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Kansas County
Johnson County, Kansas
Kansas City's wealthiest suburb and the Sprint Campus corridor - from Overland Park's corporate headquarters concentration (Sprint/T-Mobile, Garmin, Black & Veatch, AMC Networks) and Country Club Plaza's luxury retail to Leawood's extraordinary median household income (among the highest of any large suburban county in the Midwest), Olathe's rapid growth as one of Kansas's largest cities, and a Kansas City southwestern suburban county that consistently ranks among the best places to live in the United States for its combination of income, education, and quality of life.
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Office: Johnson County Emergency Management – 111 S. Cherry Street, Suite 100, Olathe, KS 66061 | (913) 782-3038 | Email: [email protected].
Sheriff: Johnson County Sheriff’s Office – 588 E. Santa Fe, Suite 2000, Olathe, KS 66061 | Office (913) 791-5800 | Non-emergency (913) 782-0720 | Jail Admin (913) 715-5900 | Fax (913) 715-5806; Sheriff Byron K. Roberson. Over 450 sworn deputies and 125+ civilian staff, operating two adult detention centers, road patrol, a criminalistics laboratory, and dispatch for 9 other law enforcement agencies plus Olathe PD via the County Communications Center.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911. Johnson County Courthouse – 150 W. Santa Fe, Olathe, KS 66061, opened January 2021.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-35, I-435, and US-56 serve Olathe, the county seat, in the Kansas City metro area.
Notes: Johnson County was established August 25, 1855, one of the original 33 Kansas territorial counties, named for Reverend Thomas Johnson, a missionary who founded the Shawnee Mission and Indian Manual Labor School. Johnson County is Kansas’s most populous county by a wide margin, home to Olathe, Overland Park (Kansas’s second-largest city), Shawnee, Lenexa, Leawood, and numerous other communities.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Johnson County Courthouse – 150 W. Santa Fe, Olathe, KS.
Notes: Johnson County holds genuine national significance in westward expansion history. The Santa Fe, Oregon, and California National Historic Trails – spanning 25 states and roughly 25,000 miles combined – all crossed through the county before splitting into their separate routes near Gardner, with an estimated 500,000 emigrants passing through over the mid-19th century. The Shawnee Indian Mission, established by Rev. Thomas Johnson in 1839 as a manual training school for Shawnee, Delaware, and other tribal students, later served as an early territorial capital, a Santa Fe/Oregon Trail supply point, and a Union Army camp during the Civil War; its surviving brick buildings are now a 12-acre National Historic Landmark and museum in Fairway. The Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farmstead in Olathe, founded in 1858, preserves another surviving Santa Fe Trail waypoint, alongside sites like Lanesfield School and Old Shawnee Town.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Johnson County Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via jocogov.org.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Johnson County Library (multiple branches) – confirm current locations/phone via jocolibrary.org.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Shawnee Indian Mission Historic Site, Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farmstead, Lanesfield School, Old Shawnee Town, and numerous National Historic Trail markers are the county’s premier heritage attractions.
Notes: The genuine National Historic Landmark trail heritage – Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails all converging here – is one of the most historically significant facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Johnson County Appraiser’s Office – confirm current contact via jocogov.org.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Olathe Animal Care & Control (also serves broader county referrals) – 913-782-0720 | olatheks.gov/services/animal-care-control. Enforces animal ordinances, investigates bites and cruelty, offers feral cat trap rentals and educational programs.
Other municipal shelters within the county include Overland Park, Shawnee, and other city-specific animal control programs – contact the relevant city hall for jurisdiction-specific service.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Johnson County Department of Health and Environment (Solid Waste) – confirm current contact via jocogov.org.
NOTES: Johnson County is the sixth and final county in the seventh Kansas Round 3 batch, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine National Historic Landmark trail heritage – Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails all converging here – is one of the most historically significant facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Johnson County
Johnson County is the Kansas City metro’s dominant suburban county – one of the wealthiest, most educated, and fastest-growing large counties in the Midwest, consistently ranked among America’s best places to live.
Overland Park (population ~200,000) is Kansas’s second-largest city and Johnson County’s commercial anchor – the Corporate Woods and College Boulevard office corridors house dozens of major corporate headquarters and regional offices. Sprint/T-Mobile’s campus, Garmin’s headquarters, and numerous financial services firms make Overland Park one of the most significant suburban business districts in the central United States.
Olathe (the county seat, population ~145,000) has grown dramatically – from a small county seat to Kansas’s fourth-largest city – driven by residential development, Garmin’s manufacturing operations, and its position as a Johnson County government hub. The city’s school district is consistently ranked among Kansas’s highest-performing.
Leawood (population ~36,000) has among the highest median household incomes of any city in the Kansas City metro – an affluent residential community with upscale retail at Town Center Plaza and proximity to the Country Club Plaza across the state line.
Johnson County’s public school districts – Blue Valley, Shawnee Mission, Olathe, and De Soto – are among Kansas’s most academically accomplished, a primary driver of residential demand.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Johnson County Appraiser at 11811 S. Sunset Drive, Suite 2100, Olathe, KS 66061, phone 913-715-9000. KS residential property assessed at 11.5% of appraised value. Appeal to County Appraiser informally, then formally to the Board of Tax Appeals. No KS inheritance or estate tax.
Courts & Legal
Johnson County District Court at 100 N. Kansas Avenue, Olathe, KS 66061, phone 913-715-3300, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Elections)
111 S. Cherry St., Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 715-0775
DISTRICT COURT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
150 W. Santa Fe St., Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 715-3300
ELECTIONS (County Clerk / Election Office)
2101 E. Kansas City Rd., Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 715-0775
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Johnson County District Court, Clerk’s Office (probate/estate case files dating from 1857 – see Probate section above).
Johnson County Archives, Olathe, KS – maintains historic records including District Court civil cases, probate journals, wills, settlement records, and naturalization records, with a public Research Room.
Johnson County Library / JoCoHistory – a collaborative digital collection of historical photographs, newspapers, and records, including an obituary index contributed by the Johnson County Genealogical Society.
Local societies
Johnson County Genealogical Society and Library, P.O. Box 12666, Shawnee Mission, KS 66282-2666 – confirmed dedicated local resource.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Johnson County District Court, 10th Judicial District 150 West Santa Fe Street, Olathe, KS 66061 (913) 715-3400
Johnson County is Kansas’s most populous county, part of the Kansas City metro area. It was one of the first counties established in Kansas Territory in 1855, named for Reverend Thomas Johnson. The District Court has general original jurisdiction over probate and estate administration, in addition to civil, criminal, and family matters.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Kansas has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code, maintaining its own statutory framework under Kansas Probate Code (K.S.A. Chapter 59). Kansas offers several tracks depending on estate size and complexity:
Small Estate Affidavit – for estates where the total value of probate property, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $75,000 (raised from $40,000 effective July 1, 2023), available under K.S.A. 59-1507b. This transfers personal property only – real estate cannot be transferred this way. If the decedent left a will, it must still be filed with the probate court even though it isn’t being formally probated.
Simplified Administration – under the Kansas Simplified Estates Act (K.S.A. 59-3201 et seq.), the most common route for straightforward estates, with reduced court involvement.
Formal Probate – supervised or unsupervised administration through the District Court for larger or more complex estates. Under unsupervised administration, the court authorizes the personal representative to act with fewer required filings, though the court retains authority to reimpose supervision at any point.
A will must be filed for probate within 6 months of death, or it may not be admitted, forcing the estate into intestate distribution instead.
Step 2: filing for formal probate
File a Petition for Probate of Will and Appointment of Executor (if there’s a will) or a Petition for Administration (if intestate) with the Johnson County District Court.
The court admits the will (if any) and appoints the personal representative (executor if named in a will and confirmed by the court; administrator if court-appointed with no will).
Notice to creditors is published per court order; creditors have a defined window (recently lengthened under 2024 legislation) to file claims.
The personal representative inventories assets, pays valid debts and expenses, and – under unsupervised administration – acts with reduced court check-ins.
Without a surviving spouse or children, Kansas intestate succession law (K.S.A. 59-501 et seq.) determines which blood relatives inherit; disputed heirship may require a kinship hearing.
After debts are paid, the personal representative distributes assets to heirs or beneficiaries and files a final accounting; the court closes the estate upon approval.
What it costs
Court costs may be remitted for small estates under recent statutory changes.
Executor/administrator and attorney fees are generally reasonable-fee based rather than a fixed statutory percentage.
Typical timelines: Small Estate Affidavit – can proceed relatively quickly once the estate qualifies; formal probate commonly takes several months to over a year depending on complexity and whether administration is supervised.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
503 N. Moonlight Rd., Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 782-0720
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Elections)
111 S. Cherry St., Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 715-0775
ELECTIONS (County Clerk / Election Office)
2101 E. Kansas City Rd., Olathe, KS 66061
(913) 715-0775
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Johnson County Health Dept
(913) 715-2494
KS DCF — Northeast Region
(913) 826-7300
KS Medicaid (KanCare)
(800) 792-4884
AdventHealth Shawnee Mission
adventhealth.com/shawneemission (major regional; Level II Trauma)
Overland Park Regional Medical Center
oprmc.com (Level II Trauma)
University of Kansas Medical Center
kumc.edu (Kansas City — elite academic medical center; Level I Trauma)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Johnson County Department of Health and Environment – confirm current contact via jocogov.org.
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Editorial Trust
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Reviewed by CountyOffices Editorial Team
Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Olathe
Population: 630,000
Area: 477 sq mi
Established: 1855
Tier: 1
Public Records
TruthFinder
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