Neighbors push back on new coffee, breakfast spot near ‘challenging’ Clays Mill intersection
A former bank on Clays Mill Road near the juncture of Harrodsburg Road may soon become a new breakfast, brunch and coffee shop.
The Lexington Urban County Planning Commission voted Thursday 7-2 for initial approval of a zone change for a nearly 1-acre property at 1617 Clays Mill Road from a professional office space to a neighborhood business zone.
The zone change now goes to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council for final approval. The council can approve, modify or deny the zone change.
Thursday’s vote came four months after the planning commission first heard the zone change. The first part of the hearing was in August but was ultimately postponed so the developer and neighbors could come to an agreement on some issues surrounding traffic into and out of the property.
The 2,322 square-foot former bank sits near the juncture of Clays Mill and Harrodsburg roads and is across from the Southside Technical School on McCubbing Road.
Developer Clear Optiks LLC plans to use an existing drive thru at the building and build a patio for outdoor seating. The parking on the lot will be changed slightly to allow for 18 parking spaces, lawyers for the development said in August. The group is not planning on adding to the building.
The back of the bank had multiple drive-thru lines. The new restaurant will only have one drive-thru lane. The remaining drive-thru lanes will be removed to allow for parking, said Daniel Crum, a senior planner with the city’s planning department, during a hearing in August.
Entry and exit onto the property is from McCubbing and Clays Mill.
The outdoor dining will be at the front of the property.
City planners recommended approval of the zone change.
Dick Murphy, a lawyer for Clear Optiks, said the building has been largely vacant for five years. It was most recently a Chase bank building. The bank put a deed restriction on the property that forbids the property to be used as a bank for 10 years.
Murphy did not name the restaurant and coffee shop. Murphy said the developers have signed a nondisclosure agreement.
There will be 40 seats inside and 16 seats outside.
It will be a breakfast, brunch and coffee shop. Murphy said they anticipate to be closed by 4 p.m.
The amount of traffic the new restaurant will generate is not enough for Clear Optiks to do a traffic study. Uses that attract a lot of traffic or potential traffic must do a traffic study under city rules.
“We don’t think it will be any appreciable change from the bank,” Murphy said.
Murphy said they are putting sidewalks on the property.
“We’ve had a number of discussions with the neighborhood and traffic engineering,” said Murphy during Thursday’s meeting. A study by traffic engineering was completed after the August meeting to look at traffic and pedestrian improvements at that intersection. The major recommendation from the study is to install a pedestrian crossing with a raised pedestrian refuge on Clays Mill Road.
Murphy said Clear Optiks is willing to help pay for the new pedestrian crossing on Clays Mill Road. Murphy said it’s not clear how long it would take the city to construct a safe pedestrian crossing.
Traffic, accidents in the area
Lynne Flynn, of Picadome Neighborhood Association, said traffic in the neighborhood is “already very challenging.”
Flynn said traffic is particularly gnarly on Clays Mill Road in the morning. There are four schools in the area.
Traffic backs up at the intersection of Clays Mill Road and Harrodsburg Road, where there is a stop light, starting around 7:30 a.m., Flynn said.
“We have a lot of little kids on the sidewalks,” Flynn said.
McCubbing Drive also frequently has traffic back ups. It’s a popular cut-through between Harrodsburg and Clays Mill roads, neighbors said.
Flynn said a new pedestrian crossing on Clays Mill Road would be helpful and welcomed, she said.
“I’m not in a position to support this development,” Flynn said.
Myron Thompson, chief operating officer of Fayette County Public Schools, said he, too, had concerns about putting additional traffic and cars stopping on Clays Mills Road near those public schools.
“That’s particularly true in the mornings,” Thompson said.
During the August hearing, Steve Davis, who also lives in the neighborhood, said his wife was in an accident on Clays Mill Road and was injured due to people not obeying traffic signs. Davis said he was also hit by a car on McCubbing while he was walking his daughter to Picadome Elementary School. He wasn’t seriously injured but it shows there are lots of traffic issues in that area. It was a hit-and-run, Davis said.
“It’s going to increase the traffic in an already dangerous area,” Davis said Thursday. Increasing traffic will increase likelihood of accidents, he said.
Davis said he did not know any one in Picadome neighborhood who supported the zone change.
