Control the scale of your ideas & your ideas may flourish

It is important to consider the magnitude or scale of ideas, changes or projects. When implementing changes in life one must consider how these changes will impact people, financing and the surrounding environment.

When there is pushback in life, it can come from the scale of the idea more than the idea itself.

• R1 Districts – Prairie Village could have encouraged ADU (s) to be built where they are reasonable or make sense. Instead, the Governing Body tried to rewrite the city code so they could be built anywhere and everywhere.
• Park Bathrooms – Prairie Village doesn’t just contract out quality public toilets. Prairie Village builds at over $1000 per square foot and provides limited expense details.
• C Districts – Prairie Village doesn’t stop with residential housing in specifically zoned commercial buildings, they rewrite the municipal code to include residential in all commercial buildings.
• City Hall – Prairie Village doesn’t just want a new City Hall for the betterment of staff and to better serve a basically unchanged total population. Prairie Village doesn’t want a City Hall that is built to a quality standard. Prairie Village wants a City Hall that is built to a very expensive standard, including LEED Platinum, making it difficult to justify. The latest cost estimate that I know of would put the total debt service estimate well over $50 Million for the entire municipal complex.
• Community Center – Why just build a new community center to replace the old YMCA. Prairie Village will build a new center that is 2 to 3 times larger at an estimated total debt service of over $92 Million. After spending several years, over a hundred thousand dollars and untold hours of staff time, community pressure finally convinced the Governing Body to vote down the Community Center.
• Affordable Community – When I first got politically involved, the elected officials of Prairie Village were very concerned about and were pushing a proposal for affordable housing in the city. It is interesting and a bit odd that since then, agenda items, the ever-increasing budget, the coming “industrial bonds” for the Macy’s redevelopment (which equates to free money for the wealthy), all lead to missed or higher taxes. So much for affordable living…

What will this massive borrowing do to the city of Prairie Village? Who knows? Prairie Village, I am told, currently has a AAA rating. I am told that the proposed borrowing will mean that Prairie will lose its AAA rating and be downgraded to AA. Are the current estimated debt services calculated at a AAA rating or a AA rating? I don’t know.

My final point is on “listening to the residents”. I hear that statement bandied about quite often. I also see it ignored. Moving forward, I hope the Prairie Village City Council considers valuing Prairie Village residents’ input on these and other items.

Thank you.