Conservative seniors fight affordable housing in Prairie Village. Is this our future?

Earlier this year, an ad hoc committee was assigned to make recommendations to the Prairie Village City Council about tenable steps the city could take to circumvent intentionally restrictive code written in significant part by J.C. Nichols, the developer who was significantly responsible for the Kansas City metropolitan area’s history of discriminatory redlining in the 20th century.

Prairie Village’s diversity committee was already working on similar initiatives and talking to experts on exclusionary housing policy and its remediation. In April, the committee hosted a panel of experts who discussed and made recommendations on the issue of housing affordability in the city. I was at the panel event. The recommendations made by panel experts were very popular with the crowd that day.

In that spirit, the council voted 12-0 on June 21 to approve considering a few measured tactics which would help provide access to affordable housing. Affordable housing, however, isn’t popular with everyone. I counted 21 people who got up to speak at the public comments portion of the council meeting on July 18. Of the 21 speakers, 20 were flatly opposed to affordable housing options. Video of the full meeting is on the City of Prairie Village Government Facebook page. Here are some excerpts.

A former council member warned the current council very early that “low income or attainable housing is not the answer.” He warned of harm to property values and “neighborhood character.” “Are we now giving up green space and neighborhood character for rezoning for low-income housing?” he asked. He closed by warning of inevitable “property maintenance code violations.”

Another former council member stated that Prairie Village was “special,” as distinguished from some other municipalities that are considering rezoning recommendations from the United Community Services of Johnson County. She pointed out specifically that it is unlike Kansas City, saying residents of Prairie Village could “pay the cost” and didn’t just “expect to be able to live” there.

One retiree (all but two speakers appeared to be retirement age) with considerably less guile stated that Prairie Village was “affordable” to people who could “afford it,” and that was what makes it a “desirable city.” He explained he’d been a landlord elsewhere, and wouldn’t want the people who rented from him to live in Prairie Village. When he finished, the gathered crowd overwhelmingly raised their hands to show they supported what he said, which surprised me. I expected some to shy away from the bluntness with which he described who was “desired” in the city.

Of the 21 speakers, 20 said similar things about their fondness for the past, either in spite of or perhaps because of the notorious Nichols zoning codes.

One speaker implored the council to take a slow, measured approach, because in her opinion the council’s responsibility to the city is “fiduciary.” I thought what she said was by far the most reasonable of the group who spoke. And it echoed what Mayor Eric Mikkelson said: that Prairie Village would take a slow, careful look at the recommendations.

But I don’t believe the council’s responsibility to the people of Prairie Village is exclusively fiduciary. Those considerations are what brought Prairie Village its racially and economically restrictive code of the past. The diversity committee, the council and the mayor are considering what’s best for Prairie Village’s future, and that transcends mere monetary considerations.

As demonstrated in recent elections, the white, retirement-age demographic turns out to vote — and those voters also turn out to make their voices heard at council meetings. At this recent meeting, Mikkelson had to admonish the crowd to adhere to established protocols, as many were repeatedly disruptive. Some of the same folks who were at the council meeting showed up at another recent diversity committee meeting, muttering bigoted things and even following members of the committee to a restaurant afterward.

Some of these people are apparently affiliated with the Northeast Johnson County Conservatives. I reached out to the group for its take on the disruptive behavior, but have not received a reply yet.

Prairie Village’s past deserves to be heard and understood. But a simple drive through the city, with the ubiquitous equality signs on its lawns, shows a different image of who it is that comprises Prairie Village’s future. Most are not retirement age. And most of the people who live there seem to want a more diverse, affordable environment.

This story was originally published July 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM.