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Lenexa council approves ordinance raising church-run shelter occupancy to 50, tightens enforcement
Summary
The Lenexa City Council approved an amendment to the Unified Development Code allowing qualifying churches to house up to 50 unhoused people, increases staffing requirements, and creates new civil-penalty enforcement and occupancy-revocation processes after several hours of debate.
The Lenexa City Council voted to approve an ordinance amending the city’s Unified Development Code to raise the permitted overnight occupancy at qualifying church accessory homeless shelters from 30 to 50 people and to add new staffing and enforcement requirements.
The change was approved after a lengthy discussion in which council members debated remanding the measure back to the Planning Commission and weighed neighborhood impacts, enforcement, and the capacity of operators. The council removed a Planning Commission stipulation that would have capped the total number of guests citywide at 250 after staff and the city attorney identified potential legal problems with that cap.
City staff presented the ordinance as staff-supported and stressed that the broader package includes operational and enforcement safeguards. Scott McCullough, Community Development Department, said the ordinance raises the occupancy limit for churches that meet size and transportation criteria and aligns staffing and enforcement requirements with that higher occupancy level. “The ordinance before you is supported by staff,” McCullough said during the presentation.
Under the…
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