The Johnson County Election Office on Monday certified signatures for three separate resident-led petitions in Prairie Village, thrusting the spotlight back on the city in a heated dispute over housing and governance in the Johnson County suburb.
In determining that each petition had the required number of valid signatures, the election office is now asking the city to confirm whether the petitions themselves should be validated and put on the ballot.
At last week’s city council meeting, Prairie Village’s city attorney argued that the petitions should be invalidated for technical reasons.
But members of the Stop Rezoning PV group behind the petitions were celebrating the election office’s decision in their Facebook group Tuesday.
This all sets up a special Prairie Village City Council meeting Wednesday to discuss the petitions and potential next steps.
Election Office did not weigh in on petitions’ legality
- In three separate letters to the city dated Monday, Aug. 14, Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said his office completed signature verification for all three petitions.
- For two of the petitions, Sherman’s office validated slightly more than 2,000 signatures, and more than 3,000 for the third, meeting the required number of signatures per state statute.
- Notably, in his letters, Sherman said each time, “I make no determination as to the legal sufficiency of the petition.”
- Each of the letters ends with Sherman asking the city for “written confirmation” of whether each of the three petitions is valid.
- Additionally, Sherman’s letters ask, if the petitions are deemed valid, for the city to request a date for an election and the actual question to be put on the ballot.
The letter from Sherman to the city regarding the rezoning petition is embedded below. The letter for the mayor-council abandonment petition is here, and the letter for the mayor-council-manager adoption petition is here.
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Stop Rezoning Prairie Village, the resident group opposed to the city’s housing recommendations, began circulating the petitions this summer in an effort to get the three initiatives on the November ballot — one dealing with a rezoning matter and the other two aiming to restructure city government.
The one rezoning petition would define rezoning and limit the use of accessory dwelling units in single-family neighborhoods, a key sticking point for the group.
The two other petitions aim to make changes to city governance, including cutting the city council in half from 12 to six councilmembers and abandoning the city’s current form of government, in part, by trying to weaken the mayor’s powers.
Members of Stop Rezoning PV have shown up numerous times over the past year to city council meetings in order to voice their opposition to the city’s housing recommendations put forward by a special committee last summer.
The group takes issue with any changes to single-family neighborhood zoning and believes the recommendations could undermine individual homeowner rights and their ability to protest developments.
Some current Prairie Village city councilmembers have cast the petitions as a “political ploy” from residents unhappy with the city’s current leadership and the results of the 2021 election. (Six councilmembers who won office in that election would be taken off the council if one of the group’s governance petitions were ultimately approved at the ballot box.)
The city’s original housing recommendations called for research on potential changes to the zoning code to allow for diversified housing types across the city.
To date, the city has yet to make any zoning code changes based on the housing recommendations.
The city council previously scaled back some of the recommendations, in particular, by prioritizing neighborhood design guidelines and research on short-term rentals.
Wednesday’s meeting is about next steps
- The agenda for Wednesday’s special meeting posted to the city website states the city council will “consider authorization of appropriate legal proceedings.”
- There is also an executive session — when a governing body discusses matters privately — scheduled for the meeting.
- No other documents are include on the agenda for the meeting.
- In their Facebook group Tuesday, members of Stop Rezoning PV urged residents to attend Wednesday’s meeting.
- According to the agenda, the city is not planning to hold public comments at the special meeting.
Go deeper: Prairie Village hosts first housing recommendations forum – here’s what happened
