2026-09-10 · Kansas · Regulation

Overland Park has made small-lot infill housing legal for a year, and the covenants on most of the land it would be built on went entirely unmentioned in the debate. The city council approved the Portfolio Homes zoning pilot by 11-1 in early April 2026, after an 8-0 planning commission recommendation in March.¹

What the pilot changes

Minimum lot size drops from around 8,000 square feet to 4,250. Front and rear setbacks reduce to 20 feet each, with the side setback unchanged at 7 feet. Flag lots — parcels with no direct street frontage, reached by a narrow drive — become permissible. Clustered “cottage court” layouts are allowed. Plat and plan approval are combined into a single step.

The programme is a temporary amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance, running for one year or until a set number of projects are approved.

Why this is aimed at land inside existing neighbourhoods

Small-lot and flag-lot standards do not do much on greenfield ground, where a developer can plat whatever the code allows from scratch. They do a great deal on leftover parcels: the oversized corner lot, the double lot behind a house, the odd strip between two subdivisions. Almost all of that land in Overland Park sits inside or adjoining a platted, covenanted subdivision.

The state has already answered the question the city did not ask

Kansas enacted SB 418 the same month, and it says what happens where a city's rules and a declaration disagree: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to invalidate or limit the legality, enforceability or effect of restrictive covenants or condominium association or homeowners association regulations. Courts shall recognize and enforce such covenants and regulations in accordance with applicable laws.”²

So a smaller minimum lot in the city code does not shrink a lot the plat already fixed, and a permitted flag lot is not a permitted flag lot if the declaration forbids further subdivision.

1. Overland Park 'Portfolio Homes' zoning — Johnson County Post, March 16, 2026 ↩
2. Senate Bill No. 418, enrolled text, 2026 Kansas Legislature ↩
3. K.S.A. 58-4617, Rules; adoption procedures; notice — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes ↩
4. Overland Park council approves new zoning rules for smaller, more attainable homes — KCTV5, April 7, 2026 ↩