The city of Westwood has filed a lawsuit seeking a judge’s ruling on whether a state law applies to the sale of Joe D. Dennis Park to make way for a much-discussed new office and park development on Rainbow Boulevard.
The city last week filed the lawsuit in Johnson County District Court seeking a declaratory judgment on three items — including whether the law, K.S.A 12-1301, applies to the sale of Joe D. Dennis Park at the corner of 50th Street and Rainbow.
That statute specifically deals with the sale of public park land, and a group of Westwood residents has argued the city should have followed it when going through with the sale of Joe D. Dennis Park to clear the way for the development.
Mission Woods-based Karbank Real Estate Company plans to build multiple office and retail buildings where the park currently sits along Rainbow. In exchange, the company also plans to creat a new, bigger park on adjacent land nearby where the current Westwood View Elementary sits.
Residents, who have organized under the banner Friends of Westwood Parkland, have pushed back on the proposed development for months now.
The city’s latest lawsuit comes after the Westwood City Council unanimously invalidated a resident-led protest petition.
That petition called for the city to apply K.S.A. 12-1301 in proceeding with sale of the park, and also called for a public vote on the Karbank project.
How we got here
Residents are protesting the Karbank project out of concern that they’re losing park space at 50th and Rainbow.
The protest petition filed in December questions the city’s legal process for selling Joe D. Dennis Park, which ultimately moves the development forward.
The city, on the other hand, remains adamant that the state law is inapplicable, and is now calling for a district court to decide on the matter.
More details about the protest petition can be found here.
The city filed the lawsuit to move forward with sale of park
Westwood wants a Johnson County judge to rule on the following three issues, according to a news release from Jan. 19:
- Whether the protest petition language can be placed on a ballot,
- If there are any other reasons the petition is invalid,
- And whether K.S.A 12-1301 applies to the sale of Joe D. Dennis Park.
The city named Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe as defendants “because they are the only parties who have legal standing on the issues” on which the city wants a declaratory judgment, City Administrator Leslie Herring told the Post via email.
Herring said no residents who filed the petition against the project are named as defendants because they have no legal standing to challenge the city’s stance that K.S.A 12-1301 is inapplicable to the sale of Joe D. Dennis Park.
“The protest petition created a cloud on title of the City’s property at 5000 Rainbow Blvd., so we must take this step in order to be issued title insurance for the sale of the City’s property to Karbank, which is a required condition of the sale closing,” Herring said.
Read the city’s entire lawsuit below.
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Open in new tab One petitioner’s take on the lawsuit
- Bernard Brown, a Westwood resident who is also an attorney, has been vocal about his frustration with the city’s threat to sue residents.
- Brown told the Post on Tuesday that the lawsuit is just one piece of the city’s recent actions.
- He noted that the lawsuit followed the city’s “sudden, surprise council meeting to try to invalidate the protest” petition.
- “I continue to consider them to be highly aggressive and out of line,” Brown said.
Next steps:
- Judge Rhonda Mason of District 4 at Johnson County District Court has been assigned the case, according to court documents.
- Mason was the same judge who issued a declaratory judgment in September in a much-watched case over rezoning in Prairie Village. Mason ultimately ruled that just one of three petitions submitted by a group of Prairie Village residents who sought changes to city governance and rezoning rules was eligible for the ballot.
- No court date has been scheduled at this time, per court documents.
Go deeper: Much-watched Westwood land to change ownership in 2024
