Kempsville Lake Community Assn

06/11/08

Let's take back our neighborhood

by debioukid at Citysearch

I have lived in Kempsville Lake for about six years now. I have to agree with the comments below. The neighborhood has become quite disturbing because of the hoodlums hanging everywhere. One of my roomates was held up right off of Weller Blvd. by hoodlums with a gun. I have to say I believe it lies with the management. I have been complaining about them for a couple years now, and they are still there. Too busy fining people for leaving out trash cans, mold on siding, etc. We need to take our neighborhood back. It is a convenient place to live, the homes are really nice and roomy, but who wants to live in fear? Where are their parents? It's time to speak with them, and if they don't live there, they need to go.

01/29/09

Crime ridden Kempsville Lakes!

by KvilleLakes at Citysearch

Wow! What a deceiving place Kempsville Lakes is! I am a 24 year old female, who currently lives with her parents in Kempsville Lakes. My parents own our town house and we have been here since I was 1. It is incredible the changes (for the worse) that the neighborhood has taken. I do not recommend anyone renting or buying here. There is so much crime that happens here that isn't publicized. For the first time in who knows how long crime activity was actually reported on the News this morning that took place here 2 nights ago. There was a DRIVE-BY! A drive-by, people! This happened on Marlwood Way which is one street over from where we live. Apparently there was an altercation at the BP across from Farm Fresh on Baxter Rd. and someone followed a resident of Kempsville Lakes home and shot at several different town houses late 01/27/09. Not to mention on Kenley Rd. a couple of weeks ago a man's home was broken into and the homeowner was shot. Aside from all of that, people's cars are stolen here on the regular. DO NOT start your cars in the morning to warm them up and leave them unattended.

My point is this is such a deceptive neighborhood. It used to be nice. My friends and I used to roam the streets without any worries. You can't do that now though. If you drive through the neighborhood during the day it looks so inviting. There is not much graffiti, nice calm lake, pool, playground, etc. Don't be fooled! Drive through here late at night on a weekend and the hoodlums are out and so are the police patrolling. Actually, police should be patrolling here much more than they do. I hope the crime activity continues to be reported on the News too. People have no idea how dangerous the neighborhood actually is. It's sad. I can't wait til my parents have the money to move!

• Pros: Lake, Pool, Playground
• Cons: Insane amount of crime!!!!

01/10/09

Crime Striken Neighborhood

by blondie0277 at Citysearch

Let's open up here and give a little useful incite as to what type of neighborhood Kempsville Lakes really is. My family and I have been residents of this neighborhood for 3 yrs. In the 3yrs since we've become residents of this neighborhood, I've seen quite a bit of crime. I'm just going to list a few crime activities that have occurred on my street alone: 1). An innocent man beaten with a baseball bat by 3 ruthless individuals. 2). One victim's truck was broken into with his cellphone, his change console, and other items taken. 3). Another victim having a $400.00 bike stolen: ATTACHED TO HIS VEHICLE. 4). Just less that a week ago, a women had her vehicle stolen directly out of her driveway prior to leaving for work. Like most drivers, she was just simply warming her car up prior to beginning her day.

At the present while I'm sitting here typing at my computer, patrol cars are busy looking for a suspect. This morning 3 men to evaded a vehicle that they had just stolen. They captured one suspect, but the other escaped and is currently loose in the neighborhood. So, you tell me if management has performed their expected duties? Each homeowner is required to pay an association fee. You explain to me and other homeowners where their fees are being contributed. I'll tell you where, maybe it was to replace the pansies that were recently uprooted in the flowerbeds at each entrance. Here's a tip to solve flowering thief's, PLANT PERENNIALS! They last year round. For Pete sake, nothing is being done by management or anyone else to lower the crime rate.

Here's a few ideas that could potentially lower the crime statistics: 1). Place surveillance cameras at each entrance into the neighborhood. 2). Make this community a gated community. 3). Hire an armed security patrol. I failed to mention a goose that became a victim as well. She had been an icon here at Kempsville Lakes for over 15yrs. Ask yourself this, is this a neighborhood for you and your family to reside in?

• Pros: Delightfull pool, lake, and playground
• Cons: WAY TOO MUCH CRIME ACTIVITY!!!!!!!!!

07/23/08

Renting is okay, but I wouldn't buy.....Ask Police Dept how often they're here and if you have kids, drive through on a Friday night before you move in

by virginiagirl68 at Citysearch

My husband and I decided to rent in Virginia Beach before buying to see if we liked the area first. We have rented for one year in Kempsville Lakes and we really like our townhome, our neighbors and our section of the street. Everyone right here is pretty friendly and quiet. However, we are glad we did not buy here. We have three children who I usually rode to and from school all year because of the kids on the bus. I have read the other comments on this site, and it's true...there are ALOT of unsupervised children in this neighborhood. I'm not sure what the management could do differently though. The only time I walk around the lake is first thing in the morning to avoid the teen scene that likes to hang out around the lake every single afternoon. I've driven into the neighborhood at night when there would be twenty to forty teens just hanging out at the end of Kenley Ave. Don't know what could be done, though. I will say, however, that we DO use the pool and I've never had any problems. When I was a teenager, pool lifeguards spent more time goofing off and flirting than watching the swimmers. These lifeguards are young, but they always seem to have an eye on what's going on in the pool and all seem very friendly. Most importantly....they are actually watching the swimmers. All in all, I'm glad we rented here, but we will not be buying here. Sometimes at night there are even teens just walking up and down the street "looking" at people's homes. My neighbor stopped a young man recently going from one car to another trying to open them late at night. I will say that on Halloween, there were plenty of police out patrolling the area and that there are often police out here just checking things out. I keep a close eye on my own children. Our rent has been $1200 out here, but it was worth it to know we rented instead of having a mortgage here we can't get out of. We're buying elsewhere. It's okay, but not a place I want my kids to grow up in.

• Pros: Close to everything, pool, park for children
• Cons: ALOT of teens hanging out at night, vandalism, many unsupervised children daily

07/02/08

Lets stop whining & blaming management for our failures

by ddsunshine78 at Citysearch

People when is your common sense going to kick in? Please tell me how you expect a single manager & small staff for this community to control unruly kids. If the kids are unruly & the parents are not making efforts to raise productive children, just how do you expect the community staff to do the parents? job for them? I have lived in the community for 12 years & yes, I have also seen a change in the community, but it has nothing to do with the manager. A manager?s job is to cause the care & maintenance of the common areas, such as pool, playground, & tennis court. Common areas do not include the individual homes in the community or the streets which are city owned. Now, let?s talk about what a manager?s job is not! Managers cannot be responsible for controlling children or their equally unruly parents! Fancy this though for a moment...if the police can?t do anything, how can the manager? If you have problems, call the police like everyone else does! The residents expect management to hold their hands & fix all of the problems so the way I see it, management isn't the problem, the whining residents are. Why do people choose to live in homeowner?s association? Part of the reason I believe is, to preserve the community, but the other reason, is so residents have someone to call & complain to when things aren?t going their way. Your common sense should tell you to put your trashcan away, keep the weeds out of your cracks, & mow the lawn. We can't blame the community manager for our failure to raise respectable children! Instead, maybe the community should come together & try & put an end to the number of rentals in the community. Maybe if there were fewer owners just trying to turn a buck & collect a rent check, we could restore Kempsville Lake. Just do this?before placing blame on Management, ask yourself, what you have done to improve the community? There is one manager, but there are 1200 homes with residents that have done little to help!

07/02/08

~~Stop placing blame on the management who does have the authority of the police dept~~

by adasweetness at Citysearch

I have read all the reviews on Kempsville Lake and I can say yes that there are a lot of "children/young adults" that are out of control and the parents are allowing the streets to raise them, but who are we to blame the management staff when I believe there is only three members on the staff and the streets are owned by the City of Virginia Beach. We as homeowers/residents of Kempsville Lake need to take our neighborhood back and the more we call the police the more patrols we will get and clear out the unwanted people in the community. How can we blame our association management staff for doing their jobs? Read the POA docs you got when you purchased your home, they are doing what they are supposed to be doing to keep the neighborhood a desirable place to live and keep our property values up. They do not work 24/7 and are not required to be security for our community. People complain about all the problems, but there is only a handful of us who have gone door to door to try to start the Neighborhood Watch program and the rest are too busy or not interested, so if we do not take interest in our own neighborhood how can be expect it to be a nice, quiet place to live? Its easier to blame someone else, but it is time that we come together as a community and get our "nice" neighborhood back. We all need to watch out for our neighbors and our neighborhood. If you see something is not right pick up the phone and call the police. Put our tax dollars to work. We need to pull together to clean up our neighborhood. Stop fighting against one another and come together and before we judge someone else we need to walk a mile in there shoes. If there wasn't a management staff to complain to who would we complain to? All I can say is we need to pull together as a community and take back our neighborhood.

• Pros: Great location, Great home value appreciation
• Cons: The amount of children not being supervised

06/06/08

Neighborhood problems

by nellis315 at Citysearch

I have lived in kempsville Lake for almost a year now as a renter. Renters are not thought too highly of in this neighborhood. Not all renters are bad but the stereotypes are terrible in this community. We pay $200.00 a year in community fees and we are not allowed at the community meetings and have no voice in the community because we don't own that $200.00 is for pool privilages! Whoopee, I wouldn't use their pool if you paid me. I don't let my 10 year old son go out without supervison, the older punks in the neighborhood pick on the younger ones. The loud music from the cars flying up and down the streets is terrible, vandalism is rampat, it is on the border of beng a hood to be honest. It is NOT cheap to live there either. All the community cares about is if I have grass growing in the cracks of my driveway or if I have weeds in my flowerbed. If my gutter is straight. There is a man who actually walks around the neighborhhod and writes this stuff up to mail out to you. How about fixing the REAL problems like the kids who cause problems and the punk adults who act like punk kids. Sure tell me to move if I don't like it, well as a taxpayer and a law abiding citizen I shouldn't have to! Just be aware of your surroundings before you commit to this area (Virginia Beach and Kempsville Lake) in general!

• Pros: nice homes
• Cons: punk kids, vandalism, crime

05/05/08

Buyer beware!

by slee77 at Citysearch

Two years ago we thought we were making a good investment by buying our first home here. Now it seems the neighborhood has been overtaken by young punks that troll the streets looking for the next house to break into. It is a huge problem, and it does not appear that management is taking a proactive approach to making things safer. They seem more concerned with little things like mold on vinyl siding or a leaky gutter. Our "neighborhood watch" is made up of concerned citizens who have to spend their spare time looking out for suspicious people instead of enjoying their homes. Kempsville Lakes walks a very fine line between a respectable Virginia Beach neighborhood and a slum. It is in a very desirable part of the city, so I agree there is a lot of potential, but that won't matter if the tide doesn't start to change.

11/13/07

has potential

by honestabes at Citysearch

The area is central and shows great potential. However I agree with the last review. It seems the Association is more agressive towards fining families for leaving their trash can on the curb following trash day, and other little things like painting your trim than they are concerned with safety. It seems that hoodlems run the association, you cant walk the lake without seeing 10-20 of them hanging around the lake and the last time my wife walked around it she had a fake gun pointed at her and they acted like they were shooting at her(atleast we hope it was fake). Also were does our association fees go to? They say they resurfaced the walking path around the lake(that you cant peacefully walk around anymore) Also they fixed the pool were once again few people go because they hoodlems find their way there in the summer with no supervision when they should be made to have an adult present. I am glad that I am leaving.

• Pros: location
• Cons: hoodlems loitering around the lake

10/26/07

This neighborhood needs new management

by anoblekree at Citysearch

I have lived in KempsLakes for many years and it's gone down hill since the newest manager took over in the community office. Due to poor planning the neighborhood pool was opened a month late and most problems that arise throughout the neighborhood are neglected. Seems she's too busy to actually do her job. As someone who plans to move from the area, I know by advising people not to move here I could be shooting myself in the foot. But as I see it, if nothing is said, nothing will change. It's time for some house cleaning in the office at Kempsville Lakes in Virginia Beach.

• Pros: Near town center, this neighborhood has potential!
• Cons: The assocication need better leadership.