The ‘temporary’ town terrorized by Big Tech: Long-forgotten WWII-era city with run down bordered up shacks sits in the shadow of huge $4B plant – as locals reveal their fears for the future

A once bustling Kansas community designed as a temporary home for hundreds of World War II munitions workers has fallen into disrepair in recent years.

Now it has a new threat: a $4 billion 21st century factory in its backyard.

The small hamlet of 500 residents in Clearview Village is across the street from a Panasonic electric vehicle battery facility set to open in 2025. The massive factory outside De Soto, Kansas, poses an even greater threat to their only thriving community.

Residents say, despite assurances from the village’s current owner, they fear their homes will be razed to make way for parking or future development to support the plant.

“It’s a gold mine,” resident Ron Buerman, 28, told the newspaper Kansas City star. “What I think they’re going to do is either this is a fucking Panasonic parking lot or apartments.”

He points to the village’s continued state of decline as evidence of owner David Rhodes’ plans to sell or redevelop the land himself.

‘I mean one is vacant. There’s a hole in there. That’s one that’s vacant,” he said, pointing to the houses.

‘People now say, “Oh, well, this is the end.” They try to stay here as long as possible and squat here a bit. People say, “Look, if we’re no longer here, why do I have to pay rent?”

The Panasonic factory is currently being built on the site of the former munitions factory that first attracted people to the area in the days of World War II.

Launched in 1943 as ‘Sunflower Village’, the settlement housed workers from the nearby Sunflower Ordnance Works, which became the largest smokeless powder and propellant factory in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

The initial construction consisted of 175 concrete buildings with 852 apartments and was orchestrated by the federal government.

Wartime restrictions meant that houses were in short supply, with basic finishes including cabinets without doors and coolers without metal.

The plot had two ponds and victory gardens, so residents could grow their own fruits and vegetables against strict rationing. The offer proved tempting and at its peak Sunflower Village housed more than 6,000 people.

With the arrival of more and more residents came the introduction of the village’s bar, restaurant, supermarket, beauty salon, barber shop and more.

When demand soared, the government was forced to bring in an additional 680 prefabricated wooden structures from Niagara Falls, New York, which quickly wore out.

After World War II, the village housed returning veterans and students from Kansas University.

The munitions factory saw a revival during the Korean War, before the end of the conflict saw employment decline. When the factory ceased operations, more and more local residents left and the settlement was sold to the first private buyer.

At the time, all but nine houses in the once lively village were boarded up.

Oklahoma developer Louis H. Ensley promised to make the city habitable again, hoping to lure potential tenants with cheap rent.

But the village was soon marred by rising crime rates, meaning many of its 1,800 residents soon left.

Over the years the village changed hands several times and was the subject of a massive clean-up operation after the munitions factory closed its doors in 1992.

Today, Clearview is home to longtime renters and families who enjoy cheap rent.

A one-bedroom home costs about $760 per month in rent, while two beds run about $1,050.

Omar Bonilla, 42, told the KC Star that his two-bedroom home, which he shares with his wife and three children, was recently rocked by construction at the Panasonic facility, causing cracks in his property.

“When they did that, the whole house started shaking,” he said. His wife Marbella added that they now “get a lot of bugs in the house.”

For his part, Rhodes acknowledges the dire state of many of the properties on his land, but has insisted he has plans to ‘rehabilitate’ his tenants’ homes.

“We put this on the National Register of Historic Places,” he said. “And the goal is to preserve and rehabilitate it.” Our desire – if we can get the help of the state of Kansas and the city of De Soto – will be to do a major rehabilitation.”

He plans to gradually move tenants from their old apartments into newly renovated units.

Leaders of De Soto, which annexed Clearview into a neighborhood in 1998, also want to see improvements in the village

Rhodes says he hopes to start his development project at the site in 2025 with an emphasis on affordable housing, as opposed to more industrial buildings to support the Panasonic factory.

“We’ve tried to be a conscientious landlord,” he said. “It has no curbs. But when you get in – considering the amount of square footage you have and the price you pay for the rent – ​​it’s very affordable.

“The desire is to make the outside as good as the inside.”