Overland Park council allows chickens on property to help family with disabled child
It was touch-and-go for a while, but a split Overland Park city council eventually approved a permit allowing a family to keep the chickens that brighten the life of their disabled son.
The council voted 7-5 to grant a five-year special use permit for the family, who live in a part of southern Overland Park near Stilwell. In an earlier vote, the council rejected a more restrictive one-year permit that included a provision that the property be kept trash- and weed- free.
The request was made by Matt Bell, whose son Tyler, 11, has a sensory processing disorder that gives him anxiety about noises, sounds and smells. That anxiety makes it hard to get Tyler outside, where sun and insects prove to be too much for him, said Bell. However Tyler’s love of the chickens, which he considers his pets, brings him out into the fresh air, his father said.
Overland Park requires at least three acres for anyone wanting to keep chickens. The Bells have one acre, but are in a semi-rural area and abut neighbors with larger plots who keep livestock. Bell said his family moved to a house in their price range in the area, assuming chickens would be allowed.
Last year they got approval for the chickens for a one-year term. Monday, he asked the council for “mercy” for his son by continuing the permit.
Council members debated several aspects, including whether it was right to include the trash stipulation. Bell said he’d comply, but had only learned of it the day before and didn’t understand what it had to do with chickens. Council member Terry Goodman agreed, saying the council could conceivably add that provision any time they inspected a building addition and saw weeds or trash.
However others feared the approval would lead to challenges from other residents wanting chickens.
The odds so far have been stacked against residents who want to keep chickens on property smaller than three acres. Since 2004, three special use permits for the fowl have been approved and six denied. Since many of the denials have come in the denser northern part of the city, council member David White worried that the city may be setting different standards between the two parts of the city.
Ultimately the council approved the request for six chickens and no rooster on the Bell property. Council members John Thompson, Richard Collins, Dave Janson, John Skubal and White voted against.
Later the council approved rezoning and special use permit requests for an office and senior living facility at the corner of 135th Street and Rosehill Road.
The project was requested by Colonial Presbyterian Church on 13.7 acres. The development will include two office buildings with 67,608 square feet of office space, a senior assisted living complex and apartments.
The assisted living portion would include 126 units in one- and two-story buildings. The independent living apartments would have 78 units in a four-story building.
This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Overland Park council allows chickens on property to help family with disabled child."