The Overland Park City Council approved new standards that will limit the height of new apartment buildings in certain areas. The council voted Monday to amend development standards for multi-family housing that would streamline construction in some ways, while setting new restrictions in others. The changes are a step in a broader process in Overland Park to update standards and accommodate the city’s plans for future multi-family housing.
City staff recommended the updates for various reasons, including to reflect the current state of construction projects and proposals coming to the city; stay in line with existing city practice; complement existing neighborhoods; and respond to community input, according to information presented at the meeting.
The new rules include a five-story height limit on new apartment buildings in some areas and restrictions on how close apartments can be placed in proximity to lower-density neighborhoods.
The council narrowly approved the new rules in a 7-5 vote, with Mayor Curt Skoog providing the necessary seventh vote.
The move follows intense debate in Johnson County suburban communities in recent years over how much housing to build and how dense it should be — as the cost of housing becomes increasingly prohibitive and residents want to maintain the existing character of their neighborhoods.
“There’s a cost to this incessant drive toward turning us into a city from a suburban community,” council member Jeff Cox. “And density is the only thing — that’s the only line — between the city and a suburban community. And in my view, I’m here to protect what we have and the people who live here now and voted for me, not the people who want to live here someday, maybe, in another apartment.
But other council members feared the changes could place unnecessary barriers on development in a community that needs new homes, including in areas where they say denser housing would be appropriate.
“We shouldn’t be adding roadblocks to adding housing in our community,” Council President Logan Heley said of the height limit. “We should be doing everything we can to encourage housing. This feels like adding a roadblock to housing.”
What are the new rules?
Officials noted that as the city continues its work to accommodate more multi-family housing, staff are putting together plans for special standards in the College Boulevard area, where there are large parking lots that could be ripe for redevelopment.
Buildings on properties zoned for R-6 use, or high-rise apartments, will be limited to five stories, plus an attic. The new rules remove a height minimum of four stories, which means developers can build a three-story building on R-6 properties without needing an exception from the city. The old four-story minimum meant developers needed an exception.
Zoning for townhouses, garden apartments and high-rise apartments will not be allowed in parts of the city designated to remain lower-density suburban neighborhoods and rural areas.
An town home complex at West 88th and Farley streets in northern Overland Park. Tammy Ljungblad [email protected]
The changes also call for apartments near single-family housing to be perpendicular, not parallel, to existing neighborhoods and have a lower 35-foot height.
But the changes also increase the maximum building length from 200 feet to 500 feet, with design standards for longer buildings that would discourage straight and repetitive exteriors, such as walls that are further set back.
And there is more flexibility for heavy materials used for building exteriors and how to design entrances to developments, which previously required connection to a thoroughfare.
The city will also have a set of pre-approved designs for proposed duplexes.
The new rules do not completely shut the door on apartment buildings higher than five stories in Overland Park: There could be taller developments on properties zones for mixed-use, where buildings would likely include more amenities and services alongside the higher density, such as the Carson Street Towers in the Corbin Park area.
