The Prairie Village City Council on Monday unanimously voted to amend controversial housing recommendations, altering one of the item’s language around multi-family housing, as opposition to the recommendations — which have yet to be publicly acted on — continues to mount among some residents.
Driving the news: The council on Monday voted on an item brought forward by Councilmember Ian Graves, the chair of the city’s ad hoc housing committee that originally crafted the recommendations, which proposed that references to multifamily housing in the first recommendation be removed.
- The amended recommendation now explicitly suggests that the city planning commission exclude multi-family housing units, like duplexes and apartments, from areas of the city already zoned for single-family housing districts.
- The city council’s action Monday also completely removes multi-unit houses and courtyard patterns from the housing task force’s first recommendation.
- Accessory dwelling units, including small-lot detached single homes, will still be allowed in single-family districts under the revised recommendations.
The upshot: The amended recommendations offered Monday were intended to address residents’ concerns about the housing recommendations and to reflect the original intent of the recommendations which were approved by the special housing task force earlier this year, Graves said.
- Graves said the reference to “multi-family houses” in the housing committee’s original recommendations was put in as a “catch-all,” but the term had since become viewed as something the committee and the council did not intend.
- The city council discussed the issue for about 40 minutes Monday night before unanimously approving the amended recommendations.
Something to remember: The city has not yet formally acted on any of the housing committee’s recommendations, which were articulated earlier this year as a means to help address housing attainability and soaring home prices in the suburb.
- The city planning commission is set later in October to launch a months-long public input process on the housing recommendations, but many residents have already made their displeasure with the recommendations known at recent city council meetings.
Watch for yourself: The entire city council meeting is embedded with the link below. The housing recommendations discussion begins at 29:00, and public comments follow at 1:18:40.
‘Stop Rezoning PV’ movement: Monday was at least the third city council meeting in recent months in which residents showed up in droves to voice their opposition to the ad hoc housing committee’s recommendations
- The group, now organized loosely under the ” Stop Rezoning PV” banner, have focused much of their concerns on the original recommendations’ references to multi-family developments in single-family districts and also a reference to “by right” development that would seemingly make it easier for developers to move forward on projects over resident opposition.
- The “Stop Rezoning” movement has been bolstered by the vocal support of some former councilmembers’ social media posts encouraging residents to give public comments at city council meetings, as well as a website dedicated to the effort and a growing number of yard signs.
What they’re saying: Councilmember Terrence Gallagher noted on Monday that the “Stop Rezoning” group is the largest amount of public opposition and input he’s witnessed in his eight years on council about any issue.
- Residents continued their efforts at Monday’s meetings, and urged the city council to not only remove references to multi-family housing from the recommendations but alos take out the “by-right” language.
- Justin Green, a resident and a Briarwood Elementary parent, discussed density and overcrowding schools — another key issue the “Stop Rezoning” group is concerned about.
- Green noted the ongoing boundary work change the school district is doing to address the overcrowding at Briarwood, which is the elementary school with the highest enrollment Shawnee Mission.
- Only one resident spoke in favor of the housing recommendation efforts Monday night.
What they’re saying: “Those are just things that, as you all move forward in planning committees and housing committees, to not just think about just the overall property, but looking at just the sheer number of people that are living in our boundaries,” Green said.
What’s next for Prairie Village housing recommendations
The city planning commission is still set to meet for a work session to discuss the now amended housing recommendations on Oct. 25.
- After the new year, a public input session will be held followed by another planning commission work session about two months later.
- The planning commission intends to host at least three public input sessions with work sessions in between.
- That process is expected to last at least through summer 2023.
Going deeper: Read some of the Post’s previous coverage about this issue here.
- City staff created a web page, as well, that city officials said is intended to address some “misinformation” about the housing recommendations.
