Westwood voters reject contentious park sale, ending years-long saga over redevelopment
Westwood residents voted by a slim majority to reject the sale of a city park as part of a controversial commercial development project, a win for a group of citizens who had pushed for voters to have a say in the park’s fate through a petition and a months-long legal battle.
According to unofficial election results, 441 people voted against the sale, while 394 people voted in favor of the change. Of Westwood’s 1,432 registered voters, 837 people turned out during this special election — representing a little over 58% of the city’s voters.
Westwood City Council members moved to put the question of whether the city would sell Joe D. Dennis Park before the public on the April 1 ballot in December.
“We won,” said Beckie Brown, one of the citizens who pushed for the vote, in a statement released by her attorneys. “Democracy won. The City is finally doing what we’ve been asking them to do for over a year: hold an election.”
In a statement, Ryan Kriegshauser, one of Brown’s attorneys, said in recent months that Westwood citizens had been “bullied, threatened, and shut out of conversations” around the sale of the park.
“One woman’s tenacity all the way through a Court of Appeals victory finally broke the dam,” he said. “Because of one ‘mere’ citizen, voters will have the final say on what happens to their park.”
The city has been pursuing a project that would have seen Johnson County-based Karbank Real Estate Company build an office and retail development on the land off Rainbow Boulevard. The site also includes the former Westwood View Elementary School, as well as a piece of vacant city property previously occupied by the Westwood Christian Church.
The company agreed to pay off city debt on the church property and offered to buy the school property, which would be redeveloped into a new park.
The decision to give voters a say on the sale came as part of a winding saga that included an effort from citizens to halt the sale through the petition process and an appeal by Brown to the Kansas Court of Appeals, which sent the matter back to a Johnson County judge for further proceedings.
“Simply put, this spring, the residents of Westwood will have the opportunity to vote on this question, as has been requested by many in petitions, legal briefings, websites, yard signs, and social media posts,” Mayor David Waters wrote in an announcement about the vote. “The City Council trusts that—regardless of the outcome—the results of this election will be respected by the residents of Westwood. As Mayor, I can certainly commit that the City will respect this process and the ultimate decision made by our Westwood community.”
This story contains previous reporting from Sarah Ritter and Eric Adler.
