Prairie Village groups divided over plans to make housing more affordable, diverse
Lauren Martin has fallen in love with the Prairie Village community in the last few years.
She ended up in the city by chance in 2018 when she found a cheap apartment with wood floors she adored, but as she spent more time in the area, Martin enjoyed walks to Franklin Park, the community garden and the area’s tight-knit feel.
But this summer, she learned a large and growing group of her neighbors opposed recommendations to the city council aimed at increasing attainable and inclusive housing, and were spreading bold and sometimes false claims about potential future developments.
As the group, which calls itself Stop Neighborhood Rezoning PV Kansas on Facebook and includes former city council members, continued showing up at council meetings, Martin, who serves as 3rd District chair for the Kansas Democrats and has managed several Johnson County political campaigns, helped start an opposition group - Prairie Village for All - that wants the council and planning commission to carefully consider and discuss the recommendations.
If the city doesn’t increase diversity in its housing stock, she believes it would likely watch population and economic participation decline as older residents are priced out of the area and younger people, unable to afford rising rents, find themselves unable to move in.
“I just have a really hard time wrapping my head around this idea that like we really desire our community ... and we’re really proud of our community, and we think it’s a great place to live,” she said, “and yet people are trying to do everything they can to not let people live here.”
Responding to the need for affordable housing
Mayor Eric Mikkelson appointed members of an ad-hoc housing committee in 2021 following the publication of a Johnson County housing study, which highlighted the need for more diversified and affordable housing across the county. Of the cities studied, Prairie Village was among four cities where home values and rents rose by the highest percentages.
The committee’s recommendations, which were approved by council in June, included potential solutions like more multi-unit housing, row homes and apartments throughout the city. Since then, because of public pushback, city council amended the recommendations so that the planning commission won’t consider proposals for multi-family housing within single family districts for the time being.
No further action has been taken, yet.
The planning commission is expected to hold several public forums in 2023 before making its recommendations to council.
On fliers and social media posts, the stop rezoning group has claimed that, if passed, the recommendations would allow developers to build apartment complexes next door to them and even in their backyards without telling them ahead of time. Some fliers have told residents, “The Mayor and Council are trying to remove our fundamental legal rights as SINGLE FAMILY HOMEOWNERS.”
That’s misinformation, according to Danny Terreros, a contractor and third-generation resident who helped establish Prairie Village for All. The stop rezoning group has gained such a large following, he and Martin said, because of “fear mongering” tactics and misinformation that make residents believe their rights are being violated if more diverse housing options are built.
Prairie Village isn’t the only Johnson County city to face challenges from residents as it tries to amend housing cost and availability issues following the countywide study.
At least two proposals for apartment complexes in Overland Park have been shot down or stalled after pushback from nearby homeowners, and Shawnee leaders voted in April to ban co-living with four or more unrelated people after council members said residents came to them with concerns about the living arrangement, which has become popular nationwide as rent and home prices soar.
’They do not hesitate to harass’
Prairie Village for All members say the stop rezoning group has been aggressive to anyone who opposes its goals. Comments sections on Facebook and Nextdoor turn into virtual screaming matches, Terreros and Martin said, and members showed up at a recent yard sign pickup to argue with Prairie Village for All members.
Stop rezoning advocates have also allegedly told Martin that renters like her don’t get to have opinions on the recommendations, and posted Terreros’ personal and business addresses as well as information about his family members in a city council livestream, they said.
“You have to have a very, very thick skin to have an opinion that is not in alliance with Stop,” Martin said. “They do not hesitate to gate keep. They do not hesitate to harass, and it’s not fun.”
Leaders of the stop rezoning group, also called PV United, declined an interview with The Star. In an unsigned statement, PV United called itself a “bipartisan group of Prairie Village homeowners” who oppose city efforts to change zoning regulations.
Their main concerns, according to the statement, include local leaders allowing housing types like multi-family or accessory dwelling units, such as in-law suites or backyard add-on’s, in single-family districts leading to denser neighborhoods. They’re also worried about proposals for by-right housing, a kind of development that strictly follows zoning and building codes and thus can move forward without discretionary approval.
Approving by-right development, the group said, would mean housing would be approved without meaningful consideration from city officials on whether or not the proposal fit “the character of the neighborhood” or if it would have a detrimental impact on the neighborhood.
“PV United supports the goal of ensuring that all people are able to obtain affordable housing,” the statement said, “but its members share a common desire to retain their right to participate meaningfully in the public process when changes in use are proposed in their neighborhoods.”
Instead, the group said that it supports options that will rehabilitate current housing through grant programs and offer improvement grants to apartment owners, particularly if they agree to designate units as affordable housing.
‘We want to have a productive conversation.’
During a Nov. 7 city council meeting, some members of the group aiming to stop rezoning pushed back against claims that attainable housing options would make the city more diverse and help more people afford to live in Prairie Village.
Jori Nelson, a former city council member and vocal member of the group, told city council members that claims the recommendations would increase attainability and diversity were unfounded because city leaders couldn’t determine homes prices and rents or screen the residents who lived there.
However, housing experts say that varied housing options do, in fact, lead to more diverse neighborhoods. They point out that the prevalence of single-family homes played a major role in creating the housing affordability crisis and contend that residential zoning laws, both in Johnson County and across the country, were enacted with racist and classist roots.
Some residents said diversity efforts are in vain because, they believe, Prairie Village is already diverse and inclusive. Census data shows the city is 91% white with an annual median household income of $88,196.
“You are elected by the property owners,” one resident told the council. “You are not elected by the middle income, blue collars, seniors, young professionals, who have a desire to move into the area.”
Terreros, who is also a Democratic committeeman for Prairie Village, believes the homeowners’ concerns are overreaching. Property rights, he said, allow homeowners to do what they want with their land, not police potential development near them.
“If people say ‘Oh well, they’ll put up an apartment building right next to your house,’ OK,” he said. “That meets multiple goals in my mind. It lets more people live in Prairie Village, which I think everybody should live in Prairie Village.”
Martin and Terreros fear the stop rezoning advocates’ numbers and anger will lead the planning commission and city council to listen to the loudest voices in the room rather than fully consider the recommendations for more housing options. She said she fears asking other community members to speak out at public meetings because they too could face sharp criticism.
Martin first spoke up about the issue because she was concerned about housing rights and options in Prairie Village, the place she loves and now calls home. But the response has forced her to see another, less positive side of her community.
“We want to have a productive conversation,” she said. “The other side has made it very clear like ‘we want to shut everyone down.’”
This story was originally published November 13, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
