De Soto residents weigh in on Panasonic electric vehicle battery plant coming to their area

DE SOTO, Kan. (KCTV) – The town of De Soto is abuzz with debate after Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced Panasonic plans to build a big electric vehicle battery plant in De Soto on a portion of what was once the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.

Kelly said Panasonic will spend $4 billion on the project, will bring 4,000 well-paying jobs at the factory alone and employ many more with ancillary jobs. The state offered incentives bordering on $1 billion dollars to lure the company.

De Soto was once a small town that has more recently become a bedroom community.

There’s a certain appeal to small town life that has prompted some folks to movie to De Soto from urban and suburban parts of the metro.

“Kids have better educational opportunities. They have the freedom to kind of roam they can ride their bikes from our neighborhood to the community pool,” said Julie Hurley, who moved there from Kansas City’s Brookside neighborhood ten years ago.

Some people in town told KCTV5 we would easily find people worried that landscape would change by adding an electric vehicle battery plant on the sprawling and long vacant chunk of land by K-10. One man who didn’t want to speak on camera expressed concern about immigrant labor. Another resident countered that Kelly said the jobs would likely pay $50,000/year.

DEVELOPMENT CONCERNS

Overall, the response from residents about the development part of the project was positive.

Ruth Dissmeyer grew up in De Soto and now lives across the Kansas River in nearby Leavenworth County. She echoed others’ sentiments that plant workers would not overwhelm the old downtown or residential streets, because the site for the project is close to K-10.

“With the new highways we have now, probably a lot of the traffic will never come through the city of De Soto,” Dissmeyer remarked.

Others envisioned a good kind of traffic.

“I think, even though the people may not live in De Soto that work there, they’ll eat lunch here and or dinner depending on when their shift is. They have to put gas in their car,” said Susie Mize, who lives with her husband less than 10 miles away and was grabbing lunch in the old downtown.

“There’ll be better job opportunities possibly and just more people coming to our community,” celebrated resident Sloan Marriott, who hoped it would bring a more restaurant options to town.

“I think it’s going grow the city, but I think that’s a good thing,” echoed Hurley. “We’re kind of in an environment economically where if you don’t grow, you die, and we don’t want to fall into that bucket.”

It’s unclear exactly where on the old Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant site the Panasonic plant will go. The full site covers 9,000 acres of what used to be in unincorporated Johnson County. In 2021, De Soto’s city council approved annexation of 6,000 acres.

CONTAMINATION CONCERNS

At Perky’s Café in the old downtown, eight people gathered around a table in a back room. It was a mini-reunion for De Soto High School’s Class of 1965. Dissmeyer and Bill Mize reminisced on the time when they worked at the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Mize said the pay was just as good as his previous construction job and it was less demanding because it was indoors. At the time, they didn’t know that what they were making left a toxic mark on the land.

Both said they generally liked the idea of making use of the parcel.

“I think it’s fine that they’re going to do something with it, and it’d be great if they create all those jobs,” said Dissmeyer.

However, several in the group, herself included, expressed a general dislike for electric and hybrid vehicles.

“I’m all for jobs but it’s just in the long run. What’s going to happen?” asked Bill Mize.

Starting in World War II and for decades after, the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant was used to make cannon powder and rocket propellant. The U.S. Army, and later a redevelopment company, spent years cleaning up contaminants on the property that came from making ammunition, a process that’s still underway.

“And they have supposedly cleaned some of it up and I’m wondering if this isn’t going to contaminate it again,” said Dissmeyer.

“Now I guess it’s clean enough that you can put in another plant that’s going to make it dirty again,” said Bill Mize.

Neither Panasonic nor state officials have released any details about production techniques, environmental precautions or impacts.

STATE SPENDING CONCERNS

The state of Kansas offered Panasonic a hefty incentive package to build their plant in the state. Estimates vary from more than $800 million to more than $1 billion. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle celebrated what Kelly called “the largest economic development project in the history of Kansas.”

The right-leaning Kansas Policy Institute criticized the government spending portion of the deal. Chief Executive Officer Dave Trabert authored an analysis that said in part, “The $1 billion subsidy to Panasonic will deplete General Fund reserves and significantly diminish the likelihood of much-need tax cuts. Examples of potential lost opportunities include eliminating the income tax on retirees, reducing marginal income tax rates for everyone, and reducing the state sales tax rate.”

“It takes money to make money,” Kelly asserted. “This is an investment. We are investing money to be able to attract this and we will get an incredible return on investment. We calculated the numbers it will be a $1 to $26 return on investment. We expect that there will be a $2.5 billion annual economic activity boost.”

The Kansas City Star Editorial Board expressed a mix of enthusiasm and caution, urging state leaders to “make sure Panasonic honors its commitments for jobs and growth before those incentives are handed out.”

Previous coverage:

Panasonic EV battery factory coming to De Soto, Kansas

De Soto considering proposals for $4-billion manufacturing plant

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