Overland Park hopes a short-term revision to its development codes will jumpstart its small-scale housing pilot program.

The temporary amendment will allow up to 12 projects to move forward using home designs in the city’s new Portfolio Homes program. The exact sites are unclear, but the emphasis is on sites that are ripe for redevelopment or may be hard to build in a typical residential project.

The pilot program was originally designed to make it easier to build a wider variety of housing options at less expensive price points — often called “missing middle” housing — amid a widening housing shortage. The city’s Portfolio Homes offers a collection of 26 pre-reviewed plans for smaller single-family homes and duplexes.

City planning staff hoped to see developers or homeowners come forward with interest in using the home designs for an infill project, single-family lot or neighborhood.

However, so far, no projects have moved forward under the Portfolio Homes program since it officially launched last year.

On Monday, the Overland Park City Council voted 11-1 to approve a special zoning pilot to accompany the Portfolio Homes program, with Councilmember Josh Beck casting the lone dissenting vote.

The city approved these changes to the zoning codes in an effort to make the Portfolio Homes program more usable, officials said.

Tracey Osborne Oltjen, president of the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, called it “an innovative solution” aimed at addressing the city’s housing struggles.

“If we fail to meet the demand,” she said, “we’re putting a cap on our growth, and we’re putting a cap on our success.”

Several residents to a potential Portfolio Homes development near Switzer Road and 167th Street spoke out on Monday against that specific project and also decried the city’s decision to temporarily amend zoning codes.

They also expressed dismay at the attainable housing pilot more generally, raising concerns about what they characterized as the city’s lack of transparency and an attack on the character of their neighborhoods.

“What are now firm requirements would become flexible suggestions subject to override. This shift diminishes the minimum standards that safeguard our community, and that is a mistake,” said Dan Wooge, who lives near the proposal at 167th and Switzer, at Monday’s city council meeting.

Zoning pilot could ease the way for Portfolio Homes development

Seeing no formal interest in the past few months from developers or residents in using Portfolio Homes designs, city planning officials advanced a new idea: a short-term, zoning-focused amendment to the city’s development code that would loosen some standards for those housing projects.

This new plan offers flexibility for up to 12 Portfolio Home projects, should they come before the city.

In a meeting last month, Leslie Karr, the city’s director of planning and development services, said the tweak to zoning rules could make it easier to develop Portfolio Homes and test the pilot while the city continues to overhaul its zoning and development codes.

“We want an opportunity for a developer or a homeowner who has extra land to come [to] us with a proposal, so we can see what it takes to get something done,” Karr said.

The loosened zoning rules for the pilot will allow homes to be built on smaller lots. Homes could also sit closer to the street, and the lots themselves could be cut nearly in half, from an average of 8,000 square feet to 4,250.

The amendment also allows homes to be built on lots that don’t directly line up to a public street, so long as they can be reached by a shared driveway. It opens the door for cluster-style neighborhood layouts, such as flag lot and cottage court-type homes, that Overland Park has historically barred.

In March, Karr said the amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance for the Portfolio Homes projects would last one year or until the set number of projects are submitted under the framework.

City council diverges from planning commission

When the Overland Park Planning Commission voted 8-0 to recommend approval of the program, it included an alternative planning process that would keep Portfolio Home projects largely out of the city council’s hands.

However, the majority of the city council were uncomfortable with that, and struck the language on Monday about that alternative process from the proposed amendment.

Councilmember Chris Newlin, who lives near the 167th and Switzer project, called it a “compromise” that allowed the short-term zoning code amendment to move ahead while maintaining city council oversight.

“I think for this pilot program, we should have our eyes on it as a council, and we should do what’s pertinent for our constituents to make sure that we are viewing it all the time and we’re not missing it,” he said.

Opponents fret Portfolio Homes’ fit, transparency

Of the 14 people who spoke during open public comment on Monday, 10 were against the proposal and four were in favor. Many speakers who were in opposition came from the neighborhoods primarily around 167th and Switzer, where Overland Park and nonprofit Driven Development have tentatively proposed what might become the first Portfolio Homes project.

If it does move forward, Driven, affiliated with VanTrust Real Estate group, would build 14 housing units in a mix of single-family and duplex-style homes on two parcels of land the city says are left over from a public works project.

This proposal is still uncertain, but the Overland Park City Council Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee last month voted to authorize city staff to move ahead with negotiations with Driven, which could ultimately lead to a development agreement. (This project and others the city may be involved in would not be included in the count for the Portfolio Homes pilot approved Monday, city staff have said.)

Neighbors to the 167th and Switzer project raised a myriad of concerns about it, hinging largely on the compatibility with the character of the established neighborhoods.

Some also urged the city council to delay the vote on the zoning amendment for Portfolio Homes due to worries about the transparency around it all, and that the city had been dishonest

“Do not move city-owned land into this project until the city has produced a clean record, a fair process, and a proposal that actually matches the housing need it says it’s trying to solve,” said Jaime Fiorucci, a neighbor, during public comment.

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