On Jan. 13, 2025, Overland Park officials opened a two-year project to update the city’s Unified Development Ordinance, aiming to align zoning, development standards and design rules with the Framework OP comprehensive plan, city staff said at a council meeting.

City planners and the consultant team told the council the update will begin with a code audit, include a market and feasibility study and proceed through modular drafting, public review and formal adoption. Danielle Hulrah, senior planner for current planning, said the project will use the policies and character areas in Framework OP to inform zoning districts and development standards. “The purpose of our meeting is to preview the activities of the UDO update and introduce you all to that process,” Hulrah said.

Why this matters: Overland Park’s existing development code dates largely from 1990 and has been amended piecemeal, staff said. City leaders and the consultant argued that a consolidated, modern UDO will make rules easier to find and apply, reduce uncertainty for developers and residents, and implement the community vision captured in Framework OP.

Scope and schedule
The consultant team, led by Mark White of White and Smith LLC, described the UDO as governing site design, building design, zoning districts, development standards (parking, landscaping), procedures and legal boilerplate. White said the update will not re-open Framework OP but will implement its character areas and policies. “The UDO implements the vision by guiding development, by making sure we have the right standards in the right places,” he said.

The project begins with a phase-one audit comparing the current code to Framework OP and testing alternative ways to achieve the plan’s character areas. RCLCO (Real Estate Consulting) will produce a market and feasibility study to inform dimensional standards and density metrics. The team expects the first year to focus on audit work and interim amendments; drafting and adoption will follow in the second year, with multiple public check-ins, focus groups and Planning Commission hearings before council adoption.

Public engagement and advisory groups
Staff and consultants described several engagement layers: public meetings and an online review platform (ENCODE) for public comment; focus groups; and a technical advisory panel (TAP) made up of heavy UDO users and Framework OP participants. Hulrah said the city will “start reaching out to” TAP and focus group members in the next month and will use ENCODE so reviewers can comment on specific code text.

Consultant approach and technical work
White said the team will draft the UDO in modules (typically zoning districts first, then development standards and procedures) and incorporate graphics to clarify dimensional outcomes. He noted the team will “test our standards while we’re developing the code” and that the market analysis will inform workable metrics for each district.

Topics raised by council members
Council members asked how Framework OP character areas would relate to zoning districts; White and Hulrah said that relationship will be a primary focus of the audit and that some districts may be renamed or restructured to match character areas. On redevelopment, council members and consultants discussed “grayfield” sites such as underused parking lots as prime redevelopment opportunities; White said code changes and parking-ratio updates could make such redevelopment more feasible.

On design and open-space policy, the consultants said Framework OP’s references to “conservation areas” and quality public space can be implemented through context-sensitive “amenity spaces” tailored to different development types (for example, mixed-use gathering spaces versus subdivision open space). The team also addressed how the update will handle multiple, ongoing plans (an urban forest plan, greenway linkages update and bike plan) by coordinating with those teams and folding remaining items into annual UDO updates if they are not complete before final adoption.

No final council action
Council members did not take a formal vote on the UDO at the Jan. 13 meeting. Staff said the next formal steps are completion of the audit, prioritized recommendations from that audit, and subsequent drafts and public hearings leading to planning commission recommendation and council adoption.

Next steps and timeline
Staff and the consultant team will complete the code audit and market study, convene the technical advisory panel and hold public meetings and online review sessions. Interim amendments the team is preparing are expected by the end of the year, and the full drafting and adoption process will proceed in the following year(s). The city will return to council with audit findings and recommended priorities for council direction before major drafting begins.