Kensington... Oh Kensington...

At the August 25, 2026 BOCC meeting, the board discussed the Kensington access to the new Home Depot in Inverness.

To catch you up... back in March of 2025, the BOCC approved a request by Citrus Hills to allow Kensington to be used for an access point for Home Depot. There was a bit of discussion back then about this and residents showed up stating it was a bad idea. Despite this and the recommendation by the county engineers, the commissioners voted to approve it anyway.

However, part of that approval was to leave the final determination on how it looks up to the county engineer. He would have to sign on off on the design to ensure that it was safe and all of that.

A concrete median popped up and people were shocked. No one expected to see that and the tenants in the plaza on the west side of Kensington were upset that it was blocking left turns into their plaza. Their customers had to drive down and make a U-Turn.

At the August 25, 2026 meeting, commissioners admitted they got it wrong and should not have approved it (duh).

Commissioner Finegan said:

"Honestly, where we messed up, and I was a part of that, is we needed to listen to the county engineer back when it wasn't recommended to use Kensington..."

Commissioner Davis agreed:

"I think that what you just said, that we do make mistakes up here, and I sat with staff yesterday and said 'why did we approve this again?'... and he basically said we were against it... and I said... 'wow, I normally actually listen to experts. Im sorry'..."

Going back to that March 2025 meeting, even the county attorney chimed in:

"The drawing that has been in existence since 1970-something, has no access to Kensington. It was always supposed to be in or out from those 5 [entrances] and was always supposed to go along that reverse frontage road [Crown of Roses]..."

Umm... not even sure what to say. Everyone knew it was a bad idea, yet commissioners approved it anyway... likely due to who was making the request (Citrus Hills).. and now most of them are complaining that this is the result of their decision. Blows my mind.

In any case, it was approved and now the commissioners are frustrated that this median got put in place, despite them approving it only if staff approved the intersection modifications.

I have seen some people online stating that no road expert has approved this plan for the raised median and that its crazy that it was put in... well I did some research.

Here is a memo sent to commissioners from Ken Cheek, the county engineer on August 10, 2026.

Here are some relevant quotes.

So Kimley Horn (engineering firm) are the ones that proposed the raised median. This was due to the Level of Service of this intersection dropping from an "A" to "C" after Home Depot traffic studies were done.

This raised median was proposed to help mitigate the traffic concerns of using Kensington.

There was talk by commissioners about a plan for a cross-hatched design, but that was never submitted by the engineers, but it was later discussed and decided it would not work.

At some point in the future, expect to see a "No U-Turn" sign on the median to prevent people from making U-Turns in front of Home Depot.

More importantly, our county engineer, whom I would consider an expert, is stating that the restrictive median to limit movement is appropriate.

So can we stop with the "no expert has stated this is good"... There it is in black and white. Our expert has stated it is necessary and appropriate... and this is the result of commissioners voting for this access point.

Further, it is discussed that the plaza shares cross access with Holiday Inn, yet that cross access is blocked. So staff has suggested that they work with the hotel to re-open that cross access and that would provide easier access from 44 into the plaza.

Now yes, that is an increased cost to both property owners who share that cross access, but again... that was a county commission decision to allow this Kensington access and it was staff that was tasked with making it safe. Removing the median in their opinion does not make it safer.

Another interesting thing I found... Citrus Hills is wanting impact fee credits for their work on the intersection to the tune of $2,411,639. The county has so far pushed back and has said the improvements do not qualify for credits since they were required by the development to begin with.

But more importantly, the level of service of the road dropped.

So the road access is WORSE now that Home Depot is there and the improvements made to the roads than it was before Home Depot was there.

Again, why did commissioners approve this?