• 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.

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Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Temple University this week where he promoted his $5 million program to address Pennsylvania’s nursing shortage. The initiative, aimed at bolstering the state’s healthcare workforce through tuition assistance and hospital partnerships, is part of the governor’s 2025-26 budget.

The Nurse Shortage Assistance Program would provide funding to hospitals that collaborate with nursing schools, helping cover tuition costs for students who commit to working in Pennsylvania hospitals for at least three years after graduation. The goal, state officials say, is to increase nurse retention and expand the “pipeline” of professionals entering the field.

“We need to take action now to address Pennsylvania’s nursing shortage, and my budget makes strategic investments to do just that,” Shapiro said. “By expanding education programs, providing tuition assistance and strengthening workforce pipelines, we can ensure hospitals have the skilled professionals they need to deliver high-quality patient care.”

The proposal comes as hospitals across the state report staffing challenges. A recent survey by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania found that 14% of nursing positions remain unfilled. The shortage is projected to grow, with an estimated 20,000 additional nurses needed in the state by 2026.

Shapiro was joined at the event by Nancy Walker, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, who said the effort is coming “at a crucial time.”

“This is really a crisis right now,” Walker said. “We have an aging population in Pennsylvania, so these numbers are just going to continue to go up over the next 10 years.”

The nursing shortage in Pennsylvania reflects a broader national trend. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing projects that 900,000 nurses, or about one-fifth of the registered nurses in the U.S., intend to leave the workforce by 2027. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that jobs in the field will additionally increase by that number over the next 10 years, as well.

The governor’s plan appears to build on existing efforts at schools like Temple Health, which launched their Nurse Scholar Program last year. That initiative offers students up to $40,000 in tuition assistance in exchange for a two- to three-year commitment to work at Temple Health after graduation. To date, the program has received nearly 200 applications from students at 18 partner schools.