Neighbors pushed back against a proposal to turn a long-vacant property in northern Overland Park into townhomes, but the development easily sailed through its last major hurdle this week.
Called Stratford Square, the project from developer Skyline Properties, LLC, intends to put 29 townhome units on a two-acre property at the corner of 71st Street and Metcalf.
On Monday, the Overland Park City Council unanimously voted to approve the rezoning for the project, over a petition signed by more than half of neighboring property owners in the valid protest area.
Ahead of the vote, multiple councilmembers underscored a need for more diverse housing options, like townhomes, across the city as traditional homeownership grows more out of reach for some.
“I think this is going to be some nice housing options for people that we are desperately missing in the city,” Councilmember Holly Grummert said. “This is a housing option that is going to be great for our kids to move into, so they can be close and grow older in the neighborhood that they grew up in.”
How they voted:
Here’s how members of the city council voted on Monday:
• Logan Heley: Yes
• Holly Grummert: Yes
• Melissa Cheatham: Yes
• Drew Mitrisin: Yes
• Richard Borlaza: yes
• Amy Scrivner: Yes
• Gregg Riess: Yes
• Amy Antrim: yes
• Andrew Payne: yes
• Inas Younis: Yes
• Josh Beck: Yes
• Christopher Newlin: Yes
29 townhomes included in Stratford Square development
Skyline Properties, LLC, wants to build 29 rental townhome units each with a one-car garage and a two-bedroom layout. The units would be divided into five individual buildings.
The development will also feature an outdoor green space, benches and bike racks, as well as a perimeter fence to screen it from nearby single-family homes.
In order to build the project as proposed, the property had to be rezoned to Overland Park’s Planned Garden Apartment District, or RP-3. The city’s comprehensive plan Framework OP has identified this area for Traditional Neighborhood development, which includes townhomes.
An earlier version of the Stratford Square development had an additional townhome unit, bringing the total to 30, in four buildings. However, at the urging of the Overland Park Planning Commission, the developer split a larger building into two and eliminated a unit to add the green space.
In the past, previous plans to develop the site with townhomes have fallen through. Those old plans were tied to a 2005 rezoning to the city’s Planned Cluster Housing District, or RP-4, and featured fewer townhome units than what’s been approved for Stratford Square.
Before that, the property had two single-family homes on it, which had been demolished sometime in the past 20 years since the initial rezoning.
Neighbors submitted a protest petition against the development
After the Stratford Square townhomes project first came before the planning commission in the spring, neighbors — predominantly from nearby single-family homes in the Southmoor Gardens subdivision — have expressed a wide range of concerns.
The primary issue raised centers primarily on the fit of the project with the character of the established neighborhood, a large portion of which predates the city of Overland Park. Several residents said they felt the density of the townhomes is inconsistent with the homes and architecture in the area, asking instead for the city to turn it into a park or for a developer to build far fewer units.
Katherine Markovic, who lives on 71st Street, compared it to “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
“For those of us who live in the neighborhood, it’s more than obvious that the proposed development is in no way harmonious with the surrounding architecture or the density of the neighborhood,” she said.
Other neighbors also said they worried about stormwater implications from this sort of development near their home, traffic impacts and potential loss of property values. Some also pointed to deviations granted on setbacks and other standards as a sign that this development isn’t right for the property.
After the planning commission voted 10-0 to recommend approval of an amended Stratford Square project in June, neighbors submitted a valid protest petition representing nearly 60% of the surrounding property owners.
Protest petitions do not necessarily doom a project, though they do raise the threshold of approval needed from the city council to 10 votes instead of the simple majority typically required on items from the planning commission.
Councilmembers supportive of townhomes as housing diversity
Though several councilmembers indicated sympathy for neighbors who would be faced with “an adjustment” as the long-vacant property is turned into townhomes, they generally supported moving forward, enticed by the promise of more varied options for the housing stock.
A recent assessment compiled by the Overland Park city government detailed a growing shortage of housing of all types and at all price points, though city officials have particularly pinpointed a need for “missing middle” housing.
“Missing middle” housing tends to refer to mid-sized, moderately priced housing options like starter homes, row houses, townhomes and duplexes. Such options have become increasingly uncommon in a market that tends to turn out mostly large single-family homes and luxury apartment complexes.
Framework OP listed housing diversity and attainability as key community priorities, something councilmembers also pointed to.
“This really does meet a need in our community for housing, specifically, this kind of missing middle housing is exactly what we’re looking for,” Councilmember Melissa Cheatham said.
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