The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved the continuation of a plan to expand student housing, authorizing the president to develop three additional residence halls with 1,610 undergraduate beds at the Cooperstown site, on Woodland Avenue, by August 2015, according to a press release.
Currently, two student housing facilities are already being built at the Cooperstown site, Woodland Glen I and II, which are scheduled to be open by August 2014. When Woodland Glen I, II and III, which were recently approved, open in 2015, more than 2,000 students could live at the site.
But some residents in nearby neighborhoods, such as Columbia Heights, Hollywood and Aylesford, are anxious about the effects this large influx of undergraduate students could have on the area.
Amy Clark lives on Kastle Road and has been active in the town-and-gown discussion between the university and the neighborhoods. Clark says she and many of her neighbors like the vibrance of the university district and its diversity.
"We want to be a little tolerant of people having a good time," she says. "But with this huge population increase massed right at our borders, we're concerned. Last year Cooperstown was seven low-lying buildings with 314 graduate and family apartments. In two years it will be five high-density buildings housing over 2,000 undergraduates, mostly freshmen. That's a lot to live with."
There are issues the university will have to address, she believes. "We're hearing a lot from South Hill lately about late-night revelers headed back from the Limestone entertainment district to the new housing around Broadway-- noisy and even smashing things. Too much of that, and homeowners start to move out."
Clark applauds the university's campaign to draw more students back on campus with convenient modern housing. But with housing rates for these premium dorms priced at over $3,000 a semester per student for a shared room (and nearly $5,000 for a single room), Clark worries the rates of the new dorms might actually push more students to consider nearby off-campus opportunities.
(A semester is roughly four and a half months long, Clark figures, which equals nearly $700 a month per student in a shared room, much more for a single room.)
"These rates are shocking. A freshman's dorm room can run as much as the family mortgage," she says.
It's only affordable campus dormitories that can really take the pressure off the neighborhoods, Clark believes.