Overland Park City Council candidates agree this is the key issue for the city

As Overland Park anticipates an increase of 10,000 residents in the next decade, issues such as rising home prices, attainable housing, and development remain central topics in this year’s city council race.

“We need housing for first-time homebuyers, empty nesters, for our teachers and first responders. That’s a big challenge we are working on,” said Mayor Curt Skoog.

Over the years, the city has emphasized large, single-family homes and large apartment complexes. Since 2019, Overland Park has built a little over 1,900 single family homes, according to city data.

Five apartment complex projects are expected to add over 2,700 housing units to Overland Park in the near future, according to the Kansas City Business Journal.

But many of these housing developments are priced beyond what most first-time homebuyers can afford. To change that, both incumbents and newcomers running in the Nov. 4 general election say they want to find ways the city can create what’s often referred to as “missing middle” housing. That includes a range of housing options such as duplexes, townhomes and multiplexes that fit between single-family homes and larger apartment buildings.

This year’s race, voters will decide between the mayor’s spot and six council seats.

The Overland Park City Council is made up of the mayor and 12 members, with two members representing six wards. Seats are elected from each of the city’s wards and serve staggered, four-year terms.

As council members Jim Kite, Sam Passer, and Jeff Cox step down, three seats are open for newcomers. Ward 1 incumbent Logan Heley and Ward 6 newcomer Josh Beck have uncontested races.

Incumbents are Ward 2’s Melissa Cheatham, and Ward 4 representative Scott Mosher and Skoog, who is seeking reelection as mayor.

Firefighter Sydney Marsden will face off against Cheatham in Ward 2, former council member Faris Farassati is running in the mayor’s race. In the race for Ward 4, real estate agent Amy Antrim is running against Mosher.

Ward 3 will see the return of former city council member Tom Carignan go against BikeWalkKC’s Amy Scrivner. Newcomers: financial executive Alexandria Washington compete against corporate attorney Andrew Payne to see who will represent Ward 5.

From committees to zoning changes to incentives, all the candidates said they want to find ways to support more housing options for the city’s future.

Current ideas and efforts

Last year, Johnson County classified fewer than 25,000 homes as attainable, which refers to homes that are $300,000 or less. Average home prices in Johnson County sit at $508,000, with the average sale price at $557,000.

While there’s still a long way to go, in recent months the Overland Park City Council has explored ways to help bring more housing options to the table.

In particular, Cheatham said she would like to be able to continue exploring a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District, a new state financing tool to help cities and developers close the gap between what it costs to build new, attainable residential housing and what people can afford to pay.

In an effort to keep prices down for homeowners, she’d also like to continue the property tax rebate pilot program. Launched earlier this year, the program offers a rebate of up to 75% of city property taxes. Overland Park’s share of the average home property tax is $832. Under the rebate program, eligible residents could get up to $624 back.

“Anything we could do to bring down costs would be helpful,” Cheatham said.

Another avenue she and Skoog assisted with is the Portfolio Homes Project — a catalog of small scale homes for developers to pour through and select a design in order to save money on the design process, she said.

Skoog, who is running for his second term as mayor following 16 years on the city council, added that Overland Park just completed its comprehensive plan with housing named as the main issue residents would like to see the city address in the coming years.

“Part of that comprehensive plan is a future development map, which identifies where the community thinks different kinds of development should happen in the city,” Skoog said. “And so the community has given us the guide that we need more, different kinds of housing and where that should go.”

By updating the city’s uniformed development ordinance, Skoog said he hopes to enable more types of housing to come through the city at an easier rate.

“Moving forward, we’d continue to advocate for and support more attainable housing, all types in all places,” he said.

Farassati, Skoog’s opponent in the mayor’s race, couldn’t be reached for comment.

“Apartments aren’t the answer”

Sydney Marsden joined the race this year after the city council approved a 300-unit apartment complex near her neighborhood.

“My concern (with) going toward more apartment complexes and more condos is we’re not actually addressing the issues with apartments in the first place of not being affordable in order to help people save up money to buy a home,” said Marsden, who’s running against Cheatham for the Ward 2 seat.

There’s only so many people who want to “downsize to spend more money” on an apartment, but others are looking to downsize to cut costs, she said.

“But we don’t have that as an option, even with the apartment complexes we have,” Marsden said.

She’d instead like to see the city prioritize smaller housing options, like duplexes or townhomes, to emphasize homeownership instead of renting.

Ward 4 incumbent Scott Mosher said he agrees that it’s time to step away from apartment development and focus on variety.

“There’s nothing worse than (when) you buy your home with the expectation of homes being built around you, and the city comes in and puts in apartment buildings,” he said. “You put your life’s savings into a house, next thing you know the city’s changed the zoning, going against what they said 10 years ago.”

In order to pave the way for more housing options, Mosher said he’d like to form a committee of landowners, developers and real estate agents alongside city officials to create ways that can help get young families involved in homeownership.

Some cities offer grants to help with down payments, but any grant program in Overland Park would have to be substantial to meet current house prices, Mosher said.

“It’s just a matter of money being tight and costs being high, but it would be great if we could build some type of housing projects,” he said. “We’ve been a bedroom community for many years, and we’ve gotten away from that. I think we need to get back to it.”

Easier permitting process

As a realtor for 21 years, Ward 4 candidate Amy Antrim said she sees the importance of homeownership, and wants to provide options that can serve the next generation of homeowners.

“We are at a 97% occupancy rate in Overland Park,” Antrim said. “There’s just not enough housing … I know it’s a problem nationwide and I think that’s also why a lot of apartments have been built, but I would really to see us move into more ownership options.”

In addition to supporting the city’s portfolio homes program, Antrim said she’d like to find other ways the city could speed up the developer’s ability to pull permits and get utilities connected for homes with a smaller footprint.

“Any time spent not being built is money a builder is losing. If we want them to build that product, cutting down on those timing issues will help,” she said.

With regard to apartments, Antrim said she’d like to see if there could be future agreements made with developers to create some units as condos for ownership.

“I don’t know what all the levers are, but it’s such an important issue to me and something I’m passionate about because it does help people so much in the long-term to be able to own,” she said.

Diverse housing options

Similarly to Antrim, Ward 5 candidates Alexandria Washington and Andrew Payne said they’d like to see the city take out any roadblocks for smaller housing developments in the permitting process.

“Supply is certainly an issue. Is there a way for single-family homes to have a tighter turnaround for permits or a way to make it easier?” Payne asked. “Recognizing this as a priority, is there a way to get single-family homes sped up in certain areas?”

Washington said she’d like to see this tool bring more than just apartments to the table.

“I am not against growth, but I don’t enjoy growth just for growth’s sake,” she said. “With the growth that Overland Park is going through, I want to see diverse housing options … Some of these developments getting built aren’t affordable.”

Payne said he agreed that it’s important to develop more housing options, but recognized that apartments are a part of the equation for some residents.

Payne’s goals around housing include serving residents in all stages of life — college graduates, those entering the workforce, families, empty-nesters, and retirees to name a few.

“Each one of those folks needs a place to live in this city. I don’t believe in policy that excludes one of those cohorts,” he said. “At each one of those cohorts, there’s probably an opportunity — a change in life circumstances might mean a housing change.”

Aging in place

Ward 3 candidate Amy Scrivner said she felt the impacts of the city’s lack of housing options when she was trying to find a smaller home for her dad before he needed assisted living.

Scrivner said these experiences encouraged her to seek a local office to help make zoning changes that could improve housing and transportation development, which would make it easier for residents to stay in Overland Park.

“A lot of folks can’t age well within their homes,” she said. “Many older retired folks say they would sell their home in a hot second, but there (are) no options and many folks aren’t ready for assisted living, which is horribly expensive.”

“We are missing out on creating these options for folks in Overland Park to age well at every phase of life.”

Scrivner said she would like to see the city partner with local developers and housing nonprofits to encourage attainable housing development and for the city to create a housing trust — a dedicated fund that could support affordable housing initiatives.

Her opponent, former city council member Tom Carignan, couldn’t be reached for comment.

“I don’t want to stand in the way of making a profit, but there are ways to give back that would strengthen the community,” Scrivener said. “A city needs to be responsive to the full life cycle of someone … I would love to be a part of that conversation.”

This story was originally published October 25, 2025 at 7:00 AM.