A developer wants to build an assisted living facility and senior independent living community on South Water Street in Kent, but surrounding property owners are concerned about the loss of open space, the scope of the project, the potential impact on Kent’s first responders, stormwater runoff and what the company may do in the future.
Portage Health Network plans to build a 72-bed assisted living facility and 38-unit independent senior living complex on an 8.53-acre lot the company owns at 1541 S. Water St. Assisted living facilities are a conditionally permitted use for the property, and Kent’s zoning code also permits the independent living units.
Kent’s Planning Commission granted the conditional use permits by a 3-2 vote on April 23, but is staging a do-over after city leaders realized that 11 adjoining property owners had not been notified. Those residents will have the opportunity to air their views on May 14. If any commission members are swayed, they will have the opportunity to change their vote.
The property is surrounded on three sides by single-family homes that face South Lincoln Street, Rellim Drive, Ivan Drive and Vine Street.
“I knew something would eventually go in,” Rellim Drive resident Gregory Lovinski said. “They can do it according to the code, but there’s also judgment. How does this impact everybody? There doesn’t seem to be any concern about that.”
Drawings the company provided to the city and The Portager show seven duplexes and quadplexes lining a drive from Water Street to and surrounding the 72-bed assisted living facility. Each duplex or quadplex houses single-story, one-bedroom apartments, for a total of 24 units.
Three more duplexes and two quadplexes containing 14 units line the northeastern edge of the property, facing the assisted living facility.
According to documents PHN submitted to the city, each villa will have a small front porch and single car garage. To the rear, abutting the backyards of homes on Ivan, Rellim and Vine, each villa will have a small back patio.
Lovinski’s concerns about the neighbors’ property values and stormwater runoff were echoed by Ivan Drive resident Anita Clary, who said both Ivan and South Lincoln streets are already overrun with water in heavy rain events. PHN’s claim that all stormwater will remain on-site is questionable, she said.
“They’re going to grade everything to the south, and that’s where we are,” she said.
Clary also pointed to an April 16 staff report Kent Development Engineer Tim Sahr provided for the Kent Planning Commission. In it, he stated that the property is surrounded by residential uses to the north and east, and by commercial uses to the south and west.
Clary says Sahr is wrong, and wonders if his report swayed the commission’s vote in PHN’s favor. Sahr did not respond to requests for comment.
The city’s zoning map shows the R-2 part of the parcel bordered by R-2 (medium-density residential) zoning to the north and by R-1 low-density residential zoning to the south and east, she notes. Only the west parcel, the bit that borders South Water Street, is zoned R-C (high-density multi-family-commercial).
Clary said she is also concerned about PHN’s future plans. Sahr’s report shows 177 parking spaces when the city only requires 86. Community Development Director Bridget Susel said the company’s current proposal of 12.9 beds per acre is well below the zoning code’s maximum allowable density of 20 beds per acre on the 8.53 acre site.
Vine Street resident Julie Meluch focused on a clause in Kent’s zoning code she said the Planning Commission seems to be dismissing.
The code states that conditional use permits may be granted if the project is “designed, constructed, operated, and maintained so as to be harmonious and appropriate in appearance and function with the existing or intended character of the general vicinity,” and that “such use must not change the essential character of the same area.”
“I just think the project’s not harmonious with the character of our neighborhood,” Meluch said. “That’s written in their own law. It seems that the city is more interested in protecting the private, monetary interests of a corporation than it is in protecting the citizens.”
Susel said it is up to the Planning Commission to determine if, as stipulations for conditional use permits state, a given project is “harmonious and appropriate in appearance and function with the existing and intended character of the general vicinity,” and that the project does not change the essential character of the community.
A business owner herself — Meluch owns Santé Massage Therapy on South Water Street — the Kent entrepreneur said she knows assisted living and senior independent living communities are needed. She added that she does not believe anyone has a right to stop development.
However, she said PHN’s current plan would be more appropriate for land that is zoned multi-family or commercial, and noted that such land, though more expensive per acre, is available in Kent and surrounding communities. Assisted living facilities are permitted in commercially zoned districts.
“I can see why they have financial motivation to build here in the R-2 zone. It’s simple math. … I’m OK if they build that back there. But don’t cram up to 170 people back there as Kent’s code allows for this sort of complex. Don’t build the buildings 10 feet from the line. Just shrink the place down a little bit. You’re still going to make your profit margins. Just shrink it down so it’s harmonious,” she said.
South Lincoln Street resident Martin Skok lives directly behind the area PHN plans for its dumpsters. Like other residents, he is concerned about the size and character of the proposed installation.
“I think it’s way too big for the area,” he said. “There’s eight and half acres. The whole rear is woods and fields. In their plans, when it’s all said and done, there’s going to be two and a half acres that isn’t asphalt, buildings or concrete, and of those two and half acres, that’s listed on their plans as grass and a retention basin.”
The retention basin looks like a pretty pond on PHN’s drawings, but it’s really a drainage ditch, he said.
Currently, a narrow border of woodland abuts the backyards of homes on South Lincoln and Ivan, but acres of trees on the other side are slated for removal.
PHN project manager Joshua Krutkowsky said the company will replace more trees than it will remove.
Skok said PHN’s tree planting scheme is insufficient and destroys some of the neighborhood’s last open space. There is no remediation plan for that, he said.
“It’s not a good look for the city,” he concluded. “City Council and the powers that be come up with action plans to reduce carbon footprints, and then we’re here paving over open space in an R-2 neighborhood. It doesn’t make sense.”
Ivan Drive resident Lisa Washburn lives in one of the homes that backs onto PHN’s retention pond. The rear part of her property spans 190 feet from her home, but she said it will be destroyed by PHN’s plans.
Businesses that run round the clock all year long have no place in a private residential neighborhood, Washburn said, stating that if the city is interested in maintaining the character of a residential neighborhood, it should only approve single family homes on the property.
Another Ivan Drive resident, Blake Grossi, lives directly behind where PHN’s current plans show the assisted living facility to be sited.
PHN’s drawings indicate that the 26 villas that back onto Rellim and Vine will be set back 10 feet on the property that is zoned R2 and 20 feet on the part that is zoned RC. The villas on the Ivan Street side will back onto a retention pond surrounded by a paved walkway, with the same 20-foot and 10-foot landscape buffers.
To the rear of the property, the 14 villas closest to the assisted living facility will be set back 10 feet from the northeast property line. Susel said PHN’s project meets all required setbacks Kent’s zoning code specifies.
Though residents tried to tell Planning Commission members on April 23 that they want PHN’s plans to include a wider buffer zone, a raised berm lining the property, a fence on top of the berm and lighting to be angled away from neighboring properties, or ideally shut off after a certain hour, Grossi said their suggestions didn’t seem to be heard.
He also noted that he has not seen any environmental or traffic studies, and worried that water pressure, which he said is already low on Ivan, will be further affected by the project’s additional water requirements.
Kent’s fire, EMS and police could find themselves strained by the additional calls PHN’s project could generate, he said. Grossi pointed to a Jan. 15, 2020 EMS1 article, which stated that in Xenia, 20% of the city’s ambulance calls were for assisted living and nursing home residents. Many of the calls were categorized as nonemergency: requests for ambulance transport to scheduled tests or procedures when the residents could not find a private ride, the article stated.
Extrapolating on that data, and noting that Kent’s first responders anticipate responding to 24,997 calls this year, Grossi said PHN’s project could add 1,800 police, fire and EMS calls each year.
Should Kent green-light the project, PHN owner and Project Manager Daniel Karam said construction will take about two years.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of anticipated first responder calls in Kent this year. The article is now updated with the correct figure.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.