The Kansas Court of Appeals has largely sided with a district court judge’s rulings on three controversial resident-led petitions that roiled Prairie Village nearly two years ago.
Like the Johnson County judge’s 2023 ruling, the three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals on March 7 found two of the three Prairie Village petitions — one dealing with limitations on rezoning and another that aimed to adopt a new city government — ineligible to go before voters.
The appellate court also agreed with Judge Rhonda Mason’s decision that a third petition, which seeks to abandon the city’s current form of government, can appear on a ballot.
Both the city of Prairie Village and PV United, the resident-led group behind the petitions, had appealed the district court decision, which put their fate in the hands of the state appellate court.
Back in 2023, PV United tried to get all three petitions on the November ballot, further dividing the city that was already embroiled in a fierce year-long housing debate. The controversy ultimately defined the city’s November 2023 general election and brought multiple attempts to recall the mayor. Four candidates backed by PV United won their city council races that election and are currently seated today.
The practical ramifications of the ruling are unclear, as either party could choose to appeal the appellate court’s decision to the Kansas Supreme Court. Neither party has indicated to the Post whether it will choose to do so.
Neither a representative from PV United nor its attorney could be reached for comment for this story.
A housing debate sparked the petitions
In 2022 and 2023, the city of Prairie Village was embroiled in a housing debate sparked by resident pushback against any rezoning changes to single-family neighborhoods in the city.
In June 2022, the city had advanced a set of three housing recommendations, the first of which called for an update to the city’s zoning code to allow for more attainable housing options.
As a result of the housing debate, PV United, the group opposed to any rezoning in the city, crafted the three petitions. One sought to limit the city’s ability to make rezoning changes, and the two other petitions proposed broader changes to the city’s form of government.
The group circulated those petitions for signatures and submitted them to the county and city, with the hope of voting on the three petitions at the November 2023 election.
Instead, the city asked the Johnson County District Court to make a declaratory judgment — or a legal determination — as to whether the petitions were valid for a ballot measure.
Judge Mason ruled in September 2023 that only one of the petitions — which sought to abandon the city’s current form of government — was eligible for a future ballot.
PV United filed a notice of appeal days after Mason’s ruling, and, in turn, the city filed its own appeal in early October 2023.
A year later in October 2024, a three-judge panel in the Kansas Court of Appeals heard oral arguments from both PV United and the city.
What did the petitions say?
Here’s what the petitions said, in summary:
- A “rezoning” petition called for limiting rezoning and, in particular, curtailing the use of accessory dwelling units — such as so-called “granny flats” — and other multifamily projects in single-family neighborhoods in Prairie Village.
- An “abandon” petition aimed to throw out the city’s current mayor-council form of government. The petition’s organizers called the city’s current form of government a “strong mayor” form and signaled an interest in paring back mayoral power.
- An “adoption” petition sought to replace the mayor-council form of government with a mayor-council-manager form of government. That petition included language that would have slashed the city council in half from 12 councilmembers to six and would have effectively ended six sitting councilmembers’ terms two years early.
The appellate court upheld JoCo district court petition rulings
In September 2023 — after reversing a ruling made from the bench and then reinstating that original bench ruling — Mason found that the “abandon” petition is the only one eligible for a ballot measure.
Like Mason’s 2023 ruling, the appellate panel found that the “rezoning” petition is an administrative ordinance and requires specialized knowledge like that of city staff, which means it cannot be pushed forward through a petition measure.
The appellate court also upheld that the “adoption” petition is ineligible for a ballot measure based on two key factors.
First, the “adoption” petition fails to specify term limits for the Prairie Village mayor. Second, what the appellate court found to be “the most serious problem,” is that the “adoption” petition sought to both adopt a new form of government and elect the new city council in one election cycle. The appellate panel found that this violates state law.
As for the “abandon” petition, which aimed to throw out the city’s existing form of government, the appellate court upheld the district court’s ruling that it is eligible for a ballot measure.
The appellate court found that — despite the city’s argument that the form of the question is insufficient — the “abandon” petition “contains all the information the signer needs.”
Appellate court reverses one district court decision
While the appellate court upheld the rulings on the petitions themselves, it did reverse the district court’s failure to dismiss Rex Sharp, the attorney for PV United and husband of Prairie Village Councilmember Lori Sharp, as a defendant himself.
The appellate court finds it “disingenuous for the city to argue that” there was no indication that Sharp was acting as the attorney for PV United when the city first filed its request for declaratory judgement.
Still, the appellate court found PV United to be a proper defendant in the declaratory judgement case.
The appellate court also determined that the district court did meet the 20-day deadline state statute required for petition decisions.
When Judge Mason made her initial ruling, she gave some remarks that led the city and PV United to believe that the “adoption” petition, not the “abandon” petition, was instead eligible for a ballot. The back-and-forth in subsequent hearings carried beyond the 20-day deadline, but Mason ultimately upheld her original decision.
PV United’s arguments that the district court failed to issue a ruling on the petitions within 20 days and deprived the residents of their right to vote on those petitions “are far from persuasive and border on frivolous,” the appellate court ruling states.
“We are, frankly, amazed that the district judge was able to render a decision and outline the reasons for that decision in the very short time the statute required,” the appellate panel’s ruling reads.
Read the appellate court ruling in its entirety in the embedded document below.
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Open in new tab City looks to next steps, PV United silent
- In a Tuesday news release on the appellate court’s decision, the city of Prairie Village noted it is “working to clarify next steps.”
- Rex Sharp could not be reached for comment for this story.
- There are also no posts on the PV United Facebook page nor its website about the ruling. The PV United website has since shifted its focus to oppose the new city hall project.
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