New 36-unit apartment complex near downtown approved over neighbors’ objections

Despite strong objections from neighbors, the Lexington council approved a zone change for a 36-unit, three-story apartment building on Blackburn Avenue between Third and Fourth streets.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted 11 to 2 after a more than five-hour hearing Tuesday night to approve the zone change from an R-2 to an R-5 zone for roughly a half acre at 325, 329 and 333 Blackburn Avenue. Two of the parcels are currently vacant. The third has a vacant home on it.

The council limited the development to three stories as part of its approval of the zone change.

The Cowgill Inc. proposed development is behind Cowgill’s 72-unit apartment building at the corner of Blackburn Avenue and Fourth Street called the Flats at 345, which was approved in 2017. Neighbors had opposed that now-completed apartment complex at the time.

The Urban County Planning Commission approved the zone change for the 36-unit apartment building 7 to 3 in July. The city’s planning staff also recommended approval of the zone change.

Officials with Cowgill properties said the 36-unit apartment complex is in compliance with the 2018 Comprehensive Plan because it provides infill development, a diversity of housing options and prioritizes multi-modal transportation.

“It will be scaled down but compliment the Flats at 345,” said Carson Baughman of Cowgill Properties. The Flats at 345 is a four-story building. The new apartment complex to the rear of the Flats is 39 feet fall, or five feet shorter than the adjacent home.

The project will not displace any residents. The home that sits on the property has been vacant for years, Cowgill properties representatives told the council. The Flats at 345 has a 99 percent occupancy rate, or 71 of the 72 units are currently occupied, Baughman said. The Flats are close to Transylvania University and Bluegrass Community and Technical College. Roughly half the people living at the Flats are students, Baughman said.

The area also has a host of different zones, including industrial adjacent to the property, Baughman said.

But neighbors of the proposed apartment complex said it was too big and too dense for an area that includes single-family homes on a short neighborhood street between Third and Fourth streets.

Jessica Winters, a lawyer who represents neighbors opposed to the project, said 104 residents in the area signed a petition opposing the zone change.

The R5 zone is the highest density zone allowed. That’s too much density right next to a historic neighborhood, Winters said.

“It is a drastic upzoning,” Winters said. “It will be destructive to the neighborhood and does not meet the goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan.”

Winters argued that the R5 zone is for major corridors, not neighborhood streets like Blackburn.

When the Flats at 345 was approved by the Urban County Planning Commission and the council, lawyers for Cowgill properties said the two vacant properties that are now slated for development acted as a buffer between the Flats and the neighborhood. If the 36-unit apartment building is approved, that buffer is now gone.

Mark Klar, whose home is adjacent to the proposed apartment complex, urged the council to turn down the zone change. Klar was one of more than a dozen people who spoke against the zone change.

“It is simply out of scale,” Klar said. “It is too big. It elbows us out.”

Dr. Robert Summe lives nearby on Third Street. Summe also urged the council to turn down the zone change.

“I might not have bought this house if I knew this apartment complex was going to be there,” Summe said. “It really distracts from the character of the neighborhood.”

Summe said old, historic neighborhoods like in the Third Street area are unique and create a sense of place.

“You want to do what you can to preserve that character,” Summe said. “To preserve that character, you don’t do sloppy, quick infill.”

Some council members expressed reservations about putting an apartment complex next to single-family homes.

“I don’t think there is enough transition between the development and the neighborhood,” said Vice Mayor Steve Kay.

Other council members said the project will not displace any one, which is always a concern with infill development.

“When we are talking about infill development, we are always worried about displacement,” said Councilman James Brown. “This does not displace any one.”

Kay and Brown tried to increase the length of the buffer between the proposed apartment and the neighboring homes, but those motions were ultimately voted down by the council. The planning commission recommended an 18-foot buffer between the apartment and homes on Blackburn.

Kay and Councilwoman Hannah LeGris voted against the zone change. Those who voted in favor include: Brown, Fred Brown, Whitney Baxter, Chuck Ellinger, Preston Worley, LIz Sheehan, Jennifer Reynolds, Josh McCurn, Susan Lamb, Amanda Bledsoe, David Kloiber.