Overland Park walkability guidelines
Happy Cities is creating design guidelines and policy to help Overland Park, KS create a walkable town centre in a suburban context, fulfilling the goals of the city’s comprehensive plan.
Overland Park is working to create a vibrant, walkable town centre. (Happy Cities)
Overland Park is a suburb of Kansas City. Its Comprehensive Plan calls for creating walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods on what are, presently, wide suburban arterials lined with large parking lots, big-box stores, and strip malls. Overland Park hired Happy Cities to help it achieve this vision through practical design guidelines and development strategies.
Our work with the city includes:
Communications: We developed a series of short videos explaining what walkability means, and the value of encouraging it in previously car-dependent contexts. The videos aim to convey complex topics in a clear, compelling way.
Education: We held a full-day cross-departmental workshop to identify the barriers to implementing walkable design, and to develop consensus on solutions to overcome these barriers.
Guidance: We offered feedback on a proposed development project to clarify, and outlined how to better achieve walkable designs.
Walkability guidelines: We are working with the Planning and Development Services Department to write design guidelines that will help the municipality achieve safer, more human-centred street design and development.
