FAIRWAY, Kan. — Like many communities around the Kansas City metro, Fairway residents are seeing more homes torn down and rebuilt.
“I don’t really have any problem with it,” said Scott Patterson, who lives across the street from a home currently under construction. “If a nice house goes in and a nice family takes care of it … I don’t have any problem with it.”
But some neighbors feel differently. They told 41 Action News off-camera that many of the rebuilds are bigger and look different than other homes in the neighborhoods.
“They don’t fit in. If I wanted to live in Lenexa, I would have moved there,” said one man, who asked not to be identified.
The neighborhood debate is being fueled by the Fairway City Council, which asked its planning commission on Monday to review the city’s building code and possibly eliminate its new home approval process.
Currently, all new construction must be formally approved by the planning commission, including new homes that need to meet city code.
“It’s a way to speed up the process for people looking to build new homes,” Fairway City Administrator Nathan Nogelmeier said. "Sometimes with our planning commission it’s a month or two delayed just to get in front of them, so we are trying to look for ways to streamline the process.”
If the rule is passed, Nogelmeier said all new homes would still have to meet city code.
Some neighbors fear the proposed change would make it easier for people to build bigger homes on smaller lots — a trend many already see happening.
“They’re too big,” one resident said. “Here you have a full-on three-story house next to a little one-story bungalow. Visually, it does not look right.”
The resident asked 41 Action News not to identify her because she lives on the street where one of these new homes is being built.
“Now there’s almost one on every block. It’s happening very fast, that’s the scary part,” she said.
Fairway has reviewed and changed its building code several times over the last 15 years, with the most recent change in 2014.
“It is a passionate issue for both sides,” Nogelmeier said. “For a person who has been there for a long time as well as for a new resident. It’s the city’s job to balance the requests or the expectations of each to make sure hopefully it’s a fair process for everyone.”
The city’s planning commission meets on the last Monday of every month.
