The Prairie Village City Council on Monday agreed to terms with RED Development on a joint public planning process for the Mission Valley site, the first step in a month’s long journey intended to create a community-supported plan for the for former school site.
The planning process is estimated to cost approximately $200,000, the vast majority of which will be paid for by RED. Prairie Village’s costs for the planning process are capped at $45,000.
Two consultants will be contracted to carry out the planning process: Streetworks, a New York-based firm that has done work for RED in Dallas, and Consensus, a group specializing in managing community input led in part by Prairie Village resident and Indian Hills PTA member Dan Blom.
The process adopted by the council will include at least six focus groups and two public forums seeking public input
City Administrator Quinn Bennion said the process would be crucial to the creation of a development plan that had buy-in from neighborhood residents.
“It is an expensive process, but we want to ensure that there is ample opportunity for citizens to give their input,” Bennion said. “We want this to be a very open process.”
The tentative timeline for the planning process shows the focus groups and community forums will be conducted between September 12 and 24.