# Council Planning Committee - April 20, 2010 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · April 20, 2010 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/1340 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/1340?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2010-04-20 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: June 18, 2026 - **Length**: 16,511 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Planning Committee convened on April 20, 2010, at 1:00 P.M. to address two agenda items, both of an informational nature. No presiding officer is recorded in the available meeting data. The committee heard updates on two topics: the Downtown Master Plan and Infill Redevelopment, with both items serving as informational presentations rather than action items requiring formal approval. A total of 2 motions and votes were recorded during the meeting, and no public comments were received. ## Attendance All ten council members were present at the April 20, 2010 Council meeting. No members were recorded as absent or late. **Members Present:** - Gorton - Blues - Gray - Ellinger - James - Lawless - Beard - Feigel - Stinnett - McChord ## Votes and Decisions Two motions were brought forward and passed during the April 20, 2010 Council meeting, both related to design guidelines for the downtown area. - **Motion on Downtown Design Guidelines** [timestamp: 37:45]: Councilmember Stinnett moved to have planning staff come forward with design guidelines for downtown. The motion passed by voice vote. As a condition of the motion, planning staff was directed to return at the next meeting with recommendations. No individual vote counts or roll call records are available for this item. - **Amendment to Include Form-Based Guidelines** [timestamp: 55:06]: Councilmember Gray moved an amendment to expand the scope of the previous motion to include a discussion of form-based guidelines. The amendment was seconded by Councilmember Lawless and passed by voice vote. No individual vote counts or roll call records are available for this item. Both votes were conducted by voice, so specific ayes, nays, and abstentions were not recorded in the available data. ## Contested Items **Design Guidelines for Downtown Development** [timestamp: 37:45] The Council engaged in a heated discussion regarding the appropriate regulatory framework for downtown development, specifically debating whether to adopt design guidelines or form-based guidelines to govern future projects in the area. The conversation was prompted in part by concerns surrounding a CVS project, which appears to have highlighted the need for clearer and more defined regulations governing downtown development. The core disagreement centered on which type of guideline framework would best serve the downtown area — traditional design guidelines, which typically address aesthetic and architectural standards, or form-based guidelines, which focus more on the physical form and relationship of buildings to their surroundings and public spaces. The discussion reflected broader concerns about ensuring that future development in the downtown corridor meets community expectations and fits within the existing character of the area. The extracted data does not identify the specific Council members involved in the debate, nor does it indicate a definitive outcome or resolution reached during the meeting. It is unclear from the available information whether the Council voted on a preferred approach or directed staff to return with additional analysis. ## Downtown Master Plan Update [timestamp: 05:05] Harold Tate from the Downtown Development Authority presented an update on the Downtown Master Plan during this agenda item. The presentation focused on recent changes to the plan as well as ongoing projects associated with it. This item was informational in nature, meaning no vote or formal action was taken by the Council. The update served to keep Council members current on the status and direction of downtown development efforts. No additional speakers, debates, or specific concerns are reflected in the available record for this item. ## Infill Redevelopment Update [timestamp: 1:35:47] Jimmy Emmons presented the 2010 progress report on infill and redevelopment to the Council, covering accomplishments achieved to date and ongoing projects within the program. The item was informational in nature, and no vote or formal action was taken as a result of the presentation. *Note: The available data for this agenda item is limited to the summary description. Specific details regarding individual projects, statistics, concerns raised by Council members, or further discussion points were not captured in the structured record for this item.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to have planning come forward with design guidelines for downtown. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Amendment to include a discussion of form-based guidelines. --- ## Full transcript Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mm. All right. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Mm. Mhm. Mm. Mhm. Oh, mm, mm. Yeah. Mm. Yeah, mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, mm. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Yeah. With our planning committee meeting, it's April the 20th and it is one o'clock. So we have three items on our agenda today. The downtown master plan update the infill redevelopment update and the residential additions and I dug out my downtown master plan and interestingly enough. It's stamped January 5th 2007, which I think is when the council received it. And so with that I'll go ahead and invite Harold. Are you Harold Tate our downtown development Authority? Director to lead us through a bit of an update and in particular Harold. I think we're interested in recent changes because I know last summer you gave us an update and so thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having Mike on thank you for having me here and hope you be patient with me as I try to use this new remote. Okay. I have in the pocket all the recommendations that were in a downtown master plan. And so what you'll have in the pocket is what's seen on the screen. So you'll have the recommendation itself and then what I did on the next page is just did an update for you all based upon our last presentation of where we are and the first one was change land uses and what we have here is the you know read that. Okay. The boat that you see here are the is the updated version since the last presentation and as it says the Planning Commission recognizes the downtown areas of single land use which set the stage for full revitalization of the recommendation of the plan. Several zone changes have relied on the principles set forth in the plan itself since its adoption and it would have been much more difficult for these changes to have occurred if they had not been part of them then before the previous comprehensive plan. Also what we're doing as new projects come along. We work with the Division of Planning and Division of Planning has been able to create new zoning categories and new ways to do development. One good example is the show prop property on Angliana, which was an adaptive reuse, which is something that resulted from the Planning Commission working with the developer and us in terms of allowing new development to move forward and infill. So this is a recommendation that will never stop. It will continue on constantly as we have new projects, as we have new ideas coming in. So this recommendation is underway and will continue to be underway. Harold, would you prefer questions as we go with each recommendation or do you want to wait? I don't think it matters to us. Okay, why don't you go ahead and take questions at the end. Great. Anybody got any questions on number one, dude? All right. Number two, we had the established form-based building guidelines. Since our last meeting, the LFUCG Division of Planning and the Downtown Development Authority, we are now currently working with a joint committee commencing of the Urban County Council Planning Committee, that being you all, and the Urban County Planning Commission. One of the main topics of discussion so far has been the possibility of a form-based development review process for Lexington, including the downtown area. Planning staff has made detailed presentations to the committee on the various examples and the different models that might be used across the country for us as well. The committee also informed of the necessary steps and decisions and expenditures that would be needed to develop complete guidelines for the area that would be regulated and implementation of a form-based program would necessitate a long-term commitment to staffing and administration. And these discussions are ongoing and expected to continue with both. Wasn't me. With both of these, both the Planning Commission and the Planning Council Committee as well. And before you go on, a comment, and then I know Councilmember Ellinger has some comment. Okay. We will be getting our Council Planning Committee and the Planning Commission again to continue this process. So Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Chair. When I was at the What's Next conference this past weekend after Creative Cities, one of the big issues was the CVS and they were talking about design guidelines. Can you tell me how this difference from between the form-based guidelines and and where we stand and is on design guidelines? Okay. Form-based guidelines are a little bit different than design guidelines because in form-based guidelines, what you're dealing with is your you're dealing with the building as it relates to the street, as it relates to the site, as its scale relates as well. Whereas on design guidelines, you start going into a little bit more detail in terms of the percentage of window openings on a facade. You go into details of materials in some cases. So there are two separate types of guidelines. You may be able to combine the two. I'm not aware of any that have been done, but that is a possibility. In terms of design guidelines, we do have design guidelines right now in the courthouse overlay district, which is the area around the old courthouse. And then you have design guidelines for the H1 neighborhoods as well. Thank you. Councilmember Lawless. I'll wait. To do my question. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Recommendation number three. Convert all one-way streets to two-way. Last fall as we were developing the streetscape plan and Cleet was here to talk about the roads itself. The council had asked us to go back and to create a method of converting the one-way streets back to two-way. We came back to you all and you all approved that procedure. Basically what it was is you asked us to look at Short and Second Street first. Come to you all in terms of recommendations and then determine if we move forward with the conversion of those two. After that was completed, then we would move on to Limestone and Upper and use the same process as we did. And then after that process was completed, then we would go to High and Maxwell. Use that same process and then the final one would be the Main and Vine. Currently, as I said, we all developed that process of what we would do for the conversion of two-way streets and the first phase being Short and Second. And right now the Downtown Development Authority and the Division of Planning have been having a series of meetings. We had a meeting with the schools and the churches. Then we had a meeting with the business owners along Short and Second. Then we had a meeting with the residents and then we had a open meeting where anybody could come. We also have had a meeting with the users of the Opera House, the Explorium and the Children's Theater to address some of their issues and then a preliminary report is in the process of being completed and we'll be bringing that information to you all in the near future. Do you know how soon that preliminary report will be finished? I'll let Chris. I completed a draft report and submitted that to Commissioner Webb last week. He has asked me this morning to go ahead and proceed to reconvene the committee that we had that met last summer that involved the relevant traffic officials in the city and also there were two or three council members that participated in that as well. So I will be setting that meeting up immediately to report back to that group as to where we are. We see ourselves kind of at a crossroads and get some advice on where we should go from here. So will that report also have a timeline with it as far as next steps? Well, next steps will depend on, say, we see we're kind of at a crossroads right now and we can talk about that when you all see the report. We basically need to decide whether we're either going to go ahead and remember there is no funding budgeted at the moment, so that's an issue as well. But the other thing is to work with these groups that have some issues with the proposal and perhaps getting some advice on how to deal with the issues that they are raising. And so that report will be approximately coming forward in? It could come forward any time. Any time, okay. Council Member Beard has a question or comments. Thank you, Madam Chair. The benefits of two-way. There are a couple that I would like to ask about. One is the pedestrian safety question. To my memory, I don't know that we've mowed down any pedestrians in the last 20 years on any of these streets. Do we have any history of that? The only one I'm aware of is there was an accident a couple of years ago with a LexTram bus, but that's the only one that I can remember. That hit a pedestrian? Right. But I take it back, there was another incident a few years ago down at Broadwood, I mean Main and Mill Street where a pedestrian got hit and got killed. And then the other question is something I've just personally noted. With our present sign ordinance, finding retail is difficult, especially in the summertime, spring and summertime, because of the trees and where they are. And having different types of signs that extend out over the sidewalk, people can have a lot better chance of finding whatever they're looking for than our present sign ordinance will allow. Chris, maybe you've got an answer for that. The good news is that last year we did a text amendment, a complete overhaul of the downtown sign package, and those signs are permitted. They are now permitted. They are now permitted. You all approved those text amendments, and there is much more flexibility allowed in signage. And I think we're only going to start to see businesses as they upgrade their graphics and their sign packages take advantage of those. Well, obviously everybody can't afford to go re-sign all their properties simultaneously anyway. But okay, that's all I had. Thank you. All right. I don't see any more questions right now. So let's roll on. The next one we have is increased residential development in the downtown area. Since the last time we met, right now in terms of having residential development in the downtown core, that is allowable. Extremely high-density residential and mixed-use residential projects could be developed in the downtown core with very few restrictions. And so far, the Division of Planning has supported over 50 requests for increased residential densities, and most of these properties or projects are now completed or near completion. So this, too, will be another one that will be an ongoing recommendation. Okay. Well, Harold, I will ask you one quick question about that. In June, you reported the 900 additional residential units and over 300 in construction. And 400 on the drawing board. So did you say now how many are? It were complete about over 900 units that have been in downtown Madison. So that's the same as last summer. Yeah. Well, in this climate, it's – Yeah, we haven't seen a whole lot new residential. Probably we'll be seeing some new rental units coming up. Rental seems to be pretty hot right now. So you may be hearing about a couple of new rental projects. Recommendation number five was to create a parking authority. And as you all are aware of, that has been done. We do have a parking authority. They've been underway for several years now. And the downtown development authority works very closely with them and also with the city of Madison. The downtown development authority works very closely with them and also the downtown Lexington Corporation to help Gary in terms of his new systems that he has up and running. And from the retailers that we talked to, they've been very happy with the situation. There is now parking on the street for the retail businesses. And any council members who have questions, please log in to your computer. I have Vice Mayor Gray and then Council Member Beard. Harold, on the parking, you may not know this, and that's okay. I think it would be helpful for us maybe to get a presentation, I'm just thinking out loud here, from the parking authority. But the question that I get a lot has to do with the strategy in terms of whether or not we are the parking authority's objective is to create a profit or the extent to which it is to create a profit or to create and encourage accessible, easy, convenient, attractive parking. Okay. And I know we've, I don't know, again, I don't know how much you've been into that, but you could, you know, share with us if you can, because, you know, I hear, I'm like you, you hear people saying that we don't have the parking that we need or that we're having to, you know, our patrons are having to pay for it, even in the parking garages on the weekends. And sometimes I don't know what the protocol is to respond to that, and maybe it would help us. Thank you. I can talk a little bit about it, Vice Mayor. As you all know or may not know, we're doing a retail study of downtown right now to see what we can do to see how the retail business is doing and what we can do to increase. And that's been so far the number one issue has been parking. It is getting, it's great to know because five years ago parking wasn't an issue. Now it's become very much of an issue in terms of probably needing more parking within the downtown area. I know that some of the proceeds go toward parking garage bonds. I don't know what the status is on that, so I know the parking authority does use some of their money to pay on the bonds for the garage. But, yes, one of their goals is to, you know, provide easier and better identified ways of parking for the downtown area. And I think it might be best to have, like you said, have Gary come and do a presentation for you all to kind of give you an update where they are. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to do that. Vice Mayor, would you like that in planning committee or before the full council perhaps at a work session? Whatever you think is best. We could have it here or there. Okay. I'll get with Paul and we'll get that set up. Work session might be better so that all council members will be here. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Chair. Harold, you said something which I didn't really quite click with concerning the control of the city-owned parking garages. It was our initial thought when we were forming the authority that that would be those garages would be put in the authority. Now, is that the case or is that not the case? I could be wrong, but I believe it's still not under the parking authority. I'm pretty well sure of it, too, because we had a link yesterday and there was some discussion about sale of a parking garage or repairs of a parking garage, and the parking authority wasn't in the conversation whatsoever. Do you know why? No, sir, I do not. Do you have any idea who could answer that question? Yeah, Gary. Gary means when he gives the report on the parking authority. That would be fine. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lawless. Go ahead, Harold. Okay, number six, maximize density and vacant sites. This is going to be another recommendation that's going to be continuously ongoing for many reasons. One is that we're going to really have to educate neighborhoods and people of the importance of higher density in our downtown area. It's a very sensitive issue when you get to some of the neighborhoods where you have a lot of single-family homes, especially in a historic district. What can you do to increase that density within that area that blends in with the neighborhood? So this will be an issue that we'll have to continue educating ourselves and the neighborhoods and the public to make them realize the importance of higher density. I don't see any questions from Council Members, but I have a comment and it goes back to Council Member Ellinger's comment about design guidelines and then in this recommendation it says that it's going to require continued support of well-designed higher density development. So here again we don't have any design guidelines. So who decides if something's well-designed or not? An example that I can talk about on that was the Art Tech project, which was in western suburbs that was in an H1 neighborhood, and the architect did have to work with the Board of Architectural Review and the Historic Preservation Office on the design of that project. It was one that the neighborhoods were very excited about it and felt that even though there's 36 units in that complex, that the scale and materials and proportions worked very well. It seems to me that it might be something that this committee would want to think about that rather than have individual entities determining design, courthouse area review design, historic design, which is different, that we might want to contemplate design guidelines for downtown. So with that, I've got Councilmember Feigl and Councilmember Lawless. Thank you, Chair. Excuse me. I know that when we start discussing higher densities, obviously a very important part of that is dealing with the public service or the stormwater and the sewer lines and that kind of thing, which it's going to have a greater impact when you increase the density. But where does that discussion take place when you start talking about the city services that need to be amended in some way to handle the higher densities? When a developer comes in with a project, we try to get them with every agency that they need to talk to, and one of that is with the sanitary sewers and the storm sewers so they can see what the design of the maximum dwelling units are going to be in that area to see what kind of impact it has on the system. In some cases, upgrades need to be done, and in some cases those upgrades are paid for by the developer. The show prop project on Angliana, that's what we're doing right now, is looking to see what capacity is in that area now and what we need to do to get the system prepared or the best way to get the system prepared for the additional units that will be in that area. So it's very important, like fire department, when you have a multi-unit like that, it's very important to get with the fire department so that they can look at that, determine if it needs to be sprinkled, make sure we have enough water capacity because it's usually a six-inch line you've got to get in for a sprinkler system. So through that process, we're working up front to know, before we get to the final design, what necessary changes are needed. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Lawless. Okay. I'll ask my question this time. I, too, am curious, since we don't, first of all, I mean, the council adopted this downtown master plan a year ago or so, and it's been in the works for a long time. What is taking so long to get these design guidelines in place? To my knowledge, nobody has directed us to do design guidelines. Isn't that part of your mission, or you said that was part of? No, that's form-based guidelines that was identified. Or form-based guidelines or something. Yeah, the form-based guidelines, we're currently working with the planning commission and with the urban county planning committee on procedures that would be necessary to establish those guidelines. The other question I have is, and this goes back to the pharmacy that's been put in at the corner of Main and Vine. It doesn't fit with the master plan that we've adopted, regardless if we have the guidelines or not in place. Who makes that decision? Because it didn't come before council, you know. And I'd like to see what it's going to look like. Currently, a developer, what they'll do is, like I was telling Council Member Feigl, we get with each of the divisions to see what needs to be done for the project to move forward. In this case, it had various people, it had traffic involved in it, it had planning involved in it, to make sure that all the current regulations and requirements were met for the project at that time. So even though it isn't in jive with the master plan that we've adopted, the decision, what role did, say, you play in that decision? We sat down with the developer many times to talk to him about alternatives that could be used for designing and developing the project. We do not have the legal ability to force that developer to take those recommendations. They did take some of the recommendations and move forward with them. I believe it did have to go before the Board of Adjustment on that project as well. I'd like to step back and explain. A plan is not a set of ordinances. Yes. So you have a set of ordinances that govern. And to fully implement the plan, we need to bridge that gap. We need some key decisions. We need commitments. If we are going to go to design or form-based review, either one is going to take a long-term commitment and up-front commitment to get us in the position to do that. And we've had those presentations to the joint committee of this committee and the planning commission last year, and we're all excited. We really want to get there and hope that the government will do that. But what you need to understand is that virtually in the entire downtown area, the laws say you basically just go to building inspection. The only reason the CVS had any other higher level of review was because they wanted a drive-through, and that required them to go to the Board of Adjustment. And we used that opportunity to try to leverage as much as we could in terms of design compromises and concessions out of that developer, and we're actually still working on that. So if we can get to the place where we have a fully realized set of design guidelines or form-based guidelines like you have in H1, like you have in the Courthouse Area Design Review Board, then we'll be able to respond appropriately and legally to these types of situations, and we're very hopeful that the council will lead us in that direction. How much longer do you expect it will take for you all to come forward with recommendations that we can place in ordinance while we still have a downtown? If you recall in the presentations, the two that I did last spring and last September to the joint committee, we outlined about six or seven process steps. First of all, the community commitment. It took Louisville 10 years to implement it. We don't think it will take us near that long, but you have to start out and say, okay, this is the way we're going to go, and then we have to decide what area or areas do we want to cover. Then we need a decision as to what type of mechanism. Will you have a czar? Will you have a board? Will it be mandatory advisory? And we laid out those process steps for you. We'd like to work through those so that we have some guidelines of where we go. We're also going to need funding commitment. If we're going to do an analysis of the forms that we have and create guidelines, we don't have the expertise and architectural expertise in-house to do that, so we will need money for consultants to help us get that in place. So my guess is once you green light, within a year or two, you should be ready to consider a full set of regulations and package and program. Then you'll have to hire staff. You'll have to set up procedures in order to administer those. It's a big process, but it's one that we really hope you all consider moving forward on. Okay, thank you. Chris, excuse me, Mr. King, before we go ahead, will you clarify something you said? Certainly. Did you say form-based or design guidelines or form-based and? Well, that is a key decision because they are different, but they're really different ends of design regulation continuum. So one might fix the other. Right. If you recall, I did some examples of why we felt this needed more study in the presentation. For instance, the very rough ones that were done by ASG for the downtown master plan, which is not a fully realized set of even form-based guidelines. For instance, you would not, you know, projects that people generally think are pretty good, like the main and rows, would not have been permitted. None building would not have complied with those, so that wouldn't have happened. Yet a building that folks have generally not been real pleased with, the federal attorney building down on Vine Street, complied with those 100%. So, again, it's going to be a policy choice that this community is going to have to make. Do we want to go with just form guidelines, or do we have certain areas where we want to have that higher level of architectural design review? And, again, we've shown you different examples of blended and other kinds of programs, and, again, we'll just have to decide as we talk through this where you see Lexington going, and then we can bring you a program and ordinances that fit where we're trying to go. Okay. Well, this has stimulated several questions. So we'll start with Councilmember Stemmett. Well, you know, Chris and I, we spoke after the Building Inspection Task Force about this issue, and I had a resolution ready to go. I was going to wait until later to bring it to the council at the work session, but I think everyone on here wants design guidelines. So, Chair, I think it would be just safe to say, can we go ahead and make this an item for the planning committee to decide, whether they have a motion or anything separate, so we all do it as a team versus any individual council member. That way we can move this process forward. I think the dilemma is design guidelines form-based, if I just heard you correctly. That's one of the decisions. Those are two different things. I'll make a motion to have design guidelines established for downtown. Okay. There's a motion on the floor in a second. Now, will this eliminate any going forward with form-based, if we can still do that? Well, I don't think you'll want duplicate systems. Certainly a design guideline system, I would call, is a higher level of design regulation than form-based. So you can blend elements of both, actually, to some degree. But if you want to go with design, then you're looking at doing something like H-1 type, only the guidelines will be different. They will have a different purpose than H-1 type guidelines. But the process would be somewhat similar. Let's have a little discussion on the motion, and I think it would be helpful to be sure that council members are very clear, then, that if this is passed, then the form-based, you know, I'm not sure that all the council members here have all the information, but we'll see what the discussion brings. So now, if you'll just raise your hand to talk to the motion, and we'll just start and go around. Council Member Blues, Lawless, James, we'll start there. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member Stenner, who would take the initiative on this? Well, I think the Planning Department would to develop a set of, to bring back to this body to take a look at. I think Chris or Mr. King explained the process a couple minutes ago, the consultant would need to be hired, I assume, Chris. The money would need to be there for the consultant, et cetera. Can we, you know, can we include design guidelines and or form-based? Well, I think as Chris said, you know, we've got to start at the macro level and work our way down, I think, in this process. Working our way from the bottom up has got us where we're at now, where we're creating individual kingdoms or silos, so to speak, in design. I think we need to take a look at the macro level of all of downtown is my intentions of the downtown design guidelines. And we have an opportunity in this budget to put the money to accomplishing this feat. Right. I agree with that. And as you say, we've been, what's the word, dithering for a long time on this. And my interest is in passing a motion that moves us toward some creative action and a proposal within a certain timeline, too. And perhaps you have a notion of, you know, of a deadline. Six months? Tomorrow. I mean, I want to move as fast as we really can to do a good job. I mean, all of us have worked. I mean, the Vice Mayor has chaired the infill redevelopment, which has done good work. I mean, all of us on this committee have done great work on this issue. We just kind of need to bring it all together and get something in place that we can really debate. Right now we can't really debate anything because we don't have anything before us. You know, a trip to Columbus for a day would be good. I mean, there's a lot of things we can really do to really make this a good effort. But my motion is to get that effort moving. Whatever it looks like, I think the time frame needs to be as quick as possible. And we have an opportunity in this budget to put the money where our mouth is, so to speak, and get it going. So we would need then a preliminary recommendation from the Division of Planning, I would say, within the next 30 days? I would say by our next planning committee meeting. Would you accept that as a friendly amendment? Absolutely. Do you want to restate your amendment, Council Member Blues? It would be to bring back a recommendation for moving forward by the next planning committee meeting. For design guidelines? That's correct. Do I hear a second to the amendment? Okay, Council Member Beard seconded. So there's a motion to amend the motion on the floor to say that planning would come forward in 30 days or at the next planning committee meeting with some recommendation on going forward with design guidelines. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. Now, I have a list of folks who are in the queue to discuss. And next is Council Member Lawless, then Council Member James, then Vice Mayor Gray. Point of order. This is a question. Do we now need to vote on the amendment? This is discussion on the amendment. Are you wanting to discuss the amendment? When I held up my hand, I wanted to discuss the time, the 30 days. Yes. Did you have a comment on that? Yes. Is that okay? We just heard from Mr. King that they didn't have the expertise to do this. And I'm as anxious as anybody to move this forward, but if we're asking them to come forward with design, okay, I'm sorry, what are we asking them to do? Will you please repeat your amendment? What I'm asking is that at our next planning committee meeting, we have a recommendation from the Division of Planning on how we move forward with this process. So I'm expecting that we would receive information on, you know, here's step one, here's step two, here's step three, here's how we can get this thing going, here's how much it's going to cost, so that we can have time, you know, to work this into the budget. Thank you. Thank you. And just to clarify, the next planning committee meeting is June 22nd. Okay. Council Member James, did you want to speak to the amendment? Yes. I was actually going to speak on the original, but I do have a question about the amendment and that timeline that you just told us, June 22nd. How does that fall in line with our budget report out? I don't have a copy of the budget timeline in front of me. Just curious about that. The budget is, the second reading of the budget is June 24th. The first reading is June 22nd, and ratification is June 15th. Okay. So I think the motion is asking for a cost, but it would be, of course, after the budget process. If it comes in June, if we want to set a special meeting for a May planning committee meeting, we've been known to do that. That was my only, that's my only comment about the 30-day, the next planning, is that I think we may be done with our budget process by that time. So I don't, if you want to consider it. And if that's the case, then I want to ask a question of Chris, which is, I mean, there are many things that we've been discussing about planning in the Infant Redevelopment Steering Committee. I don't know how this ranks on priority of completion. And if we give this some type of due diligence, all of this attention, how, Chris, how are you feeling about this rising to the top as something that could become a budget priority because of the attention we're giving it in planning, when I could give you like 159 other recommendations from Infant Redevelopment that deserve some attention too. So I'm just a little curious of your opinion of that. Well, again, I think this is an important thing, and I think we need further discussion so the council has a good and clear picture of what we would be talking about and what it might cost because it's not a one-year cost. You know, you'd be looking at a one-year cost to get a program going, but then you'd have continued support in staffing and administration, all those things that you'd have to do. I feel very good that the council is looking at that now. I think it all fits in context with other things and other aims that fit in with infant redevelopment, and I feel good about it. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. All right. Next is Vice Mayor Gray. Yeah. I'd like to see that we, in this 30-day period, that we examine carefully and understand the distinction between form-based and design-based. I think that's really essential. Infant Redevelopment, it's going to report today as well. As you know, Chris, for two-and-a-half years, has been one of its primary recommendations at the top. I believe Nathan Billings, co-chair, is here. Form-based has been. So you see the dots connecting clearly strategically. But it is worthwhile and valuable that we understand the distinctions. So tell us how we might get there, if you would, please. I think in the presentation that we would make to you at your next meeting, whenever that is, we would give you some illustrative examples, and we could do that and say, here's the kinds of things you would regulate typically under a design-based guideline. Here are the kinds of things you would regulate typically under a form-based guideline. It's not always mutually exclusive, but a lot of communities choose one direction or the other, and you might go with one in certain areas, and then you have certain critical areas where you want to deal with architectural control. You might choose where those would be. For example, just for our benefit, I think it would be worthwhile to understand that the courthouse area design overlay zone is a design-based guideline. So it will be important for us to understand where that model has worked and where it has not worked, for example, because that experience will and should influence the future. I think that's an example of a question related to this. And by where do you mean, like, where in the country or where in typical urban settings? Our own experience here and perhaps beyond as well. I think benchmarks will be valuable. That would be a tall order in 30 days, but we have done some research and we have some examples that we've pulled off the Internet. For instance, I spent a day with Charles Cash, my counterpart over in Louisville, and he has a whole design section in his planning department that does nothing but this kind of stuff. And I know what it took even for them to get there. They still regulate design fairly lightly over there even still, but they do have those kinds of things. And, again, you rarely, when we investigate these things, we rarely find pure examples of either. There's usually overlap and blending. I think that's what we're maybe, you know, in my view, that we may be describing a difference and a distinction to some extent, and that's what we need the professional help on here. We will do our best. Right. Thank you, sir. So with this amendment, and if the council committee decides to have a special meeting in May, maybe toward the end of May to give you a little more time, you think you could bring us something? Absolutely. Okay. Is there any more comment or discussion about the amendment? And if it passes, I think then we'll look at our calendars. Tom? Council Member Bluth. Just to say that if we pass this amendment and then the council members send its motion that we'd schedule a special meeting of the planning committee on this one agenda item in time to enter it into our budget deliberations. Thank you. If there's no further discussion on the amendment to ask planning to come back at its next meeting, planning staff to come back at the next planning committee meeting, all those in favor? Did you have one more comment? I was just going to suggest that we might be able to develop some sort of a protocol or suggestion as to how we might ask questions during this period or help inform what might be expected at that presentation, Chris, just on an ad hoc basis is what I'm. You understand what I'm saying? We'd be very open to that sooner rather than later. Yeah, right. I understand. Thank you. Okay. Will all those in favor of the amendment please say aye? Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. The motion passes. Will you get out your calendars, please, and then we'll talk about the motion. I'm going to suggest May the 20th right before the CAL meeting. The CAL meeting is at 5, the council meeting, the mayor's budget hearing is at 7. We could have it at 3 o'clock perhaps on May the 20th. Does that sound? That's a Thursday. We have planning commission work session. Oh, you have planning commission. Oops, that won't work. It is a work session, May 20th. Okay, that will not work very well. We're off the 18th because it's an election day, Councilmember Sennett. Would we want to meet the 18th? Or the 17th? There are some link meetings scheduled for the 18th and 17th. What time are those? Right now it's all day. I don't think we need all day. Let's see. Would we want to move to the what about late? Let's see. Does anyone else have a suggestion? I don't know the full link schedule, so I think if we can go toward the end of May, it will be helpful for you, the planning folks. Maybe we can, rather than spend a lot of time right now looking at 20 different calendars, I can bring some suggestions by e-mail and we'll get a consensus that way. Would that work? Okay. Now, the motion on the floor specifically relates to design guidelines. I've heard a lot of discussion about putting design guidelines and form-based and seeing which does what. So is there any amendment to the motion, or do you only want to hear design guidelines? I would amend to include a discussion of form-based so we have an adequate understanding of the distinctions. Basic primer comparison. So there's a motion on the floor and a second by Council Member Lawless to amend motion to bring forward a discussion and presentation of form-based and design guidelines to compare the two. We don't want you to have all the infinite detail of the whole world, but we need some for understanding. Now, is there discussion of the motion? Okay, there's no discussion. Questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? So the motion is that we've asked, we'll bring it to, I don't know if we need to bring it to Council because it's a planning committee motion. So we'll look very soon today or early tomorrow at dates, and we'll look forward to spending the meeting on design guidelines and form-based. Okay, very good. Now, where were you, Harold? I think you were on recommendation seven, maybe? Ready to go to seven. Oh, Council Member Ellinger has a question. Well, and we have a list here, actually. Council Member Beard, did you have a question? We have a previous list before we got on to the motion. All right. Council Member Beard. A question, I guess, or a comment or a combination thereof. At the time that we found out that we may get a pharmacy downtown, there were two competing entities that were going to put one there. One was Rite Aid and one was CVS. We influenced, to a certain extent, the outcome of who it was going to be, excepted the fact that it probably wasn't going to be the prettiest building on earth. But as I remember, it revolved around mixed-use, some type of a mixed-use building with Rite Aid on the first floor and a parking garage. If they couldn't have that, refresh my memory. Was it the parking garage that sealed the deal for CVS as opposed to Rite Aid? I don't want to speak for the developer, but from my understanding from talking to the developer, it's still a mixed-use project. This is just phase one. Phase two would be still a parking garage and a mixed-use as well that would be on the next three lots that are over in the area. So they would be going ahead and doing phase one now, which would be the drugstore. Then what was the difference between the two? In the original proposal, there was going to be a building or floors over the drugstore. Okay. In this proposal, there is not. Yeah. Okay. But we actually were in the loop on making that decision, as I remember. I guess that's all. I just wanted to refresh everybody's memory that this didn't come as a surprise to us. Okay. Thank you. I need to go back. Although we voted on the amendment, which really set the whole thing, we need to have an official vote on the final motion, which was before us, which was to ask planning to come at the next meeting to discuss and have a presentation of form-based and design guidelines. So all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? And then before we go on, I have two dates I'd like to just throw out so that we can get these off the table or on. Council members, the 26th of May at 3.30 or the 27th at, say, 3.30? 27th. Can I have some input, please, if either of those would work? May 27th, someone's saying. Can you give me some, Chris? Oh, that's a Thursday again. Shame on me. I may have some good news on that. Okay. That is a day set aside for a planning commission zoning hearing. Bill was just telling me we don't think we have anything filed or will have anything filed for that date. The big item that we have, of course, are the student housing text amendments, but I believe we will have had to have reported back to council before then. So it looks to me like if you're going to pick a Thursday, that might be about as safe as we could go. Okay. Yes, Council Member James. Well, I don't know how many of you are planning. There is a Morton House celebration. There's like a dedication that's not extremely significant to the workings of our government, but it is something that I know at large and district council will be invited to. I don't know if you want to take that into account. It looks like those things are all over by 1.30 that afternoon. So 3.30. 3.30 would be fine. Would work. Yeah. Is there anyone who has a serious conflict? Someone suggested 3 o'clock. That will give us two full hours before 5. full hours before 5. Okay if I don't hear any violent objection we'll set it at 3 o'clock on May the 27th and then if Planning Commission they can join us. Oh that's perfect that's perfect all right very good. Now Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you Chair. Getting back to this design guideline and will this affect Harold what happens with CVS because it seems like it's gonna be a long process. Is there anything that can be done? I don't think so. I'd have to check. I don't think they've applied for a permit though. No they've not applied for their permit as of this morning. My gut feeling tells me that before you got any regulations in effect unless they just walk away from this site that shifts pretty much sale. Say that again I'm sorry. My sense would be that you're a long way from having ordinances in place that would impact the development of that property. What about a quicker fix would you could you do a text amendment for a B2? You could and that's one of the things we're going to explain to you in terms of the kinds of decisions that you would have to make. Yes but even a text amendment cannot impact something that's in progress. Okay so we really don't have any say over the CVS at this point? We probably don't have any say over the CVS. My guess unless you immediately instituted some kind of moratorium or and I don't know even since they did get approval from the Board of Adjustment. I'm getting way over my head in legal waters here I'm afraid. I think Mr. Stinnon had some response to that. Councilmember Stinnon is actually next on the list. I am actually you I did answer Mr. Beard. I had asked Mr. Hall back to come down today so I think he's going to be here around 4 if there's some questions you want to ask about this property he should be here in attendance because we spoke at the what's next conference and I asked him to come down here just to give us an update of what's going on during work session yes. Thank you Councilmember Stinnon. I was just going to and Chris in the effort of not to get into legal waters has everything you said they have not presented any designs to planning for approval or they have? Well planning does not have design control over that building first and foremost there are no laws that do that. When the Board of Adjustment approved the drive-thru lane they attached to that giving us some discretion to work with the applicant on materials hardscape type landscaping and supposed to soft landscaping building materials some form details and fenestration and things like that. We were very much engaged with those applicants in a very let's just say aggressive kind of give and take and at one point we told them if you do this this this this and this we'll likely sign off and say you have complied with what the board's directions were. That was about six months ago we have not heard back from them. So so we do have some things out there frankly the staff has very limited discretion I think it at this point that's probably all I can really say about it at this point. I understand and so the the drive-thru has been approved? By the board yes about a year ago. But with the conditions that you just described? May of last year yes. And we have not heard back on those whether or not they will comply with those conditions? Right we were close to you know what we thought it didn't involve having a second floor I mean I've got to be honest with you you know that site is is an extremely challenged site I mean we could spend a whole work session just on the issues there but. Will you let us know when they come back to you with that? Absolutely I will send an email to the committee. Well with that said Mr. Tate celebrating urban entrances is next and I think it's very appropriate. What more could I ask for right? That is somewhat of an entrance. All right celebrate urban entrances. This is something that we've tried to make a part of the streetscape plan and as we are in the construction components of the streetscape plan you'll notice in the college town we have done some design work to celebrate that entrance at that area. You're going to see on Main and Vine Street some elements as well to let you know that you've identified and arrived into a downtown area. And at the point of Midland and Main I know that as an area that CLEDA has already been looking at the terms of what we can do to to address that entrance into our downtown area as well within the public right-of-way. We have a question from Councilmember Lawless. Okay Midland and Main isn't part of the phase one is that correct? That's correct. Okay it says here that it will be necessary to continue to find means to fund the completion of the streetscape plan. Are you talking about the phase one streetscape plan? Yeah the next next component the council voted during the bonding for Vine Street from Broadway to Limestone and then Main Street from Broadway to Elm Tree Lane. So the funding is not in place from Elm Tree Lane to Midland Avenue at this time. Okay and so you're not referring to it says here you're referring to the phase one. Right. And that there will be it will be necessary to continue to find means to fund the completion it looks like of phase one. Right because that's all of Main and Vine was part of phase one but we had to break Main and Vine into two into a phase A and a phase B. Right so are we doing. A is right now. And phase 1B. Would be Vine Street from Limestone to Midland and then Main Street from Elm Tree Lane to Midland. So from Elm Tree to Broadway is is funded. Yes. And is there any more I mean back in June of last year when we were looking at the South Limestone streetscape project that kind of caught us all by surprise the mayor at that time said he was confident and committed to getting full funding for all phase one streetscape and for it to be done by July of 2010 and that didn't come through and we ended up having to bond 15.2 million for for that and then the Fifth Third Bank and Downtown Lexington Corporation kicked into gear and got Fifth Third Bank to make the 750,000 very generous donation and Cheapside Parks really gonna look wonderful in the pavilion is wonderful but I'm wondering is there anything in the works that is going to provide any grants any stimulus dollars anything that is going to be available to help with this phase one streetscape projects that we were under the impression we're going to be fully funded I'm sure that's something that they're investigating I know we would know that I guess somebody from the administration office okay thank you okay go right ahead anything else on that one okay the next one was a invest in a pedestrian network that resulted in a streetscape plan that is currently underway phase one as I talked about is under construction limestone from Euclid Avenue or Avenue Champions up to Vine Street Broadway from I mean Main Street from Elm Tree Lane over to Broadway and then Vine Street from Broadway to limestone is currently under construction that includes the Cheapside Park and the pavilion itself okay recommendation number nine integrate Rupp Arena into the urban fabric I think that is something that you'll see as they move forward in terms of the potential of the new arena itself so that is an ongoing process what I'll be dealt with okay number 10 I'm sorry did you have a question okay councilmember James please log in if you have a question thank you what's the latest on the Rupp Arena are we getting a new arena I don't know I'm not on that board I I don't know I know they were doing studies that's all I know at this point okay would that if they who would know I mean I don't even know what a question to ask what's the status that something how would we as urban County government be a part of that process would that be something that we would know once the plan comes forward and there's some type of approval for permit or something needed what but what point in the process do we fit in I believe there are some members of the council that are on the Lexington Center board so they could give you an update on that as well it depends upon how they finance the project if they're looking at local bonding they'll have to come to you all for approval as well I would hope they would come to you all no matter what though and explain what is happening since you're aware of it before anything is finally decided okay looks like vice-mayor grace chimed in maybe he knows yeah councilmember James the the last or maybe two meetings ago the chairman chairman Cecil done he appointed a committee to to consider it or to review whatever proposals the university offers and I'm not on that committee Kevin you're not on it either are you so we have no knowledge of anything occurring at this point in time and if we do I will let you know councilmember Lawless as a follow-up to that councilmember James appreciate you bringing that up and it's good to know that there's no or it's I guess helpful to know that there's no council representation on that committee about the new rep arena I hope this will not be something that we're surprised with and maybe some kind of resolution we need to come up with that they that committee report to the full council as it moves forward giving us I don't want to be driving to the government center and see a block torn down like I did at Maine and Midland so I think we really need to be aware of what's going on how it's going on because clearly that's a huge undertaking for our community and it needs public input thank you councilmember James just a follow-up on that chair is I think I'm one of my struggles with some of the concepts in the master plan is I can't figure out how if an organization or entity can do something completely on their own how it becomes part of our plan and how we can either endorse it or not I don't know if we I mean we're we don't know what's going on we may or may not hear what's going to happen if there's going to be an arena I just can't figure out if we should have should we have more to do with it or should this not be part of our master plan if we don't have any say so or it I'm trying to figure out what why do we have this as part of our master plan and I thought that each one of the recommendations had some kind of committee or something appointed that were supposed to be working so maybe that committee through I guess the DDA board maybe they could plug in with what's going on with the Lexington Center board yeah well I would hope you wouldn't want to remove it because just like every recommendation here it's something that we have that makes our downtown more in terms of what we're trying to make the downtown an urban lively area and I think it's important that Rupp arena as Councilman Lawless just said it has a huge impact on down you noticed it and I think you would want it to be a part of downtown be a part of the fabric itself so I think you'd want to keep that recommendation in there to to make that potential become a reality oh yeah I wouldn't mind keeping it but it there needs to be a connection to something so if it's our if we need to give instruction to our council members that are on the board of the types of things that we would like to see whether the Rupp arena stays as it is or whether there's a new I think there needs to be instruction given because otherwise we're only we're only get I mean we we don't resist any development here we take everything because we're afraid of that we're never going to get anything ever again so we need to give some type of instruction of what it is when we talk about urban fabric are the people that are on the committee do they even care about urban fabric is that what they're talking about and how can we give that instruction to our the current folks and also make it just a resolution or something by our council that this is what we would expect out of you know a multiplex sports complex entertainment complex we've done it with other venues we put criteria as for business plans want task forces and and people point appointed on committees but it and in this particular case as well as some of the others in here we don't we haven't done that so I don't see the benefit of having something part of a document when we don't even know what our role is in it one thing I can do is Lexington Center executive director of the Owens is on the advisory committee of the downtown development authority I can address that to him to see how we can create that link if you're interested in doing that would be helpful okay thank you thank you I would and actually the city does own the land mm-hmm so I think that your comments are quite appropriate right and okay see on this on this issue my madam chairman and I think I appreciate James I for one at least and I suspect that councilmember Stennett would agree I really agree with what you're saying and in fact I guess to some point I've I may have been a bit of an irritant to some point on the same issues that you're expressing the the integration the need for the integration of rub into the fabric the scale of the current rough and whatever might be imagined and what occurs with the current rough hypothetically in the future there was a resolution passed to create a small area plan for the parking areas and behind rough today that would link the downtown and a Manchester Street in the future so the voices that that that you are the issues that you're identifying that you are suggesting need to be at the table they are they are present at the table they're often mentioned edit at homes has mentioned these often as a member Phil Hollaback has as well but I don't think that we as a council can do enough or too much to encourage these these strategies thank you councilmember lawless then councilmember stem it yeah I guess I'd like to know who is on this committee and I don't know if it's on a website somewhere not who's on the committee to study it and so some can you get are you on it okay if I guess I'll try to find it on a web I can ask mr. Schonegger if he would contact mr. Owen one's at the Lexington Center and get a list of the folks on the committee and you're right I mean here it is part of our master plan we own the land but we as a council haven't approved the building of it or and we're not part of the process of studying it what will the cost be what will the cost to the city be so it's very disturbing to me and and I feel like we need representation on that okay we have and council members remember we have infill redevelopment next councilmember Stennett and then councilmember beard thank you chair I just want to reiterate that that no decision on a new arena has been made that task force that chairman done creative was just to explore it and be the maybe the front arm of the board to actually meet with UK and other other entities as they're looking at putting a new arena still has to come back to the full board of which this council approves of the representatives of so the board hasn't even seen anything to do with the new arena yet to make a decision one way or another as councilmember Gordon points out we do on the land as a city we do own rep arena and councilmember James's point that's the issue that's the elephant in the room new arena is fine nice and dandy but what do you do with a 50 million dollar building well it's gonna be paid off here very soon you go to renovating it then you got other costs and that's where the community will get hit with the expense and that's what we all need to be ahead of but until that board until we get a anything I show you the first glimpse of it we'll bring back to this council vice mayor and I will to discuss and have open dialogue on so I don't know that doesn't give you a firm answer in terms of where we're at in the process because we don't know they're they're still looking at and studying it from their end councilmember beard thank you chair original meeting that was held to kind of unveil this and I don't remember the alphabet soup that they they threw at us but I am G but then I am G's parent and the same people that built Wembley Stadium and on and on and on something was said I guess week before last at this point at the the conference that the building the new Rupp Arena would be on the Cox Street level and I had initially heard that it was going to be on the parking the existing parking lot across the high street from the present Rupp Arena so if anybody has any information which is which I'd love to know that and the second thing is someone asked a question there of them about the name Rupp Arena and they said they would be selling the rights to the name of the so it's going to end up to be a I don't know some corporation will come up with money and that it would not cost the city a dime that was also said now the renovation of the old Rupp Arena and there was some presentations made about that another venue performing arts venue that type of thing I would guess would be on our nickel stop me when I said something that you don't agree with were you there I wasn't at that one but so far what you've said what I've what I've heard okay I just want to get that out so that everybody in this group and and the council in general will know what was said there wasn't much council participation in that one meeting and as I remember thank you chair council member James thank you chair I really wanted to respond to council member Senate and I do appreciate the information you brought forward and you did clarify that nothing has nothing's moving forward at this point there hasn't been an approval for a new Rupp Arena and I think it is critical that we do have the represent that we do acknowledge that we do have council representation on that on that board and at this point that's critical the only the only concern I have about this is I'm just imagining other other groups that are housed in our buildings throughout the city and we do not want to give anyone the impression that they can go around and build new buildings or tear down buildings or even consider designs or renaming without coming to our council coming to this government and getting that so I think it's just about fairness about a process and that's one of the one of the main reasons is if we something's part of our government I mean we many of us had his he fit over an organization that was housed in one of our buildings that really wasn't hurting anybody and we we made it we made a big deal of that because of insurance purposes and such and all kinds of things that were right for us to be aware of this is critical and so that's the only thing is I just wonder where we where we merge into that where we have that type of conversation for equality and for just procedure of how are things done in government buildings on government land and with respect to our taxpayers that's the only thing I'm looking for we've done it before for for buildings and I just want to see the same thing implemented there so I do respect the board members there and and look forward to hearing back from you thanks okay go right ahead I think we're ready for number 10 Vine Street develop on Street this project with the cooperation of Durban County Council we approved the bonding for this portion of Vine Street to be improved and it is currently under construction with completion to be in August you have not been down there we are in front of the Hilton Hotel right now working on the on the be the north side and we'll be going along on the north side completing work and then shifting down to the area in front of Central Bank which will then be new curved sidewalks the rain gardens trails the whole bit that will be located along this area we have councilmember Ellinger Thank You chair the one picture before is that part of the proposal now when when you all ask us to design the streetscape so that the road could be one way or two way this did not work and so we had to go that's why I thought I just saw that picture and I just confused me there and I didn't I started talking and I always kind of like that concept but I didn't think that's what ended up happening okay thanks is any other questions may I ask you a question before we leave Vine Street I am presuming that since nothing is approved or funded or in any way done about this linear park that there's the potential that the it the vision could change the linear park has been moved and it is in along the north side on Vine Street one thing you see when you go out there is that we've moved the curved line out yes so it's wider so the linear park will go along on that north side on the Vine Street and tie into Water Street but that will be the next phase that will that's not funded at this time but but you're not we wouldn't take from what you just said that the linear park is going to be paved you mean the linear park a linear park yeah it's it there will be a quote trail it will be concrete or whatever but it's just incorporated into the sidewalk area thank you okay create an amphitheater I believe this is one of the components we looked at I think that vice mayor was talking about on these Cox Street parking lot at this time nothing has been moved forward on this I think it's one of those situations that hopefully if a small area plan is done within this area this will somehow be addressed I will say that a small amphitheater will be built as part of show prop property on Angliana as well though okay this is the community center for a museum site this was for resulted from the Easton neighborhood this recommendation was wrapped into the lyric theater so the lyric theater will be serving as the community center and the history component for the Easton neighborhood and as scheduled open this summer go ahead recommendation number 13 to find a spatial character of throat thoroughbred park with buildings this is the hero leader parking lot on the recommendations is that we look at this parking lot see if we for some way that we could get the hero leader and a developer to go in together to build a parking structure and then help define that park more so with a with a building and there's not been any action on this next one is to green up the area at the corner of Rose Street and Main Street and vine and the streetscape plan is addressing a lot of that it will not go into the parking lot area but once again we'll have a series of rain gardens and tree areas on the perimeter of the site we have next recommendation number 15 is the permanent farmers market it's hard to see but in there we had looked at about six locations and it was determined at the Sheepside Park was the best location that pavilion as many of you all were there last Friday night we had the ribbon-cutting for that pavilion and this will be the permanent market for the Saturday's farmers market I am sorry councilmember Ellinger thank you when will the the total thing be completed because there's a Thursday trust me thank you Harold did you say this would be the permanent location for the Saturday market for the Saturday market so any of the other permanent space would not be for the Saturday because I know they had talked about some buildings across the street or down the way they are still looking at if there's a potential to do a like a permanent store or they could do their good seller goods because they're at the point now where they had meats all the time they had milk some that are doing hydroponic planning now so I think they're ready to take it to the next state step to make an enclosed building area where they would have and sell the goods there okay and what are what are the hours so would any other events be able to take place on the Saturday at that from 7 to 3 on Saturday okay thank you okay go right ahead and the last one is the town branch trail as part of the bonding that you all did in December I believe it was it was for the Manchester Street public improvements and the town town branch trail councilmember blues and myself and others are part of a committee that is reviewing and will be interviewing consultants to start on that project as well thank you very much are there any burning questions before infill councilmember James Thank You chair um Harold do you know if the the town back branch trail that you're pursuing is this the one will you be linking it to the Isaac Murphy site at all which I think is where you're looking as taking and tying it into the legacy trail which then would go into the Isaac Murphy as well okay there is a bike lane that is a part of the new town hike extension bridge that is under construction right now and the bridge is designed in a way that a ramp could be built to take the bikes up so that the staging area for town branch trail is right there at the new town pike bridge okay um so is as part of what you and customer blues are working on is there in a push to the east is part of what you're doing it's pretty much going from the Cock Street parking lot I guess that beat to the west okay but I know it's a proposal has been identified of how to link that up to 3rd Street or 4th Street along new town pike okay but not all the way to this where it begins which is at Isaac Murphy well you'd be able to go up to that point of the legacy trail and then they cut across okay thank you thank you chair Harold thank you very much just to quickly take a few seconds to review we'll have an update any day on the two-way streets is that correct now that probably will come before our May special meeting is that what any day means yes I'll have mr. Schonegger ask Gary means to do a presentation on update from the Parking Authority and and we'll do that at work session may the 20 we've set our special meeting for May the 27th at 3 o'clock and we'll hear on design design guidelines versus form base and then mr. Schonegger will contact mr. Owens at the Lexington Center about the task force members for Rupp Arena thank you very much thank you mr. question and we will spend the last 28 minutes on our infill and redevelopment and I've already talked with councilmember lawless will postpone the residential addition issue welcome mr. Jimmy Emmons thank you very much if you'll give me just a second to get the correct presentations up on the board there we go before I get started I'm very pleased to present the 2010 progress report of the infill and redevelopment steering committee it was actually two years ago in April of 2008 that the infill and redevelopment steering committee recommended over a hundred objectives a hundred recommendations for for the for this government to take on to get over just a few of the the paperwork in your packet I had we had the executive summary of the 2008 report immediately followed by and we brought and I brought some color copies that I gave to Paul earlier of the 2010 progress report this is really the meat of the presentation today my presentation will basically be an animated version of this document that was immediately followed by a great big list and it's be careful what you ask for because you just might get it there's over a hundred and four recommendations that the IR steering committee has been working on and then followed by some appendices on that I want to start off with just basically a photo montage of several projects that have occurred because of the efforts of infill and redevelopment in this community we mentioned the our tech community earlier before and this was a development that was so out of the ordinary that when it came in for plan review a lot of people didn't know what to think about it but it turned out beautifully for that and that's really the story of our infill and redevelopment as you go on and look at this this community has had a long history of infill and redevelopment dating back to whenever we first had a planning commission back in the 20s but if you took that timeline and you time lined it out you would see that there would be a major burst of exponential growth in 2000 towards the objectives of infill and redevelopment and and again in 2008 with the redone infill and redevelopment committee on this we've got projects such as the Angliana Avenue and TIF projects these are all recommendations of that taking former warehouse areas along Angliana Avenue and turning them into residential and mixed-use corridors entertainment corridors I just can't tell you that the efforts that go into the infill and redevelopment committee it's not just one person there's actually a cast of hundreds of people that participated in infill and redevelopment and the work that you're seeing go on now are some of the direct results of the processes and that that went through as you look at infill and redevelopment there are some major things to think of you've got all of Fayette County including the rural service area that's the that's the other side of the coin we've got the urban service area the infill and redevelopment boundary which is in highlighted in yellow and then the downtown development area in purple I get asked a lot what is infill and redevelopment and I answer that question is it's really a balance infill and redevelopment is a balance between neighborhood stabilization and increased opportunities before our 2000 and residential infill and redevelopment study we had types of developments with that were incompatible and those regulations have been replaced with compatible infill developments that could not happen before some of the increased opportunities are to take buildings that were boarded up and find new mixed uses and increased density large mixed-use structures in our downtown and surrounding areas all in agreement with our downtown master plan which you just saw our comprehensive plan and all of our planning efforts you can't really look at it without history and the 20s we had a part of the ordinance that if you had a stall for your horse you didn't need a parking place for your car now we give bicycle parking brakes that if you put up bicycle racks we give you brakes on the amount of parking that you have to provide and right on the cover of the 2010 report I put a graphic from the 1968 zoning ordinance this is the vibrant downtown that they used as the picture of what we wanted for commercial development back in 1968 really looking at some of the accomplishments I'm going to spend just a small amount of time on the accomplishments from 2000 to 2008 really everything got started with the residential infill and redevelopment standards they that led to regulatory changes incentives education better coordination within the government and focus on neighborhood character and design some of the effects in short on that were new regulations where we can really say inside the infill and redevelopment area development is different than outside of that infill and redevelopment facilitation helping projects get through the process my position is the infill and redevelopment facilitator in the in the division of planning and even though I might be the spokesperson for infill and redevelopment I have to tell you that I am NOT the only person that is facilitating infill and redevelopment it's going across the across the government in fact the division of building inspection have named two people one for residential and one for commercial that focus on infill and redevelopment for that and also for those divisions that haven't specifically set somebody aside for infill and redevelopment as we look at projects we are they are very much focused on what we are trying to accomplish with infill and redevelopment and that is because of the support that this community has given to that and another hallmark of the of the infill and redevelopment program is continual improvement of what we are doing looking at what has been done making sure that it works and then figuring out ways to do it better moving on to the infill and redevelopment steering committee that made the recommendation in 2008 that's where over a hundred objectives of specific recommendations for this government came out of that report and that's where the bulk of this list came through I remembered whenever I was looking at the list and looking at those projects that have been started the ones that are completed on that continuum when you were in your Madison Wisconsin trip we were about 50 just over 50% of the ways started on those hundred objectives so remember that number from about a year ago looking at the accomplishments of the infill and redevelopment steering committee in the last two years one of the strengths of this ad hoc committee is its ability to reorganize itself in such a way that that it can meet the needs and new challenges of that our IR steering committee members right now have through there but one of the big breakthroughs of the infill and redevelopment steering committee is that it's not just the people that's on the committee it's everyone and whenever I said that there were a cast of hundreds that went into these recommendations I'm not exaggerating on that the other big breakthrough in 2008 is where is infill and redevelopment it was really recognized that all of Fayette County and with a focus on the downtown area because it has the ripple effect on infill and redevelopment we looked at though we looked at the recommendations of the IR steering committee and apply them to the rural service area the IR boundary the downtown area all of those things it's a very multidisciplinary approach so where is infill and redevelopment it's everywhere but the recognition that the application in the context of how infill and redevelopment applied is applied is the most important part of that so how do we do that that's where the hundred and four objectives the hundred and four recommendations that were largely grouped under three broad categories of policy administration and implementation recommendations in your in your 2010 progress report you can see a full list with the green yellow and red boxes of all hundred and four of the recommendations and where they stand today if you look at the ones that have either been completed or that are now ongoing practices of the urban county government we're at 52% of that if you look at the ones that are in progress and that ranges anywhere from we've we've just really gotten started to hey we're almost done with this that's another 25% of the objectives that's a total of 77% of the objectives that have begun as compared to about 50% a year ago so that is good progress some of those accomplishments we've passed zoning regulations that allow new types of mixed-use developments we've updated downtown signage regulations the Division of Historic Preservations has met a major milestone by having their design guidelines not only new design guidelines but they are online and searchable and remember that our tech that is in a historic one and I believe this one came out a little bit dark but that's the cigar flats which is off of Upper Street which is an old warehouse that's been converted into residential condos a very nice project also it's recommended several small area plans that we continue on with those two of the obvious ones the central sector and the East End plans are for older urban neighborhoods but also the South Nicholasville Road small area plan and what is so important about the South Nicholasville Road plan is that we took those concepts we took those recommendations that came out of the IR steering committee recommendations and applied those to an urban edge development the housing market study has been completed and our studies don't just sit on the shelf our in film read of our commercial in film redevelopment study was recently completed in the last two years it looked at how we should do commercial in film redevelopment but it also identified several brownfields and gray fields which was a major component in a grant application that we've applied for a $200,000 brownfield assessment grant has been awarded to the LF you CG streetscapes the South limestone putting in our art in motion bus stops and and everything that we're doing with that and why do why are the streetscapes so important because private development always follows public funding and you get to that critical mass where is where is in film redevelopment right now we are 77% of the way through our 104 objectives and you would think that that would leave us well 23% done but if you remember one of the cornerstones of the in film redevelopment program is that continued improvement to our system because we have new challenges new opportunities and new objectives that will be coming forward and so as we look at those 104 objectives and we get rid of the ones that are completed and we move up the ones that are still waiting to go we expect that we will have new ones in throughout there in fact not tomorrow Thursday our in film redevelopment steering committee is meeting again one of the things that we are going to be talking about our major topic of discussion is reprioritization of the 104 list plus looking at the eight new objectives that have been recommended for the list right now are the IR committee has broke up into several subgroups that look at everything and they tore apart over several months this list looked at each and every item we took this one list broke it into four lists and put it all back together so that the full IR steering committee can make recommendations on new priorities for this government why is in film redevelopment important because it adds color not just to our downtown but if we remember what happens in the downtown does have the ripple effect what happens out at Hamburg hasn't it ripple effect on in film redevelopment where do I where do I think some of the things that you will be seeing coming forward out of the in film redevelopment committee in the future increased looked at streetscapes probably even going beyond just the downtown streetscape master plan as we look at complete streets and think about making our entire community more walkable we'll be looking at urban agriculture I love these forces downtown that's thoroughbred Park by the way as we look at new types of incentives this is a picture from Boulder Colorado where I was fortunate enough to have a speaking engagement on in film redevelopment for them in this particular instance what they did is they closed half of the street and regained that right away for a central a central park that became the the centerpiece of the new building there and new development types that we've not seen before like cluster housing and and those types of things I wanted to end with the thank-you slide and it's I wanted to thank the council planning committee for allowing me this very brief update of the exciting news that we have that we've done I wanted to thank the council the mayor the administration everybody that's sitting in this room I know that we have several people with that are on our in film redevelopment steering committee that have come down today to support us and it really is everyone on that I believe I was trying to be quick excellent and if I might just recognize I know that vice mayor Jim Gray and Nathan Billings have co chair been co-chairing the effort and Nathan's here and council members James blues lawless and former councilmember David Stevens have served and I think dr. Stevens chaired uh-huh and we have Tony Barrett here Renee Jackson Stan Harvey I may be missing some and of course our planning staff Jimmy thank you we'll go ahead with some questions first with councilmember Ellinger mine's a little more broad than just the in film redevelopment but when we look at the comprehensive plan and in 2006 our objective was to grow up and not out how are we doing on inventory because I'm sure you're going through the process right now it's gonna be coming back here in 2011 to look at what we're how the inventory was I know the economy's kind of slowed down some projects where do we stand on what our inventory was and I think probably answer that holistic question better than I thank you good question councilmember Ellinger we are in the process of beginning that review we have done a lot of field work on that that's part of our background work before we come forth with our comprehensive plan process and this information and how we have changed over the last few years where we were with the last comp plan we think will help inform what kind of process and what kind of comp plan we should do this next time so we are deep on on working on that doing field work checking records and the new aerial photography that was just flown this spring when that becomes available to us will be an invaluable tool for us to check and get to places we can't get on foot to document what has been done and what hasn't in in the urban service area since last time and when do you think that will be kind of coming forward by the end of the year by the end of the year yes okay thank you vice mayor gray thank you chair I want to add you were kind and generous to thank everybody madam chair and I think everyone here appreciates that who has been involved in this for now a little over three years and you did forget Kevin Winty and you know Kevin was a good example of the way that this was all about it was about the process first we actually took the Toyota problem-solving model we had Toyota staff come in and guide us in creating the model identifying root causes and creating a system and then it was moving us toward managing these projects if you will problems opportunities however you want to characterize it into projects and that's when Kevin and the administration began helping with the implementation the problem-solving and the projects and so for for me it was very rewarding to see that I also want to recognize Nathan Billings is a good example of someone who fortunately I was at a neighborhood meeting three and a half years ago in councilmember blues district and Nathan was at the at the meeting and became involved and active so councilmember blues thank you for introducing talent to the process and to our system thank you council thank you madam chair thank you vice mayor are there other questions or comments from council members if not Jimmy thank you very much this is very encouraging and mr. Nathan Billings has a word or two thank you madam chairman since we're running out of time I again want to thank especially staff for all the work they've done under a vice mayor grace leadership and chairman Stevens leadership but before that I'm one of the things that since we do have a few minutes I want to bring up is that there are additional recommendations that are called gap recommendations that we really haven't gotten to move forward on yet I mean it's one thing that I wanted to make sure that council members are aware of these are set of recommendations that identified gaps between sort of the council and planning that they can't meet that require both administration partnering with council partnering with outside entities to help meet in the next year I think it's going to become a focus for our priority to begin addressing those you've seen the huge success we've had with a hundred and four recommendations I think we're going to try to spend some energy and time developing the partnerships to really identify specific tasks to begin moving forward on these and just as some identification for your all's edification of these gaps they include perhaps disjointed nature of certain divisions within the city in planning development to helping them organize and to get resources together with other areas for this info redevelopment process there's no formalized ongoing education with the public or citizen leadership that a lot of the programs are only promoted in downtown and administered in downtown and there's some potential for some development outside of downtown since the IR core has now expanded the creation of the land bank has been talked about you all move forward on that and that needs some additional work the creation of a citywide or more appropriately probably USB wide community development corporation for private public funding the creation of a public-private Commission to also implement large-scale projects which is actually different in scope and the CDC and then the final gap is limited resources to maintain and promote downtown amenities those are sort of the gaps there's at least nine different recommendations how to meet those but I want to bring this year's attention because there's not really within the scope of planning to be able to get done because of the nature of their role council per se doesn't have the authority to get them done but they're certainly critical to what we need to do to move IR to the next level Nathan thank you will those be something that you'll be bringing us with some next steps or they will be we've already the IR committee has already formally adopted them as saying we we believe these need further study and look at none of them have been shot down saying it's not worth doing the resources really need to be spent now to flesh those out Stan Harvey has done a wonderful job with Knox Van Nagel and Ray Jackson and working on those to really bring our awareness of those gaps up we really need to focus on now that we've identified the gaps who are going to be the partners in resolving those gaps some of it is city issue some of it is administration issues some of it is partnerships and some of it may be creation of new entities to fund administer and manage those things obviously with the scope of what we've gotten done in the last 24 months since our report came out we're 70% success rate in 24 months over 50% on the number one number two priorities because the IR doesn't have probably the authority as the private right way to say it to get these gaps done it's going to take some people with relationships to bring those people into this process or to find people who will own the process outside of IR to get those things done very good and I think Jimmy Edmonds wants to add a comment Thank You Nathan I was just going to add that if you are looking for those specific gap recommendations they're mentioned in the 2010 progress report and the full recommendations of the gap committee or appendix C that it was in your packet today thank you so much I think all of this is really exciting and it's a tribute to the hard work of all of those of you who've been involved as well as our planning staff and so thank you very much now council we have just a quick minute if you'll turn to the last page in our packet and I just simply want to know if there are any issues in committee which are outstanding that you want to remove we did a pretty thorough job last meeting of going through issue by issue so if not I'll entertain a motion to adjourn all those in favor please say aye meeting is adjourned welcome to GTV 3 and today's urban county council work session here's a look at what's on today's agenda new business items before the council this week include a proposed ordinance and local participation agreement regarding the Turfland Town Center development area continuing business before the council includes the Quarters Commission update council intergovernmental committee summary and a 2010 public health hero presentation with dr. Melinda Rowe commissioner of the Lexington Fayette County Health Department