THE 'TEMPORARY' TOWN TERRORIZED BY BIG TECH

Clearview Village was home to 6,000 people at its peak during WW2
The hamlet is now a rundown ghost town of just 500 people
A $4 billion Panasonic plant is scheduled to open next to the village in 2025

A once bustling Kansas community, designed as a temporary home to hundreds of WWII munitions workers, has fallen on disrepair in recent years.

Now, it has a new threat, a $4billion 21st Century plant in its backyard.

The tiny hamlet of 500 people in Clearview Village sits across the street from a Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery facility set to open in 2025. The massive plant outside De Soto, Kansas, threatens their one-thriving community even more.

Residents say despite assurances from the village's current owner, they fear their homes could be flattened to make way for parking lots or future development in support of the plant.

'It's a gold mine,' resident Ron Buerman, 28, told the Kansas City Star. 'Basically, what I think they're going to do is either this will be a damn parking lot for Panasonic, or apartments.'

He points to the village's ongoing state of deterioration as evidence of the owner David Rhodes' plans to sell up or redevelop the land himself.

'I mean that one's vacant. That one's got a hole in it. That's one vacant,' he said pointing at the homes.

'People now, they're like, "Oh, well, this is the end of it." They're trying to stay here and kind of squat here as long as possible. People are like, "Look, if we're not going to be here any longer, why am I going to pay rent?"'

The Panasonic plant is currently under construction at the site of the former ordnance factory that first drew people to the area in the days of World War II.

Launched as 'Sunflower Village' in 1943, the settlement provided accommodation to workers of the nearby Sunflower Ordnance Works which became the largest smokeless powder and propellant plant in the wake of Pearl Harbor.

The initial build was composed of 175 concrete buildings housing 852 apartments and was orchestrated by the federal government.

Wartime restrictions meant the homes were sparse, with basic finishes including cabinets with no doors and iceboxes without metal.

The lot boasted two ponds and victory gardens to allow residents to grow their own fruit and vegetables amid the strict rationing. The offering proved tempting and at its peak, Sunflower Village housed more than 6,000 people.

With the arrival of more and more residents came the introduction of the village's bar, restaurant, grocery store, beauty parlor, barber shop and more.

As demand surged, the government was forced to ferry in a further 680 prefabricated wooden structures from Niagara Falls, New York, which soon wore out.

After WWII, the village housed returning veterans and Kansas University students.

The ordnance factory enjoyed a resurgence during the Korean War, before the end of the conflict saw employment rates slump. As the factory wound up its operations, more and more locals departed and the settlement was sold to its first private buyer.

At the time, all but nine homes in the once-vibrant village had been boarded up.

Oklahoma developer Louis H. Ensley pledged to make the town habitable again, hoping to lure prospective tenants with cheap rent.

But the village was soon marred by soaring crime rates that meant that many of its 1,800 occupants soon left once again.

Over the years, the village changed hands numerous times and was the subject of a huge cleanup operation after the ordnance factory shut its doors in 1992.

Today, Clearview is home to long-time tenants and families who enjoy cheap rent.

A one-bedroom property costs around $760 per month rent, while two beds fetch around $1,050.

Omar Bonilla, 42, told the KC Star that his two-bedroom home, which he shares with his wife and three children has recently been rocked by construction at the Panasonic facility, sending cracks through his property.

'When they did that, the whole house began to shake, he said. His wife Marbella added they are now 'getting a lot of bugs inside the house.'

For his part, Rhodes acknowledges the sorry state of many of the properties on his land but has insisted he has plans to 'rehab' his tenants homes.

'We put this on the National Register of Historic Places,' he said. 'And the purpose is to preserve it, and rehab it. Our desire — if we can get the assistance of the state of Kansas and the city of De Soto — will be to do a major rehab.'

He plans to move gradually move tenants from their old apartments into newly refurbished units.

Leaders of De Soto, which annexed Clearview into a neighborhood in 1998, also want to see improvements at the village

Rhodes says he hopes to begin his development project at the site in 2025 with an emphasis on affordable housing as opposed to more industrial buildings to support the Panasonic plant.

'We've attempted to be a conscientious landlord,' he said. 'It does not have curb appeal. But when you get inside — for the amount of square footage you have, and the price you pay for rent — it is very affordable.

'The desire is to make the outside as good as the inside.'

2024-05-02T04:14:30Z dg43tfdfdgfd