Passing Petitions: PV United presented the Prairie Village City Council with three petitions on Aug. 14 in response to the current rezoning debate

Rezoning in Prairie Village has been discussed within the city since June 2022 but petitions from a local group — PV United — aim to stop the rezoning movement and signal a possible end to the debate.

The rezoning debate started after recommendations were given to the city council by the Housing Committee in 2022. The recommendations proposed options for more affordable housing in response to the rising housing costs in Prairie Village. In fact, the average price of a new home is now about  $425,500 — up $17,020 since last year, according to Zillow.

“The same time that those [house] prices are rising, small, more affordable houses are being torn down and replaced by million dollar houses,” Prairie Village resident Dennis Boody said. “So it’s putting a real squeeze on the middle class.”

These petitions are in response to the city’s rezoning recommendations. The first petition is the only one of the three related to zoning, stating: “The Rezoning Petition would limit the city’s ability to rezone single and double and family districts.”

The second petition hopes to get rid of the current form of government. And the third aims to change the city’s current form of government— from a mayor-council — to a mayor-council-manager form of government. This would immediately reduce the number of council members from 12 to six as well as appointing a city manager, according to the petition.

The reduction of council members could pose a problem in the community, according to city council member and East parent Bonnie Limbird. Most of Prairie Village’s committees like the Diversity Committee, Environmental Committee and Jazz Festival Committee have council members as chairmen. If the city is limited to six council members, some of these committees would struggle to operate, according to Limbird.

Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman notified Prairie Village officials that all three petitions submitted exceeded the minimum number of signatures required for inclusion on the November ballot.

If proven legitimate and legal by a judge the three petitions will be put on the ballot, allowing residents to directly vote on the issues. 

The petitions could be considered illegal if signatures are found to be fraudulent, or gathered by fraudulent means. Or if the subject of the petition contradicts existing laws, constitutional provisions or if the wording or intent of the petition is misleading or misrepresented according to K.S.A 23-3601.

According to multiple council members, PV United has undetermined reasons for proposing a change in the form of the current government and has denied multiple requests for public comment.

City councilmember Piper Reimer speculated that the reason for the change in government is that the proposed change in the petition would prevent the mayor from having veto power. However, in recent years voting records show that the Mayor very rarely uses his veto.

The second and third petitions contradict each other in a legal sense. If the second petition were to be enacted without the third petition the city would be left without a government, according to Reimer.

“The city recognizes this as being legally problematic,” Reimer said. “The city would be held accountable legally, and we would be basically in violation of Kansas statutes because we are required to have a form of government.”

In Kansas, filling a ‘Petition for Declaratory Judgement’ requires the council to name a defendant in order to test the legality of the petitions from a judge. In this case, the council has named PV United as the defendant.

In response, PV United posted that the council was suing them on their website. However, the city is not suing them but rather they’re just naming them as the defendant. The hearing will take place on Aug. 31 concerning the petitions according to a press release on the City of Prairie Village’s Facebook page