Is a minor league soccer stadium real economic development for Lexington?
This Thursday, the Fayette Planning Commission will consider a request for a Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment (ZOTA) to develop a minor league soccer stadium and thousands of surface parking spaces in the Economic Development (ED) Zone on Newtown Pike, an area designated for the creation of good-paying jobs. Unfortunately, this is just one of many project-specific ZOTAs to come before the Planning Commission in recent months. A concerning trend is emerging: Lexington is changing our county-wide zoning ordinances for individual developments without considering the broader implications.
The stadium ZOTA would reverse long-standing policies throughout the entire ED Zone, not just the site under consideration (which also hasn’t been specifically disclosed). However, the project is projected to generate just a fraction of the jobs that other employers have built in the ED Zone without zoning changes. With more than 17,000 acres of under-developed and underutilized land available inside of the Urban Service Boundary (USB), can our community afford to give up ED land for a soccer stadium that isn’t projected to bring forth significant, year-round employment opportunities?
When the ED Zone was created in the 1996 USB expansion, land uses were specifically restricted to avoid negatively impacting the nearby agricultural operations and residential areas due to its location between Newtown Pike and Russell Cave Road. The properties surrounding the site in question are still working farms — businesses that produce millions in revenue and thousands of jobs -— and a project of this size will have major impacts: increased traffic on a key route for livestock and equine transport on an already congested corridor; lighting and sound pollution negatively impacting nearby equine operations; and environmental concerns stemming from dozens of acres being paved for parking lots to service a stadium only in use 30-45 days each year.
Approving policy changes without considering the bigger picture of how one development may impact the surrounding community and businesses chips away at the intent of our zoning ordinances and undermines thoughtful planning for what uses should go where and why. We owe it to our community to ask the right questions. Are the jobs and revenue created by the stadium actually new, or simply shifted from other existing businesses in Lexington? If this land is used for a stadium and parking, what happens when we inevitably run out of ED land? Will we allow development of a minor league soccer stadium in this location at the expense of other, significantly more impactful economic drivers?
As we update the Comprehensive Plan, we must strike the right balance between innovative, responsible development and the protection of the irreplaceable Bluegrass farmland that supports our signature industries with decisions backed by the data and research that’s underway. That balance is increasingly at risk due to the recent trend of making high-impact land-use decisions on an ad-hoc basis without taking into consideration the broader implications for our community and our economy.
There will always be competing priorities for using, protecting and developing our land. Fayette Alliance is willing to engage in a meaningful process to find common ground and reach a sustainable solution for our continued growth, but we must do it comprehensively, and we must do it together. Join us at the Planning Commission hearing on Thursday, 9/22 at 1:30pm at City Hall to make your voice heard on these critical decisions. We owe it to the Lexington-Fayette community of today and tomorrow to get this right.
Brittany Roethemeier is executive director of the Fayette Alliance.
