diff --git a/query/address_search_using_ids.js b/query/address_search_using_ids.js
index d7e2d1fd..a22cb917 100644
--- a/query/address_search_using_ids.js
+++ b/query/address_search_using_ids.js
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ function generateQuery( clean, res ){
 
     // use an object here instead of calling `set` since that flattens out an
     // object into key/value pairs and makes identifying layers harder in query module
-    vs.var('input:layers', JSON.stringify(layers_to_ids));
+    vs.var('input:layers', layers_to_ids);
 
   }
 
diff --git a/test/unit/query/address_search_using_ids.js b/test/unit/query/address_search_using_ids.js
index 665aa681..27ecb85f 100644
--- a/test/unit/query/address_search_using_ids.js
+++ b/test/unit/query/address_search_using_ids.js
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ module.exports.tests.granularity_bands = (test, common) => {
 
     const generatedQuery = generateQuery(clean, res);
 
-    t.deepEquals(JSON.parse(generatedQuery.body.vs.var('input:layers')), {
+    t.deepEquals(generatedQuery.body.vs.var('input:layers').$, {
       neighbourhood: [1, 11],
       borough: [2, 12],
       locality: [3, 13],
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ module.exports.tests.granularity_bands = (test, common) => {
 
     const generatedQuery = generateQuery(clean, res);
 
-    t.deepEquals(JSON.parse(generatedQuery.body.vs.var('input:layers')), {
+    t.deepEquals(generatedQuery.body.vs.var('input:layers').$, {
       neighbourhood: [1],
       borough: [],
       locality: [],
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ module.exports.tests.granularity_bands = (test, common) => {
 
     const generatedQuery = generateQuery(clean, res);
 
-    t.deepEquals(JSON.parse(generatedQuery.body.vs.var('input:layers')), {
+    t.deepEquals(generatedQuery.body.vs.var('input:layers').$, {
       county: [1, 4],
       macrocounty: [2, 5]
     });