Kenwood: A Bad Place for High Density Housing

Kenwood Village is currently zoned part agricultural and part single family housing. The City Council tentatively increased the number of housing units on Kenwood Village from the original 60 housing units from years ago to 190 housing units to accommodate high density housing because they needed the numbers to submit to the state. The property owner claimed, “[H]e had 60 single-family homes ‘in his brain’ for six or seven years for the parcel … .” Now that the City Council has increased the number of housing units more than three times the original number, from 60 to 190 housing units out of the 284 they originally proposed to increase it to, the property owner suddenly “didn’t like the stricture a cap is imposing.” If the property owner was fine with 60 units, he should be fine with 190 units. He is clearly being disingenuous.

Regarding building on the property, the property owner even admits the name of the Kenwood Village property came when “his friends would ask, ‘[w]ho in their right mind would develop that lot? and answer, Ken would.” Even the property owner’s friends know it is a bad site to build.

The nearest offramp, Glen Annie and Storke Road is already too crowded and Calle Real, a narrow, dangerous street with one lane in each direction has already had multiple fatalities/injuries. Even the City Council has commented on how dangerous that section of Calle Real is.

The property manager clearly has no regard for the neighbors, the immobile seniors he wants to put on the property or the 70-plus wild animals, including endangered species, who would lose their lives and/or habitat if the property owner builds high density housing on the property.

Please keep in mind the property owner already caused two brush fires on the property because he would not mow the property. One of the fires almost burned my house down. I distinctly remember being evacuated and worrying that my house would burn down. A few years later, the Fire Marshal confirmed the fire department gave the property owner a violation for not mowing the property. Now, this very year, the fire department had to contact the property owner again to get him to mow the property. The property owner clearly has no concern for the safety of the people in the neighborhood.

Further, the property owner wants to build a senior living facility on the property with 214 housing units, plus additional seniors for senior day care plus 70 additional houses. There is no fire house in the area.

I have personal experience moving seniors who are immobile, including my great-grandmother and my mom, at the end of their lives. It is not easy or quick. What will happen during an emergency when the seniors are not able to escape the property on their own and the fire department has difficulty getting to the property to help the seniors due to excessive traffic and dangerous roads? I hate to think of the tragedy that can occur.