Lenexa Planning Commission to hear special use permit request for Johnson County homeless shelter

While City staff acknowledges the need for additional services for the unhoused in Johnson County and believes that the City should be a part of a comprehensive countywide approach to fully address this complicated issue, it is staff’s opinion that the current application places an unreasonable burden on this area of the community and ultimately, on the City’s resources and should be denied. Staff’s recommendation is based primarily on the following factors:

1. The proposed use is inconsistent with the character of the neighborhood, which has been identified by the City as a key redevelopment corridor,
2. 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,
3. 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, and
4. 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.