Housing development with 600 units in this Lexington neighborhood heads to council
A nearly 600-unit new housing complex is one step closer to coming to Lexington.
The Lexington planning commission on Thursday approved a development plan for the hundreds of homes along Richmond Road, just outside Man o’ War Boulevard. The commission also requested a zone change to allow the homes to be built, and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council will make a final vote to deciede whether the plan goes through.
The land needs to be rezoned from agricultural to residential. The zone change is part of the developer’s plan to construct 480 multifamily units and 118 single family townhouses along a portion of Richmond Road between Yorkshire Boulevard and the city’s Lakeside Golf Course.
The White Family Farm property at 3515 Richmond Road, where the housing development is being proposed, is roughly 30 acres or the equivalent of about 23 football fields.
The project proposed by Hillpointe, a Florida-based real estate development and investment management firm with properties across the South, would bridge the gap between existing neighborhoods on Palumbo and Dabney drives. The housing development will be the firm’s first in Kentucky.
Townhomes are being proposed on the north side of the property closest to where Palumbo Drive curves into Yorkshire Boulevard, according to the plan. The nearly 500 multifamily units spread across 16 buildings would border the golf course.
In the zoning committee meeting before the project reached the planning commission Thursday, staff had a number of concerns about improving traffic safety. Those issues were addressed in a revised development plan unanimously approved March 26.
The new plan includes a number of changes that reduce and mitigate negative environmental impacts, meet design policy standards and enhance the new neighborhood’s walkability.
The almost 600 units are meant to be “workforce housing” and would be priced for a variety of income levels to give more and affordable options for specifically essential workers like nurses and first responders, and for young professionals, said Hillpointe’s Director of External Affairs Pamela Thompson.
The firm has more than 10,000 rental units in 40 developments and owns and manages each of them, Thompson said.
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Planning Services Senior Planner Jeremy Young told the commission Thursday the revised plan meets the demand for housing in Lexington and increases residential density on what has been an underutilized piece of property already within the Urban Service Boundary.
“The proposed pedestrian connections and open space also meet the goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan and the policies of increasing density,” Young said. “The surrounding context is sensitive to the neighboring properties; there is some multifamily, there’s some residential or single family residential and there are some other townhome developments in the area.
“So, I think this blends well with the existing development pattern.”
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