Woodbridge Manor project scheduled for slumber

By Kathy Feist

A handful of people gathered to watch a City Plan Commission meeting webinar at South Patrol’s community room this morning. They were waiting to testify in opposition to preliminary plans for Woodbridge Manor, a 151-single family home development planned for the Red Bridge/Grandview Road area. 

But if anyone had rehearsed their two-minute speech for public testimony, they would have to wait another day. 

The project, for the third time in 20 years, has been put on hold.

“The project has been continued off docket,” announced Katherine Olguim, a resident of Southern Hills.  “This means the project is on hold for an undetermined amount of time. The case will be readvertised if action is decided to put it back on the docket.”

Olguim was reading from an email sent to her from the city’s project manager Genevieve Kohn-Smith, who worked with developers Woodbridge Manor LLC.  The email was sent after a 20-minute closed session which delayed the start of the meeting. 

No reason was given for the sudden change. 

Alvin Brooks, a former city councilman and resident of Southern Hills, believed it was due to the organized opposition. 

Brooks spearheaded the opposition soon after a December 17th neighborhood meeting  hosted by the developer and held at Red Bridge Public Library. 

A petition from five surrounding homes associations was submitted to the Plan Commission on December 29 listing reasons for their opposition to the project. 

The concerns included dynamite blasting, storm water runoff and traffic. 

“There’s so much disadvantage,” Brooks told the Telegraph. “If the City Plan Commission could read the tea leaves and see that there are five developments opposed, then I don’t see how they could pass it.”

The opposing neighborhoods included Southern Hills, St. Catherine’s Gardens, Royal Oaks, Terrace Lakes Gardens and Birchwood Hills. 

Preliminary plans called for 151 homes, priced between $300,000 to $400,000, on 53 acres west of 108th and Grandview Road. Currently the property is heavily wooded and contains streams, a small park and scenic bridge on the west end. 

A plan was first introduced in 2005 for 180 single family homes but was dismissed. 

In 2015, a development plan presented by Automatic Solutions, LLC for 152 homes was approved by the City Council despite opposition. According to a source, funding the project proved challenging.

There’s good reason. 

The property sits on rocky terrain and would require heavy use of dynamite. 

The acreage is also sandwiched between two neighborhoods: St. Catherine’s on its north and Southern Hills on the south. While the current plan shows one exit north into St. Catherine’s and one exit east onto Grandview Road, there are four exits south into the Southern Hills neighborhood. These four exits converge onto one street–Myrtle Street–Southern Hills’ only outlet to Red Bridge Road, the main arterial road. To be approved, the developer would need to create a new road on the west end. The city would also need to widen Red Bridge Road, which has been in the design phase for close to a decade.

Because Woodbridge Manor is at a higher elevation than Southern Hills, water runoff would also have to be dealt with. 

Stunned by the circumstances, attendees at the meeting slowly gathered up their things and left the building.  

“Good job everyone!” shouted Olguim. “Well done!