The City of Shawnee has launched a new wayfinding plan for downtown to help residents and visitors navigate the area, find parking and enjoy sightseeing.
On Thursday at its monthly Moonlight Market event, the city launched the Downtown Shawnee Wayfinding Plan, a feedback gathering initiative where residents voice their opinion on parking and accessibility downtown, as well as places and landmarks people should visit, which all reflect the spirit of downtown.
From there, permanent signs will be created to highlight the feedback they received.
“Downtown Shawnee is in the middle of re-birth and we want to make it easier and more obvious for our residents and visitors, especially those coming for the first time, where they can find landmarks, buildings, businesses, and city facilities,” Brett McCubbin, Shawnee’s Manager of Parks and Facilities, said in an email to the Johnson County Post.
Feedback can be submitted on the city’s Discover Downtown Shawnee webpage, where people can place pins on an interactive map of the area and give their input on traffic patterns, parking areas, sidewalks, bike routes and landmarks.
It will continue through February 2026.
From there, Engrafik, a Minnesota-based wayfinding solutions company that is leading the initiative, along with Lenexa-based engineering firm George Butler Associates and the Shawnee-based PR firm Venice Community, will present the Shawnee City Council with its findings next year.
The total budget for the plan is $70,000, with $50,000 of it funded through the Mid-America Regional Council’s Planning Sustainable Places program.
The project has been in the works since 2020
Since 2020, when the wayfinding project was first identified in the Achieve Shawnee Comprehensive Plan, the city has been looking at ways to gather resident feedback to highlight and promote accessibility and places that matter in downtown Shawnee.
“These signs will be legible to drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians, so they will have a functionality for everyone in downtown Shawnee,” McCubbin said.
In its wayfinding plan, the city is looking for input from residents on the following topics:
- Ways to make ​navigation and access easier
- Promoting awareness of community destinations​
- Support for all types of travelers, including motorists, walkers, rollers, cyclists, tourists and residents
- Ways to reinforce the identity and aesthetics of downtown Shawnee
“Allowing people the chance to share their thoughts on this online map is the start of that feedback process. Any effort to allow people to find their way more easily to their destination is important in our community,” McCubbin said.
All residents are invited to give their feedback
Regardless of how people travel through downtown or the places they visit, McCubbin said the city wants to hear from everyone.
“(We want input from) everyone working, dining, visiting, or living in and around the downtown Shawnee area, no matter their mode of transportation,” McCubbin said.
The city would especially like to hear from cyclists on how to make the city more bicycle-friendly.
“As a bicycle-friendly community, we’re very much taking into account the needs of that form of transportation for folks to travel to and around downtown Shawnee,” he said.
Representatives were gathering feedback on Thursday
At Moonlight Market, Jayne Siemens, president of Venice Communications, and Jim Schuessler, an associate with George Butler Associates, were busy getting in-person feedback from residents.Â
On brightly-colored sticky notes, they wrote down input from people about where they park and places they visit downtown.
“We’re asking them, ‘What are the things that you find hard to find or are confusing when you’re trying to park?’ Like, people have said everything from parking to handicapped spaces to better signage around Hank’s (Garage) to signage to get visitors more excited around Shawnee Mission Parkway or even the highway to get them here,” Siemens said.
In-person feedback sessions will be rare, Siemens added, as the city will mostly be using the website to gather information. Representatives will also speak with organizations like the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce and Shawnee Economic Development Council.
Whichever way someone issues feedback, Siemens said she wants residents to know that they’re being heard.
“I think that’s the main thing: We really are listening,” she said.
Other Shawnee news:Â Locally owned Marigold Liquor reopens in revamped downtown Shawnee space
