Months after the Firwood Lanes mobile home park’s last residents vacated ahead of a planned redevelopment, the site still contains mobile homes and trash, which has divided opinions among neighbors.
The park was closed at the end of April, with many homeowners moving their trailers. Some trailers, which were too old to relocate, were abandoned. Texas-based PSW Real Estate bought the park a year earlier and plans to develop nearly 20 luxury homes on the site.
For Larry Youman, the large piles of trash still on-site have raised environmental concerns.
“The garbage dump is right next door,” he said.
Youman said he had contacted both city and federal officials about the trash.
Other neighbors the Reporter contacted said they didn’t mind the construction or trash and were happy to see new homes going in behind them.
PSW Real Estate Division President Ben Rutkowski said in an email that they hope to have the trailers and trash removed by the end of August and mobilized a crew last week to clean up the site.
Construction of the new homes should begin by the end of the year, where some 19 homes will be constructed, ranging from 2,500 to 3,500 square feet.
The new neighborhood will be called Clear Creek and will utilize low-impact development design which will mitigate environmental impacts to a stream which runs along the property.
These features will include stormwater dry wells and dispersion trenches, roadside rain gardens, an enhanced stream buffer and reduced roadway widths to decrease water-impervious surface area, Rutkowski said.
Kirkland Senior Planner Tony Leavitt said he’d received some calls from neighbors about the park. PSW Real Estate had submitted amended permit applications in June for utility installation which have since been issued, but as of Aug. 11 had not been picked up by the company, he said.
City spokesperson Kathy Cummings said one code violation complaint had been opened against PSW Real Estate in April, but had since been resolved.
Firwood residents were notified in 2013 that the park would be put up for sale, and PSW Real Estate purchased the 3.4 acre property in February 2015 for $3.2 million, around $1.33 million more than the county tax history recorded its appraisal value.
Firwood Lane was the last mobile home park in Kirkland.
