Planning commission backs rezoning, preliminary plan for Prairie Fire mixed‑use project at 150th and Metcalf, 7‑4

The Overland Park Planning Commission voted 7‑4 on April 7 to recommend rezoning land at the southeast corner of 150 Ninth Street and Metcalf Avenue to allow a large mixed‑use redevelopment and approved a related revised preliminary development plan 6‑3.

The rezoning and plan repurpose a long‑vacant portion of the Prairie Fire site for a multi‑building, vertical mixed‑use neighborhood that includes two mixed‑use buildings on the intersection corners, multiple mid‑rise apartment buildings and a series of brownstone units along the eastern property line. The applicant and staff said the proposal shifts the denser, 5‑story elements toward the intersection and steps down to lower‑scale housing adjacent to existing single‑family parcels.

Why this matters: The rezoning would allow most of the land to redevelop with up to the building types and densities proposed in the plan; neighbors at the hearing pressed the commission for larger berms and taller buffers, clearer assurances on stormwater and stronger screening to limit cut‑through pedestrian traffic. Commission members balanced those concerns with staff findings that…