Councilman wants UK to negotiate Rupp lease before closing streets

A Lexington councilman wants the city to delay consideration of the University of Kentucky’s proposal to close Rose Street and Hilltop Avenue until the state’s flagship university begins negotiations on a new lease for UK men’s basketball to play at Rupp Arena.

“If we were in some sort of constructive, fruitful conversation about a new contract at Rupp Arena for the basketball team to play there, I would be really happy to talk about streets at UK,” Councilman Bill Farmer Jr. said Tuesday during a council work session.

Farmer, a board member of the Lexington Center Corp., which oversees Rupp Arena, said the university has made no effort to begin negotiations on the lease that terminates at the end of the 2017-18 basketball season. Yet, the university wants the city to close Rose Street — which is already closed due to construction on campus — and Hilltop Avenue. UK officials will present plans to close the two streets at a council Planning and Public Works meeting April 12.

“When it suits them, they show up,” Farmer said Tuesday. “They can find our phone number, they can come get us. In other instances, they can’t find our phone number; they can’t answer our emails.”

Bill Owen, CEO and president of Lexington Center, said he could not speak on the specifics of Farmer’s comments because he was not at Tuesday’s meeting. Owen confirmed the lease expires at the end of the 2017-18 season. UK has been leasing Rupp Arena for decades.

“There have been no firm discussions since the mayor’s plans were put on hold in June 2014,” Owen said, referring to a previous $350 million overhaul of Rupp Arena and the attached convention center that was eventually scuttled. “We just finished another great basketball season and look forward to another season.”

Jay Blanton, a spokesman for UK, said there is still “appropriate time” for the university and Lexington Center to negotiate a contract. The university has no plans to build its own arena and plans to continue to use Rupp Arena.

“The university is very disappointed that Councilman Farmer would try to leverage a completely unrelated discussion against the very pressing issue of pedestrian safety,” Blanton said.

Farmer said Blanton’s statement was the first time he received a definitive statement that the university was still interested in playing at Rupp Arena. Farmer, a UK graduate, stood by his earlier statement.

“Every time they have had a security need, we have always been happy to help,” Farmer said. “There has never been a time that they have needed us that we have not worked with them. Right now, they are not working with us on the next lease for Rupp Arena.”

The city won’t make a decision on UK’s request to close the two connector streets any time soon, said Dowell Hoskins Squier, environmental and public works commissioner.

Hoskins Squier said the university would present its proposal to the Planning and Public Works Committee on April 12. However, the city’s traffic engineers also will be evaluating the proposal and will make a recommendation to the council. Various city departments must look at a right-of way closure request as well as the public utilities, Hoskins Squier said.

Hoskins Squier told the council Tuesday that she understood the university wanted to have an answer by summer.

Councilman Jake Gibbs, whose district includes UK’s campus and Rupp Arena, said the closing of streets and the lease for Rupp Arena should not be connected. Part of the reason UK wants to close the streets is to improve pedestrian safety on campus.

“I find it a little bit disturbing about potentially using the safety of the faculty and staff as a bargaining chip for Rupp Arena,” Gibbs said. “I find it borderline immoral. ... I’m not saying you guys are immoral.”

But some on council agreed with Farmer. The city’s relationship with its largest employer has been strained. The city had a town and gown committee that included university, city and neighborhood representatives who addressed issues involving housing and partying in neighborhoods around UK. That committee is now defunct.

Traffic around UK is a serious issue, but there are other issues that should be addressed, said Councilman Fred Brown.

“We need to have a committee that deals with all of these issues, particularly traffic issues,” he said. “I don’t have any problem with what Council Member Farmer raises.”

Councilman Kevin Stinnett, who is also on the Lexington Center board, agreed. Stinnett said Wednesday that there were many areas in which the city and university are on the same page and work well together. In other areas — such as the Rupp lease — the relationship needs work.

“We both need each other,” Stinnett said. “And we have to figure out ways where we can work together.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Councilman wants UK to negotiate Rupp lease before closing streets."