Lefton: Kent has 'Glut' of Student Housing
Kent State president critical of Kent's private housing market following university trustees meeting
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If you ask Kent State University President Lester Lefton about private student housing in Kent, he'll tell you the Tree City has too much.
"There is, if anything, a glut," Lefton said Wednesday.
The response followed the Kent State Board of Trustees meeting in Twinsburg and was prompted by a question from a reporter.
"I've been quite vocal over the last three years saying we don't need more private development housing," Lefton said.
To start this school year Kent saw the opening of three large student apartment complexes that brought more than 1,700 new beds targeted at student renters. The large influx of new student apartments includes the University Oaks and University Edge complexes.
The third large complex, The Province at Kent, experienced construction delays that forced some students to be housed temporarily in hotel rooms to start the new year.
The university has scuttled student dormitories in recent years by demolishing much of the former Small Group residence hall complex and by systematically shutting down Allerton Apartments.
Lefton said the university has no plans to build new student residence halls despite recent record-setting enrollment numbers. He said any further growth would be due to improved retention rates of existing and incoming students.
He called the idea to create more student housing in Kent a "bad investment."
"Because we're not going to continue to grow our student body until we're 65,000 students," Lefton said. "We're not done, but we are asymptoting because we don't expect to increase the size of the freshman class overall."
Christy Collins
2:46 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Well a day late and a dollar short. My property value has fallen due to the fact of this massive complex let alone the increased traffic. My heart bleeds for you Mr Lefton
Christy Collins
2:56 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
To my previous comment, let's not forget the beer cans, liquor bottles and trash that is thrown in the yards right down from the providence
Christy Collins
3:12 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
What were Mr Lefton's feelings when the residents of the South Lincoln ,School St, Valleyview and Bowman streets expressed their concerns
J Madison
4:46 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
$600,000 a year Lefton sure didn't have anything to say when they evicted all those old retired people from Silver Oaks to add more student housing! If anything, he and the University gave tacit approval of screwing-over the old people by standing by and creating the impression that much more student housing was needed. Karma is a you-know-what, and I cannot wait until KSU, Lefton and the City of Kent get what is coming to them for allowing that whole fiasco to occur!
Pat
4:48 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Or Silver Oaks--he really didn't care about the seniors did he. He actually was spotted by one of the residents showing the investors the property. He needs to live in our neighborhoods instead of River Bend.
Dennis M. Coble
6:05 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Things are looking much worse on Horning and Rhodes Roads as the hundreds of cars zip along at 50+ mph. Maybe attention will be paid after a few deadly accidents. Sad situation.