A proposal to build nearly 160 garden apartments in south Overland Park near 175th Street and Pflumm Road is moving ahead.
On Monday, the Overland Park Planning Commission recommended approval of the final plat and final development plan for Prairie Wolf Villas.
40 residential buildings are planned in Prairie Wolf
- In all, the development proposal would bring 157 residential units to the nearly 29-acre site near 175th and Pflumm.
- Garden apartments are usually characterized by low-rise buildings that contain fewer units than typical apartment buildings.
- The Prairie Wolf Villas development plan calls for three to six units per building.
- The site will also have a dog park, a clubhouse, a trail connection, playground and outdoor sport courts.
Apartments were designed with nearby neighborhoods in mind
- The Wolf Run subdivision, which is currently under construction, is located to the south, and the Chapel Hill subdivision is also nearby.
- Rachel Pierce, an architect from NSPJ working on the project, said the designs for the apartment buildings drew inspiration from those neighborhoods.
- She said the villa buildings are meant to evoke a modern farmhouse aesthetic, paired with the craftsman style and prairie style used in those subdivisions as well.
Overland Park commission OKs facade rule deviation
City planning staff had some concerns about deviations from the design standards proposed for the facade of some of the buildings. Typically, Overland Park requires builders to use 40% heavy materials on a facade like these.
In the Prairie Wolf Villas development, several of the buildings proposed do not meet that standard, and city planner Zach Nelson said planning staff would prefer to see the rules followed on buildings facing public streets.
Pierce said, due to the large windows planned for each unit, it would be nearly impossible to reach the full 40% heavy material facade rules without compromising on the design aesthetic and giving the buildings more of a commercial look.
Additionally, members of the planning commission echoed some of Pierce’s concerns that following the design standards in this case would result in less attractive buildings, and they ultimately supported the deviation from the design standards.
“Architecture is an art, not a science,” said Commissioner Matt Masilionis, who is an architect professionally. “We have to look at the beauty of the buildings. I think they fall in line with exactly what they should be.”
Others agreed that varying from the rules for the Prairie Wolf Villas project was the best course of action.
“I think sometimes it’s good to bend the rules a little bit to achieve the look that you want,” Commissioner Edward Reitzes said.
Commissioner Radd Way noted that at the site plan review committee where this project was first reviewed, the members of the subcommittee did see a rendering where the 40% threshold was met for every building, and he didn’t think those buildings were nearly as appealing.
Overland Park is mulling design standard changes
- During the discussion, Commissioner David Hill also pointed out that there have been some conversations about potentially changing Overland Park’s facade material requirements.
- Those amendments would be aimed at creating some “flexibility” in the standard for a situation like this, but what exactly that could look like remains unclear.
- Nelson did allude to changes that would allow an applicant to take an average on the facade material percentage from the whole development instead of per building.
- If that were the standard used today, the Prairie Wolf Villas building materials and design plans would meet them.
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