Overland Park is committed to being a welcoming and inclusive community for all who live, work and visit the city. As part of this commitment, the City took action to remove outdated and unenforceable restrictive covenants from legal property documents in many neighborhoods.
Restrictive covenants are conditions placed on property use, historically included in legal documents to dictate how land could be used or who could own it. In some cases, these covenants prohibited ownership or residency based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion or other discriminatory characteristics.
While a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that these covenants could not be legally enforced, they were still allowed to remain in legal documents. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 later made it illegal to include racial covenants in deeds, yet many still exist in historical records. The Kansas Act Against Discrimination also prohibits these covenants.
Addressing the Issue in Overland Park
Some neighborhoods in Overland Park, particularly those platted between 1922 and 1948, still contained prohibited restrictive covenants in their legal documents. While these covenants are not enforceable, their continued presence contradicts the City’s values of inclusivity.
A Kansas statute now allows cities to release these covenants from properties without homeowners associations.
How the Process Works
The City worked with a title research company to identify these neighborhoods within City limits that contain these prohibited, restrictive covenants. The City then prepared and filed documents with the Johnson County Register of Deeds to release the covenants on behalf of the neighborhoods without a homeowners association.
For neighborhoods with homeowners’ associations, a separate legal process allows the association to remove restrictive covenants if they are present.
What This Means for Homeowners
Property owners will not experience any changes in their rights or responsibilities. The City does not plan to notify individual property owners, as this initiative is primarily a symbolic step toward reinforcing Overland Park’s commitment to being a welcoming community.
Property owners may request land records and other official documents through the Johnson County Register of Deeds.
Restrictive Covenants Lookup
Use the interactive map to locate areas in Overland Park that include restrictive covenants, or view the full-screen map here.