At the heart of the debate over the proposed Mission Chateau senior living community is whether a development of such size would be an appropriate addition to the Mission Valley neighborhood — particularly whether the facility’s size and density would adversely impact neighborhood home values.

Opponents of the proposal have labeled the planned structures “massive,” pointing out that the development’s main building would become the second largest residential building in Johnson County and that it would stretch the length of two football fields.

As part of our efforts to put the proposed plans in context, we’ve pulled the square footages of the buildings on the property and lot sizes in acres of a handful of nearby senior living developments and calculated their density (square footage/acre). We’ve also pulled that data for SM East, which is the largest structure in Prairie Village.

Here are the results sorted by total developed square footage:

And here they are sorted by density (developed square footage/lot size):

So what would nearly 400,000 square feet of developed space look like on the Mission Valley site? The MVNA group suggests that it would have a similar impact on the horizon as does the 294,000 square foot Santa Marta senior living community in Olathe. Here’s a look at a picture of Santa Marta, and one of the elevation drawings from the Mission Chateau proposal:

So, readers, what do you think: Is the proposed facility indeed too “massive” for the neighborhood? Or would its size be appropriate for the lot?