Merriam residents face a choice between keeping downtown as it is or spending up to $247 million to overhaul it, after the city narrowed its master plan to three options.

Overland Park-based Shockey Consulting presented the three visions to a joint session of the Merriam City Council and Planning Commission on Monday, Sept. 14, the Johnson County Post reported. Each option centers on a different scale of flood control along Turkey Creek, which has flooded downtown five times dating to 1977.

Public comment on the three options is open through Sunday, Oct. 4, at shockeyhtml.github.io/MerriamVisionOptions. A final draft is scheduled to go before the city council on Monday, Nov. 23.

The three options

Vision A, "Refine," keeps downtown roughly as it is. It carries no flood-control cost, makes no changes to the regulatory floodplain and adds no new housing.

Vision B, "Grow," would cost an estimated $84 million for flood control alone, removing 33 of the 44 acres from the floodplain. The plan, aligned with an HNTB engineering concept, calls for razing historic downtown between the Merriam Drive and Johnson Drive bridges and replacing it with about 250 new homes and a mixed-use building. The $84 million does not include utility relocation costs.

Vision C, "Transform," carries a price range of $147 million to $247 million and would remove all 44 acres from the floodplain using levees and berms under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' design. Unlike Vision B, this option leaves most existing downtown businesses intact. The city envisions a "full, two-sided walkable main street with 250+ homes, shops, restaurants active up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week," according to a city overview of the plan.

The cost gap within Vision C reflects competing estimates. HNTB, a Kansas City-based engineering firm, pegged the flood work at $147 million. The Corps' own estimate rose from $110 million to $247 million. Sheila Shockey, founder and CEO of Shockey Consulting, told the joint session that the Corps' project is no longer "meeting the benefit cost ratio," meaning the city would need Congressional approval to fund it at that level.

Flood history drives the debate

Turkey Creek can rise from normal to flood stage in less than three hours. Major floods struck in 1977, 1993, 1998, 2017 and 2025. The 1998 flood pushed the creek nearly 8 feet above flood stage, prompted nearly 100 water rescues across Johnson County and killed 11 people across the metro area, according to a city backgrounder published Aug. 3.

The Corps' full design concept includes more than a mile of floodwalls, 740 feet of levees and replacement of the Johnson Drive and Merriam Drive bridges.

Residents split on the path forward

Nearly 80% of 471 respondents to a 2026 master plan survey said they support "a different direction for downtown," and 81% backed a quarter-cent sales tax dedicated to downtown upgrades, the Johnson County Post reported.

But not everyone wants sweeping change.

"Don't bulldoze downtown Merriam" yard signs have appeared along Merriam Drive between Johnson Drive and Antioch Road. Jane Blackerby, a nearly 30-year Merriam resident who attended a Sept. 1 open house on the plan, told the Johnson County Post she values the area's character. "The Turkey Creek path is very natural, there's blue heron, there's ducks, there's everything," Blackerby said. "I'm afraid if they do a bunch of development, all those things are gonna disappear."

Cory Lundgren, who returned to Merriam about a year ago, took the opposite view at the same open house, saying he wants changes sooner rather than later.

The city launched the master plan process on April 20, 2026, and has been acquiring properties along Merriam Drive to prepare for potential flood infrastructure. City Administrator Chris Engel said in August that purchased properties would be cleared for future development, The Kansas City Star reported.

Any changes under Vision B or Vision C would follow completion of flood-control work, roughly eight to 10 years out. In 2027, the council and planning commission would consider formally amending Merriam's comprehensive plan to include the downtown master plan.