The Prairie Village City Council Monday night is set to take its first deep dive into how the city’s controversial housing recommendations could impact single family-zoned districts.
That has proven to be one of the thorniest topics of debate around the recommendations since they were first rolled out last summer.
Tonight’s meeting comes as the city continues to navigate the increasingly fraught public discussion over how to address ballooning housing costs in the Johnson County suburb.
Single family zones make up at least 85% of Prairie Village
- According to city zoning maps, zones meant for single family housing, referred to as R1-A and R1-B in city code, make up 3,010 of the city’s 3,550 total zoning acreage.
- Over the last nine months, a vocal and organized group of opponents called Stop Rezoning PV has latched on specifically to those zones’ inclusion in the housing recommendations.
- The pushback prompted the city council earlier this year to remove single family zones from under the purview of the city planning commission and put any discussion of zoning changes in those district under the city council’s auspices.
- Any change made to single family zones going forward, then, would have to be made by the city council.
No changes to city zoning are on Monday’s agenda
- The city council’s work session agenda for Monday’s meeting is solely focused on an item to “prioritize future discussion on certain topics within R-1 zoning areas.”
- The agenda includes several housing-related topics, including the city’s housing study, accessory dwelling units, lot size and short term rentals.
- A prioritization exercise is set to follow the discussion in which councilmembers will be able to assign points for which topics should be prioritized going forward.
- No public comment portion of the meeting is scheduled.
Prairie Village for All wants council to prioritize lot size
- Lauren Martin, a spokesperson for a group calling itself Prairie Village for All that largely supports the housing recommendations, told the Post in an interview Friday that the group sees lot sizes as key to attainable housing.
- While allowing accessory dwelling units in single family housing has been the “hot ticket item” in discussions so far, Martin said, the group sees restricting lot sizes in single family districts as a more impactful route.
- “I really hope we come out of this meeting and we’re talking about how do we make serious, meaningful changes in R-1 to diversify our housing stock and get us more options, or even give homeowners more options to do things to their property,” Martin said.
Stop Rezoning group has questions they want answered
- Daniel Schoepf, a designated spokesperson for Stop Rezoning Prairie Village, told the Post via email that the group sees the meeting as a way for the city council “to openly and transparently answer questions compiled by Prairie Village residents.”
- The nine questions — embedded in a document below — were sent to city leaders months ago, Schoepf said.
- “It is our understanding that R1 was taken off the table for the planning commission to consider based on public feedback,” Schoepf said. “The mayor and city council need to explain why it is being discussed again.”
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Open in new tab Go deeper: First Prairie Village public forum on housing will likely be in June
