OP Council reverses earlier vote, allows Brookridge rezoning despite protest

Over persistent neighborhood objections about traffic disruptions and density, the Overland Park City Council reversed an earlier vote Monday night and allowed a rezoning for the giant Brookridge redevelopment to move forward.

The council voted 7-4 to allow the Curtin Property Co. developers to rezone the southeast corner of 103rd Street and Antioch Road with a grocery, a few other buildings and apartments as a way to jump-start the massive mixed-use project.

That was a change from a May 7 vote in which council members voted 7-4 against the rezoning, primarily because of concerns about the phasing of road improvements and resulting traffic inconvenience.

At that time the council gave the developer a six-week hold to try to arrive at a different approach, although nothing really changed between May 7 and Monday.

The new vote allows the rezoning of a 5-acre parcel to be incorporated into the previously approved redevelopment of the 135-acre Brookridge Golf Course into offices, apartments, 550 hotel rooms, an indoor performance space and retail.

The latest rezoning calls for a 45,000-square-foot boutique grocery, several other retail buildings, a two-level parking garage and 625 apartment units. This rezoning is conditional on the developer meeting numerous development details still to be worked out with city staff, and the rezoning won’t become official until that happens.

The developer had agreed to stipulations for initial road improvements along 103rd Street, at the intersection of 103rd and Antioch and for a new temporary signal at 104th Street and Antioch. Further road improvements south on Antioch would occur as the development unfolds with future phases.

Doing all the road improvements at the start would be too much of a financial burden, the developers said, pointing out that other Overland Park projects have also evolved in stages.

The affirmative votes Monday night were from council members Curt Skoog, Richard Collins, Paul Lyons, Chris Newlin, John Thompson, Terry Happer Scheier and Fred Spears. Those opposed were Faris Farassati, Dave White, Logan Heley and Jim Kite. Thompson, Happer Scheier and Spears changed their votes from negative on May 7 to affirmative Monday night.

“I have been vacillating back and forth,” Happer Scheier said, acknowledging sympathy for surrounding neighborhoods that will deal with disruptions from the infrastructure improvements related to the project. But she said she thought the road enhancements would ultimately help alleviate some congestion currently on Antioch.

Other supporters said they believe the Brookridge redevelopment will be a welcome addition to that part of town. They said improvements are needed anyway at 103rd and Antioch, and this is a way to have the developer pay for it rather than the city.

Spears said the main question for the council was whether the latest rezoning was an appropriate land use at 103rd and Antioch, and he had concluded it was.

But about four dozen area residents of the nearby Wycliff and Pinehurst Estates neighborhoods who turned out for Monday’s meeting were uniformly opposed to the project.

“This is nothing but the rape of the land,” said Wayne Smith, who lives nearby at 101st and Lowell Avenue. He said residents bought their homes years ago to be close to a golf course that is still functioning and very viable. “You’re trying to drop New York City into the middle of our residential neighborhood.”

He warned council members, “You’re damaging the respect a lot of us used to have for the city council.”

Farassati said he didn’t think the project promotes a good quality of life. He was frustrated with his colleagues who had changed their minds, pointing out that nothing had changed between May 7 and Monday night, and the phased road improvements will still be disruptive.

Councilman Dave White recalled that the project as proposed in March 2014 was supposed to be anchored by major Class A offices buildings on Antioch, surrounded by a “live/work/play” community.

“That’s what lured us,” White said, noting that now the office buildings are in a future phase with a date uncertain. The developer has said there is interest from prospective office tenants, but those tenants want to see some retail and residents first, as has happened at the City Place development near U.S. 169 and College Boulevard.

Skoog and Lyons both supported the project, which has had a rather tortured path through the city’s regulatory approvals.

“This project has been a hurry-up-and-wait kind of project from the beginning,” Skoog conceded. Still, he said he supports the overall mixed-use and sees the new retail as a way to get it started.

At the end of the 2 1/2 hour discussion, Mayor Carl Gerlach signaled his impatience and frustration with the ongoing Brookridge saga.

“This council and this city,” he said, “is getting weary of the number of times changes are coming back.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2018 at 4:20 PM with the headline "OP Council reverses earlier vote, allows Brookridge rezoning despite protest."