Shawnee Mission Post – Community news and events for northeast Johnson County

For the second year in a row, the website Wallethub had named Leawood the best small city in America. The website, which focuses on personal finance issues, released its annual rankings of cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 this week, and a variety of factors again put Leawood at the top of the mix. Among the considerations that gave Leawood an edge among the 1,200 cities compared for the rankings were its exceptionally low levels of poverty, highly educated population and relatively affordable housing. Leawood scored second overall in the “affordability” categories, and finished among the top 100 in the [...]

Shawnee leaders have agreed to add a provision to the city’s charter ordinances that will allow the city to borrow money to purchase the city’s streetlights. The charter ordinance change permits the city to debt finance the acquisition of streetlights from Every Metro Inc. (formerly KCP&L) through the issuance of general obligation bonds. City Attorney Ellis Rainey said he was concerned there was some misinformation about the charter ordinance change, so he wanted to provide clarification: By itself, it does not authorize issuance of any bonds or authorize any projects. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post – Community news and events for [...]

After hearing from multiple residents both for and against plans for Stag’s Spring, the Shawnee council last night took first steps to look into public financing incentives for the proposed luxury apartment complex project downtown. Several neighboring residents and business owners at the city council meeting spoke both in support and in opposition of the housing project, a 62-unit apartment complex which would be located along Roger Road just east of Old Shawnee Pizza. Neighbors in support said they appreciated efforts by developer Kevin Tubbesing to create more density downtown and also use landscaping to create a buffer for their single-family [...]

Three months after the Fairway city council passed a non-discrimination resolution and the city council agreed to further explore a non-discrimination ordinance, the topic will be on the city council agenda in November, Mayor Melanie Hepperly said. Neighboring municipalities, such as Westwood and Prairie Village, have already passed non-discrimination ordinances. Hepperly said the decision to pass a resolution versus an ordinance came at the recommendation of the administration committee, which is the same committee that was directed to look further into an NDO at the August city council meeting. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post – Community news and events for northeast [...]

Three elementary schools in Johnson County were named Blue Ribbon Schools this year as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s recognition of school excellence. Clear Creek Elementary in USD 232, Corinth Elementary in the Shawnee Mission School District and Lakewood Elementary in the Blue Valley School District were recognized as Exemplary High Performing Schools. Exemplary High Performing Schools have their state’s highest high school graduation rates and the highest achieving students — the top 15% — in English and mathematics, measured by state assessments. The three elementary schools are among six schools in Kansas to receive the Blue Ribbon recognition this [...]

Following a public hearing this week, the Mission city council approved the de-annexation of .7 acres the northeast corner of Johnson Drive and Roe Avenue. City Administrator Laura Smith said discussion of annexation and de-annexation between Mission and Roeland Park has been ongoing since 2018. Roeland Park leaders will still need to formally consider the annexation proposal. Roeland Park sold the lot to Sunflower Medical Group in July 2019, and SMG intends to build a medical office building on the space. City limits of Mission and Roeland intersect in that particular corner, and the two cities have been discussing the benefits [...]

By this time next year, the county is scheduled to be operating its first ever medical examiner facility. What does this mean for Johnson County? We will have better resources and efficiencies to perform autopsies and death investigations. Public safety will be enhanced because this state-of-the art facility will use best practices and current technology for collecting evidence, optimizing our response to homicides, suspicious deaths and overdose cases. Additionally, our public health teams will be able to access real-time information to identify trends or emerging diseases. Johnson County had long studied the need for our own resource to do this type [...]

Law enforcement officers across the county recently participated in a workshop to help them gain a better understanding of the science behind the use of police force. The class, which took place Sept. 18-20, informs law enforcement officers of the physiological effects that use of force can have on them in tense circumstances. More than 15 agencies participated in the class hosted by the Lenexa Police Department, including roughly seven from Johnson County, and representatives from the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office and Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post – Community news and events for northeast Johnson [...]

The city of Mission is moving forward with next steps to de-annex a small portion of land and allow Roeland Park to annex it in the near future. The two cities have been in negotiations since December 2018 concerning annexation of seven-tenths of an acre on the northeast corner of Johnson Drive and Roe Boulevard. The subject property is the future site of a medical facility under development; currently, the developer is working with both cities to move forward on the project. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post – Community news and events for northeast Johnson County)

A review of Lenexa’s transportation system found that the city is doing well on serving vehicle transportation needs, but it could use some improvements on walkability and bikeability. These were some of the findings presented to Lenexa city leaders on Tuesday when they got a first look at the results of Complete Streets, a year-long study on the development of a more complete transportation infrastructure in the city. As a result, the Complete Streets program proposes adding 70 miles of bike lanes and sharrows, or 19% of the city’s 365-mile road network, as well as adding 69 miles of trails to the [...]