Prairie Village residents voice concerns about attainable housing recommendations

More than two dozen Prairie Village residents spoke at the city council’s meeting last week, voicing their concerns about recommendations recently put forward by the city’s ad-hoc housing committee that lay out several potential strategies for addressing the cost of housing in the increasingly expensive suburb.

The upshot: But some residents seemed to misunderstand where the city was at in the process of implementing the housing committee’s recommendations.

Several residents at the meeting on Monday, July 18, said they were concerned about a specific zoning change that would allow for more multi-family housing in the city, but there was no vote for such an item on the meeting’s agenda.
Some city councilmembers and Mayor Eric Mikkelson repeatedly told residents during the meeting that the city is researching the committee’s three recommendations — one of which is related to updating zoning regulations to allow for accessory dwelling units, duplexes and other “missing middle” housing — but that no final decisions have been made.

What happened? At the July 18 meeting, about 25 residents spoke to the city council during the public comment period, voicing concerns about citywide zoning regulation changes, multi-family developments next door to single-family homes, increased residential density and more.

No zoning change items nor housing efforts were scheduled for discussion at the July 18 meeting, and no such items were proposed, considered or approved at the meeting.
Mikkelson reminded residents that zoning regulations and housing efforts were not on the city council’s agenda several times throughout the hour-long public comment period.

Where did the info come from? It is unclear exactly where residents had gotten their information about a specific zoning change item being on the agenda, but one potential source could have been a flier that was distributed during Village Fest, the city’s annual Independence Day event.

Current Councilmember Ian Graves and former councilmember Tucker Poling both posted about the flier on their respective Facebook pages, decrying the fliers’ “scare-mongering” and misleading information.

Concerns about committee: In addition to not wanting zoning changes, multi-family developments and more dense developments, the residents who spoke at the July 18 meeting — including three former city councilmembers —generally expressed concerns about the city’s ad-hoc housing committee’s recommendations and a lack of opportunities for the public to give the panel input.

Many residents urged the city council not to change zoning regulations that would allow for multi-family developments like duplexes, triplexes or row houses to be built in what are now single-family residential areas.
Residents also shared concerns about how multi-family developments could change the city’s character by impacting already or nearly overcrowded schools or local traffic patterns.
Others, including former councilmember Jori Nelson, said they felt frustrated with how the housing committee meetings were not recorded and the published minutes not detailed.
Still others, like resident Laurie Sharp, said part of their frustration is that residents who don’t agree with or understand the need for Prairie Village to address attainable housing want their concerns to be heard and taken into consideration when making future decisions.

Key quote: “Now, the city council seems to want to change building codes to allow multi-family residences — that, in my opinion, would be a disaster,” resident Lee Larson said. “The entire character that makes Prairie Village special would be destroyed. Traffic would increase, population density would increase, taxes would go up, schools would be affected, utilities, parking, flood control, all affected.”

What do the recommendations say? Prairie Village City Council unanimously approved three recommendations from its ad hoc housing committee at its June 21 meeting. Read the Post’s full report on that here.

Those recommendations included a strategy to “amend Prairie Village zoning regulations in a way that allows attainable housing to be built in more zoning districts, specifically missing middle housing.”
The city council’s approval allows city staff to explore and research the housing committee’s recommendation, but none of the recommendations are currently being implemented.
The city’s planning commission will also consider all of housing committee’s recommendations as part of ongoing discussions with city staff.
Graves, chair of the housing committee, said at the June 21 meeting that the recommendations were a “first step to a long series of conversations between us, planning commission, staff and the public.”

Public input: Other than the planning commission, no Prairie Village committee meetings are currently livestreamed or video recorded, but committee meetings — including those of the now defunct housing committee — are open to the public.

Public input was emphasized as a next step at the June 21 meeting when the city council approved the recommendations, as well as in city documents.
City staff told the Post via email that the city’s planning commission will play a large role in the next steps regarding the housing committee’s recommendations.
There is a public comment period during each planning commission meeting.
The planning commission will soon discuss next steps in the process, communicate those steps and roll out a timeline, city staff told the Post.

Key quote: “Don’t take the misinformation that’s come out and think that we’re trying to come up with some grandiose plan to pack more people in or put up multi structures where single-family homes are, that’s not the intent at all,” Councilmember Dave Robinson said during Monday’s council meeting. “But at the same time, we’re not putting our heads in the sand and pretending the problem doesn’t exist.”

More about the zoning recommendation: The housing committee’s recommendations to amend the city’s zoning regulations to allow for attainable housing — specifically “missing middle” housing — could conceivably lead to more types of housing.

Some of the ways the housing committee suggested accomplishing that includes considering “neighborhood-scale” options like small-lot detached houses in single-family districts.
Another option, according to the housing committee, would be to update city code to allow for a “wider range of small-scale, multi-unit types” like smaller lot duplexes, row houses and three and four-plexes.
The recommendations list also includes an item about refining the garden apartment district zoning “to focus less on ‘density’ and more on building scale/form.”
A third recommended strategy would be to update the city’s zoning map in order “to identify the most appropriate locations for missing middle housing.”

Bigger picture: Making housing prices more attainable and the city’s housing stock more diverse has been the focus of discussion for years in Prairie Village and play a key role in Village Vision 2.0, the city’s comprehensive plan.

The plan contains examples of accessory dwelling units, duplexes, row houses and more, which can be found on page 75 in the above link.
For suburban neighborhoods,Village Vision 2.0 also recommends accessory dwelling units as well as duplexes, rowhouses, multi-unit houses and live-work spaces in specific locations.
The same “missing middle” housing recommendations are suggested for traditional neighborhoods, in addition to small apartments, too.
All types of missing middle housing housing is recommended throughout village neighborhoods.

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How to watch the meetings: Both the June 21 and the July 18 meetings can be found on the city’s Facebook page. Watch the full July 18 meeting here. The full video for the June 21 meeting can be watched through the embedded link below.

City council meetings can be watched in-person or virtually on Facebook. These meetings occur the first and third Monday of the month.
Planning commission meetings can also be watched in-person or virtually on Facebook, and these meetings are on the first Tuesday of the month.
Committee meetings dates and times vary, but can be watched in-person. Dates can be found on the city calendar here.
The ad hoc housing committee is no longer an active body as it completed its task of bringing recommendations forward to the city council.