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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