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Home My WebLink About2024-57 CityClerk From:Curth, Jonathan <jcurth@fayetteville-ar.gov> Sent:Thursday, May 23, 2024 4:31 PM To:Agenda Item Comment Subject:FW: RZN-2024-0018 Good a?ernoon, Please forward the below to the larger City Council regarding RZN-2024-0018, the rezoning submi?ed by Subtext Acquisi?ons for the property between Treadwell and Putnam to the north and south, and Duncan and Hill to the east and west. In appearance, the correspondence is directed to me and the sender has yet to conﬁrm it is for wider distribu?on. However, given reference to it by the applicant and a councilmember at Tuesday's public hearing, it became apparent that it is appropriate to distribute the message to the full Council. Jonathan Curth, AICP Development Services Director Development Services Department City of Faye?eville, Arkansas jcurth@faye?eville-ar.gov 479.575.8308 Website l Facebook l Twi?er l Youtube Jonathan Curth, AICP Development Services Director Reference: RZN-2024-0018. #8 on agenda Mr. Curth, I am part owner with my two sisters of Summit Terrace Apartments/Kerr Investment Company. We acquired this property a?er my father passed away this past October. We all live out of town. One sister lives in Texas. The other lives in North Carolina and I live in Conway. All of us were born and raised in Faye?eville, graduated from the U of A and our children have a?ended the university as well. All three of us and our families are season ?cket holders to the Razorback football games and yes, we all come in town even from Texas and North Carolina for the games!!! I remember helping my dad with the Lions Club as a child collec?ng ?ckets at the games at the gates of both the football and basketball games while he volunteered before we went and sat in our seats. I thought that was so fun! My dad tried to give by way of service. He was named the volunteer of the year with the Veteran's and he volunteered on Thanksgiving to make food baskets through the Elks Lodge. He let Faye?eville high school students park in his empty lot at the apartment house because they did not have enough parking. This is just the kind of man he was and I wanted you to know a li?le something about him and our family. I personally lived in the big white townhouse while going to school, my son and nephew followed in my footsteps as well growing up, my dad had all three of us doing summer "jobs" at the property by cleaning the pool, pain?ng, apartments, picking up trash, etc. my son carried on the tradi?on while he was in school and took care of the mowing, helped with 1 maintenance with his papa. So we all have great memories. My dad has had this property since I was an infant and I remember Sco? and Becky Bull (yes, the Razorback/ pro football player) being his oﬃce manager and several "known" basketball players living in the apartments. One in par?cular, Sco? Has?ngs, teaching me how to dive in the pool! My dad built our families livelihood oﬀ of his four apartment houses and rentals around the campus one apartment house he sold on Maple Street, TWO apartment houses were taken by the university by eminent domain, and then this piece of property was the last piece of property he had le?. My father made us three girls promise to keep this apartment house running as long as we could and not sell un?l a?er his death. We did this. I feel you need a background story on our struggles to make this happen. My mother and father built and ran these proper?es as he was able to ﬁx, repair and build anything. That is how they made this business proﬁtable and successful. Being able to handle all of the maintenance and problems was a huge asset for them. Summit Terrace was actually a nice apartment house to live in back in the day. With that said, 10 years ago, my mother was diagnosed with lung problems and ﬁve years ago, my mother passed away of cancer. a?er she died, my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Over these past 10 years the apartments fell on the wayside a bit. Necessary things were done because we had a manager, but not how Dad usually kept them up. We didn't know what was going on un?l the Alzheimer's diagnosis. But it made sense why the apartments were not maintained to me and my sister's standard. He was unable to get around , let alone ﬁx the things he was usually able to ﬁx in the past. Once we saw the condi?on of the apartment's of at least 10 year's worth of neglect, we knew it was ?me to just maintain them as long as we could to honor dads wishes. These apartments are now being called " aﬀordable living" and it's become a hot topic. I'd like the city to know that we as a family actually discussed trying to keep the property. In our opinion, as it is now, the apartments are beyond just simple repairs. The choice we had to make was to tear all of it down and rebuild or to just sell it. We chose the la?er simply because we all live in diﬀerent states, and it would be very diﬃcult as it is now to keep and maintain apartments. Either way, the aﬀordable living topic that might be the issue, is really a non-issue. If we rebuilt or decided to renovate, our rents would have gone up to reﬂect what we had done . It was a hard decision, trust me. This was Dad's last piece of property and our decision was made with a heavy heart, but due to age and condi?on of the property, we cannot maintain these apartments like they are anymore. It is not cost-eﬀec?ve. I hope this informa?on helps you understand the posi?on we were placed in and why we chose to sell versus tear down and rebuild ourselves and help the city vote to pass the sell of our property. Sincerely, Kassi Kerr Faught Sent from my iPhone 2