FIELDSTONE: An apartment disaster

In an undated letter to the Fieldstone homeowners, Viking Homes says apartment complexes complement the single family homes that surround them. If Viking is so proud of the apartment complexes it has built and how they “complement” (whatever that means) the developments, why wouldn’t they have made that feature a salient point in their brochures and advertisements when promoting Fieldstone? The answer is simple and Viking knows it. If you would have told prospective buyers that there would be 35-40-foot high three-story apartments in close proximity to their future homes, buyers would have walked away and those lots with a view of three-story apartments instead of the beautiful surroundings would still be for sale.

Viking says they have “never told anyone that there would be no apartments in Fieldstone.” I challenge the truthfulness of that statement. I have talked to too many homeowners who say the opposite is true. And why would 219 and counting homeowners suddenly sign a petition opposing the apartment complex if they knew that these apartments were going to be in their community when they first purchased their homes. My wife and I purchased our home in the fall of 2008, in the 6th Edition. At no time during our deliberation or closing were we told that there were going to be apartments in the 7th or 8th Edition or anywhere for that matter. Nor did any renderings on display in Viking’s sales office show apartments, let alone three-story ones.

I think Viking duped a lot of homebuyers for not being forthcoming about the apartments. And shame on the Planning and Zoning Department and the City Council for approving what will be the highest buildings in Post Falls only to be located in a single family residential community. You should all be required to live next to a three-story apartment house complex.

NORMAN J. SCHNIDER

Post Falls