The heart of the Kensington historical district is the mansion originally built by Brainard Warner, who in 1891 established Kensington as a residential community based around the newly built railroad station. The mansion is now used as a nursing home and the grounds around it are available to the residents.

Earlier this year the owners of the property decided to sell it to developers who wanted to replace the mansion with housing developments. Hoping to preserve the town’s historical heretige, the town council turned to the county planning board which has a program to buy up “Legacy Open Space Heritage Resources.”

The town approached the Board and thought they had an agreement to buy the property and preserve it, but when it came time to sign the agreement they found out that the Board planned to close the nursing home and build housing on half of the property.

Once again the Planning Board secretly negotiated with developers. Nothing was said to the residents of the Board’s agenda for the property at the town meeting in July. Instead the town was presented with a “take it or leave it” deal.

Confronted with this the town persuaded the Board to postpone signing the agreement and to hold a public meeting on Nov. 28th. Board Chairman Berlage and County Councilman Tom Perez have agreed to participate in the meeting. They are likely to hear some bluntly frank opinions.