Kansas County Approves LKQ Plan

The Shawnee County, Kan., commissioners have approved a plan by LKQ to acquire and use a roughly 58-acre tract of land in the county to store automobiles.

By a 2-1 vote, commissioners on Nov. 30 allowed the company to use the site strictly as a storage location. However, the company is prohibited from performing any demanufacturing or processing of the cars at the site, which includes draining fluids from the vehicles. LKQ does have an auto recycling yard nearby where the auto recycling services will be performed. The company also has another storage site in the county.

The company had sought to have the new storage location changed to light industrial. The main yard where the company has its auto recycling site is zoned heavy industry.

A concern expressed by county officials is the location of the facility, which is near a major thoroughfare into the city of Topeka. However, in discussions with representatives from LKQ it is expected that an eight-foot fence would be erected. That should reduce the visibility of the yard.