6-story apartment complex near UK gets green light at controversial site on East Maxwell

Despite significant push back from neighbors, the Lexington Urban County Planning Commission voted to approve a zone change for a controversial 6-story apartment complex near the University of Kentucky.

Stavroff Land and Development’s proposal includes 250 units at the property on East Maxwell between Stone Street and Lexington Avenue. It will have 700 bedrooms and 175 parking spaces. It will also have off-site parking spaces. There will be townhouses on the Stone Street side with apartments above the townhouses.

It will cost $50 million.

Stavroff is based in Dublin, Ohio.

The same site was previously proposed for a 10-story private apartment complex designed for UK students. That controversial proposal was defeated by the Urban County Planning Commission in 2019 after neighbors pushed back against the proposal. New Jersey-based Aptitude Development LLC had proposed the project.

The Urban County Planning Commission voted unanimously Thursday to change the zone from an R-4, a high density residential zone, to a B-2, or downtown business zone for approximately 2 acres. The building is more than 400,000 square feet.

The vote is not final.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council must approve the zone change. A date for that hearing has not been set.

The vote came after a more than three-hour long hearing where more than a dozen people spoke against the zone change.

The proposed development will have entrances on Lexington and Hagerman Court, which is behind the property.

Hagerman Court would be re-routed as part of the proposal. The first floor of the development will be a parking garage. There will also be interior courtyards as part of the project.

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The proposed development is the type of project needed to address the overall shortage of housing units in Fayette County, and the University of Kentucky, said Jon Woodall, a lawyer for Stavroff.

Woodall said the building is much smaller than the previous proposal. It has fewer units and is shorter.

The group changed the building design after getting feedback from neighbors and city staff, Woodall said.

The zone change was backed by the University of Kentucky.

In an Aug. 16 letter to the Urban County Planning Commission, the University of Kentucky supported Stavroff’s application for a zone change, saying off-campus, private student housing was needed to meet the needs of the public university’s growing student population.

“The Maxwell Street location is an important transition point between the north boundary of the university and downtown Lexington,” wrote George Ward, associate UK vice president of economic development and real estate.

City planners supported the zone change.

The property is not in a historic district. It is bordered by Aylesford Historic District.

“There is nothing prohibiting the developer from demolishing the buildings,” said Daniel Crum, a senior planner with the city.

Structure will ‘crowd’ and ‘tower’ over neighborhood

Neighbors of the development worried the complex would bring too many students to an area that is still largely single-family homes. The building is too big and will create a precedence for larger, apartment-like complexes in the area, they said.

Jessica Winters, a lawyer for Aylesford Place Neighborhood Association, said “it is not appropriate” for the neighborhood.

Aylesford is a historic but walkable neighborhood, she said.

The majority of the homes are two and a half stories. The 75-foot structure would “tower” over and “crowd” the homes there, she said.

East Maxwell is not a downtown place type as developer have argued, she said. A downtown place type is the center of commerce and entertainment, according to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which determines what kind of development can go where. East Maxwell Street should be considered an urban neighborhood type, she argued.

“It’s almost entirely residential,” Winters said.

The Planning Commission rejected that downtown place type in 2019, Winters said. The current zoning of R-4 was appropriate, the planning commission found at the time. The zone change to B-2 allows for more apartment units and also does not require protection of the tree canopy, she said.

There is no green space proposed. Street trees will be planted but several mature trees will be cut, Winters and other neighbors said.

Winters said it’s not Aylesford neighborhood’s responsibility to shoulder UK’s student housing needs.

The homes are historic and should be preserved, others argued.

Jonathan Coleman, executive director of the Blue Grass Trust, said it’s an egregious example of demolition of historic properties. Coleman said too many historic structures have been lost.

The zone change “hearkens back to regressive trends,” Coleman said. “Let’s weigh the interest of our neighborhoods over the interest of out-of-state developers.”

‘A better plan’

Robin Michler, a planning commission member who also has a business on Maxwell Street near the proposed development, said 700 bedrooms also generates a lot of trash. The plans would put the trash compactors behind the property on Hagerman Court, close to adjoining homes. Michler said other large apartment complexes, including the Hub, have internal trash compactors.

Engineers for the developers said they would be open to looking at putting those contractors inside the parking garage.

Michler said he ultimately would support the zone change because he wanted people to be able to live, work and walk downtown.

“I want people to live in the neighborhood I grew up in,” Michler said.

Commissioner Bruce Nicol Jr. said East Maxwell Street was only 1,000 feet from downtown. A large housing development makes sense at that location, Nicol said.

Commissioner Mike Owens said he heard the 2019 zone change.

“Times have changed,” Owens said. “If this doesn’t occur, there is going to be more rentals spread out, taking up single-family houses.”

Owens said the proposal had also changed from 10 story to a six-story structure, Owens said.

“We need to adjust and move forward,” Owens said. “This is a much better plan.”