Lessons learned from a zoning debacle on Maxwell Street may help other neighborhoods
Written by Dr. Zak Leonard, Historic Preservation Manger
It is no secret that Lexington is currently facing a housing shortage. Yet the mechanisms for addressing this issue in an equitable manner have yet to emerge. Planning staff are working hand in glove with non-local developers to reach byzantine “density” targets, but neighborhood associations and community members are effectively excluded from these deliberations and are granted few opportunities to air their legitimate concerns.
The recent rezoning of E. Maxwell and Stone Avenue to allow for a 7-story student housing tower is likely not an aberration. Rather, it very well may signal a new normal. The Blue Grass Trust ardently fought to save the thirteen National Register-listed properties that will be demolished for this sprawling complex and appealed the rezoning before the Fayette Circuit Court. Unfortunately, we were not successful in this endeavor. However, this experience was illuminating in that it revealed several questionable practices and policies at the governmental level. Residents facing encroaching development should be aware of these peculiarities from the outset and strategize their advocacy efforts accordingly.
During this process, the relevance of the 2018 and 2045 Comprehensive Plans to zoning decisions was warmly debated. Whereas we argued that the Planning Commission and Council had impermissibly ignored the substantial component of the plans that involved historic preservation, the developers’ lawyer (quoting case law) maintained that these documents are “intended to be a guide for development, not a straight-jacket. A zoning agency is not bound to follow every detail of a land use plan.” The circuit court judge agreed with this assessment. But if the entirety of the text in our Comprehensive Plans advocating for preservation and compatible new construction can be dismissed as “details,” we may seriously question the city’s actual commitment to these policy objectives.
In our lawsuit, we also alleged that a due process violation had occurred. Our open records request produced correspondence in which legislative aides barred concerned constituents from contacting their councilmembers. Supposedly, the latter serve in a “quasi-judicial capacity” during zone change hearings and cannot prejudge public “testimony” beforehand. In our case, however, the Council voted not to hold any hearing despite granting that same courtesy to other parties; the representative for the Third District (where the Maxwell project is located) did not even provide a reason for this refusal. During the January 16 work session, the vice mayor appeared to acknowledge that the E. Maxwell rezoning had provoked widespread outrage, but he dismissed this discontent as mere “loudness.” Essentially, there is no guarantee that councilmembers will ever hear from their constituents in zoning matters, even those that significantly affect entire neighborhoods. This entrenched policy of evasion (which is not actually codified in law) should be disconcerting to any Lexington resident who values transparency and accountability.
If neighborhoods can neither rely on the text of the Comprehensive Plans nor communicate with their elected officials, they will be hard-pressed to deal with dogged developers intent on demolishing large quadrants of the city. The Herald-Leader has already reported on the aggressive tactics of Subtext, a St. Louis-based entity seeking to buy up a full block between Pine and Cedar for yet another big-box pseudo-dormitory. When it comes to developing the unprotected sections of Lexington’s core, it sadly seems that the sky is the limit. Nevertheless, the Blue Grass Trust remains committed to working with neighborhood groups and advocating for sensible infill that safeguards our irreplaceable historic resources.
