Overland Park mulls changing development rules

As Overland Park continues to build its new comprehensive plan, the city is also mulling some possible updates to regulations for future development and redevelopment projects.

That collection of ordinances called a Unified Development Ordinance, or UDO, lays out the rules for development in a community, including land use and architectural standards. 

What is Overland Park planning?

The plan is to work with a consultant to review the UDO, the cost of which Overland Park Senior Planner Danielle Hollrah said is already budgeted into city’s 2024-28 capital improvement project list.

Topics that may come up through that focused UDO review with the consultant include but may not be limited to an examination of the Residential Estates District zoning class and special use permits for uses like medical buildings and agritourism.

The consultant is also expected to review the city’s Downtown Form District zoning designation and all design standards for every development type allowed in Overland Park.

Additionally, through that process, the city may consider adding some small-scale manufacturing allowances in commercial districts, specifically for craft manufacturing for things like microbreweries.

As part of the regular annual review, planning staff and legal staff will examine the UDO chapters pertaining to parking lot lighting due to the proliferation of LED lighting options, incremental development and an overlay district for College Boulevard and Metcalf Avenue, according to city documents. The city could also consider new rules about chickens in more rural areas of the city.

And, if there’s enough time, Overland Park could also accomplish the following:

• Review architectural design standards for multifamily housing developments
• Examine the effectiveness of new parking maximum rules
• Consider adjustments to sign and fencing rules

Why now?

• Periodically, cities and municipalities revise their UDOs to meet changing best practices or new areas of concern.
• Overland Park has for years annually done UDO reviews, Hollrah said during last week’s Overland Park City Council Community Development Committee meeting.
• However, some of this particular UDO update coincides with the much anticipated new comprehensive plan, Hollrah said.

What is a comprehensive plan?

• City governments use comprehensive plans to identify long-term and ideal development patterns for a city.
• They usually also discuss infrastructure needs, resources available and green spaces.
• These plans can guide decision-making for decades.
• City councils sign off on them, typically after lengthy public discussion and input from the community.
• Cities themselves don’t do the work of actual development but set out the recommendations and the rules for developers who go down the line.
• Overland Park has dubbed its new comprehensive plan Framework OP. 

Next steps on Overland Park’s UDO review:

• Hollrah said the city anticipates taking longer than one calendar year to get through the whole list of possible topics and the whole UDO review process. 
• Any work that hinges on the new comprehensive plan — which Assistant City Manager Jack Messer said is expected come up for approval in the middle of 2024 — could be waylaid until next year.
• Actual changes to the UDO would likely require a public hearing and have to come to the Overland Park City Council for approval. 
• In the meantime, the full list of potential review topics will go to the Overland Park Planning Commission and the Ordinance Review Committee as early as this week. 

Keep reading: New growth and redevelopment at heart of Overland Park’s comprehensive plan review