What happens to residential neighborhoods when businesses want to locate in them? | Opinion

Has this happened to your neighborhood?

A quiet house next door becomes a problematic property and your neighborhood has about a month to navigate the zoning change process. If this hasn’t happened in your neighborhood yet, it may soon because the Lexington urban county government is striving to increase “density” everywhere.

Recently, in Bell Court, a prominent home that previously housed a quiet retail business requested a zoning change to be become a private, members-only club/bar. The business has advertised four bars including a self-serve beer station with “wee hours revelry,” and food service requiring a commercial kitchen.

It’s a house, so there is no on-site parking, leading to concerns about parking clogging narrow streets and rideshares blocking roads, as well as potentially intoxicated drivers in pedestrian-heavy areas where children play.

Planning commissioners determined the project should get its zoning change to allow for development along the “Downtown Corridor.” But where does that leave residents? What happens to neighborhoods when a business decides it wants locate near them?

For our neighborhood, the zoning and land usage process was opaque, confusing and seemingly biased towards developers and businesses. A few houses out of roughly 170 received notice in late August that a zoning hearing was taking place in late September. Two notices about the hearing were posted on the property at about the same time. Luckily our neighborhood association is active and took immediate steps to notify all of the impacted residents.

An editorial from February 2020 clearly showed how the zoning process is so complicated that both developers and neighborhood associations need to hire attorneys. Businesses are aware and equipped to do this. How many neighborhoods have that same luxury? And what happens to those residents in neighborhoods without associations and who can’t afford attorneys?

The process brings up so many questions.

Shouldn’t there be buffers between residential properties and downtown corridor businesses? When a residential home is next to a business, is that considered a neighborhood street or a business corridor? If a business “promises” to respect a neighborhood’s wishes, how is a neighborhood, or a business’s neighbors, supposed to enforce those promises?

And when do homeowner’s rights take precedence over a business’s rights? Who prevails when a business’s rooftop bar shines lights at all hours of the night into a child’s bedroom? The business or the homeowner? And shouldn’t homeowner’s rights and concerns be taken into consideration during the zoning change process?

Sadly, because of this lack of planning, families are moving away from problem properties leaving those homes to become short-term rentals which exacerbates the lack of accessible housing in Lexington, creates additional traffic issues, and reduces the desired density.

The Imagine Lexington comprehensive plan envisions a better community by sustaining successful neighborhoods and expanding diverse housing options. Allowing existing houses to become the types of businesses that chase families away from their neighborhoods is contrary to this goal.

This particular home could become multi-family housing, which is a great fit for both our neighborhood and the overall plan for Lexington.

Our community is not your commodity. Lexington homeowners deserve a better zoning process. If Lexington continues to increase density in this way, the unfortunate situation in my neighborhood will be repeated in other neighborhoods.

Trish Smith is a retired small-business owner who stays active in her community and enjoys travel.