Editorial: Get right plan for Brookridge

The Overland Park City Council is on the right track in requesting a more reasonably sized redevelopment of the Brookridge Country Club. It’s a significant mixed-use plan that must balance neighborhood concerns and the city’s needs for more residents and office space.

Neighbors are worried about how much traffic the project could cause as well as how many people could be living and working at 103rd Street and Antioch Road.

The density of the plan, including housing units and office space, is a legitimate concern for elected officials. The council is responsible for listening to the neighbors’ concerns, though not automatically kowtowing to them.

In addition, the council also must take the long-term view of Overland Park’s future. How will decisions made in 2015 affect what the city looks like a decade, two or more from now?

Given the sheer size of the Brookridge plan, the council has correctly erred on the side of not allowing the developer to pursue his original goals. The council’s resistance already has forced several changes.

The developer reduced the number of housing units about 10 percent, to just over 2,000. The square footage for office space was cut a similar amount, down to 1.95 million square feet. And the developer proposed trimming a story or two off a few residential and office structures.

Developer Chris Curtin, of Curtin Property Co., recently expressed frustration with the council’s involvement in trying to manage the project’s details.

But the city has a big role to play here, especially given that Curtin is seeking tax incentives — public aid, that is — to complete Brookridge.

More changes are probably ahead if Curtin wants the council to endorse the project; the next public council meeting on the plan is scheduled in December.

The city needs to approve a redevelopment plan that will attract new residents and office users, but not have a destructive effect on existing neighborhoods.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Editorial: Get right plan for Brookridge."