Overland Park changes zoning rules to make it easier to build city-designed homes
The Overland Park City Council recently approved a pilot meant to help the Johnson County city build smaller — and ideally more affordable — homes more quickly in an area that’s seen housing costs skyrocket in recent years.
“In this city, we have a housing shortfall. We’ve had one for a while … and it hasn’t gotten better,” Assistant City Manager Jack Messer told the City Council on Monday. “The market is building big stuff. We’re trying to provide that choice.”
On average, Overland Park builds 5,000 square foot, single family homes that cost about $500,000 or more.
Recognizing that the city needs more variety in its housing costs and housing types to meet the needs of first-time homebuyers or residents looking to downsize, the city is streamlining its zoning code to make it easier to build Portfolio Homes.
Portfolio Homes are a free selection of pre-designed and pre-approved, small scale home building plans the city is offering at no cost to a resident or developer.
The City Council’s approval on Monday night carves out specific guidelines and a simpler process for Portfolio Homes within the city’s development code.
The pilot prioritizes infill development on existing lots, which may include an existing house, and typically limited to three or fewer units, spokesperson Meg Ralph told The Star. Developers could also move forward with a project that would create neighborhoods on vacant parcels with more than three units.
In an effort to speed up the approval process, it allows any rezoning requests for Portfolio Homes to move forward with a simple majority vote from the City Council. Typically, the city requires two-thirds approval for any requests to rezone land.
The ordinance also outlines a timeline for the pilot to run until June 30, 2027, and states that the city can accept up to 12 projects in that window.
The vote does not approve a specific project, rather a change to the zoning rules to support potential Portfolio Homes projects in the future.
Approval requirements
City staff originally recommended a streamlined approval process that required neighbors to be notified but gave the Planning Commission the ability to give the final stamp of approval instead of the City Council.
But residents — particularly neighbors to a proposed Portfolio Homes project on Switzer Road — questioned the rules and said the new initiative should be more closely monitored by the City Council.
“If portfolio homes can already be built under existing zoning standards, why is this new pilot program zoning program needed at all?” resident Brett O’Connor asked during public comment. “These homes can already be pursued under existing zoning … but this ordinance gives them a different and more discretionary approval path.”
“Instead of fitting the project into the code, the city is now changing the code to fit the projects.”
Ward 6 City Councilmember Christopher Newlin agreed with residents, saying that the City Council should have the final vote of approval on a project, not just the Planning Commission.
“I’ve been receiving feedback from the community about oversight,” Newlin said. “And though I don’t have a problem with the zoning, I do believe that we do need to help with extra housing across our city … but what I do have a problem with is that it stops this at the Planning Commission.”
“Zoning changes are a major part of our role as elected officials and we should be on the record with all of them.”
Despite some pushback from council members who wanted to see a more streamlined process, the City Council voted 11 to 1 — with Ward 6 Councilmember Josh Beck dissenting — to move forward with Newlin’s suggestions that require council approval of new Portfolio Homes projects.
“I think our involvement should be obvious and I think any barriers to create distance between this elected body and decisions like this are not appropriate,” Beck said.
The changes specify that the voting threshold for Portfolio Homes projects will be lower than a typical rezoning request, Ralph said.
“So the Council could approve a Portfolio Homes project with a simple majority, while the threshold for rezoning approval is (nine to 10) votes, depending on the Planning Commission recommendation and neighborhood feedback,” she said.
Switzer Road concerns
While the pilot is limited to 12 projects, it doesn’t count “proposals sponsored by public entities” as part of those 12, meaning any project on city-owned land. That includes the proposal neighbors are worried about on Switzer Road.
“The Switzer projects are not ‘exempt’ from other aspects of the pilot (like the new voting requirements); they just don’t count toward the maximum number of projects listen in the ordinance,” Ralph said.
In March, the city decided to explore a development agreement with Driven Development — a nonprofit with ties to prominent local developer VanTrust Real Estate — to build 14 units on roughly 2 acres of city-owned land at 167th Street and 170th Terrace and Switzer Road.
Jaime Fiorruci, a Johnson County resident who’s helping her parents near the area, said she’s concerned about the need for oversight, transparency and regulation on the Switzer project.
“I think there needs to be some thought about safety, design and placement around each of these areas. Pilots need to be better thought out and better analyzed,” she said. “There’s been no actual planning. There’s been no water surveys, there’s been no traffic surveys. Everything is really messaged with, ‘Trust us.’”
The project is in its early stages, with city staff currently drafting a development agreement. Site plans would need to come back to the city for review, where traffic impacts or environmental impacts would be available for review when those details are available.
Fiorruci added that she’s concerned about the city moving forward with Driven Development, a relatively new nonprofit that hasn’t built anything to serve Johnson County to date. She said that she would instead like to see the city enter into a competitive bid process as they do for other development projects.
“I would encourage the city to reject the urge to sole source and carve out Driven Development as the only option and entire into negotiations and take a step back and ask the community for an open bid like almost every other state and government and federal contract does,” she said.
“I’m a big believer … that we can impact our own change if we are given the same opportunity that some of these favored entities have been given.”
