‘You blew it.’ New commercial building approved in a historic Black neighborhood
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With reluctance, a board that oversees Lexington historic districts approved a new one-story commercial building in a historic Black neighborhood.
The Board of Architectural Review, which oversees the city’s 16 historic districts, approved the construction of a new one-story commercial building Wednesday that will become office space for a real estate agency, and a new retail clothing shop at 2986 Cadentown Road, which is in the Cadentown historic district, a traditionally Black neighborhood which dates back to the 1860s and was founded by freed slaves.
The property is on the corner of Cadentown and Old Todds roads.
In order to get its certificate of appropriateness, building owner Matt Guanieri must show historic preservation staff designs for a fence, plans for outdoor lighting and discuss a berm to be constructed on the property, among other conditions.
But several Cadentown residents urged the board to reject the application, saying it did not belong in the historic Cadentown neighborhood. The historic district includes houses along Cadentown Road, Caden Lane and Old Todds Road.
Alvin Seals said his family has had a home in the area since the late 1860s, as have many Black families. Seals said in the early 2000s, facing the threat of development along Old Todds Road, the neighborhood worked with the city to get the necessary signatures to make Cadentown a historic district, commonly called an H-1.
There are no businesses within the historic district, Seals said.
“If you allow other businesses into this territory, others businesses will come in,” Seals said.
Kimberly Robinson, another Cadentown resident, said the newly constructed building is not in keeping with the guidelines for a historic district.
“I don’t think the building is within the guidelines for our neighborhood,” Robinson said. The building will have lighting in the back and 23-parking spaces. The entrance will be off of Cadentown Road.
The proposed building is across the street from a CVS Pharmacy. There’s also a lot of traffic that comes out of the back of Todds Center.
“Adding another business to the area is going to create more traffic,” Robinson said.
Rev. Leon Slatter of the Cadentown Baptist Church said there were inconsistencies in how the city enforces its historic preservation districts. What seems to be okay in one area is forbidden in other historic districts, Slatter said.
“There is no consistency,” Slatter said. “Do you represent big business? You blew it.”
The property at the corner of 2986 Cadentown Road has been zoned B-1, or a business zone, since the late 1960s. A building that was previously on the property was torn down.
The property was already a business zone when the historic district was created more than 20 years ago, said Bettie Kerr, the director of historic preservation.
Amelia Armstrong, preservation specialist with the city’s Historic Preservation Division, told the board the roof and other parts of the commercial building met the design standards for new buildings in a historic district.
Still, members of the board said they were frustrated the design guidelines seemed not to address appropriateness of new commercial construction in a business zone in a historic district.
“I think this is really unfortunate that this is zoned commercial,” said Suzanne Irwin, a member of the board. Irwin was the only member of the commission to vote against issuing a certificate of appropriateness for the property. To make exterior changes to a property in a historic district, property owners must receive a certificate.
“We can’t change the zoning,” said James Dickinson, the chairman of the board. “It hurts me that we aren’t protecting it as well as we could.”
