‘It’s going to put us out of business.’ Landscaper’s Corner fighting city over trail.
Two landowners on Old Frankfort Pike want the city of Lexington to reroute a planned portion of Town Branch Trail rather than take their properties and businesses by condemnation.
Elaine Pence, who owns Landscaper’s Corner on the corner of Old Frankfort Pike and Forbes Road, told Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton that the city will put her out of business if it moves forward with condemnation. The Pence family has operated a business at that location since 1956, she said.
“We are not opposed to the trail but it’s going to put us out of business,” Pence told Gorton last week on the “Lexington Morning News with Jack Pattie” radio show on News Talk 590 WLVK.
Pence called in to the show to ask Gorton, who was Pattie’s guest, if the city was going to take her property by condemnation, a process that allows state and local governments to take land for proposed public use, such as a road or trail.
Pence urged Gorton to look at alternate routes for the Town Branch Trail along Old Frankfort Pike.
Gorton said she has asked the city’s engineering department about those alternate routes. One of them would move the trail to the other side of railroad tracks behind Pence’s property.
State transportation engineers said that route won’t work because that section of Forbes Road is on a hill. Drivers couldn’t see hikers and bikers crossing on Forbes Road before they came down the hill, Gorton said.
“I have been told this is all in the hands of the state,” Gorton said.
Bruce Simpson, a lawyer for Elaine and Bill Pence, said that excuse does not make sense. Just a short walk away is the Distillery District, where people park and walk across the railroad tracks and Manchester Street near Thompson Road all the time, he said in a March 8 letter to the city.
“If there were legitimately safety concerns about having the Town Branch Trail cross the railroad tracks on Forbes Road, why hasn’t the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government taken the necessary steps to stop pedestrians who have been drinking alcohol from crossing the railroad tracks at Thompson Road?,” Simpson wrote.
Landscaper’s Corner isn’t the only property the city needs for the trail. Eavy Hopkins, who owns 1281, 1287, 1295 Manchester Street, is also fighting the city’s efforts to condemn his properties. Old Frankfort Pike becomes Manchester Street at Forbes Road.
Cliff’s Truck Service currently leases that property from Hopkins.
Hopkins said it’s not a good place for the Town Branch Trail, which currently starts in Masterson Station and ends at Alexandria Drive. Even though Town Branch runs through the area, that section of Old Frankfort and Manchester Street is industrial, Hopkins said. It’s dirty, dusty and dangerous.
“There is an asphalt plant there and dump trucks go up and down that road all day,” Hopkins said. The city’s transfer station — where it dumps its garbage — is on Forbes Road.
On Wednesday, Gorton said she has been told that the trail along Old Frankfort Pike will be screened and buffered using bushes and other greenery.
Gorton said in a written statement that the city has not yet decided if it will condemn the properties on Old Frankfort Pike and is exploring all options.
“A lot of these decisions were made months ago,” said Gorton, who took office in January. “Even so, to me, it’s still important to be sure we have covered every base before we take any action that would affect a business. I have asked for a thorough review and reconsideration of all options.”
Keith Lovan, project manager for the Town Branch Trail, said the city has explored multiple trail routes and will continue to do so, but it’s not just the trail that is driving changes on Old Frankfort Pike and Manchester Street.
The intersection at Old Frankfort Pike and Forbes Road will be widened for additional turn lanes to accommodate growing traffic in the area. The city will have to take a portion of the disputed properties for the road widening project, he said.
Brandi Peacher, who oversees funding for that section of the trail, said the safest place for people on the trail to cross Forbes is at the Old Frankfort Pike intersection, where there is a light.
“We are still in negotiations,” Peacher said. “We are still trying to work something out.”
The city has contracted with the state to negotiate with the property owners. Those negotiations are ongoing, Peacher said.
The city hired the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to handle the negotiations because the state condemns land more often than the city.
As part of condemnation proceedings, the land must be appraised and the city must pay land owners a fair market price, Peacher said.
Condemnation proceedings, though, do not compensate a business owner for loss of business, only for the value of the property, Simpson wrote in his letter.
Lanscaper’s Corner has been trying for years to find other land that is appropriately zoned to either buy or lease, he said. They recently found a property that could be used for their business but it would cost more than $1.7 million to move and relocate the business. That’s much more than the $450,000, plus $92,000 in relocation expenses, that he said the city is offering.
And the Pences don’t want to move their business, Simpson said.
“They want to remain where this family business has been since 1956,” Simpson said. “This can happen if the government will put only one fourth as much effort in trying to preserve this business as they have in trying to run over it.”
Tom Miller, a lawyer for Hopkins, did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.
Lovan said construction on the long-delayed, nearly two-mile section of Town Branch Trail from Alexandria Drive to just before Old Frankfort Pike’s intersection with Forbes Road will begin this summer. The section of the trail from Old Frankfort Pike to Oliver Lewis Way, which includes the Pence and Hopkins property, will begin sometime in 2020.
This story was originally published March 11, 2019 at 1:38 PM.
