastructure costs.

For the Montage project, TriStar would make fixed payments in lieu of taxes over 10 years, sized to approximate 100% of the property taxes that would be owed on the property. That means the incentive effectively wouldn't abate taxes but would create a predictable tax schedule for the developer. The payments would total $7.4 million for jurisdictions over 10 years, up from $5,270 if the site stayed undeveloped.

Curt Petersen, a Polsinelli PC attorney representing the Lee's Summit Crossing developers, said the incentive package would help fund public infrastructure, such as a future arterial road east of Missouri Route 291, the lack of which had stymied previous site development.

Petersen said Lee's Summit Crossing would fall within a priority development corridor for the city along Missouri Route 291. It's south of another "engine starter" project — the $206.2 million Oldham Village plan, now in the midst of its own city and legal processes. To the east is additional land controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"This project is part of that puzzle in making the next generation of Lee's Summit, south Lee's Summit, really come to life," the attorney said.

Councilwoman Hillary Shields said having new public roads, water and sewer infrastructure for Lee's Summit Crossing would be a huge benefit for the city, even if the project's announced retailers never materialized.

"I like the project as presented, I like what it's offering and I really like what it's getting us as a city and the opportunities that it unlocks," she said during the late January meeting.

Following agreement approvals, a developer timeline says infrastructure design and permitting could take place in the fourth quarter, as could zoning and development processes for the first commercial users. Construction on both then could proceed throughout 2026.

Biggest Construction Projects in the Kansas City area

Cost

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24-25

Overall

16-10

District

9-7 (20th)

MO Rank

29

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