‘7 pounds of flour in a 5 pound sack.’ Zone change denied for Maxwell apartment complex
A proposal to rezone an area on East Maxwell Street to make way for a 10-story apartment building geared toward University of Kentucky students was voted down Thursday by the Urban County Planning Commission.
The request for the zoning change was made in August as Aptitude Development LLC of Elmwood, New Jersey, worked toward the plan of a building that would accommodate 230 units. The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Planning Commission voted to disapprove the request six to three.
The development would have been in the Lexington Avenue and the Hagerman Court, Stone Avenue area. Several older houses would have been demolished to make way for the structure.
The planning commission staff had recommended approving the proposed zone change, but gave the condition that the development have a maximum height of 75 feet. This would round out to about six floors, and Jacob Walbourn, a lawyer for Aptitude, said that that would not be financially doable.
In order to make the costs of such a large development worthwhile, the tallest part of the building could be no smaller than eight floors, Walbourn told the commission.
Several community members told the commission that they were concerned about bringing that many people, and by extension that many vehicles, to the residential area. The proposed apartment building would have 575 beds and 232 parking spaces in a two-story, ground-level parking garage.
The walkability of the area would mean many students living in the apartments wouldn’t have to bring their cars, Walbourn argued.
Community members argued that students would bring their cars anyway, and that the extra cars would end up flooding street parking in the area.
It would be possible to put more student housing in that area, but the proposed project was so large that it would change the neighborhood, the planning commission’s Frank Penn said Thursday after hearing hours of arguments from involved parties and the community.
Several members of the commission said Thursday that they were conflicted on the proposed project, but Graham Pohl soundly opposed the zone change and the project as a whole. The houses that would be demolished to make way for the project are historic, he argued.
Eight of the houses in question are more than 100 years old, and two are more than 90 years old, said Jessica Winters, an attorney representing the Aylesford Place Neighborhood Association. The houses in question are in disrepair, but community members said that they are not beyond saving.
The vast majority of community members at Thursday’s meeting who spoke were against the zone change and proposed development.
Only one community member spoke in favor of the project, saying that it made sense for there to be more population density in the area. The land in question is about a block from a hospital, he argued.
The land is also about a 9 minute walk from City Center, argued Walbourn. He said that the “anecdotal” borders of downtown were Newtown Pike, Third Street, Midland Avenue and Maxwell Street. Several community members and at least one commission member said they were under the impression that High Street, not Maxwell Street, marked the edge of the city’s downtown “core.”
While multiple commission members said they were in favor of adding population density near downtown, they felt a development this size would change the character of an area like East Maxwell Street.
“I know I want density. I know I want change, or change to be accommodated, but this my old standard problem. I think it’s seven pounds of flour in a five pound sack,” Penn said. “And I say that to say I think student housing can go there, but I think it’s going to change the character of the neighborhood such because of the size of the project.”
Aptitude has other projects underway, including a 10-story luxury student housing building in Louisville dubbed, The Marshall. The project has similarities to the proposed Lexington development, which would have been called The Marshall Lexington.
After voting to disapprove the zoning change Thursday, the commission also voted to postpone a decision on the planned development as a whole. With the zoning change denied, it is unclear how or if the development would move forward.
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 7:32 AM.
