The Raymore City Council approved a conditional zoning change Dec. 22 to allow a proposed federal records-storage facility on Track 12 of the Good Ranch master plan, with the ordinance tied to a memorandum of understanding that makes the rezoning effective only if the federal lease is awarded.

Staff planner Mister Gress told the council the applicant, Matt Alvey on behalf of Privatera Realty Holdings and property owner Good Otis LLC, is seeking a business-park plan (BP-P) overlay for roughly 66 acres to accommodate about 310,00030,000 square feet of records-storage space for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The overlay would allow staff to restrict typical business-park uses (for example, auto sales/repair) and includes MOU language requiring the rezoning to revert to agricultural zoning if the federal project is not awarded to the Raymore site.

“Because it is a rezoning, we did hold a good neighbor meeting,” Gress said, and noted the applicants proposed off-site pedestrian improvements in lieu of a sidewalk on Dean Avenue where site constraints and federal security requirements limit on-site options. The applicant has proposed constructing equivalent pedestrian infrastructure elsewhere to close a gap in the citys trail network.

Applicant Matt Alvey described the project as records-storage only and not an adjudicative facility. He said the building would be secured with perimeter fencing and controlled access on the Dean Avenue frontage, and estimated roughly 208 on-site employees across two shifts. Alvey said local general contractors, architects and engineers would be used.

Resident Josh McDonald, who lives near the Dean Avenue intersection in Ward 1, urged the council to follow Raymores Blueprint 2045 and questioned whether a large storage warehouse aligns with the adopted future land-use and connectivity framework. “I do not believe this development aligns with the outline approved and agreed upon by this council in Blueprint 2045,” McDonald said.

Council members pressed staff and the applicant on traffic and buffering. Staff said the city has a comprehensive traffic document for Highway 58/Dean Avenue and recent intersection and circulation improvements, and that any additional turn-lane needs identified during site-plan review would be the applicants responsibility. Staff also said Track 12 is separated from planned single-family property by a creek and a wooded buffer that both the landowner and staff expect to preserve.

Several councilmembers voiced concern about changing an area identified in parts of the Good Ranch master plan for higher-density residential uses; staff noted the Good Ranch area is governed by a separate master plan adopted at annexation and that landowner preferences and site constraints had led ownership to pursue the business-park overlay instead of multifamily development.

Councilmember Mister Dougawad moved to approve the ordinance; the motion was seconded and passed five to two. Under the MOU and ordinance terms, the rezoning will not become effective unless the Raymore site is awarded the federal project.

The councils action sets a conditional zoning framework that the city and the developer say is intended to make the site competitive for a federal lease while constraining uses that would be inappropriate if the federal project proceeds. If the federal award is not made to Raymore, staff said the property would remain in agricultural zoning.