The Overlook at Sunrock development squeaked by the Wilder Planning and Zoning Commission for a zone change and stage one plan approval.
Fischer Homes has already begun developing 238 condominium (approved in 2021) units near Bentwood Hills Drive in Wilder but has reapproached the city for a total of 611 units, including single-family homes, townhomes, apartments, condos, and gallery homes. The commission heard the updated development proposal at its meeting on June 10, which passed 4-3 and will now go to the city council for a vote.
The development would continue the 575 units approved for the Sunrock development in Southgate earlier this year.
The 611 homes are a revised number from the original plans, which had 733 homes, which the planning commission denied in 2022.
A study of housing in Northern Kentucky has revealed troubling trends for housing in the region, with the largest need being for “workforce housing” for households earning between $15 and $25 per hour, with monthly housing costs between $500 and $1,500. The region needs about 3,000 more housing units to provide for people within that income range, according to the study. The demand for one- to two-bedroom rentals and owned properties consistently exceeds their supply, while supply for three and four-bedroom properties consistently exceeds demand. The study suggests that the region needs to build 6,650 housing units to support economic development in the next five years, which equates to 1,330 units per year. Read more here.
Understanding NKY’s housing shortage
Many residents attended Monday’s meeting to express their concerns about the development, mainly regarding drainage, hillside slippage and traffic.
“My big concern is we’ve heard a lot about the geotechnical testing and stuff that’s been done to ensure that everything’s going to be stable and safe,” Wilder resident Rodney Bowcock said. “And I assume that similar testing was also done at Ludlow and I’ve seen all these articles and read about what happened in Ludlow.”
Bowcock refers to land slippage at a Fischer Development site in Ludlow earlier this year after heavy rain.
Chairman of Fischer Homes Greg Fischer said that the Ludlow project was more complex than what they are doing in Wilder. He said they are working on a ridge between train tracks with existing houses that have been there for 85-100 years.
“What happened was we had a big rain at the peak point of exposure, and we didn’t have any storm sewer in,” Fischer said. “We had the site opened up. The way we graded that site was to divert water away from houses. What you didn’t see in the news was a bunch of houses that got flooded. What you saw on the news was the route we diverted water that ran towards Route 8. Route 8 took it down to the underpass and took it to the river. We didn’t hit any houses; the houses were safe.”
Fischer said they plan to reduce stormwater entering Bentwood Hills by redirecting it to four proposed detention ponds.
“They actually, and I know this is going to come as a surprise and shock to most people, are going to make the drainage there on that site better than what’s there now,” Wilder City Administrator Terry Vance said. “They have a series of detention ponds all over the site that is supposed to collect the water from the streets and the roofs, and it will detain the water in these detention ponds until such time that the flow of water from the storm is over and then it will let the water out slowly after the storm event.”
Wilder resident Lisa Young asked what would happen if the detention ponds failed.
“Who’s going to be responsible for that?” Young said. “We’ve already seen what happened in other areas, and I guess I’m asking if we are asking the current residents at the bottom of the hill, Woodland Hills, Bentwood Hills, to pay the price if the detention ponds fail or if there are landslides and what does our quality of life look like?”
Joe Kramer with Cardinal Engineering, which is doing the civil engineering work for the site, said the development will be built on top of the hill, taking the load off the top so there’s less driving force for slippage. He said when Bentwood Hills and Woodland Hills were built, they were cut into the hill, causing the earth to slip down over time.
“We’re reducing that risk,” Kramer said. “The long-term issue that we have seen in Woodland Hills and Bentwood Hills is the hillside moving down. Some of the things we’re doing to improve that situation is to take the load off the top so there’s less driving force. The second is taking the water away. The soil sits on rock. When you introduce water to it, it gets wet, it slips, and the hillsides like to move.”
Though traffic was also addressed as a concern, Fischer Homes did not have an approved traffic study from the Kentucky Department of Transportation to share. It is proposed that the development will have three entrance and exit points at Bentwood Hills Drive, Three Mile Road and Moock Road/Fox Chase.
Fischer’s traffic models estimated that 10% of development traffic would leave at the Bentwood Hills entrance to Moock Road, 50% would exit Alexandria Pike, and 40% would go through Three Mile Road.
Many residents expressed concern about Three Mile Road’s narrowness. Vance said that the transportation department owns and operates all of those roads.
“That area from the bridge is very narrow,” Wilder resident Tom Everson said. “Shame on the department of transportation for putting that bridge in. I’m sure at the time they didn’t realize we were going to build this, you know, 1,500 or 1,600 home facility (as of now, 1,186 homes total are proposed across Southgate and Wilder) across the road that time. About a half mile or so down is the Family Worship Center Church. That whole area in front of that church there is all falling over into the creek.”
Fischer envisioned the Overlook at Sunrock as a community similar to Asheville North Carolina. It would have amenities like hiking paths, pocket parks, clubhouses, and pools, and an HOA would maintain the grounds.
The development is projected to generate $31 million in tax revenue for Wilder over 40 years.
Vance said Fischer would be required to come back in multiple stages for any stage two plans (should stage one be approved by the city council.) Any significant changes to the stage one plan would also require reapproval by the planning commission.
Vance said he estimated that the city council would hear a first reading at its June 17 meeting and a final reading and vote at its July 1 meeting.
Greg Fischer sits on the Managing Board of LINK nky, which oversees the business operations of LINK but has no say in editorial matters.