Looking for the best family friendly area in the Overland Park area (Kansas City: HOA)

[bobstewart]

After a rather exhaustive search, my family and I have decided on Kansas City for our relocation. We looked at a lot of other places in the country, but there seems to be a great family core in KC. We are focusing on the Overland Park area, but I know that some adjoining areas are rather nice as well. Schools are extremely important to us and it seems the Blue Valley School District is extremely good.

As we turn our sites to the area, I would love some feedback on what areas are the best WITHIN OP. There are so many subdivisions I was wondering if anyone thought there were any differences and if so, what are they? Ideally we are looking for a place where the HOA is active in community events and where the clubhouse is used for gatherings and social occasions for kids as well as adults on some sort of regular basis. We have two daughters aged 20 months and 8 years.

I am not into the "keeping up with the Jones'" mentality and we are hoping to find a good overall down to earth community where we can make friends and lay down roots. I run a company that will stay in California and I will oversee the technical team in OP. My wife stays home with the children right now, but wants to be active in the community. Our pricing ideal is upper 300's to 550's.

One other thing that may or may not weigh into this. We are progressive in our politics, not conservative. That isn't a problem for me, but I know the area tends to be more conservative and wonder if it's the dogmatic conservative or the intelligent conservative that will allow spirited discussions without negative repercussions on relationships. I'm happy to agree to disagree .

Some areas we saw awhile back that we liked were The Wilderness (159th and Nall) and Wilshire Farms (159th and Antioch). Lionsgate has a plethora of subdivisions as well that seemed nice.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can supply.

Bob

[RichMonk]

Personally, I like the older parts of Overland Park near its downtown. I like that is a well established area. The housing stock around there might be hit and miss as they are older and some haven't been as well taken care of over the years. Also, that part of town hasn't quite all the way bought into the "everything must be chains" mentality of south OP development. Sure, the chains are there, but it is certainly easier to find a corner restaurant or a mom and pop hardware store.