Leawood council approves rezoning for Reserve at Iron Horse despite neighborhood objections

The Leawood City Council voted 6-3 on July 7 to approve an ordinance rezoning a roughly 3.5-acre parcel at the southeast corner of 150th Street and Mission Road from planned neighborhood commercial retail (SDNCR) to RP-3 (planned cluster attached residential) and to adopt the developer’s preliminary plan and plat for the Reserve at Iron Horse townhomes.

The decision follows renewed public comment from nearby residents who said the project’s 18 units — about a 60% increase in the number of dwellings within the existing Reserve at Iron Horse neighborhood — would change the area’s character and create traffic and drainage problems. Council members who supported the measure said the plan met the RP-3 standards and represented an appropriate redevelopment of a constrained parcel.

Residents asked the council to reconsider an earlier override of the planning commission’s denial and to explain why the commission’s recommendation was not followed. Mike Paul, who lives on Iron Horse Court, said the neighborhood had expected the commission’s recommendation to stand and asked the council to “reconsider the approval” and to explain the change. Several other residents cited drainage in low-lying, spring-fed areas on the site, concerns about removal of trees and the visual impact of buildings that would face inward toward existing homes.

Developer Saul Ellis told the council the parcel is “a difficult piece of land” with overhead utility easements and slopes and said he had designed the project to be smaller and higher-quality than other options. “I thought we were completely zoned,” Ellis said when describing the procedural situation that required the council to act again. He also told council members the units would be expensive to build and that he expected them to sell for less than $1 million but well above commonly cited entry-level prices.

Staff confirmed the plan met the RP-3 district’s dimensional and density requirements as presented; two deviations requested were an internal front-yard setback and a zero side-yard (party wall) setback typical of condo/townhome-type plats. Counsel advised that a motion to reconsider the earlier override would have to be made by one of the council members who voted in favor of the prior override; absent such a motion, the council could move forward on the ordinance. Council member Alan Sunkel moved to pass the ordinance with staff stipulations; Julie Larson seconded. The roll call showed 6 ayes and 3 nays, and the ordinance was adopted.

Council members who voted in favor said they were persuaded by the applicant’s design and by staff analysis that the RP-3 zoning and stipulations addressed ordinance requirements; council members opposed cited density, views of building backs from the neighborhood entrance and unresolved drainage and tree-planting details.

The ordinance includes the standard staff stipulations requiring the applicant to provide final engineering, to fund and document mechanisms to maintain common improvements, and to meet tree-replacement requirements under Leawood’s ordinance; residents said they had not seen a detailed tree-replacement plan. The council’s action overrides the planning commission’s prior recommendation of denial and incorporates the staff-stipulated conditions.

Council members and staff said the record of the prior June discussion would remain part of the file. The developer indicated final construction plans would be coordinated with planning and engineering staff and that the project would include stormwater detention and landscaping.