- Boone County Fiscal Court approved a zone change allowing Drees Homes to develop 224 condominium units on 37 acres along North Bend Road.
- Residents raised concerns about traffic, infrastructure and the development’s impact on surrounding properties.
- Drees said it completed a traffic study and worked with KYTC on roadway improvements.
A 224-unit condominium complex project near Hebron has the green light after receiving backing from the Boone County Fiscal Court.
On Aug. 25, the fiscal court approved a zone change request allowing Fort Mitchell-based Drees Homes to develop a 37-acre property located along the west side of North Bend Road between Overlook Drive and Barbara Drive. The property is owned by the Goodridge Family Partnership, Gwen Vice and Nancy Akins, according to Boone County property records.
Specifically, the property’s zoning designation will change from suburban residential two to suburban residential three, allowing a mix of multi-family housing such as stacked condominium units.
In June, the Boone County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval after the request cleared the vetting process.
The townhome development will feature several two-story condominium buildings with garages, along with common areas maintained by the homeowners association. Amenities include a pool, clubhouse, walking paths, and open green spaces.
Understanding NKY’s housing shortage
Our region, according to a housing strategies report released in 2025, lacks sufficient housing for young adults forming their first household; for essential workers like nurses, teachers and first responders; and for older adults. A teacher with a median annual income of $43,740, for example, can afford only 26% of the rental and 16% of the for-sale housing in the region, according to the report. For a restaurant server, only 1% of the region’s rental housing is affordable.
An older person relying on Social Security can also afford only 1% of rental housing in the region, according to the report.
The report, called Home for All: Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies, came to be thanks to more than 90 leaders and experts from across NKY who spent hours studying the region and its urgent housing challenge. Their goal was to close the housing gap across income levels and provide a place for everyone.
Click here to learn more about the shortage and how NKY leaders and community members are stepping in to find solutions.
Although the fiscal court approved it, some residents had voiced skepticism about the project. Some of the primary criticisms centered on the idea that continued development along the corridor could worsen congestion and put additional pressure on roads, schools and other public services.
Brian Maurer, founder of the Boone County is Better community organization, argued that residents’ perspectives should receive greater consideration when deliberating zone change requests that would lead to increased suburban development.
Before a zone change request reaches Boone County Fiscal Court, the full Boone County Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the proposal. During the hearing, residents and other interested parties can speak in favor of or against the proposed development.
The proposal then goes before the planning commission’s Zone Change Committee, which considers information presented during the public hearing along with its own review of the project. If the committee advances the request, it returns to the full planning commission, which votes on whether to recommend approval or denial to fiscal court.
“I would encourage, before any of these decisions are made, to look at the last two decades of Boone County development and see how many people are actually sitting in their cars when they should be at home, or they should be somewhere else, or they should be working, and to understand that all of that is lost value,” Maurer said.
Drees Homes Development Manager Matt Mains said the homebuilder had done its due diligence to minimize the development’s impact on nearby roads, citing a completed traffic study and other commitments to bolster surrounding infrastructure.
“I just do want to stress that we have done a thorough traffic impact study and met multiple times with KYTC (Kentucky Transportation Cabinet),” Mains said. “Ultimately, we try to rely on our traffic engineers and KYTC’s traffic engineers to give us feedback and fact-based understanding. We want safe intersections, and we’re going to make the necessary improvements.”
Boone County Commissioner Chet Hand acknowledged that although traffic remained the primary concern surrounding the development, the available data indicated that the greatest impact would be felt by residents entering and exiting the development.
“From the questions in the last meeting, the biggest concern about traffic impact, and I agree it’s the number one complaint we get,” Hand said. “But it does seem, from all the data and everything else, that people traveling on 237 aren’t really going to see an impact.”
Another concern residents raised during the zone change vetting process was the buffering between the proposed townhomes and existing neighboring properties. Mains said Drees had agreed to move its buildings farther from neighboring single-family homes, increasing the setback to at least 50 feet.
