Dear Neighbors,

Please HOLD THE DATE for our General Meeting, 7 p.m. Monday, December 9 (at Tates Creek Christian Church, corner of Tates Creek and Albany Roads), a holiday get-together with Mayor and Council invited. Mayor Gorton has accepted and will be speaking, and we will be giving the FCNC’s Neighborhood Hero Award for the first time in several years. Get to know your elected representatives better and visit with other neighborhoods.

Coming up this week are two planning and zoning matters that can affect all Lexington neighborhoods. Each is closely associated with 2018 Comprehensive Plan policies to stimulate growth and development throughout the urban area, especially on corridors. FCNC urges all neighborhoods to get involved by sending letters and taking part in the official meetings this week and beyond.

1. Maxwell Street Up-Zoning

A Maxwell Street zone change request before Planning Commission on Thursday, Nov. 21 seeks to extend downtown-business zoning past High Street directly to the UK boundary, near Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church. To clear the way for a proposed 10-story, 575-bed, 208-unit student apartment building up to 122 feet tall including two floors (232 spaces) of garage parking, 12 houses built in the early 1900s on Maxwell and Stone Avenues would be demolished. Granting the requested B-2A zone change would offer major incentive to eradicate an entire block-front lying within a district certified as historic at the local, state, and national levels, while the surrounding public and private properties have invested heavily in restoration and adaptive re-use. This longstanding, largely two-story residential area with diverse housing choices, pedestrian-friendly streetscape, and significant mature tree canopy belongs to the Southeast Lexington district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Planning staff in this case has recommended that the Planning Commission approve the zone change with a height limit of 75 feet (some 6-7 stories) along Maxwell Street. Aylesford Place Neighborhood Association, joined by many of FCNC’s central-Lexington historic neighborhoods, urges all to come to the Planning Commission hearing Thursday, and/or send letters to the Commission (NOT Council members at this point) at planningmailbox@lexingtonky.gov.

2. Accessory Dwelling Units

FYI – Tuesday November 19, the “Accessory Dwelling Unit” (ADU) or “granny flats” zoning text amendment (ZOTA) will be received by the Council. That is TODAY. Council is expected to send it to its Planning and Public Safety Committee for further study, probably not before February. Council could, however, docket it directly for a final vote, or take no action at all. FCNC feels confident that the ADU ZOTA will go to committee and not be placed on the docket for immediate approval. Even so, we want our members to know the recent history of the issue with the Planning Commission.

Background: Content of the ZOTA file is here. In short, if adopted, this new provision in the zoning regulations would allow second dwellings (apartments or backyard houses) of up to 800 square feet (625 s.f. in rare cases) on single-family lots in all residential zones throughout the city except in the high-rise R-5 zone. Building and apartment design (height, yards, footprint, etc.) would be regulated in large part like design of any other accessory unit, such as a new addition or garage.

At its October 21 hearing, Planning Commission modified the proposed ADU ZOTA before unanimously recommending approval to the Urban County Council. Final changes to the ZOTA were:

1. The property owner must occupy one of the two dwellings as a permanent residence, agreeing to a deed restriction on record at the County Clerk’s office. Releasing the owner from the residency requirement (for example, when a property is sold) requires removal of the ADU. ZO 3-12(n, o). Seemingly, release of the residency requirement would open up the property for use as a short-term rental.

2. A conference with Planning staff is required before applying for a building permit, to discuss ADU design, issues, and requirements. ZO 3-12(a).

3. Occupancy in the ADU is limited to two persons plus any children. ZO 3-12(m).

4. To be used as a short-term rental (e.g., Airbnb) requires a conditional use permit, with mailed public notice within 500 feet of the property and a Board of Adjustment hearing.

FCNC position: FCNC does not support the ADU ZOTA as proposed and amended. It is at best premature, or of negligible impact (with the newly-added restrictions, Planning staff expect at most 20 ADUs permitted per year). It includes as yet few constraints and safeguards to ensure that the added dwellings (detached ones especially) fit the context, or will bear the costs of increased public services and infrastructure, or will be located in zones or neighborhoods where citizens welcome them. FCNC urges every neighborhood to write the Council ASAP to make their wishes known, and to ask that the proposed ADU ZOTA not be adopted outright.

FCNC does support the Ten Priorities of a diverse group of urban neighborhood members who stand to suffer most from the adverse effects of ADUs allowed citywide. First and foremost, ADU ordinances should not be considered for adoption before comprehensive rental licensing and inspection is in place and effective throughout Lexington. Otherwise the new rules — the owner-residency requirement and the limit of two additional unrelated adult occupants where the principal dwelling may already have four — are made only to be broken, ignored, or repealed at the earliest opportunity. We will be posting the “Ten Priorities” on the FCNC website (FCNC.org).

Enforcement of existing standards is a critical need for neighborhoods across Lexington. Code and zoning enforcement are needed– for neighborhood safety and stability, for environmental sustainability, and to reduce overcrowding — before the city permits any flexible new opportunities for rental on single-family lots. “Complaint-driven” enforcement, which is currently the standard, is not an effective or equitable policy. Low-income tenants fear reprisal or displacement if they report substandard housing, and neighborhoods with a high proportion of rental property are likely to be abandoned to neglect. Neighbors cannot and should not be vigilantes; enforcement is the city’s job.

A good ADU policy will also have safeguards against disparate impact. It is plain that Lexington, as a growing university and tourist center, will find ADUs concentrated in vulnerable areas near the University and city center, where rents can be set highest and most lots are relatively small. Measures to better regulate short-term rentals in general (Airbnb, etc.) are still under development in the Council Planning and Public Safety Committee and are not yet instituted. For short-term use of ADUs, the conditional use permit process proposed has yet to establish specific, effective conditions to regulate the use.

The above summarizes the FCNC’s position on the ADU issue’s progress through the Planning Commission and reactions of the FCNC constituency. We also feel that our members need to know what is coming up for the Council – a very busy time for issues. On the LFUCG calendar are these additional ongoing issues that will be considered shortly by the Council:

· Rethinking Electric Scooters and the Party Plan

· The Planning Commission adopted a provision last week to post a sign at all stub streets to signal their intended connections as through streets.

· Expediting the Zone-Change Process for Developers. The FCNC strongly opposes this change, which would make into ordinance any zone changes approved by the Planning Commission only, without official voted approval by the elected Council unless a properly defined and documented “aggrieved person” files a request for a Council vote. This proposal is currently in the Council Planning and Public Safety Committee.

· A new signage ordinance has passed the Planning Commission and would increase the size of signage and permit more types of content. FCNC efforts were able to restrict the size of signs on single-family lots to two square feet each.

· A year-long, $225,000 Nicholasville Road corridor study comes before Council on Thursday for final contract approval which will recommend transportation improvements and prepare a plan for intensifying residential and commercial land development along the corridor end-to-end in order to support rapid-transit buses.

· Other upcoming transportation contracts include a study of the top ten traffic congestion spots in Lexington, with recommendations for improvements ($225,000); and a south Lexington/north Jessamine connectivity study ($250,000) that seems to be aimed at developing an I-75 connector.

Although the year-end holidays are nearing, this is an intensely important time for neighborhoods in Lexington. Please know how important your neighborhood is in informing our local officials of what neighborhoods desire as part of their community. As well, please help FCNC to disseminate the information above to all neighborhoods. We look forward to seeing you at the December 9 event, for friendly socialization and having a pleasant time visiting with each other.

Walt Gaffield, President
Fayette County Neighborhood Council, Inc.