Prairie Village residents will soon be able to give their input on the idea of a new community center ahead of a possible vote on the concept later this year.
Later this month, the city is set to move into the public engagement portion of designing a city-owned community center to replace the deteriorating Paul Henson YMCA at 4200 W. 79th St.
This is part of an ongoing effort to look into potentially co-locating a new Corinth Library branch next to a new community center along 79th and Delmar streets, just south of the city’s municipal campus and Harmon Park.
City officials have said that the aim is to wrap up public input by this summer to allow time to craft a potential ballot measure for November.
The city shut down talk of a new community center about a decade ago but rekindled discussions about the co-location concept a few years ago.
The first public input meeting is on Jan. 25
- Public Works Director Keith Bredehoeft told the city council on Dec. 18 that the first meeting in late January is to introduce residents to the project and get “targeted feedback.”
- The public can attend the meeting from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Meadowbrook Park clubhouse, 9101 Nall Ave.
- Bredehoeft said a second public meeting is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. on April 4, also at the Meadowbrook Park clubhouse, which will feature a first look at how the community center and library branch could be placed at the site.
- A third public meeting will take place sometime this summer to present what would be the final project, Bredehoeft said.
Design phase could clear way for November vote
- Last summer, the Prairie Village City Council agreed to enter separate memorandums of understanding with the YMCA and Johnson County Library to further explore the co-location idea.
- Now, the city, the YMCA and library are working together to develop preliminary designs for a co-located community center and Corinth Library branch, potentially in time to put a concept before voters in November.
- The city is eyeing a potential ballot measure for November of this year to ask residents whether they want to move forward with a new community center and are taking feedback at public sessions to help come up with a clearer concept.
The co-location idea dates back to pre-pandemic times
- Prairie Village started taking another look at a city-YMCA partnership back in February 2019, six years after the original idea flopped.
- Later that same year, a city-backed survey found broad resident interest in a co-location idea.
- When COVID-19 hit the area in March 2020, the city took a pause on any discussion of a co-location idea.
- The city picked the conversation back up in February 2022, and since then, the city has conducted a second survey and entered into partnerships with the YMCA and library.
Go deeper: Prairie Village to design new community center concept. When could it be voted on?
