Raytown

[thetrio]

On our outings yesterday Ze_beeved and some friends of ours also went down a kind of mystery road. This is located in Raytown off of 47th street. it is not marked on any map and is blocked off at the front with a gate. It appears that this was going to be a subdivision at one point and just never was devloped. the road itself is complete with gutters drains and working street lamps. It goes a ways down and loops around in a small oval at the end. When you get to the end there is a burned out SUV and an old International Harvestor combine. We did notice some old concrete slabs off in the woods but the brush was thick and we didnt want to walk through it in shorts. If you have any info on this place please post it, we rally wanna know what this was supposed to be.



LINK!

[KansasCity]

Looks like a good place to have a party!

[Pyrate]

Looks like a good place to have a party!

....

[Mindscape]

Sounds like a cul-de-sac that hasn't been developed yet. Since the property probably all belongs to one owner (probably a corporation), the road's likely not a city- or state-maintained road, so it's reasonable that it wouldn't show up on a map. It's not "official" yet, because there aren't any developed areas there and the corp. hasn't asked to have it included on street maps and/or to be given an official name.

The concrete pads will likely be for houses in the future, by the way.

[thetrio]

I figured thats what it was but its been there for 15 or 20 years. I guess they gave up and figured raytown is no longer worth developing in.

[bluecookies]

I don't know how uncommon something like that really is. I grew up in Michigan and there was a planned subdivision (sounds similar to your description) that all the roads were paved and such but they gave up on it. All the grass was about waste high and the place was just deteriorating.

[Mindscape]

It's actually not that uncommon. Developing a tract of land takes a hell of a lot of money, so sometimes, they sit on the property until they have the money. Since the idea is to put in a minimum of two houses into any cul-de-sac to begin with (because it's more appealing than to be the only one there, they think), that can sometimes take a long time. Sometimes, by the time that happens, the area that they're going to develop doesn't meet their potential usefulness requirements.

What do they do with the land? Well, if they're not having money problems, they just sit on it. Real estate can be remarkably profitable if it's in the right spot, and so keeping the land around can be a potentially lucrative idea.

[bluecookies]

interesting thought. I never gave it a second thought that just by sitting on the land may be beneficial to them in the long run.