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Lexington OKs Zoning Amendments
Lexington City Council last week approved a number of amendments to the city’s zoning ordinances, including allowing food trucks to operate within Jordans Point Park, Richardson Park and Brewbaker Sports Complex with an agreement from the city.
The amendment was one of a package of 17 amendments that had been recommended by the Lexington Planning Commission.
The Commission had only allowed food trucks to operate in Jordans Point Park and Brewbaker, but after discussion at a City Council work session, Richardson Park was included.
At the work session, Council member Leslie Straughan expressed a desire to hear from citizens, especially those who lived near Richardson Park, about its inclusion. At last week’s Council meeting, she said that she had handed out fliers for the public hearing in the neighborhood and had spoken to two residents. One resident, she reported, was in favor of it and the other “didn’t say, but didn’t seem to be against it.”
Vice Mayor Marilyn Alexander also sought opinions on the allowance of food trucks in the proposed parks in a post on her Facebook page, which drew several responses, all of them in favor of the amendment. One commenter called it a “great move” and another added that “this should have been done a long time ago.” -In addition to the amendment allowing food trucks in some of the city’s parks, all but one of the proposed amendments were approved by Council. The one that wasn’t approved would have eliminated the requirement that townhouses be built on public streets, which would potentially allow them to be built on lots without street access, was removed from consideration after some city residents raised concerns about unforeseen ramifications.
Michael Perry, who lives on Jefferson Street, contacted city planner Arne Glaeser about a land-locked parcel on White Street, asking if this new requirement could allow townhouses to be built on that parcel. The parcel is zoned R-1, which does not allow townhouses, but Perry still had other concerns about the proposed amendment.
“I think it’s important that the streetscape of the city be maintained and it would be short-sighted to allow that change of the rule to allow private roads to be built – or private drives – to access townhouse developments,” he told Council during the public hearing. “I’m also concerned about access of emergency vehicles and all those things that go with townhouse developments. I think it would behoove Council to have further discussion about this topic rather than approving it outright.”
Another resident, Tom Contos, said the proposed amendment may conflict with the city’s lot width requirements for townhouse developments.
“If you’re thinking this will allow [developers] to use parcels in a more efficient way, I’m not sure that is achieved unless you’ve also revisited the issue of the lot width,” he said.
In response to a question from Straughan, Glaeser said that he didn’t think that the amendment would create a conflict with the width requirements. He also said, in response to a comment from Perry, that the proposed amendment did not come about based on a new proposed development, but from an observation he made about one of the Spotswood Collaborative’s proposed designs for the city-owned parcel on Spotswood Drive in 2022. That design was for a townhouse development, which would not have been allowed as it did not meet the required street frontage of 50 feet of right-of-way and 30 feet of pavement.
He also noted that all of the design standards for townhouse developments were still in place, so he didn’t expect that there would be an increase in townhouse developments within the city simply because the requirement that they be built on a public street was eliminated, and that if Council wished to investigate the issue further, it could remove the amendment from consideration and revisit it at a later date.
Straughan moved to approve the proposed amendments except for the one relating to townhouses. Council member Charles Aligood seconded the motion, which passed in a 6-0
vote.
-Other amendments that were approved included changing the definition of a specialty food shop to be less restrictive on the types of cooking such shops could do and making them a conditional use in the city’s Residential- Light Commercial zoning districts, and removing cemeteries as a use in the R-1 zoning district and making them a conditional use in the city’s Parks and Open Spaces zoning districts.
Following the passing of the amendments, Council member David Sigler made a motion to adopt a resolution directing Glaeser to begin the process of rezoning three parcels that the city recently purchased for the expansion of Oak Grove and Evergreen cemeteries from R-1 to Parks and Open Space. Aligood again provided the second and that motion also passed unanimously.
