The city of Prairie Village is zeroing in on a proposed location for a new city-owned, YMCA-operated community center.
A proposal for a new community center co-located next to a relocated Corinth Library branch — a concept that has been discussed in Prairie Village for years — could be presented to the public in the near future.
On Monday, despite some disagreements, the Prairie Village City Council decided to forge ahead with designing a concept for a new community center and library at the northwest corner of Harmon Park near Shawnee Mission East High School and the Prairie Village city pool.
City staff are now tasked with finalizing conceptual designs for this site location to present to the public at a future community input session.
Previously, city staff told the city council that this site location was preferred by city staff, the YMCA, and the Johnson County Library, and that it was also the public’s favored option, according to city documents and feedback from two previous community input sessions.
Still, the city council on Monday expressed concerns about the proposed location, with one councilmember making the ultimately unsuccessful motion to end discussions of a new community center entirely.
The concept dates back to pre-pandemic times
- Prairie Village has discussed the idea of co-locating a new community center Corinth Library for years and conducted two resident surveys — one in 2019 before the pandemic and another in 2023.
- Both surveys found residents largely supported the concept and would pay for a new community center, though the overall amount of support decreased slightly from 2019 to 2023.
- At the same time, the YMCA paints a bleak picture of the future of the Paul Henson Y at 79th and Delmar streets, which is operating at a $200,000 annual deficit.
- Currently, city leaders are exploring what a community center built and paid for by Prairie Village might look like and cost.
Where things stand with the new community center idea
- Prairie Village plans to partner with the YMCA of Greater Kansas City to operate and program a new city-owned community center somewhere on the city’s civic campus (the area off Mission Road that includes City Hall, the police headquarters building, as well as Shawnee Mission East, Harmon Park and the city pool).
- The city is currently drafting conceptual designs and determining a more concrete cost estimate for a new community center, but early estimates show the building would cost $55 million and would operate at a $1.4 million deficit over its first five years.
- Mayor Eric Mikkelson at Monday’s city council meeting said the city is looking at a sales tax to pay for the building, and considering using any YMCA contributions to pay for operational shortfalls.
- After the work to draft concepts and determine costs is completed, the city council may put the community center idea on a future ballot measure.
- The city council has previously signaled intent to take a community center plan to the ballot only if the governing body itself is interested in moving forward with the project.
The site option would remove parallel parking on Delmar
- The site option the city council ultimately agreed to move forward with on Monday would prohibit parallel parking on Delmar Street due to the expected increased volume of traffic with a library and community center.
- Instead, a large L-shaped parking lot would come with the new buildings and be broken up into three designated sections: One part for community center parking, one for the library and the third for SM East students. (Currently, students can use the parking lot at the pool, as well as parallel park on Delmar.)
- The parking lot design for the new community center and library designates 130 spots for SM East alone, Public Works Director Keith Bredehoeft said.
- Councilmember Inga Selders said she is concerned that removing parallel parking on Delmar Street will result in overflow parking into neighborhoods nearby.
“Put this to bed”
Several councilmembers expressed concern with the proposed site location on Monday.
Others pushed for the idea to go to a vote sooner rather than later, and Councilmember Nick Reddell made a motion to end all consideration of the community center idea entirely and “put this to bed” for good.
Reddell said he is unsatisfied with current design plans and that he’s concerned about how other Johnson County facilities, namely the Olathe Community Center, struggle financially.
His motion to end all consideration failed in a 7-4 vote. Councilmembers Lori Sharp, Tyler Agniel, Terry O’Toole and Reddell voted in favor of ending all consideration. Councilmember Ian Graves was absent.
Councilmember O’Toole said the city asked the Y “legitimate questions” about their financial contribution to the project 18 months ago “and we still have ambiguous answers, up to and including tonight.”
“It does feel like sometimes, we get further down the river without really knowing the numbers that affect us greatly, but we keep moving,” O’Toole said. “It’s uncomfortable to me.”
Councilmember Greg Shelton said he shares concerns about the site selection, but he thinks the city needs to move forward with a third public input session for the sake of transparency — and to gauge the community’s desire for a new community center on the site staff is proposing.
“If this is the best concept, we’ve kind of created this social contract with our residents at this point,” Shelton said. “We owe them a follow through, a follow-up, so they can see the good work our staff has done and then provide us with the input, the feedback and where we are should it go to a ballot.”
(Shelton is the brother-in-law of Johnson County Post publisher Jay Senter.)
Next steps:
- City staff, alongside the YMCA and Johnson County Library, is finalizing the conceptual design for the site discussed Monday.
- This includes the building layout, exterior renderings and an updated cost estimate, according to city documents.
- After the concept is finalized, the city, the YMCA and the library will host a third public meeting.
- Following that public meeting, the library board needs to consider a co-located site and the city council needs to decide whether the project will go to a public vote.
- If the city council decides to take the matter to a public vote, then city officials anticipate it to be the subject of a mail-in election in the first quarter of next year, according to city documents.
Go deeper: Watch the city council’s entire discussion online here, starting at 2:00:47.
