KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jackson County joined several area municipalities Tuesday opposing a proposed South Kansas City landfill.

While the developer says no permits have been filed, the potential project is already potentially affecting more than 44,000 Cass and Jackson County homeowners.

The City of Raymore said potential sellers of land to the landfill developer have been required to sign non-disclosure agreements to try to keep the project quiet.

But if you live remotely close to the potential project and go to sell your home now, you will likely have to disclose the potential landfill to buyers.

McKenzie Clark Thomas and her husband, a disabled veteran, have moved around a lot. They settled next to her mother in Raymore not far from a recently confirmed proposed landfill in South Kansas City along 150 Highway between Peterson and Horridge.

“It would destroy our family it would destroy property values in our community it already has destroyed property values in our community,” Clark Thomas said.

Clark Thomas knows because she’s also a real estate agent. She said she’s had three listing appointments this month, but every seller has balked when they found out new requirements being made by brokerage firms of homeowners living anywhere close to the site.

Keller Williams Platinum Partners (Lee’s Summit) confirms its requiring buyers and sellers to sign a landfill disclosure form within a 5 mile radius. That 97-square-mile region expands east as far as Lake Winnebago and Greenwood and covers 44,446 homes.

“Any time there’s something that would negatively impact your surrounding areas on the disclosure firm it shows that you have to disclose this. This is something that negatively impact our community not just Raymore, Lee’s Summit, Grandview,” Clark Thomas said.

Realtor Kaleena Schumacher testified in a Jackson County landfill hearing Tuesday she’s been unable to sell a home for a client because of the disclosure of a landfill that might not even happen. 

“We immediately put it on the market as all this was coming out in the public eye as to the potential landfill my broker said we had to disclose it its in our sellers disclosure under 14c asking if there’s any proposed changes in the area, we had to mark yes,” she testified.

After months of Kansas City leaders saying they weren’t doing a landfill, Wednesday they’ll discuss whether one is needed in a 9 a.m. Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee. The resolution calls for joining in opposition until landfill needs can be studied further.

For homeowners now wanting out, it appears it will be more difficult.

“We speak about it every night at the dinner table. How do we move our family again how do we sell our property at the value we could have sold it last year? I don’t know the answer to that, it’s a huge concern,” Clark Thomas said.