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On Prairie Village council, frustrations mount as impasse over new Mission Chateau plan persists

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"Let's just make this happen," Mayor Laura Wassmer told the parties involved in the new Mission Chateau plan.
“Let’s just make this happen,” Mayor Laura Wassmer told the parties involved in the new Mission Chateau plan.

Mayor Laura Wassmer and members of the Prairie Village City Council on Monday expressed disappointment and frustration that the parties seeking to end the stalemate over the controversial Mission Chateau senior living development on the site of the former Mission Valley Middle School had yet to reach terms.

Wassmer told the parties, who were before the council as the Tutera Group sought yet another extension to the original Special Use Permit it was granted after its successful second attempt to get council approval for Mission Chateau in January 2014, that she was frustrated by the lack of progress over the past several weeks. Tutera announced in April it was prepared to scuttle the council-approved plan in favor of a revised project that appeared to have the support of the Mission Valley Neighbors Association. That group of area homeowners who have sued the city of Prairie Village over the project, holding up Tutera’s ability to break ground.

The revised project plan called for the elimination of the skilled nursing facility that had been a sticking point for surrounding homeowners, and the expansion of residential development.

But since those groups’ presentation before the city last month, little progress has been made to finalize the agreement that the parties said would bring legal action surrounding the project to an end.

“I’m a little frustrated with both sides, honestly,” Wassmer said Monday as Brian Doerr of the neighbors group and attorney Mike Flanagan, representing Tutera, appeared before the council. “I would encourage you all to put it all out on the table and get it done.”

Doerr and Flanagan responded that both parties had been working in good faith and as diligently as they could, but that the final details on the agreement were taking time to finalize.

“We’ve been dealing with this ever since I’ve been on the council and I’m ready to move on to other projects,” said Councilor Ashley Weaver. “It’s time to get this done.”

Doerr and Flanagan told the group they expected to be able to bring word of a final agreement to the council by next month.

About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he earned the Calder Pickett Award. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

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