Prairie Village is considering purchasing a church property on Mission Road that could become part of a still-evolving plan to build a new city hall.
At a special city council work session on Monday, discussion of the church appeared to inadvertently come up as councilmembers were hearing about a slightly revised site design layout for a new prospective $30 million city hall plan that the city has been discussing for more than a year.
City officials later confirmed that the city has, indeed, been looking at purchasing the property at 7820 Mission Rd., immediately south of the municipal complex. That address is currently the site of Mission Road Bible Church, which is now for sale.
Whether purchasing the church property would mean the city uses that building or the land it sits on for a new city hall has yet to be determined, city officials told the Post.
The church is directly south of the current city hall
The city’s consideration about acquiring the church came to light during the Monday work session when Councilmember Inga Selders mentioned a church and the potential to retrofit or gut the building as part of the new city hall.
Previously, the church property had not been discussed in public session in connection to a new city hall.
Mission Road Bible Church is located directly south of the municipal complex and is for sale, as of mid-June, according to LoopNet, a commerical real estate listing site.
The church appears to still be using the space, and its website lists regular events and weekly worship at the Mission Road address still. The Post reached out to the church for comment and will update this story when we receive a response.
It is unclear what the asking price for the church is, but LoopNet shows its total assessment at $3.3 million.
In April, City Administrator Wes Jordan told the city council that the new city hall project had been put on hold.
Jordan confirmed to the Post on Tuesday — after Selders’ comments on Monday — that the reason the city hall project had been put on hiatus was because of emerging conversations about the city possibly acquiring the church property.
Jordan told the Post that the city “is considering all options,” including purchasing the church property. Jordan said the city thinks it is important to explore its options “especially when talking about taxpayer dollars.”
The city is in the early stages of the conversation, Jordan said, and it is still too early to tell what could become of it.
Any future use, should the city buy the church, has yet to be determined, he said. Options could include remaking the site into public park land, renovating it as part of a new city hall or tearing down the property for some other future use, he said.
City council still tinkering with new city hall design
At Monday’s city council work session, City Engineer Melissa Prenger and a representative from Clark and Enersen, the Kansas City-based firm working with the city on the new city hall design, presented the city council with revised layouts of a new city hall.
Earlier this year, the city council gave city staff the green light to move forward on a plan that is capped at a cost of $30 million and would put a new city hall facility at the southern end of the current municipal complex parking lot and separate from a new municipal court building that would be just to the north.
The alternatives discussed Monday presented tweaked versions of that layout. None of them incorporated the church property.
Below is a comparison of the original site design (labeled “Current SD layout”) and two of three altered plans discussed Monday:
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Open in new tab “Alternate A” would keep the layout of the current site design relatively unchanged, aside from the staff parking lot on the southeast corner. The alternative option moves that parking lot to the north, off of the city’s geothermal system.
“Alternate B” considers more dramatic changes to the layout currently being discussed.
This option relocates the new city hall to a large green space directly off Mission Road where the small community center and basketball courts currently sit, creates a two-way entrance and exit onto Mission Road and replaces the existing driveway with a new central civic plaza between the new city hall and the existing police department building.
An “Alternate C” that was not included in the above graphic would also relocate city hall to the green space directly next to Mission Road but would maintain the existing drive between the police department and the new city hall.
Prenger said the city estimates that alternate A would cost an additional $750,000 on top of the roughly $30 million price tag for a new city hall.
Options B or C, which contemplate bigger changes to the current plan, would cost $2.5 million more, she said.
In an unofficial straw poll during the council work session, seven of the governing body members — including the mayor — raised their hands in support of alternate A.
Next steps:
- Prenger told the Post that the design team will work in comments from city staff, the planning commission and the governing body into the site layout.
- As the process continues, Prenger said that city staff will update the governing body.
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