Mold Remediation in Overland Park, KS

For the past two years, as the Kansas City Royals have discussed relocating to a new stadium somewhere in the metro, Johnson County has largely watched from the sidelines.

But that appears to be changing.

Multiple media reports over the past week have mentioned specific sites in Overland Park as possible landing places for a new baseball stadium.

So, could the Royals actually end up playing home games in Johnson County?

Here’s what we know — and what we don’t — at the moment:

Two Overland Park sites mentioned

On Tuesday, sports talk host Bob Fescoe on his morning show on 96.5 The Fan, citing multiple sources, said the Royals were in “real and advanced talks with the state of Kansas to build their new stadium in Johnson County.”

Specifically, Fescoe said the team was looking at an area near Antioch and I-435 where Brookridge Golf Club is, and the old Sprint campus — now Aspiria — near 119th and Nall.

Later in the week, Kansas City Star sports columnist Sam McDowell citing his own sources confirmed the Royals were “exploring additional stadium locations,” including the Aspiria site.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas also recently acknowledged in an interview with KCUR’s Up to Date that there have been talks about the former Sprint campus being a possible landing spot for the Royals.

Fescoe on his radio show said the process for locking in a new stadium location, wherever it may end up being, is “moving very fast” and that the team could be “breaking ground” on a new site by the time of Major League Baseball’s annual winter meetings in mid-December.

Here's the full @thefan965 clip(s) w/ @bobfescoe & @DustyLikins reporting on the considered Johnson County locations for a new Royals stadium + where the Chiefs could end up playing.Bob: "I'm not saying the downtown situation is dead, but this thing is moving very fast." (1/2) pic.twitter.com/RtgYIdGT4F

— Ben Heisler (@bennyheis) November 12, 2024

Lucas on Up To Date also said he hoped to have a “good path going forward” with a final stadium location by the end of the year.

This all comes after Jackson County voters in April decisively rejected a ballot measure to build a new stadium in downtown Kansas City on the current site of the Star printing press.

Since then, the Royals have reportedly shown interest in another downtown site at Washington Square Park near Crown Center and Union Station.

What are the Overland Park locations under consideration?

Both Overland Park sites mentioned by Fescoe are currently privately owned and are in the process of being developed by other entities.

The project at Brookridge, renamed Meridian last year, is a long-planned $2 billion mixed-use development that includes thousands of planned apartment and condo units, millions of square feet of office space, as well as hotels, retail and a 3,500-seat performance venue. The project is receiving some $200 million in public tax incentives from the city.

Overland Park-based Curtin Property officially broke ground on Meridian last year, but physical construction has been slow to materialize and the city has extended some incentive deadlines, with the project not expected to be completed for at least another decade.

Meanwhile, Aspiria is another mixed-use development that spans roughly 200 acres on the site of the former Sprint World Headquarters. The evolving plans there, as proposed by Wichita-based Occidental Management, feature office, entertainment, retail, dining and housing.

T-Mobile, following its merger with Sprint in 2020, still occupies offices on the western portion of the campus.

Neither Occidental nor Curtin responded to the Post’s requests for comment for this story.

Kansas is trying to entice teams with STAR bonds

This summer during a special session, the Kansas Legislature passed and Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law a measure meant to offer a giant enticement to either the Chiefs or Royals to move to the Kansas side.

The law modifies the state’s existing STAR bond program, which is aimed at funding major entertainment and tourism-related developments by diverting sales tax revenue generated by a project to repay debt used to finance its construction.

Politics, Elections and Government

Kansas lawmakers approve massive incentives to attract the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals

Under the new law, STAR bonds could cover up to 70% of a new stadium project, as opposed to the normal 50% restriction on other STAR bond sites.

Some officials in Missouri, including Mayor Lucas, lamented passage of the new law, suggesting it would reignite the states’ long-running economic border war.

Local and state officials aren’t giving details

When asked for comment about potential Johnson County sites under consideration by the Royals, Patrick Lowry, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Commerce, said “[b]ecause all major economic development projects require discretion and confidentiality, the department will not disclose any details regarding the activity surrounding negotiations or future agreements.”

In a statement, Overland Park spokesperson Meg Ralph said, “Overland Park is supportive of our hometown teams. We know the Chiefs and Royals belong in the Kansas City region and will do everything in our power to keep them here.”

And Johnson County chair Mike Kelly said in a statement, “We’re a sports town — and the Royals and Chiefs are celebrated members of our community that connect fans across the metro. My priority remains keeping these championship teams in the region and making sure we can cheer them on for generations to come.”

Not an uncommon strategy for sports teams

It could also be a distinct possibility the Royals are using the potential of a move to Johnson County as a way to build leverage for what has long been seen as owner John Sherman’s preference: a new downtown stadium.

That’s been other professional sports teams’ playbook, says economist Victor Matheson, who has studied the economics of sports as a professor at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

Teams frequently use the threat of relocation — either to another city entirely or to another part of a larger metro area — to “play cities off each other,” he said, citing the Dallas Cowboys as one notable example. That team moved from their long-time home in Irving, Texas, about 15 years ago but publicly teased multiple sites in the Dallas area — including in Dallas itself — before ultimately settling on Arlington.

“We’ve seen this playbook again and again and again,” Matheson said. “But the KC metro area is particularly vulnerable to this because of state line. You’re not just playing cities off each other but states, too. That’s whey the border war legislation was passed a few years ago, but once we get to sports teams, all of that kind of goes out the window.”

Kaylie McLaughlin contributed. This story was originally published by the Johnson County Post.

Overland Park City Council voted last week to amend the city's development code and set a height limit for apartments in the city’s highest-density multifamily zoning areas. It spurred a heated discussion about the philosophy of housing in the fast-growing Johnson County city.

A divided Overland Park City Council approved changes to the city’s development code that include new limits to the height of apartment buildings.

Though city staffers characterized the changes — that also included other amendments to the city’s Unified Development Ordinance — as “interim” and “incremental,” the proposal still sparked a heated discussion among councilmembers at the meeting on Monday, Nov. 4.

Ultimately, the council approved the changes by a 7-5 vote, with Mayor Curt Skoog casting the decisive affirmative vote.

Notably, the amendments to the code set a height limit for apartments in the city’s highest-density multifamily zoning areas, labeled RP-6.

They also eliminate a height minimum in the same RP-6 areas and codify what are called “transition zones” between higher-density multifamily projects — that typically rise multiple stories — and established areas of suburban homes nearby.

The discussion of the item — which was initially listed as part of the meeting’s consent agenda but was removed at Councilmember Jeff Cox’s request — lasted for more than an hour and at times devolved into debates about the philosophy of housing in Johnson County’s biggest city.

Previously, the amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance sailed through the Overland Park Planning Commission without objection, passing 9-0.

Additionally, city staff have said these amendments are meant to serve as a “patch” of sorts as the city prepares to embark on a widespread overhaul of city development codes to bring them in alignment with the new comprehensive plan, Framework OP.

Ultimately, the city council approved the updates to the development code 7-5.

Council President Logan Heley and Councilmembers Cox, Melissa Cheatham, Scott Mosher and Richard Borlaza voted in dissent. Mayor Curt Skoog’s yes vote was required to pass the amendments.

Councilmember Chris Newlin was absent from the meeting last Monday.

Most of the updates are focused on residential development, though there are a few pieces for other types of land use.

Current Planning Director Brian Monberg said at last week’s meeting that the changes that have been made so far are reflective of concerns from neighbors in recent projects that have come through the planning process and common deviation requests from developers as well as changes in the development industry.

The changes approved last week include:

These amendments are “interim,” Monberg said, meaning they are intended as a stop-gap measure to bring some of the city’s development code up to the new standards laid out in Framework OP ahead of a bigger update that is likely to take several months to complete.

During the meeting, councilmembers were divided over the changes to the Unified Development Ordinance, with tempers flaring at times.

The primary disagreement was the new height limit on apartments in RP-6 zoning areas, with multiple councilmembers questioning the need for such a limit.

“We shouldn’t be adding roadblocks to adding housing in our community. We should be doing everything we can to encourage housing,” Heley said. “I think this seems like an unnecessary way of making building housing in our community more difficult, rather than easier.”

At one point, Councilmember Mitrisin offered an alternative motion that would have approved the amendments without the apartment height limit.

“Why are we boxing ourselves in?” Mitrisin asked. “If somebody thinks that they can support housing in our community, I don’t want to negotiate against that right now.”

That motion failed 4-7, falling short of the nine affirmative votes that would have been required to diverge from the planning commission’s recommendation. Borlaza, Mitrisin, Cheatham and Heley voted in favor of Mitrisin’s alternative motion.

Ultimately, Mitrisin voted to approve the amendments as recommended.

For his part, Cox railed against density in housing developments but did not go into detail about the problems he has with these specific updates to the Unified Development Ordinance. He said the council’s housing decisions are “degrading what Overland Park is and why everyone loves it.”

“I’m trying to preserve, what’s wonderful about Overland Park, and there is a big cost to density,” Cox said. “There’s a cost to this incessant drive for turning us into a city from a suburban community … I just don’t want Overland Park to be that.”

In the end, support for the amendments won out.

“I see this as a way to fix some of the challenges that both our residents and our developers have faced on projects that this council has looked at,” Mayor Skoog said.

Cox also complained that the item was initially listed on the consent agenda. (Typically, items that are approved by the planning commission unanimously, as these proposed changes were, are put on the consent agenda, to be approved by the council without discussion.)

Cox, though, felt the proposed changes centered on major issues that the city council has clashed over recently. He said he’d have preferred to discuss these changes in a study session before they wound up on a city council agenda.

In response, Skoog said any insinuation that the city council wasn’t being transparent or had ill intent in its approach to this issue “is outrageous and wrong.”

The city still plans to do a full review of its Unified Development Ordinance in the coming months.

City staff have signaled that it’s likely those upcoming changes would include additional or other changes to Overland Park’s standards for apartments, though it’s unclear what that might look like.

Any future amendments will also require approval from both the planning commission and the city council.

Overland Park also continues to develop a new special zoning overlay district for the College and Metcalf area that could establish separate standards for building height, width and other factors to encourage mixed-use redevelopment in that prominent corridor.

This story was originally published by the Johnson County Post.

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.”

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.

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.

CH

The Kansas City Star

515-423-5146

Chris Higgins writes about development for the Kansas City Star. He graduated from the University of Iowa and joins the Star after working at newspapers in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and Des Moines, Iowa.

South Indian restaurant Chettinad’s just opened at 8018 W. 151st St. in Overland Park, but Kansas Citians may have tasted its cuisine before.

Vijay Kumar Ponnusamy has been catering paneer, biriyani, tikka masala and other menu items in the area for the past 10 years as a catering business under the same name.

While the Kansas City area has several Indian restaurants — including Bikanervala, which opened this summer at 8669 W. 135th St. in Overland Park — Ponnusamy said the metro is missing cuisine specific to the southern region of the country. The restaurant’s name refers to a community of villages in India’s southernmost state of Tamil Nadu.

South India serves like dosai — a savory lentil crepe served with chutney, sambar or curry. Chettinad’s offers the “dosai special,” a giant version of the dish that’s larger than the tray it’s served on.

A few other items on Chettinad’s menu: samosas, mutton entrees and naan. It also serves kulfi, or Indian ice cream, and coffee.

To open the restaurant, Ponnusamy is teaming up with three other partners: Kalpana Vijay Kumar, Anu Senthil Kumar and Senthil Kumar Jayapalan.

Before coming to the United States, Ponnusamy operated a restaurant called “Flavors” in Puducherry, India, for a year. Opening a restaurant again has been a goal of Ponnusamy’s since it closed in 2010.

He’s content, now, to have a full dining room again.

Since Chettinad’s opened last week, a steady stream of customers has been pouring in. Ponnusamy said he even felt a little overwhelmed at times with the crowd of people. He’s said he’s met a lot of neighbors and South Indians missing their cuisine.

“People like the food,” he said. “People are coming (up until) the end of the day.”

Ponnusamy hopes the business’s popularity will only grow.

Chettinad’s is open 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Saturdays, and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sundays.