Overland Park to explore rule changes that would make it easier to build housing
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Danielle Hollrah’s last name.
As Johnson County’s largest city grows, the Overland Park City Council is looking to update its policies that will support the development of housing and a variety of housing options, vibrant commercial corridors that are pedestrian friendly, and more corridors that promote walkability and are transit friendly.
Dubbed the Unified Development Ordinance, the city is in the early stages of updating its policies that will hopefully make it easier for developers to come forward with proposals that fall under the city’s priorities.
“In today’s process, you have to hire an attorney and take a project through the process we have,” Mayor Curt Skoog said during Monday’s City Council meeting. “In some cases you have to present a finished plan where you have to hire an engineer to develop a plan to near final form, and it drives up costs because those are at-risk dollars developers are spending before they take a project to our consideration.”
On average, Overland Park builds 5,000 square-foot, single family homes that cost about $500,000 or more, or luxury apartments, because that’s what the housing market has supported.
As the city pushes to build more attainable housing options — like townhomes, duplexes or smaller homes — amending its code to create a more streamlined process may help bring more housing across the finish line, Skoog said.
“The policy discussion we have will drive costs of development. Sometimes as a council, we are comfortable saying we need to see everything,” he said. “I’m hopeful we can get comfortable (with) some items … if it meets these policy directives, we are comfortable with staff reviewing and approving them so things can move forward.”
Monday’s City Council meeting kicks off future, more in-depth discussions about housing and commercial policies in the next few months. Overland Park hopes to approve the Unified Development Ordinance by next year.
Housing variety, corner stores
Before the Unified Development Ordinance came forward, the Overland Park City Council had explored ways to make it easier for developers to build more housing options.
In April, the Overland Park City Council approved a pilot, which will run until June 2027, that streamlined the approval process to make it easier to build Portfolio Homes — a free selection of pre-designed and pre-approved, small-scale home building plans the city is offering at no cost to a developer.
The code prioritizes infill development on existing lots, which may include an existing house, and typically limited to three or fewer units. Developers could also move forward on a project to create neighborhoods on vacant parcels with more than three units. The city is eyeing a potential Portfolio Homes project that would be supported by this pilot on Switzer Road in southern Overland Park.
Overland Park could build on this effort through the Unified Development Ordinance.
In addition to a streamlined approval process, the City Council will look at the possibility of allowing accessory dwelling units, corner stores and duplexes in single-family areas “that maybe haven’t been (there) before,” and adjusting the lot sizes to support these developments, said Danielle Hollrah, the project manager for the Unified Development Ordinance.
But nothing is set in stone quite yet. The City Council is set to further discuss the housing portion of the Unified Development Ordinance in June, with discussions about commercial development on deck. As of May 20, a date hasn’t been set.
This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 2:12 PM.