More than 100 applaud as development on golf course gets voted down; fight isn’t over
After two meetings and more than 8 hours of testimony, the Nicholasville Planning Commission narrowly denied a series of a zone changes for a huge housing development on a Nicholasville semi-private golf course.
After the planning commission voted 6-4 late Monday night deny the zone changes by Lone Oak LLC, the more than than 100 people who attended the meeting in the Jessamine County Fiscal Court applauded.
But the fight over the fate of approximately 130 acres of the Lone Oak Golf Course now goes to the Nicholasville City Commission. The commission can overturn or accept the planning commission’s recommendations. It’s not clear when they will vote on the zone change.
That same city commission voted unanimously in July to annex the approximately 130-acre golf course into the city limits, despite strenuous objections from neighboring residents who opposed the property’s annexation.
The proposed zone changes from agricultural to mostly residential zones has been one of the most contentious zone changes in the county in recent years.
The meeting had to be moved to the Jessamine County Fiscal Courtroom to accommodate the large crowd that attended an earlier meeting Sept. 23 and the continuation of the hearing on Monday. Many who opposed the development wore green t-shirts on Monday night that said: “Save Lone Oak. Keep it Green.”
Lone Oak LLC has proposed building 200 single-family houses, 100 condominium units and 43 townhouses on approximately 130 acres of the golf course at 44 Club Dive and 140 Lone Oak Drive. The plans also include turning the golf course clubhouse and pool into a commercial building, which would be open to the public.
Bruce Smith, a lawyer for Lone Oak LLC, said during the Sept. 23 meeting the development, known as The Enclave, meets a need for more housing and more diverse types of housing that is outlined in the comprehensive plan, which guides development in Nicholasville.
Smith said it will take 10 to 12 years to fully develop the proposed 343 housing units. The developers plan to build about 35 houses a year, he said. The lots on the perimeter of the proposed development are similar in size to the surrounding neighborhoods. The open space in the property — approximately 32 acres — will be maintained by the home owners association. There will be a two and a half mile walking trail that will be open to the public, the plans show.
Bruce Simpson, a lawyer who represents neighbors opposed to the project, urged the planning commission during the September meeting to turn the proposal down because there is not enough capacity in city sewer treatment facilities to handle waste from an additional 343 homes.
Moreover, the only way into the development is Lone Oak Drive.
That’s not safe. Nor does it meet fire codes, Simpson previously argued.
Smith countered there are many developments in Nicholasville that only have one entrance in and one entrance out. And the fire codes Simpson referenced the city of Nicholasville hasn’t adopted.
More than a dozen residents spoke against the development during Monday’s meeting.
Many said Lone Oak Drive is a neighborhood street and not a collector road. It doesn’t have curbs or sidewalks. If there are parked cars on it, construction crews may not be able to get equipment to the golf course.
Others said the city’s sewer and wastewater treatment facilities can not serve the development.
James Heidinger said the city’s wastewater treatment plant is out of compliance with state regulations and does not have the capacity for a new development with 343 housing units.
Heidinger gave the commission several emails and other documents from state regulators that said the system is overburdened and out of compliance. Heidinger obtained the documents through an Open Records Act request, he told the commission.
“They demonstrate that the infrastructure is not in place to serve the Lone Oak development,” Heidinger said. For too many years, Nicholasville has approved developments without having the sewer and water capacity to serve them, he said.
The city commission in September agreed to borrow $1 million to address the city’s sewer treatment facilities. That study won’t be completed until July 2020. But the possible fixes won’t be completed until 2022, Heidinger said.
Bob Amato, director of public utilities for Nicholasville, said the city is working to address the state’s concerns.
“We are developing an agreed order with the state to keep the plant in compliance,” Amato said. “We have begun the expansion of our wastewater treatment plant that will be completed in 2022.”
Amato said there has been overflows on the sewer line that would serve the proposed development. In 2011, there was a project to correct the overflows. Amato said .
“It should be able to accommodate 1,200 homes if water does not get into it,” Amato said. Some remedial work will have to be done first, he told the commission.
Other residents said when it rains, puddles and creeks form in between homes that border on the golf course. Those drainage issues will only increase if homes, driveways, roads and other impervious surfaces are added to the 130 acres.
Others told the commission property values will plummet.
Dr. Joe Valentino, who lives in the Paddock neighborhood and whose home overlooks the golf course, said his home has been on the market for three months and he has had no offers. Yet, he has friends who live in other Jessamine County neighborhoods with similar size houses that have sold their homes in less than a week.
“We dropped our price,” Valentino said. “I have to think it has something to do with the proposed development.”
Anna Wilson, who lives adjacent to the proposed development, said the city’s schools are already overcrowded. This development will exacerbate the problem, she said.
“Every school in our system except one is filled to capacity right now and most of them are over,” Wilson said.
Cities are largely dependent on occupational taxes — from jobs — not property taxes, Wilson said.
The development will cost the city more than it generates in taxes, she said. The city will have to make improvements to its sewer and stormwater system if it signs off on the new development, she said.
And that could affect everyone in Nicholasville, not just the neighborhoods surrounding Lone Oak, she said.
“Their taxes will go up if this development goes through,” Wilson said.
Smith said Valentino’s testimony about home sales was not conclusive. Smith countered a home just sold on Hawthorne Drive, netting a more than $100,000 profit for the seller.
But Planning Commissioner Matt Galbraith countered the home on Hawthorne backs up to farmland. Valentino’s home is adjacent to the golf course.
Smith also said the city is taking steps to fix many of the sewer and stormwater issues in the area. The problem is not overall capacity but water getting into the sewer system that should not be there, he said.
The state would not let the development move forward if there was not enough capacity in the sewer system, Smith argued Monday.
But ultimately Planning Commissioner David Royse said the proposed development was just too many houses for that parcel of land. It would be more dense than the surrounding developments, he said. Royse made the motion to deny the zone change request.
“This property will likely be developed,” Royse said. “I don’t think this is the right development.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2019 at 11:28 AM.
