• Jason Kelce is trying to build another home on his Haverford, Pennsylvania estate.
• Neighbors were concerned that construction could lead to a higher chance of flooding in the area.
• Kelce also got permission to add a fence for “unique” security concerns.

Super Bowl champ Jason Kelce recently faced some new opponents: his neighbors.

In 2018, the former NFL offensive lineman started buying neighboring properties in Haverford, Pennsylvania, an upscale suburb of Philadelphia. During a February 20 Haverford Township zoning board meeting, Kelce answered questions about his application to disturb the slopes on his property to build a fourth home and add a fence to his now 10-acre estate.

At least one Haverford resident said in the hearing that they worried changing the inclines on Kelce’s property would change the water runoff patterns and lead to flooding of neighboring properties.

Kelce left the meeting with a win: approval from the board. Kelce — who played all 13 seasons of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles and now has a hit podcast with his NFL star brother Travis — and his wife Kylie Kelce have three daughters five and under with another girl on the way.

Other celebrities trying to develop their properties have butted heads with neighbors. Take Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who the Daily Mail was first to report irked some English neighbors after buying a home in the bucolic Cotswolds region. According to minutes from the local government cited by the Independent, parish councilors feared that an addition and a fence the couple were adding to their property would increase the risk of local flooding and possibly endanger historic Roman ruins. The council ultimately found the work was done well and deemed the ruins safe.

While Kelce’s plans faced some opponents, he overcame them relatively smoothly.

Kelce and his lawyer Ji Min Jun, who was present at the meeting, could not be reached for additional comment.

The Kelces started buying up property in Haverford in 2018

Delaware County, Pennsylvania, records show Kelce bought his first piece of land in Haverford, a 1-acre property with a four-bedroom home already on it, for $680,000 in 2018. He bought a neighboring property in 2020 for $3.96 million and another one for $1.35 million in 2023.

Haverford, known in part for the small liberal arts college named for it, has a population of about 50,000.

Kelce, his lawyer, and his civil engineer appeared at the February 20 zoning meeting to explain more about what the Kelces wanted to do on the property.

Adding a fence would “deter a little bit of the foot traffic coming in and out of the home,” Kelce said at the meeting.

Building a fence and an additional home would, however, “disturb steep slopes” on the property, Jun said.

Neighbor Wendy De La Rosa stepped forward to find out more about how changing the slopes would affect flooding in the neighborhood.

“That whole area does have issues with water runoff,” she said. “Especially if there’s not going to be any mitigation during the construction period, we want to understand so there’s no flooding in the backyard for our kid.”

Timothy Davis, a civil engineer for the project, quelled concerns about increased runoff by arguing that the construction should result in better water collection than before.

The board approved the zoning variance for the Kelces to continue working on their fourth home, and board member William Rhodes added the condition that “all stormwater runoff shall be managed by the applicant so as not to adversely affect any neighboring property.”

At the meeting, Jun also said that a home on one of the properties has already been demolished, and construction on the new house has begun. The fence was also approved.