Trees are important to Colony Woods community

Ann Wilke, Sun Staff Writer

June 30, 2000

Trees were important.

Ron Rizzo remembers sitting right next to a big pine tree when the bulldozers came. Leo Ashner remembers taking great care to dig deep and carefully so as to keep alive the full-grown maples and oaks being moved around.

Trees continue to be important, shading the cool streets of Colony Woods, a Lenexa community that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.From A Tree Farm

"That land was the Holsinger Nursery and Tree Farm," said Leo Ashner, the real estate developer who developed Colony Woods in the mid-1970s. At the time, Ashner's company, Bodine-Ashner, was in a joint venture with Businessmen's Assurance in the development of Four Colonies at Quivira Road between 79th and 83rd streets in Lenexa. Ashner, who is presently a partner in the development of LionsGate in Overland Park, doesn't recall exactly who came to whom, but someone made the approach.

The Holsinger property - "about 80 acres, as I remember," Ashner said - just west of Four Colonies was acquired by the partners for development as a single-family community.

"We brought in these big tree movers, and we tried to move around as many as we could. These were magnificent trees - big maples and pin oaks - sitting right there where a street was to go, and we moved them around onto the lots in Colony Woods and over to Four Colonies," Ashner said.

(Colony Woods ended up with 272 homes, a swimming pool and a city park, all between 79th and 83rd streets east and west of Rosehill.)

Response to this new community of curving streets, cul-de-sacs and big trees was immediate.,p> "It was very positive," Ashner said. "We had the right piece of ground in the right place."

It was the right time, too: 1975 to 1977, before mortgage interest rates skyrocketed.,p> "We caught it right," Ashner said. "...And we had some very good builders here. After about 10 or 12 builders had bought lots, we shut it down, selling only to them."

Among those Colony Woods builders, Ashner recalled, were names like Saul Ellis, Chuck Stratford, Bill Southerland and Bob Cox.

"The prices were probably in the $40,000s and $50,000s, and at the end, we got into the mid- to upper-$60,000s."

Among the early residents was land planner Gary Corser, who did the Colony Woods land plan and is now the land planner at Cedar Creek.,p> "Gary lived here, and he took a very personal interest in the subdivision and how it was laid out," he said. "...It may sound corny, but when you are blessed with the trees like this ground had, you feel obligated to take care of it."

Growing Roots

In year two of Colony Woods, Linda and Ron Rizzo moved from Four Colonies to the new subdivision. They were in their mid-20s, starting their family and drawn by the wooded property.

"We liked the lot; they were almost closed out," Ron said. "They looked at our builder and plan pretty carefully. We have the only house like ours - it is totally unique."

At the time, Ron was traveling a lot throughout the United States.

"I never found any place like Colony Woods anywhere else," he said.

It was Ron who insisted that a tall pine tree on their lot be spared during construction. "I sat right there and said, 'Dig the hole around me.' They did," he said.

Pulled to the new subdivision by the trees and lot, the Rizzos, like many of their peers, stayed because of the neighbors. Many of them parents of young children, the young families grew up together. Many stayed.

"We have a lot of original owners still in the neighborhood," Ron said, adding that Linda wanted to plant roots.

"I wanted my family to grow up here, so we built a large enough house - and we've added onto it," Linda said. Over the years, the families grew up and new families arrived. "We see newer families now, older ones like us and grandparents...In fact, our newest residents, the Schenkes, moved here to be with their grown daughter and her family," Linda said. "We have no family here - this neighborhood is our family."

Lifelong friendships have been built, the Rizzos said, recalling good and tough times shared, remembering acts of kindness. Three-and-a-half years ago the Rizzos and their friends (and Colony Woods neighbors) Al and Diana Kent opened Star Cleaners, a dry cleaning business based at 75th Street and Nieman Road. One day a neighbor, Jim Adamic, came in to check the place out. Adamic's company manufactured insulation for pipes. "The next thing we knew, a few days later, he came back with two guys and they insulated and covered all our steam pipes - they just did it. And Jim said, 'This is our gift for your new business.' We've known Jim since our boys were 5 years old together - that's the kind of good friends we found in Colony Woods," Ron said.

Aging Well

One of the keys to the stability and ongoing appeal of the Colony Woods neighborhood has been its homes association.

"That's a key thing," Ron Rizzo said. "They started with a good strong homes association, and they kept it strong."

Architect Bob Del Popolo is the 2000 president of the Colony Woods Homes Association and a 15-year resident of the community. His family moved into Colony Woods when the three children were in their early teens.

"I loved the whole ambiance - with the park and the trees and the pool," he said. "It is just a wonderful place."

The pool has been a centerpiece, a gathering spot from the early days. It was the site of a 25th anniversary celebration picnic June 3.

"We had about 100 to 150 people turn out - it was a festival celebration with games and birthday cake," Del Popolo said. The pool is also the site of regular Friday night gatherings and swimming lessons for neighborhood children. Landscaping is extensive around the pool and throughout the community. Volunteers coordinate plantings and plant maintenance in the 22 cul-de-sacs.

The Matt Taylor city park on 82nd Terrace, named for a 7-year-old boy killed during a July 4 parade in downtown Lenexa in 1985, has play equipment, a picnic shelter, and tennis and basketball courts. It, too, is a community gathering spot.

"On the Fourth of July, the kids will decorate their bikes and we'll have a parade from Matt Taylor Park to the pool," De Popolo said.

The association coordinates those events and the community-wide beautification program, oversees the publication of a monthly newsletter and, generally, promotes the quality of life in this place.

"We got a Web site up and running June 5 with links to the city, to Johnson County, to gardening information, to the Lenexa Police Department," De Popolo said. Establishing the site, www.ourcolonywoods.com, was an association goal this year. So was completion, with the help of a $5,000 grant from the KC150 Legacy Fund, to complete a new entrance sign at 83rd Street and Rosehill.

"Our theme for 2000 has been 'Renaissance 2000,' and that's what we've tried to do," Del Popolo said. The association's purpose, he added, is to "maintain an attractive neighborhood, promote the quality of life and protect property values."Protected Value

The end result is a 25-year-old neighborhood as much in demand as a place to live as it was in the busy days of the mid-1970s. Del Popolo consulted some recent real estate statistics on sales of Colony Woods homes over the last 12 months.

"From June 1999 to June 2000, the average number of days a house was on the market in this subdivision was 20," he said. "Isn't that something?"