An update to Prairie Village’s neighborhood design guidelines got the official green light this week.
On Monday, the Prairie Village City Council voted 7-2 to send the neighborhood design guidelines update for some single-family districts back to the planning commission for input and recommendations.
Councilmembers Nick Reddell and Lori Sharp cast the dissenting votes. Councilmembers Ian Graves, Cole Robinson and Dave Robinson were absent.
Per Monday’s vote, the planning commission will only work on neighborhood design guidelines in R1-B single family districts, which apply to neighborhoods with typically smaller lots.
Why does this matter?
Earlier this month, the planning commission asked for reassurance from the city council that neighborhood design guidelines — a previously controversial topic in 2018 — is something the governing body wanted to unbox.
The planning commission’s request for the political support to dive back into this issue was partially due to the fact that four new councilmembers, who were seated last year, have yet to weigh in on this topic.
The current councilmembers who sat on the dais for the entirety of 2023, who previously signaled support for revisiting the guidelines citing feedback from residents, again voted in support of updating the guidelines.
Meanwhile, the newer faces to the city council — councilmembers Tyler Agniel, Terry O’Toole, Reddell and Sharp — wanted to discontinue conversations about neighborhood design guidelines.
These four newer councilmembers were backed by Stop Rezoning Prairie Village, a grassroots group of residents who opposed any zoning code changes and a set of housing recommendations aimed at bringing more affordable housing options to the city.
All four of these councilmembers voted in favor of discontinuing the revised neighborhood design guidelines discussion, but that motion failed in a 5-4 vote. Ultimately, Agniel and O’Toole voted in favor of sending this topic back to the planning commission.
The planning commission wanted full council support
- In April 2023 and October 2023, the previous city council signaled support for updating the neighborhood design guidelines in order to address the city’s teardown-rebuild trend.
- Neither the planning commission nor the city council discussed the neighborhood design guidelines again until earlier this month.
- A couple of weeks ago, the planning commission asked city staff to gauge the city council’s support for reopening the issue of revising neighborhood design guidelines.
- Commission Chair Greg Wolf said the topic “could cause a storm of controversy,” especially given the “painful” 2018 neighborhood design guideline process.
Council sends it back to planning commission
- Councilmember O’Toole’s motion to stop conversations about the neighborhood design guidelines failed in a 5-4 vote on Monday. Councilmembers Agniel, O’Toole, Reddell and Sharp voted in favor of the motion.
- Councilmember Inga Selders said teardown-rebuilds were the top issue among residents while door-knocking during the 2023 campaign.
- Councilmember Ron Nelson said the size and proximity of teardown-rebuilds to existing homes is one of the top complaints he hears from Ward 2 residents.
- Councilmember Terrence Gallagher said he believes that the planning commission needs to evaluate R1-B districts and make a recommendation to the city council.
- “I think that independent body (the planning commission) needs to come back to us and share with us what their reason is for doing this,” Gallagher said. “To ask us if they should move forward with this or not, I don’t think it’s doing justice to our residents and to ourselves that have put so much time into this over the last several years.”
Next steps:
- Neighborhood design guidelines as they pertain to R1-B will come back before the planning commission at a future time.
- The planning commission meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at city hall, 7700 Mission Road.
Go deeper: Watch the city council’s full discussion online here, starting at 41:51.
