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Developers' Attorney Attempts To Limit Overland Park Protest Petitions
Johnson County South Coalition Responds To Ploy

February 8, 2002

The Johnson County South Coalition has done a preliminary analysis of a proposal on Protest Petition notification areas being proposed by an attorney for developers and landowners. The complete, formatted document is attached.

Now that citizens are using Protest Petitions to try to protect their property rights, landowners/developers are trying to change Overland Park ordinances to put a limit to it. State, County, and City ordinances give any citizen who lives close to a proposed development the right to legally protest when the developer wants it re-zoned. Overland Park recognizes in its ordinances that revisions to developers' original plans can be so huge that they should be considered a re-zoning. For instance, the Wal-Mart proposal at 159th and Metcalf was treated as a re-zoning both the first and second time, because it was drastically different than the original plan. It was not a re-zoning in either case, but it was treated as such.

It turns out attorney Mr. Stein, who represented the landowner/developer in the Wal-Mart proposal, has now come back to the City asking for a change in rules that would limit citizen involvement from adjoining County residents. Furthermore, the public is not going to have a bit of input at the hearing on Monday when the City Planning Commission considers this proposal.

We believe that it is not within the City's power to limit the rights of just County residents within 1,000 feet. State statutes set the rules on 1,000 feet for County vs. 200 feet for City. It would only be by eliminating both City and County residents' rights on major plan changes that Protest Petitions could be limited.

The attached analysis goes into considerable detail about the relevant State statutes and City ordinances, how city land adjacent to County gives County residents Protest Petitions rights, and how Mr. Stein's proposal is designed to take away Protest Petition rights.

Sincerely, Bob & Shirley Phillips Councilmembers, Johnson County South Coalition



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