‘It’s going to destroy the neighborhood.’ City should nix plans to tear down historic block.
Colleges and universities offer their towns and cities an amazing blend of benefits, from good jobs to art, culture and the vitality of tens of thousands of young minds descending on a sleepy metropolis.
But as most of us in Lexington know, there are also drawbacks— traffic and parties, of course, but more seriously, the inexorable creep of the University of Kentucky, which is convinced it must grow to survive. Whole neighborhoods have already been swallowed to make way for the medical center expansion and student housing. As in every university town, that kind of growth is largely inevitable
Which brings us to two new developments, proposed by private companies to accommodate UK students, which now number around 30,000. The first, from an Ohio development company, would house more than 300 people on Angliana Avenue where a tobacco warehouse now stands. The former tobacco warehouse district is now covered with apartment complexes built for students, and the addition seems to make plenty of sense.
The other would be a 10-story apartment building on Maxwell Street between Lexington and Stone that would require demolishing nearly a block of early 20th-century historic houses. It has alarmed plenty of folks in the Aylesford Neighborhood Association, as it should. The Planning Commission needs to study this project very, very carefully before giving any approval to a project that would change one of Lexington’s core corridors so drastically.
Unprotected properties
The Maxwell properties are not protected under Lexington zoning.
Much of that area to the east is under an H1 historic overlay, which prevents demolition of historic properties. That always controversial process happened in the late 1990s; according to the Herald-Leader archives, Lexington businessman Bill Lear, who owned that chunk of property at the time, was among the property owners who agreed not to oppose the H1 designation so long as it stopped at Rose Street.
The properties are now owned by Lexington Village LLC, a group based in Chicago. The proposed developer, Aptitude Development LLC of Elmwood Park, New Jersey, has them under contract, according to their local attorney Jacob Walbourn.
The houses have mostly served as student housing, and like absentee landlords, Lexington Village hasn’t kept them in perfect condition, but they’re hardly falling down.
While not protected with Lexington’s historic overlay, they are considered historic by the National Register of Historic Places, “the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation” which included the Southeast Lexington Residential and Commercial District in 1984.
The block is a graceful transition from UK and the city’s residential area with distinctive 100-year-old houses opposite even older houses that have been preserved by UK. A 10-story building would be completely out of context anywhere outside of downtown, but here in particular, it would be jarring and ruin any sense of a residential corridor.
The design for “The Marshall Lexington” has not been provided yet to the Aylesford Neighborhood Association, which is meeting with the developers on Sept. 3, but it’s been described as having the first two floors devoted to parking. This also goes against ideas about pedestrian friendly streets, which dictates some kind of human occupancy on the first floor.
The proposal will go before the Planning Commission on Sept. 26 to request zone changes from residential to business zone for downtown development.
‘Destroy the neighborhood’
Kathleen Winter, president of the Aylesford Association, said she’s heard plenty of concern from neighbors.
“Our concerns are to ensure the character of the neighborhood is preserved,” she said. “That’s why most of us live here. I would love to see that turn into faculty housing or grad student housing.”
Vida Vitagliano, who lives in a duplex on Stone Avenue, is more blunt: “It’s going to destroy the neighborhood,” she said. “I can’t imagine the rest of the houses on that block lasting very long after something huge like that would go up.”
Of course, Lexington’s comprehensive plan emphasizes the need for urban infill and density to relieve development pressure on our rural land. But as Vitagliano pointed out, you don’t have to look very far for a potential model to add density and save historic structures. Just over on South Limestone, the Kimball House project added condos and apartments to the backs of a block of beautiful old houses.
There’s also the argument that it’s better for students to be housed in areas built just for them, rather than the often disastrous results that happen when they start looking for places to live in residential neighborhoods. Ask the people on Transylvania Park how those willy nilly student apartment buildings are working out. But creating student housing doesn’t have to involve replacing historic structures with 10-story buildings. Here’s a better suggestion: Put a six story student apartment building on the UK-owned parking lot on High Street, as we can all agree that surface parking is the lowest, worst use of downtown land.
What makes Lexington attractive and distinctive in large part is its rural land and its historic residential areas. We’ve destroyed a huge number of old buildings and areas so far, but I hope we now now realize they are crucial to what’s left of the city’s beautiful fabric.
Yes, the city and the university have to co-exist, and as UK continues to grow, market forces will want to find more housing for its students. But this is not the right place or the right design.
The Aylesford Neighborhood Association will meet with Aptitude Development representatives on Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. at Woodland Christian Church.
Linda Blackford writes columns and commentary for the Herald-Leader.
This story was originally published August 30, 2019 at 9:32 AM.