Lenexa will require new homes to have storm shelters attached, eliminating the use of community storm shelters going forward in traditional single-family home neighborhoods.
Earlier this week, the Lenexa City Council unanimously adopted the code change.
It applies only to single-family homes and duplexes. Community storm shelters will still be allowed in new apartment and townhome developments.
The move was prompted by a new planned subdivision in the western part of the city, Stone Ridge North, which has been designed with nearly 500 housing units and seven community group shelters among them.
Lenexa has required storm shelters since 2005
- For years, Lenexa has required storm shelters within 1,000 feet of a dwelling.
- Community development director Scott McCullough said that code was designed with apartment complexes and townhomes primarily in mind.
- However, there was no distinction, which allowed community shelters to also be used in conventional single-family home neighborhoods as an “unintended consequence,” he told the city council Tuesday.
Community storm shelters are not preferred, staff says
- That’s because they raise questions about who is responsible for them, usually putting more work on a homeowners’ association, McCullough said.
- They can also be more difficult to access in the case of a nighttime storm than a shelter inside or attached to the home, Councilmember Courtney Eiterich pointed out.
- In general, the International Residential Code recommends storm shelters be no greater than 150 feet from a home.
New neighborhood plans brought the issue up
- A Shawnee-based developer called Arise Homes plans to build neighborhoods in the western corner of the city that currently includes designs to use community storm shelters.
- Stone Ridge North, approved last month, is located north of West 83rd Street and Cedar Niles Road and is set to include 490 housing units and seven group shelters spread throughout the neighborhood.
- “We never knew a single-family developer would even utilize the code in this way,” McCullough said this week.
- Last month, Arise Homes representatives said they had a backup plan that would convert lots designated for group shelters to additional homes and add storm shelters to each property instead in the Stone Ridge North neighborhood.
- Arise Homes shared no comments in opposition to the code revisions when they were first heard by the Building Code Board of Appeals.
Keep reading: Lenexa moves ahead on 400-home Stone Ridge North project
