KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Late Monday night, the Lenexa Planning Commission recommended the denial of a special use permit for a proposed homeless services center at the La Quinta Inn at West 95th Street and Interstate 35.
The 9-0 vote came after the commission met and heard from city staff as well as reStart, the organization that submitted the special use permit request to build the shelter.
City staff listed numerous reasons for recommending a denial on Aug. 22, which some community members agreed with.
Seventy-three people signed up to give public comment, and there was a mix of votes in favor of the shelter.
“I think it’s important the community come around these people that need the support and provide it to them," one resident commented.
Dozens of people gathered outside the meeting as they waited for the commission's decision.
Barbara McEver said she knows the state of homelessness in Lenexa firsthand.
She co-founded Project 1020, the city's only homeless shelter for adults in Johnson County.
It operates as a cold weather shelter from December to April, but McEver says a 365, 24/7 shelter is long overdue.
"There’s such a great need. And people need their basic needs met," McEver said. "These are people. They are people, and they could be someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, sister."
McEver met Tim Walker when he needed Project 1020's services. Now, he volunteers there.
Walker says he wants people to remember homeless people's humanity.
"I looked at that number, and I said, 'Boy, that's not enough beds,'" Walker said. "There's a bigger need than that. It’s something, it’s a start. I don’t even know if they’re going to do that."
As a Johnson County native, Walker says there's a misconception about homelessness in Johnson County he wants to dispel.
"People who tend to be homeless in Johnson County tend to be from here," Walker said. "I had a life before I was homeless. I went to graduate school, I had a master's degree in physics."
Data from the county’s point-in-time count revealed 250 unhoused people in Johnson County, something Mike Kelly, Johnson County Board of County Commissioners president, says makes the issue of homelessness clear.
“We continue to support this once-in-a-generation opportunity to meet an unfilled need for unhoused adults in our community and serve one of our most vulnerable populations,” Kelly said in a statement on Johnson County’s website. “There is general community consensus that homelessness is a growing issue for Johnson County, and one that’s manageable if addressed now.
"We have been encouraged by Johnson County cities' interest in participating in a proposed city/county operational fund. We thank the 10 cities who have pledged their support and look forward to welcoming additional partners soon.”
Below are some of the reasons the Lenexa Planning Commission recommended the project's denial:
- The proposed use is inconsistent with the character of the neighborhood, which has been identified by the city as a key redevelopment corridor.
- The proposed use, due to its proximity to the only other homeless shelter for single adults in Johnson County, will create a concentration of negative external impacts in this area of the community which will detrimentally affect nearby properties.
- The city’s current law enforcement resources are inadequate to serve the proposed use and the additional cost to the City to add the necessary staff places an unreasonable financial burden on the City, which is exacerbated by the loss of tax revenue caused by the conversion of the subject property to a tax-exempt use.
- That despite the applicant’s best intentions, the extremely abbreviated timeline under which this project has been conceived and developed has resulted in many of the required elements of a binding Management Plan for the shelter use being unfinalized and/or inadequate, thereby creating substantial uncertainty as to important details about the proposed use, its funding, and ultimately, the overall viability of the shelter operation.
“We are still reviewing the 540-page City of Lenexa staff report posted Thursday evening regarding reStart’s Special Use Permit application,” Kelly said. “Upon initial review, we see opportunities for reStart to work with the City of Lenexa on addressing many of the identified challenges. We will support those efforts between now and the tentatively scheduled Sept. 17 Lenexa City Council meeting.”
Scott McCullough, community development director, was one of the city staff members who explained the city's reasoning.
"The impact to this one area is already realized and is too great at this location, in staff’s opinion," McCullough said.
Stephanie Boyer, CEO of reStart, challenged this sentiment at Monday’s meeting, saying many concerns can be easily addressed.
“It really provides that ability to be able to find an exit out of homelessness and back into permanent, stable housing," Boyer said.
Regardless of Monday’s decision, the Lenexa City Council will see this item at its Sept. 17 meeting.
If the council agrees with the planning commission’s recommendation, it will take five votes from council members to make the decision final.
If the council disagrees and wants to overturn the recommendation from the planning commission, it’ll need a super majority, a total of six votes.
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