Build Guide: Hallbrook, Leawood, Kansas
Hallbrook, formally Hallbrook Farms, is a 695-acre master-planned golf course community inside the city limits of Leawood, Kansas, in Johnson County. It is a neighborhood, not a municipality: building permits are issued by the City of Leawood. It is also a different thing from Hallbrook North, the mixed-use office and residential development approved in 2025 at State Line Road and College Boulevard.
Faust Construction builds new homes, additions, and whole-house renovations in Hallbrook and across the Kansas City metro.
What defines Hallbrook
Hallbrook Farms was planned starting in 1983, broke ground in 1987, and opened for sales in 1988. The site plan was done by Sasaki Associates and the 190-acre, 18-hole par-72 golf course was designed by Tom Fazio, opening in the summer of 1988. Hallbrook Country Club sits at 11200 Overbrook Road.
The community was laid out for 516 units: 411 custom single-family homesites and 105 patio homesites, at a gross density of 0.86 units per acre. Single-family lots average about 29,500 square feet, roughly two thirds of an acre, and patio lots about 14,100. The original developer standards required side-entry two-car garages at minimum, pitched roofs in cedar, shake cedar, slate, or tile, and exteriors in brick, stone, wood, or stucco.
Those lot sizes matter more here than anywhere else in Leawood, because Leawood sizes houses by a formula that scales with lot width and depth. Hallbrook’s generous lots produce a generous allowance. The community has been substantially built out for years, so most current work is renovation, addition, and teardown rebuild rather than new construction on raw ground.
What homeowners should know
A Hallbrook project clears the homes association first and the city second, and Leawood formally builds the association into its own permit timeline. The requirements below come from the Leawood Development Ordinance, the city’s Codes Administration pages, and the Hallbrook Farms Homes Association.
The Design Review Committee comes first
The Hallbrook Farms Homes Association maintains a Design Review Committee as one of its standing committees, alongside landscape, communications, and security. Its role is to review plans against the community’s covenants before work proceeds.
The association does not publish its declaration of covenants, design guidelines, submittal requirements, meeting schedule, or fees on a public page, so we do not state them here. Request the current guidelines and the meeting calendar from the association directly at the start of a project. Whatever they contain, they are private agreements the city does not administer and cannot waive.
Leawood gives homes associations a place in its permit process
This is the mechanism most people do not know about. Under Leawood’s residential code, a legally constituted homes association may file a written request with the Building Official to receive notice of any permit application for exterior alterations of 10 percent or more, or for demolition. Where an association participates, the Building Official does not act on the application until 25 days have elapsed since the plans were sent, though an applicant may submit the permit application 10 business days after preliminary plans have been mailed.
The city puts it plainly on its demolition page: if your homes association participates in the city’s notification process, there may be up to a 25-day waiting period before your permit can be issued. Whether Hallbrook participates is worth confirming with Leawood Codes Administration, because a 25-day hold is a schedule item, not a footnote.
Leawood sizes the house with a formula, not a coverage percentage
Leawood does not publish a maximum lot coverage for the house itself. The R-1 district caps square footage with a formula: 0.23 multiplied by the base lot area, multiplied by lot width divided by minimum lot width, multiplied by lot depth divided by base lot depth, plus a 450 square foot garage allowance. Base lot area is 15,000 square feet and base lot depth is 150 feet. Square footage means livable area and excludes the basement.
The RP-1 district uses the same formula with a base lot area of 12,000 square feet and a base lot depth of 120 feet. Which district a Hallbrook lot sits in changes the answer, so confirm the zoning before running the formula.
A rebuild is capped five feet lower than a new house
A new dwelling in R-1 may reach 35 feet, measured at grade at the front door. A rebuilt or remodeled dwelling is capped at 30 feet. Exterior wall height at the side yard setback may not exceed 23 feet, with one additional foot of height allowed for each additional foot of setback, up to 30 feet.
Two further rules shape replacements. If the rebuilt dwelling sits between two two-story dwellings, it may not exceed the taller of the two neighbors. And a rebuilt or remodeled dwelling may always be built to the dimensions of the dwelling it replaces. On a built-out community like Hallbrook, that last provision is often the most useful one in the ordinance.
Permits, demolition, trees, and drainage
A new construction permit expires 365 days after issuance, or in 180 days if work has not commenced. One written extension of up to 180 days is available, and only where the project is more than 50 percent complete. A complete-structure demolition permit is valid 15 days; a partial or interior demolition permit is valid 30 days. Demolition requires a site plan, evidence that all public utilities are disconnected, erosion control evidence, and proof of rat abatement at least 10 days before the work.
No street tree may be removed in Leawood without a permit from Public Works, and a Tree Protection Zone is required for new residential structures on vacant lots, for demolitions and rebuilds, for remodels adding more than 400 square feet, and for remodels affecting more than 10 percent of the existing structure. Plans route to a Parks certified arborist. A drainage and grading plan is required for reconstructions adding 400 or more square feet of impervious surface.
Licensing
Leawood requires a valid Johnson County contractor license for general, roofing, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC contractors, plus a City of Leawood business license for anyone providing a service inside the city limits. Both must be current for the whole period of construction.
| Leawood R-1 standard | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Minimum lot area per dwelling | 15,000 sq. ft. |
| Minimum lot width | 100 ft. at the front setback |
| Front setback | 35 ft., subject to Section 16-2-4.5 |
| Side setback | 15 ft. (12 ft. in RP-1) |
| Corner lot street side | 30 ft. |
| Rear setback | 30 ft. on lots 150 ft. deep or less; deeper lots use 70% x (depth - 150) + 30 |
| Height, new dwelling | 35 ft. at grade at the front door |
| Height, rebuild or remodel | 30 ft. at grade at the front door |
| Maximum house size | (0.23 x base lot area x (width / min. width) x (depth / base depth)) + 450 sq. ft. |
| Open space | 30% of lot area |
Why Hallbrook projects take local experience
Faust Construction has built in the Kansas City metro for more than 25 years, including work in Leawood. Hallbrook stacks approvals in a specific order: the association’s Design Review Committee, then a city permit that may sit on a 25-day homes association notification hold, then a build governed by a square footage formula rather than a coverage percentage.
Our pre-construction phase runs those numbers against the survey before the design is fixed. On a built-out community where most projects are rebuilds, the 30-foot rebuild height cap and the provision allowing a replacement to match the dimensions of the house it replaces are usually the two facts that decide what is actually possible, and finding them afterward means redrawing rather than adjusting.
Pre-construction
We price the design, evaluate materials and alternatives, and build a schedule that accounts for city review milestones.
Construction
We work with a consistent group of craftsmen and trade partners, with daily on-site presence throughout the build.
Management
We track cost against budget transparently and meet monthly with the architect and homeowner.
What we build in Hallbrook
Hallbrook is a built-out community of large custom homes and patio homes on golf course and estate lots, so the work is renovation, addition, and rebuild.
- Whole-house renovations. Reworking layout, systems, and finishes in a late-1980s or 1990s custom home while keeping the exterior the covenants govern.
- Additions. Expansions sized against the Leawood square footage formula and the 30 percent open space requirement, noting that adding more than 400 square feet of footprint triggers tree protection requirements.
- Rebuilds. Replacement houses designed to the 30-foot rebuild height cap and the side wall height limits, or built to the dimensions of the house they replace.
- Interior renovations. Kitchens, baths, and living space reworks, which move faster than exterior work because they generally fall outside the association notification trigger.
Faust Construction has completed new construction and interior renovation projects in Leawood, Kansas, including in the Hallbrook area of the city. Hallbrook sits inside our regular service area alongside Mission Hills, Prairie Village, Overland Park, Fairway, Westwood, and the Kansas City, Missouri neighborhoods along Ward Parkway.
Recent work
Browse new construction, additions, and full-home renovations from across the Kansas City metro, including projects in established neighborhoods that share this area’s scale and housing stock.
Questions about building here
Answers to what homeowners ask before starting a project in this area.
Is Hallbrook its own city?
No. Hallbrook, formally Hallbrook Farms, is a 695-acre master-planned golf course community inside the city limits of Leawood, Kansas, in Johnson County. Building permits are issued by the City of Leawood. It is also a different thing from Hallbrook North, the mixed-use office and residential development approved in 2025 at State Line Road and College Boulevard.
Do I need HOA approval to build or remodel in Hallbrook?
Yes. The Hallbrook Farms Homes Association maintains a Design Review Committee as one of its standing committees, and it reviews plans against the community’s covenants. The association does not publish its covenants, design guidelines, submittal requirements, meeting schedule, or fees publicly, so request them from the association at the start of a project. These are private agreements that the City of Leawood does not administer and cannot waive.
How big a house can I build in Hallbrook?
Leawood sets it with a formula rather than a coverage percentage. In R-1 the maximum is 0.23 multiplied by the base lot area, multiplied by lot width divided by minimum lot width, multiplied by lot depth divided by base lot depth, plus a 450 square foot garage allowance, with a base lot area of 15,000 square feet and a base lot depth of 150 feet. Square footage means livable area and excludes the basement. RP-1 uses the same formula with a 12,000 square foot base lot area and a 120 foot base depth. Because Hallbrook’s single-family lots average about 29,500 square feet, the formula produces a generous allowance.
Why is a rebuild in Leawood limited to 30 feet?
Leawood caps a new dwelling at 35 feet measured at grade at the front door, and a rebuilt or remodeled dwelling at 30 feet, a deliberate five foot difference intended to keep replacement houses in scale with their neighbors. Exterior wall height at the side yard setback may not exceed 23 feet, with one additional foot of height allowed per additional foot of setback up to 30 feet. A rebuild between two two-story dwellings may not exceed the taller neighbor, though a rebuilt dwelling may always be built to the dimensions of the house it replaces.
Can a homes association delay a Leawood building permit?
Yes, and Leawood writes it into the process. A legally constituted homes association may file a written request with the Building Official to receive notice of any permit application for exterior alterations of 10 percent or more, or for demolition. Where the association participates, the Building Official does not act on the application until 25 days have elapsed since the plans were sent, though an applicant may submit the permit application 10 business days after preliminary plans have been mailed. Confirm participation with Leawood Codes Administration, because it is a real schedule item.
Does Faust Construction build in Hallbrook, Leawood?
Yes. Faust Construction has completed new construction and interior renovation projects in Leawood, Kansas, including in the Hallbrook area of the city. Hallbrook sits inside its regular service area alongside Mission Hills, Prairie Village, Overland Park, Fairway, Westwood, and the Kansas City, Missouri neighborhoods along Ward Parkway. Brian Faust founded the company more than 25 years ago.
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