De Soto planners could revive an apartment project 20 years in the making along 90th Street and Lexington Avenue, not far from the coming Panasonic plant.

At the Jan. 24 Planning Commission meeting, Lawrence-based Alcove Development and Topeka-based Cook Flatt & Strobel Engineers proposed a site plan for a 362-apartment project named The Residences at Lexington.

“I don’t want to predict the future, but this project is probably the biggest multifamily project that’s been in De Soto to date,” said Brad Weisenburger, the city’s planning and capital projects director.

“There could be others that are larger than this one, but we haven’t seen any formal applications yet. Just some informal discussions on properties and what could be put in place there.”

Because the site at 34040 W. 90th St. has been zoned multifamily for the past two decades, he said that the planning process should take only a few months and that the developers probably could break ground this year.

Weisenburger said the city has been ready for more services long before Panasonic entered the mix. The $4 billion electric-vehicle battery manufacturing plant, now underway, will employ 4,000. The site at Astra Enterprise Park (formerly Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant) sits a little more than 4 miles from the proposed apartments — about a seven-minute drive.

Read more in the Kansas City Business Journal.