Westside Family Church is on track to add a two-story counseling care center to its large campus in west Lenexa.

Last month, the Lenexa City Council unanimously authorized a preliminary plan for the project. The building is planned for a site southeast of the church near Woodsonia Drive and 83rd Street.

20,000-square-foot building for counseling support in Lenexa

• The new space is expected to become the headquarters for the church’s ongoing licensed counseling services, which it has long offered in its main Lenexa facility.
• The new building will also have space for meeting rooms, classrooms and play areas for younger church members.
• More of Woodsonia Drive will be built out as well, south of the roundabout where it currently ends.
• Plus, 70 new parking spaces will be added to the campus.

There’s a growing need for counseling, support

• Jeff Manford, a pastor from Westside Family Church, said there’s been a “tremendous surge” in the need for counseling. Councilmember Melanie Arroyo, an art therapist and a clinical counselor, agreed.
• “Our community’s come through some considerable shaking the last couple of years,” Manford said.
• In 2022, the church held roughly 5,000 hours of counseling sessions, he said. That comes on top of support groups, grief care and other services.
• “We also want to make this community-facing. Sometimes people will struggle going on to a church property,” Manford said, “but they might be more apt to go into a care center.”
• Connie Horosz, the church’s director of care and counseling, said the counseling services offered through Westside Family Church do cost money, but the fees are based on each client’s income.
• “We want to decrease stigma and increase accessibility,” she said.

Westside Family Church is able to build in Lenexa’s residential zoning

• Typically, an office building like this is prohibited in residential zoning areas, but a church is allowed.
• Lenexa Planning Manager Stephanie Kisler told the city council this particular project is permitted in the residential area as an “accessory to the principal use of the church.”
• If the church were to later sell off the building to a nonreligious entity or redevelop it for other uses, then it would require a rezoning and possibly a site development plan review.
• The church’s first site plan for the 35-acre campus came through in 2004, which envisioned a 70,000-square-foot church facility. The plan was revised in 2014 to make way for a 20,000-square-foot addition.

Next steps:

• A final plan will still be necessary before the project can move ahead.
• That will come to the Lenexa Planning Commission for approval at a later date.
• An exact timeline is unclear.
• Any future development plans for the site will also require further consideration from the planning commission and city council.

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