# Planning Commission Zoning Public Hearing - September 25, 2014 > Auto-transcribed civic record · September 25, 2014 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3466 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3466?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2014-09-25 - **Last revised**: July 15, 2026 - **Length**: 34,172 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Urban County Planning Commission met on September 25, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the 2nd Floor of the LFUCG Government Center, located at 200 East Main Street in Lexington, Kentucky. Mike Owens presided over the meeting, which included three agenda items, two motions and votes, and six public comments. The Commission addressed three matters during the session. The first item, concerning Boone Creek Properties, LLC, DBA Boone Creek Outdoors and their Zoning Map Amendment and Zoning Development Plan, was presented for informational purposes. The second agenda item, an Amendment to Article 21 to Allow Minor Plan Amendments to Reduce Surplus Parking, was approved by the Commission. The third item, an Amendment to Article 22 to Establish a Planned Unit Development-2 (PUD-2) Zone, was postponed. ## Attendance **Present:** Will Berkley, Mike Cravens, David Drake, Karen Mundy, Mike Owens, Frank Penn, Carolyn Plumlee, Carolyn Richardson, Joe Smith, and Bill Wilson **Absent:** Patrick Brewer **Late:** Bill Wilson ## Votes and Decisions **ZOTA 2014-6: Amendment to Article 21 for Minor Plan Amendments to Reduce Surplus Parking** [timestamp: 0:10:37] Motion by Will Berkley. The amendment to Article 21 to allow minor plan amendments to reduce surplus parking passed by voice vote. All nine members present voted in favor: Will Berkley, Mike Cravens, David Drake, Karen Mundy, Mike Owens, Frank Penn, Carolyn Plumlee, Carolyn Richardson, and Joe Smith. No votes were cast against the measure. **ZOTA 2014-7: Postponement of Planned Unit Development-2 (PUD-2) Zone Amendment** [timestamp: 0:05:40] Motion by Frank Penn, seconded by Carolyn Plumlee. The postponement of the amendment to establish a Planned Unit Development-2 (PUD-2) zone was approved by voice vote. All nine members present voted in favor of postponement: Will Berkley, Mike Cravens, David Drake, Karen Mundy, Mike Owens, Frank Penn, Carolyn Plumlee, Carolyn Richardson, and Joe Smith. No votes were cast against the postponement. ## Public Comment Six speakers provided public comment on the Boone Creek Outdoors project. **Support for the Project** Sarah Brown, a neighbor, testified at [timestamp: 3:32:18] that the canopy tour has had no impact on traffic, noise, or her property. She encouraged the commission to visit and experience the site firsthand. John Park spoke at [timestamp: 3:39:16] as both a direct neighbor and legal counsel to the applicant. He defended the project, stating it had no impact on his property and characterized the opposition's attacks on the applicant's integrity as unwarranted. Sarah Steele, a canopy tour guide, spoke at [timestamp: 3:42:02] about her personal transformation from fear of heights to confidence through training with the project. She emphasized the safety, educational value, and environmental stewardship of the operation. **Opposition to the Project** Julie Goodman spoke at [timestamp: 3:52:20] in opposition to the conditional use permit request. She argued that the applicant is in violation of the 2000 conditional use permit by failing to remove the Jolly Roger building and that the current request is identical to a previously denied one. Graham Wilson presented opposition at [timestamp: 3:56:17] based on zoning violations. He presented photographic evidence showing tree damage and construction prior to filing required environmental safeguards, arguing the applicant violated Article 26 of the zoning ordinance. Mary Diane Hanna spoke at [timestamp: 4:06:03] raising concerns about whether structures from the canopy tour extend onto neighboring protected land. She warned that approving the request would set a dangerous precedent for rural development. ## Contested Items The meeting addressed two significant areas of contention regarding a conditional use permit application for a canopy tour operation. **Conditional Use Permit for Canopy Tour** The primary contested item involved a request for a conditional use permit to operate a canopy tour. The proposal faced strong opposition from multiple stakeholder groups, including neighbors, environmental advocates, and historic preservationists. Opponents argued that the canopy tour would cause harm to the environmentally sensitive Boone Creek area, violate existing zoning regulations, and establish a problematic precedent for future development in the region. The applicant countered these concerns by emphasizing their commitment to environmental stewardship and the safety of the operation. This fundamental disagreement between the applicant's vision for the project and community concerns about environmental protection and regulatory compliance formed the core of the dispute. **Legal and Procedural Challenges** A second contested issue centered on legal and procedural matters surrounding the application. The applicant had previously operated the canopy tour without obtaining the required permit, which resulted in a court-ordered injunction against the operation. This history of non-compliance created a procedural dilemma for the commission: while they were under legal obligation to hear the case and consider the permit application, the applicant's prior violation of regulations raised questions about whether approval was appropriate. The tension between the legal requirement to hear the case and concerns about rewarding past non-compliance represented a significant procedural challenge that the commission had to navigate during its deliberations. ## Boone Creek Properties, LLC, DBA Boone Creek Outdoors: Zoning Map Amendment & Zoning Development Plan The commission considered a request by Boone Creek Properties, LLC, doing business as Boone Creek Outdoors, to rezone 20.15 net acres from Agricultural Rural (A-R) to Agricultural Natural (A-N) zone and approve a development plan for a commercial outdoor recreational facility featuring a tree canopy tour. **Key Speakers and Presentation** Traci Wade, Tom Martin, and Bill Sallee participated in the discussion of this agenda item [timestamp: 0:11:14]. **Staff Recommendation** Staff recommended approval of the zoning map amendment subject to certification of the development plan. However, the conditional use request was recommended for postponement due to a pending Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment that would affect the application. **Outcome** The commission treated this item as informational, indicating that a final decision was not reached at this meeting, likely pending the resolution of the related Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment referenced in the staff recommendation. ## Amendment to Article 21 to Allow Minor Plan Amendments to Reduce Surplus Parking The commission considered ZOTA 2014-6, a text amendment to Article 21 regarding minor plan amendments for reducing surplus parking [0:06:13]. **Presentation and Recommendation** Staff presented a simplified version of the applicant's proposed language for the amendment. The staff recommendation favored this streamlined approach to the original proposal. **Key Speaker** Jimmy Emmons participated in the discussion of this agenda item. **Outcome** The commission approved the amendment to Article 21 allowing minor plan amendments to reduce surplus parking. The motion passed unanimously. ## Amendment to Article 22 to Establish a Planned Unit Development-2 (PUD-2) Zone **Identifier:** ZOTA 2014-7 The commission considered an ordinance to amend Article 22 to establish a Planned Unit Development-2 (PUD-2) zone. The proposed zoning would support mixed-use development near North Limestone and Loudon Avenue. **Staff Recommendation** Staff recommended approval of the proposed PUD-2 zone designation. **Discussion** Key speakers on this item included Kris Nonn and Tracy Jones [timestamp: 0:04:34]. The commission postponed the item to allow the petitioner to address questions that had been raised during a prior work session. **Outcome** The commission postponed consideration of this agenda item. --- ## Decisions - **ZOTA 2014-7** — postponed: Postponement of the amendment to establish a Planned Unit Development-2 (PUD-2) zone - **ZOTA 2014-6** — passed: Approval of the amendment to Article 21 to allow minor plan amendments to reduce surplus parking --- ## Full transcript The End ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶ It's another minute. ¶¶ Ladies and gentlemen, it is 1.30, September 25, 2014. I will call this meeting to order. I'd like to welcome everyone here today and to just move on. I'm going to ask for any postponements or withdrawals at this time. Yes, sir. Please come forward. Good afternoon. My name is Chris Nunn, and I am with the NOLI CDC. I'm here to request a postponement for ZODA 2014-7 at the recommendation of Chairman Owens and the rest of the panel. We are asking for the postponement to allow us sufficient time to address the questions that were brought up in the work session last week. Okay, thank you. Do we, anyone in the audience wish to speak to this request for postponement? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion from the commission. Mr. Penn? Mr. Chairman, I move for postponement. I don't know how long, but certainly not from today. Is there time on that postponement? We presume it's one month, Mr. Okay, one month postponement from today. Okay, thank you. Do we have a second? Motion's been made and seconded for postponement for one month. Please vote when it comes up on the screen. Motion passes. Thank you. Any other requests for postponements or withdrawals? If not, I'll ask the commission if it's okay to take one item out of order. That would be ZODA 2014-6. It's an amendment to Article 21 to allow minor plan amendments to reduce surplus parking. If there's no objection, we'll go forward. Mr. Emmons? Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission. This zoning ordinance text amendment is located in tab four of your notebooks, and I believe it is on page three of your agenda. This is a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow minor plans to reduce surplus parking that the planning commission might have approved on a major development plan. I've promised to be very brief in my presentation. I just want to hit some of the highlights of this request. The effect of this would allow staff the ability to reduce any parking overage that is on a development plan down to the minimum requirements of the zoning ordinance. In no way does this text amendment allow a parking reduction less than what's required by the zoning ordinance. The staff has seen as in agreement with the applicant's request to allow staff to do this. We've noticed that there is a paradigm shift in the overall how parking is viewed. I even remember at a time whenever if a plan came in with just the minimum required parking, it would ask the question, is that enough parking? But today, whenever we see parking development plans that come in that have more than the minimum required parking, we ask, is that too much parking? This is a timely change to our regulations. It's not only timely in the sense of the overall, but it will be timely for owners of the property that have this. In order to have a major development plan come to the Planning Commission, that is typically about a six-week process. in order to have a development plan amendment approved by the staff as a minor amendment is usually about a one-week process. Where we see this amendment, if it's passed, where we will see it, probably the most benefit in a residential setting, whenever you have apartment complexes or townhouse complexes, if they need to make minor changes, such as adding a dumpster or something to do with a utility shift, and they need to lose a few parking spaces, the staff would be able to do that. And in a commercial setting, essentially, whenever they try to change out tenants and those different uses have different parking requirements, this would allow the staff the flexibility to facilitate that through minor amendments. The staff is in agreement with the applicant's request in concept. Their proposed language, the staff believes that there is a simpler alternative. Article 21.7 has five provisions that define what the staff can and cannot do. The applicant was proposing to add a sixth provision, but the staff believes that it would be simpler just to delete provision number five and leave it with the four provisions that are in the ordinance. The staff is recommending approval of this zoning ordinance text amendment for the reasons that we have listed in our staff report. If you have any questions, I would be happy to try and answer them. Thank you, Mr. Emmons. Any questions? No? Thank you. Applicant, anything to add? Ladies and gentlemen of the commission, no, thank you very much, John Woodall, for the applicant. We're in agreement with the staff's revision. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Woodall. Anyone else in the audience wish to speak to this request? Seeing none, I'll close this part of the hearing, open it up for any discussion among commission members and or a motion. And as noted, we do have staff alternative text. Mr. Berkley. Mr. Chair, I'll make a recommendation of approval of ZODA 2014-6 with the four staff recommended changes. Second. The motion's been made and seconded for approval of Zota 2014-6. If there's no questions, please vote when it comes up on the screen. That motion passes. Thank you. Now we will return to the normal order on the agenda. And Mr. Sally, would I dare ask if there's anything that would qualify for an abbreviated hearing today? Mr. Chairman, unfortunately, there are no zone changes that qualify for that today. Thank you, sir. Starting at page one at the bottom, Boone Creek Properties, LLC, DBA, Boone Creek Outdoors, Zoning Mount Amendment, and Boone Creek Outdoors Zoning Development Plan. And to start this, I'm going to ask Tracy Jones, our legal counsel, to kind of bring us up to date as to how we got here today. As you might recall, you all had a – this was on your docket a few months ago. And at that time, we did not have a hearing. You all voted that you didn't think it was appropriate to be heard at this time. So going forward with that, the applicant in this case appealed that decision to circuit court, and the judge issued an opinion saying that you all need to hear this under the statute, the case law, and our ordinance. So it's back on your docket today. The one thing that I would ask you to do is to listen fairly carefully because it went through the committee process the first time. It came to you all. You'll all determine not to hear it. It's been to the court. It's come back, but it has not been back to the committee again. So some of the recommendations and all of the documentation that you have in front of you may seem somewhat confusing, but I think it will be explained through the course of the hearing, particularly through the staff's presentation. But, you know, in order to provide you the history and that type of thing, you will see what the committee's recommended, but knowing that there's been a significant amount of time and no committee hearings after it came back from circuit court and got put back on your docket today. You all do need to have a full hearing today. So in order to comply with the judge's order, if there's any question about that, just so we're all on the same page going forward. We've talked about this getting ready for this hearing today with your chairman, And I think that, you know, he's ready to deal with things as they come and to give everybody their chance to be heard. So if you have any questions that I could answer, I will. But otherwise, that's pretty much where we are. Thank you, Ms. Jones. Any questions for legal? If not, thank you. and let me frame this today, setting the parameters for how we're going to go about this. Please take note, we do have a council meeting in the chambers tonight at 6 o'clock. I hope to be finished by then. If not, a decision will be made at that time or shortly there before as to how we're going to continue. All parties involved will have a one hour maximum for their presentation. That includes the staff, applicants representative, opposition's representative. Any expert witnesses that they would like to have speak will be part of their time. all others that wish to speak after that presentation will have a three minute limit with the time involved we're going to try and stick to those parameters there will be no deferral of time from one party to another today we all know that this request has a lot of interest and has a lot of passion all the way across the board I would like to ask everyone to be respectful of everyone in attendance today. That includes staff, commission members, applicant, opposition, staff, staffsmen mentioned, and citizens alike. I would also ask, let's keep it professional, no cheering, no applauding throughout the process. with that we're ready to get started and I'll ask Ms. Wade to come up and start with the MARC 2014-1 Boone Creek Properties LLC DBA Boone Creek Outdoors it's at the bottom of page 1 and continues to page 2 on your agenda good afternoon chairman owens members of the commission just a few housekeeping things before we get started several things have been put at your seat today for this hearing we did have a lot of information to convey so the staff prepared two exhibit packets one that was prepared in february when we expected to first have this hearing and so those are exhibits that are clipped together and then a second sort of supplemental exhibit packet for today and that has a gray sheet and again they have the dates at the header or at the footer here and just for reference there are divider sheets that will say tab one and the staff will try to reference those as we move through our presentation in these sort of secondary exhibits for today we tried to use the same tab numbers so this first one which says tab 4a so the information behind tab 4a generally goes with what's behind tab 4 in the other packet secondly there was quite a bit of correspondence that the staff received probably i would say starting in january of this year related to this requested zone change and conditional use application and we have been accumulating that in our file the staff will enter this the originals into the record but we took the time to make five copies for the commission to share so at each two seats there is a set of the same letters and emails that the staff has received. I think the other items that you have there also to share are three pieces that the applicant submitted as part of their application. They're a management operational plan, a rescue operations plan, and I'm forgetting the third one, but they are at your place setting. And I believe those were things that the commission had the opportunity to review ahead of time because they are part of the application that the applicant submitted back last year. So as we move forward, the petitioner again has requested a rezoning from an agricultural rural zone to an agricultural natural area zone. So that's our AR to the AN zone. the subject property is approximately 20 acres in size and it's located at 8291 old richmond road it's just a short distance to the north of the old richmond road interstate 75 interchange and i believe this larger map shows the general area a little bit better So the interchange is here of I-75 and Old Richmond Road, and this is generally at the far southeast portion of Fayette County. Durbin Lane intersects the Old Richmond Road very close to the interstate. In fact, it parallels the interstate. And then the subject property is just a short distance to the north, only three properties to the north. It's on the east side of Old Richmond Road. It is bordered on three sides by agricultural rural zoning, and then on the fourth side by Boone Creek itself, and then across Boone Creek is Clark County. Old Richmond Road does continue to the north and generally parallels the interstate for a good distance until it reaches Athens-Boonesboro Road near Jacobson Park. They intersect there. So currently the subject property does have an outdoor recreational facility on the property that was established following a board of adjustment approval at that location for fishing and an associated private club. And here's an aerial view of the subject property. the frontage of the property there is a building that still exists and it is the former location of the jolly roger restaurant and truck shop many years ago the private fishing club is generally located though down along boone creek obviously where fishing would be more likely to occur the building at the front of the property the former jolly roger restaurant and truck stop has been used more recently as a single family residence and in the past or recently has undergone some renovations on the inside to possibly accommodate this proposed recreational use with the requested zone change the petitioner is proposing a new commercial outdoor recreation use for the property, which will be a tree canopy tour, and that would include zip lines, sky bridges, floating staircases, a rappel, ladders, tree platforms, at least one viewing platform, and then a ground school or training area for participants to utilize prior to participating in the tree canopy tour. The petitioner's application indicates that they also plan to reuse the, again, former Jolly Roger restaurant location, the building at the front of the property that remains, reuse that building for a welcome center, and then within the building there would be space for a caretaker's dwelling unit so that someone can remain on site. on the site the petitioner also plans to have historical and educational programs a rescue school for guides and wilderness rescue education guide training utilizing obviously the tree canopy tour and then possibly canopy tour builders classes the request for the conditional use is again a separate staff report and presentation that will be addressed after my presentation. Just to provide some, I guess, more information for the Planning Commission, if you haven't been to the site, hopefully these photos will give you a better idea of what the subject property looks like, both in this month and then the pictures that I took in January. So some, you'll see snow on the ground too. This is a view of the existing building at the front of the property were they proposed to use as a welcome center. Same. In front of the proposed welcome center is generally a grassed area, and this is a view looking towards the intersection or the interstate interchange with Old Richmond Road. If you remember from the aerial, I'll go back just a few slides and point this out. there is a parking lot kind of graveled area to the north of the building on this aerial and if i forward back through you'll see that area is generally open currently has a dumpster sitting near where the gas pumps used to be located this is a rear view of what is the existing building on the site, the proposed welcome center. Looking down towards where the canopy tour would start and the proposed ground training area. This is one side of the ground training area where you are very close to the ground and would be able to start the zip line or tree canopy tour, the second half of that same training area. And as it appears this month with the tree canopy, I guess, visible rather than kind of no leaves is not very exciting. This is the, from the development plan and the conditional use presentation, you'll find that there are a number of locations for the tree canopy tour to have tree platforms. This would be platform number one where you would walk down some stairs and you can view generally the Boone Creek area. Trees would be labeled. These are views from the platform one towards platform two. This is how the trees are secured with the wires or cables. Excuse me. This is a view looking more down towards Boone Creek from the first platform. You can see kind of a, looks like a driveway in the photo, and that is on the development plan, the driveway that kind of crisscrosses down to the river and where the fishing club currently is located. Just a view of that driveway looking towards one of the trees with the platforms you can see in the background there. the applicant does propose to have this gated so that access would be limited an existing sulfur well structure that is has a possibility to be reused and then this would be a view from the driveway towards boone creek which is down down the hill and i believe if i remember correctly from earlier this year this was proposed to be the end of the tour, so the last platform. This is, again, from the driveway towards what's currently the Fishing or Angler's Club Lodge, kind of make out in the middle there building. View across the creek. And then down at creek level, this is looking towards Kentucky River, and you can see the cliffs there are palisades for the Kentucky River. Similar picture. And then looking from the creek back towards the Anglers Club that's existing on the property. From the creek level looking across to Clark County which is very difficult to tell the difference here between Fayette County and Clark County except for the creek dividing the two. And then at the edge of the subject property there is a small waterfall at the Cleveland branch as it approaches Boone Creek. And then just for everyone's information in terms of posting the required signs, I did that prior to the hearing. The comprehensive plan is kind of the next thing I'll cover here. This is actually a view of what our Rural Land Management Plan recommends in that area, and I'll provide kind of a better map as we go forward. I'll refer you here to exhibits behind tab one related to the Rural Land Management Plan. So there are excerpts in the staff exhibits from the Rural Land Management Plan that are what the staff considered when we reviewed this application and its conformity with the comprehensive plan. The rural land, 1999 rural. Yes. Excuse me. Sure. I think you mentioned tab one. Yeah, behind the staff exhibit packet. Oh, yeah. Get everybody in the right place. Thank you. Yeah, we'll start with February and then as needed. They were looking in their three ring binder. Oh, okay. So behind tab one in the staff's exhibits are applicable sections of the Rural Land Management Plan. The Rural Land Management Plan was adopted in 1999, and for the subject property, there is a land use recommendation of natural areas. The natural areas category in this rural land management plan is described as a category that is designed to encompass certain areas of Fayette County that are physically unique in that they are important for preservation, but not primarily for their association with traditional agriculture. lands in this area use land use category exhibit a combination of characteristics including an association with the kentucky river and its tributaries in this creek can in this subject property it's boone creek as well as steep slopes forested areas woodlands poor or thin soils and floodplain and riparian areas. So the rural land management plan does have an adopted land use map and the staff tried to indicate on this PowerPoint slide the location there of where the natural area land use designation is and it is all entirely along either well basically along the Kentucky River there. It does expand to the north a little bit away from the river, but for the most part that encompasses those steep slopes and environmentally sensitive areas. The plan also states that although agriculture can and does occur in portions of this area, it is not the predominant character of the area as a whole, and there is policy emphasis. the next slide for land in this category on preservation and enhancement of the land in a natural state with minimum intrusions so that's kind of our base in terms of the staff review of the of the requested zone change the agricultural natural zone which natural areas zone which is being requested was written based on the information in the rural land management plan and specifically recommendations listed on within chapter 3 on page 9 and you should have that in that exhibit packet in addition the 2013 comprehensive plan goals and objectives were considered by the staff and we felt three were specifically related to this request theme B which has to do with protecting the environment, since this is an environmentally sensitive area. Theme C has to do with creating jobs and prosperity, and specifically Goal 1 and Objective E, which states that in this community we want to encourage the development of appropriate attractions and supporting uses that promote and enhance tourism. And then lastly in Theme E, which has to do with maintaining a balance between our urban and rural uses. Goal 2 speaks to the proposed zone change and conditional use in terms of supporting the agricultural economy, horse farms, general agricultural, and the character of the rural service area. So the proposed AN zone is the first ever requested since the zoning category was created in 2004, and the staff believes that few incentives have existed in the past for a property owner to rezone their property to this more restrictive zoning category. The AN zone has many fewer conditional uses available than the AR zone. In this case, it's currently 12 versus 28. And it does require more information in seeking a conditional use permit related to the requirement for providing adequate safeguards to ensure the least negative impact on the land, and that's straight from our zoning ordinance. And then the possibility of needing to submit environmental assessment documents prepared by a professional. Those kind of are heightened requirements. But in reviewing this, the staff came to the conclusion that the requested AN zone is in agreement with both the rural land management plan as well as the 2013 comprehensive plans, goals, and objectives. And the staff has recommended approval for two reasons. First, the requested AN zone for the subject property is in agreement with the Rural Land Management Plan's recommendation for natural areas land use at this specific location. And then second, what I just mentioned in terms of the goals and objectives in the 2013 Comprehensive Plan related to enhancing tourism, supporting our agricultural economy and the rural service area, and then also protecting the environment. The staff, as is typically the case, makes our recommendation contingent on the approval and certification of the associated development plan with this application. And the zoning committee, when this was considered in, I believe, January, also recommended approval of the requested zone change for the same reasons. I believe that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions related to the zone change. Thank you, Tracy. Any questions for Tracy at this point? Mr. Berkley. Tracy, I know you said that the AEN zone was created in 2004 and that this request is in compliance with the 2013 plan. There's been plans before that as well. In terms of the comprehensive plan? Yeah, how far back does it go in terms of being recommended for the AEM? Back to the 2001 comprehensive plan recommended the agricultural natural at this location, and that was based on the 1999 rural land management plan. Okay, so since 2001. Okay, thanks. Any other questions? If not, thank you, Ms. Wade. Okay, thank you. Mr. Martin? Mr. Chairman, members of the Planning Commission, the preliminary development plan that is associated with this some change is on page two of your agenda, as well as you should have a handout that was provided at the last meeting, as well as this meeting with revised conditions for you. As Ms. Wade stated, this is approximately a 20-acre site. It's just over 20 acres, in fact. Here is the old Richmond Road frontage on the property. You can see it outlined here. This is, of course, Boone Creek. Clark County is in this location. The I-75 interchange would be in this location here. What you see again with this frontage, it's over 800 feet of frontage in this location. The existing parking area on the property is in this location where they proposed to develop a parking lot. You can see an access point here, here, and here. These are existing access points. points. The circulation pattern internal to the site is one way. This will be the entrance. This will be an exit. This is the entrance that's used for the fishing lodge, which you see located here down at the bottom in the gorge area, along with the associated accessory building parking in this location as well. The road that serves it, you can see here and it winds down through here. There's the gate, the security gate, and it winds back down all the way down of course in dealing with the steep topography that exists in the area to reach the lodge. This is the existing older building now used or had been used as a single family home. It is intended to be used as the welcoming center along with a caretaker's apartment, a one bedroom apartment is proposed. There's additional expanded parking to be provided in this area. They are proposing a total of 55 parking spaces for the uses on the property. They are required a minimum of five and then one per employee as their minimums. The bottling, the old bottling location is, let me step back a second, in this location. It's hard to see, I know, from you all sitting over there, but that small structure is down here. You can see well down here. This is also where they intend to have an observation deck. They have provided, to a certain extent, information on what they propose to do in terms of the canopy tour and recreational. You can see circles. These circles, as they come down through here, correspond with platforms and large trees, of course, as the canopy tour. They have designated a training area in this location on the property. There is a ropes challenge course that is also being proposed in a natural, what they call recreational activity area in this general location. Obviously, up through here where it's much more gentle slopes in this area. The access point at this location, I might add, is over 200 feet from this access point, which is a single family residential home in this location. This one is over 400 feet from that location. The plan was initially reviewed by your subdivision committee and recommended for postponement. Subsequently, the revised plan that you see before you was submitted, and your staff, again, has reviewed it and handed out these revised recommendations to you. And I might add for those folks in the audience who are not aware, as you all are well aware, that your staff and your technical staff, your planning staff, and your subdivision committee, we review the plan as if the zoning was already in place. And again, that's just to make sure that the plan works and that the plan will function as intended within the approved zoning. The staff is recommending approval of this plan. We have it subject to the usual conditions for a preliminary development plan, including, of course, provided the Urban County Council rezones the property, the Urban County Engineer's acceptance of a drain, storm, and sanitary sewers, and floodplain information. Boone Creek is, of course, a 100-year has floodplain, a FEMA-regulated floodplain. There is a setback. It's the blue line highlighted on the site map that you see. That's the floodplain setback. We have, of course, urban county traffic engineers, approval of parking, circulation, and access. Building inspections, approval of landscaping and landscape buffers. That's primarily Article 18. The parking lot will have to be buffered accordingly to the landscape requirements of Article 18. green space planner and of course department of environmental qualities approval of environmentally sensitive areas we also will have the urban foresters approval of the tree inventory map that is a requirement of your ordinance at the time of the final development plan there will have to be a tree protection area but of course as you know the area is heavily treed and obviously So the canopy tour, if approved, is an aspect of that. But again, that will be something that you will see on your final development plan. We have several cleanup conditions. One, number eight, is revise flex note to clarify that it applies to the canopy tour only. This is this large note that you see on the plan. And the applicant was attempting to explain via this note that they need some flexibility in how they site the platforms with trees. Tree damage can happen. Trees can die. They do need some flexibility relative to the canopy tour. And staff understands that as a sympathetic with that. However, we want it very clear that doesn't include flexibility on other site design aspects of the plan or areas, recreational areas or training areas. We're not encouraging flexibility there. But we understand the need with the canopy tour, again, with trees, there could be a need to have some flexibility in how the zip lines move through the property. So that's the intent for that condition. We also want to make it clear with the next condition that they denote that no single family dwelling unit, You'll see it says denote that no single family, well, that should say no single family dwelling unit will be constructed on this property. And that goes back to a proposal on the original conditional use where there had been a single family home shown on the property. So we want that denoted that there will not be a single family home constructed on the property. Then again, we want them to denote that this is a non-conforming use and a non-conforming structure and cannot be expanded. Again, that's the existing structure with the caretaker's apartment that cannot be expanded without Board of Adjustment approval. That needs to be denoted clearly on the development plan. They need to revise the parking just to include the minimum that is required for the fishing lodge. It's off by one number. It's just, again, a clarification of what parking is required where and for which use. The 12th condition is delete the note about incidental resale or sales of promotional related items. They have some notes down here. This note says incidental sales of promotional and related items only. That's not allowed, so it comes off the plan. The others refer to no outdoor lighting, trees being annually inspected, no amplified music. Again, those are requirements, so having those on the plan are not a problem, but again, we want the erroneous note removed. And the last condition is clearly denote location of all proposed recreational site improvements on the property. and again and this arose out of concern on your subdivision committee and staff members as well that they clearly delineate areas they've attempted to do so we want it very clear what recreational activities and improvements are intended on the property they do have as i said platforms associated with trees we believe it's important that it be very clearly delineated what is going to take place on the property. Staff has recommended approval of the preliminary development plan, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Questions for Mr. Martin? Ms. Plumlee? Yes, Tom, you mentioned platforms. Are those existing? Are they proposed? You'll have to speak to the applicant. and I believe the pictures that Ms. Wade showed you showed some platforms do exist. But you said some were there, or you did some sites, and those are already there. They are indicating where the zip line will be located, is what the purpose of the symbols on the plan. Thank you. Any other questions? If not, thank you, Mr. Martin. Thank you. Mr. Saleh? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one item to put on the overhead for the commission. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission. Good afternoon. I'm speaking to the item on page two of your agenda, it's item B. It is the requested conditional use portion of this application involving a commercial outdoor recreational facility. As you can see at that location on your agenda, your zoning committee reviewed this last winter and they recommended postponement of this particular leg, if you will, of the stool of this application for the reasons that were provided by the staff at that time. My presentation will consist of the remaining staff exhibits, both with today's date and the February date, and I might ask you just for ease if you wouldn't mind putting them together side by side in front of you. I will be switching back and forth, primarily for the reason Ms. Wade told you earlier. Some in the newer exhibit packet are related to the ones we had originally. I'd like to begin with the orange sheet in the February 27th packet. That is the sheet that Mr. Martin just presented to the commission. In transitioning your attention from the development plan to the conditional use permit portion, I'd like to cover two of the conditions on the development plan. Those are number 11 and 12 that are the new numbering. They involve revising parking to indicate a minimum of 13 spaces be provided in the proximity of the fishing lodge, and then also deleting a note about the retail sale of items that appears on the development plan. These conditions relate to the items at the next couple of tabs. Item tab 3, which is on the overhead, although there's been some highlighting added, and tab 4. Tab three that's on the overhead is the site plan that was approved by the Board of Adjustment in 2000 for the anglers club that exists on this property. As you can recall from the photos, the club is located in close proximity to the creek. And the conditional use permits you're being asked to review today involves primarily the improvements near Old Richmond Road on the western portion of the property. in addition to the tree platforms and the zip lines that Mr. Martin mentioned and are in some of the application materials. The two primary reasons for those two changes we've asked for as a staff on the development plan are the parking associated with the club. As approved in 2000, there were 13 spaces indicated they would be provided near the lodge. and also the structure near the front has a notation that it was to be removed as a part of that 2000 plan. Of course, the application you're being asked to consider today involves retaining that structure that is up near Old Richmond Road. That is to be the visitor center for the proposed use and the off-street parking. So those are significant differences, if you will, between the existing conditional use permit that was approved almost 15 years ago for this property and the additional recreational facility you're being asked to review and consider today. Under tab four of the February packet, the staff has included the minutes from the Board of Adjustment meeting in 2000. What the Board of Adjustment considered was an administrative appeal to change one nonconforming use to another, a dimensional variance regarding building setbacks from Old Richmond Road, and a conditional use permit to allow the private anglers club. The staff had recommended approval of portions of that request, including the conditional use permit and the dimensional variance. However, the staff did not recommend the pro shop be approved as part of that, and also the staff recommended disapproval of the change of non-conforming use that involved the Jolly Roger restaurant property. That is on page 31 and 32 of those minutes. After a fairly short hearing at the board, on page 34 of those minutes, there was a complex action taken by the Board of Adjustment. That appears on page 34 of those minutes, and one of the new staff exhibits under today's date is tab 4A of the packet that has the gray cover. The minutes indicate that the board approved a conditional use permit for the private anglers club, including, excluding, pardon me, the construction of two cabins that were associated with that proposal. They did allow the anglers club to accommodate overnight guests for members and guests of the club as part of this conditional use. However, they did disapprove the administrative appeal to change the nonconforming uses associated with the Jolly Roger restaurant, and they disapproved the pro shop that was proposed as part of the lodge. Exhibit 4A, rather than showing you the minutes of the board, show you the listing of conditions that the board placed on that approval in 2000. It is a synopsis, if you will, of the requirements the Board placed on the existing recreational use of this property in the year 2000. At Tab 5, the staff prepared its initial report on the conditional use request that is before you today. This report is dated early January of this year. In that report, we outlined the proposed use. Ms. Wade described some of that to you. I'm going to get in just a little bit more detail. Mr. Chairman, I will assure you I am cognizant of the staff's time limit, so I will adhere to that strictly. The current request involves less property than had originally been requested in 2011 for a similar use. Only about 20 acres of the subject property involves the current request. But it does include permission to use seven zip lines, three sky bridges, one floating staircase, one rappel, two ladders, 15 tree platforms, and one viewing platform and observation deck. It also has proposals on the site to add a ropes challenge course, a natural and recreational activity area that's outdoors, and to allow ground school training areas on the front of the site. As I mentioned, the petitioner does now propose as part of this new use to use the nonconforming structure in close proximity to Old Richmond Road. In reviewing the application, the petitioner anticipates between 15,000 and 25,000 visitors annually will utilize this proposed facility. They plan to be open about 280 days each year, generally from the hours of 10 a.m. until dusk. Tours through the canopy of the trees are anticipated to last about two hours each. They are to have one or two guides and generally be limited to 8 to 10 persons per tour. Doing the math of the number of visitors that are anticipated for this use and the number of days it's proposed to operate, that roughly equates to between 50 and 90 visitors to the site each day, just doing the math. As to off-street parking, the development plan that Mr. Martin has described proposes 55 parking spaces for the Angler's Club and the new conditional use that is before you today. As we pointed out, some 13 were required on the site plan in 2000 to be situated near the Angler's Club. I would like to correct one item Mr. Martin said this plan indicates eight outdoor spaces here where you can see this plan has 13. But that does relate to the development plan condition I reviewed with you earlier. in addition the development plan that's before you today is unclear as to what areas will be gravel and what areas will be pavement the existing parking areas we believe are a combination of the two the applicant as ms wade mentioned has submitted several operational related plans and manuals. Those have been put at your place and we did send those to you earlier in the week so that you would have advance time to review parts of the application. They include an operational management plan for the proposed outdoor recreational facility and the rescue procedures that have been reviewed by the Urban County's Division of Fire and Emergency Services and the staff understands that has also been shared with the nearest fire station located on Cleveland Road and Old Richmond Road. What is unusual with this request is that a good portion of the proposed facilities have already been installed. Obviously, the platforms and the zip lines are in place. That is an unusual condition that is part of this conditional use permit that may not be typical of ones either reviewed by the Planning Commission or by the Board of Adjustment. In looking at the staff report that I've been summarizing from, is it tab 5 of your original packet? And I would ask you to look at its sister document on the exhibits with today's date, 5A. Initially, when the staff first reviewed this application, we had a number of questions of the applicant about this proposed conditional use. and we posed those in December of last year to the applicant. You can see them at tab 5A. We did get a response from the applicant to these questions. We received a revised development plan submission a short time after these questions were asked. And also another document was submitted that is also before you and has been provided to you, a preliminary assessment of environmental features and sensitivities. and this document has a date of January 22nd of this year. In early January, the staff recommended postponement of the conditional use request, and that is summarized at the end of tab number 5 in the staff exhibits. The following month, the staff prepared a supplemental staff report. That is at tab 6, and in today's packet, this is the last of our new documents at tab 6A, a memorandum from Tracy Jones in the Law Department answering a good deal of the staff's questions about the legal issues that we had initially raised with this conditional use application. This information, in addition to another revised development plan from the applicant, helped the staff draft a supplemental staff report that was prepared the day before your scheduled hearing in February. And again, that is at tab six. As to the previous conditional use permit, it had become clear to the staff that the applicant did not wish to have that be a part of this current application before you. and the law department advised as well that that application and the one you're now reviewing can be considered independently of each other. The staff had asked questions about the total square footage of structures proposed on the site, and from the information we received earlier this year, we can tell you that about 7,500 to 7,600 square feet is proposed, And, of course, that does fall under the 10,000 square foot limitation for conditional uses that appear both in the AR zone of the existing zoning and the proposed AN zoning that's being requested. There was an issue with the required building line of 300 feet. The structure that is there is nonconforming. It does not meet a 300-foot setback as is indicated on the development plan. But it is clearly part of the new conditional use permit that is before you today. Staff had questioned whether or not the zip lines could encroach, if you will, upon the airspace of Clark County once it would cross the creek. We heard back from the planning director in Clark County, and what we heard was that their position was that if no structures were related to that zip line on the ground in Clark County, that their authorities would not need to approve any aspect of this conditional use. The staff spent a good bit of time in our supplemental report talking about required parking on two fronts. One, would the minimum requirements of the zoning ordinance be met for this use? And then secondly, the practical aspect of whether there is enough parking for the anticipated need. The staff's estimation is that approximately 29 spaces are required by the zoning ordinance given the number of employees and the number of visitors that are proposed to the new conditional use, outdoor recreational use. Again, we request that 13 of those 55 that are proposed on this plan be provided in close proximity to the Anglers Club. So there will be enough to meet the zoning ordinance requirements since 55 are proposed, 40, in fact, able to be used by the new conditional use. The staff anticipates that if one space is used for each two visitors to the tours, with the rotation of up to three tours at one time, 30-minute tours, plus a group on the ground, that about 35 spaces would accommodate that type of a rotation. 40 are proposed for the use. Of course, that is predicated on a one-car-per-two participant usage. So a lower vehicle occupancy ratio could affect the required parking. At the conclusion of both staff reports, the staff expressed its recommendation that the applicant voluntarily agree to postpone or withdraw this portion of their request, given that a text amendment to the zoning ordinance has been in the works for some time. The staff has felt strongly from the start that that should be done. and the staff in February made the recommendation that appears on your agenda, and that is for postponement or withdrawal of the conditional use permit portion of this request by the applicant. The staff prefers that the current application for conditional use permit postpone until the ZODA regarding outdoor recreational facilities has been fully considered by the commission and ultimately by the Urban County Council. In making that recommendation, the staff said that should the applicant not do that, we would be prepared to provide additional information to you at your hearing today. The staff understands that state law does not allow the Planning Commission to consider an application for longer than 90 days after it's been filed unless the applicant agrees to that time. We are cognizant of that and respectful of that. The items at tab 7 are the two items mentioned in our supplemental report that informed that report. In addition to Ms. Jones' memo to members of the planning staff, that was a letter to Mr. Murphy where we requested information and also to the law department. Tab 8 and 9 represent the additional information that was mentioned in our February report. One of the staff's roles is to support the planning commission at your meetings, and we have often taken that role very seriously. And we felt it important to give you our best analysis of the application for a conditional use permit, knowing that you are about to hear two or more hours of testimony about this application, some of which the staff has heard before, some of which we anticipate we have not heard before. So in order to support you, the staff has proposed what we think are two alternate actions should the applicant not postpone or withdraw. One would be for the commission, after hearing everyone today, to approve this conditional use permit. If, after hearing all the information, you are inclined to approve it and find that's the most prudent course, the staff has prepared four findings that we believe would support your decision to do so based on the evidence and the applications we've reviewed. That's items A, B, C, and D on the first page of what you'll find at tab 8. I do need to spend just a few minutes on the following page. With a conditional use permit, it is very common for there to be conditions associated with a conditional use permit, whether they're approved by the Planning Commission or by the Board of Adjustment. These are ones drafted by the staff based upon our review of much of the information that you already have before you. We are offering, for your review and consideration, up to 16 conditions that would be tied to this use. The first would be predicated on this property being rezoned to AN as is being requested. Otherwise, approval of this conditional use permit would be null and void. Secondly, that it be established in accordance with the development plan that Mr. Martin has presented to you. And the three reports that you have. The Smith Management Group report dated January of this year. The emergency response plan dated April of 2013. and the Operational Details Report dated December of 2013. We would think it would be prudent to have the existing septic system be enlarged or improved as necessary as determined by the Health Department for this proposal. Fifth, that parking lots and driveways shall be paved with spaces delineated and landscaped and screened along Old Richmond Road. that installation and operation of zip line and canopy tour facilities shall be certified by the Association for Challenge Course Technology, known by their acronym of ACCT, or by one of their accredited vendors. That's under number eight. The following item, number nine, relates to the parking issue that I've described. Each canopy tour should include no more than ten guests, with tours spaced at least 30 minutes apart throughout the day and no more than three tours underway at any given time. Number 10, that the last tour shall begin at least two hours before dusk each day. Number 11, that any use of ATVs be strictly prohibited as part of this conditional use. Number 13, that overnight accommodations shall not be provided as part of the recreational facility with the exception of the Welcome Center, which could include a one-bedroom apartment for a caretaker. The last one on that page would be that recreational uses and improvements shall be limited to those uses noted and described on the preliminary development plan as approved by this body. And the final one of note is the very last one on the next page. any outdoor lighting, loudspeakers, retail sale of merchandise in restaurants or food service shall not be permitted. However, any concessions not involving on-site preparation may be provided in a manner approved by the Health Department. One other alternate course of action the Commission may wish to take at the end of this hearing is to deny the request for a conditional use permit. Again, in order to support that possibility, we provided you with a set of findings we believe would sustain that as well. It is worthy of note that staff has approved uses on this property in 2000 and in 2012. I think it is worthy of note that in the third paragraph of this very last page under tab nine, probably should ask you to delete the last two sentences of the third paragraph. That would be beginning with the words, these enforcement actions, and ending with the words, 2000 conditional use permit. Those were true as of last February. I'm not sure that you need those in there this afternoon. Should you wish to disapprove, on the very back of the February 27th packet, the staff has provided findings. Given three findings of fact, a recommendation disapprove could be made since the commission may or may not find it able to meet the charge of Article 7.6.A.2 of the zoning ordinance, which governs your review of conditional use permits. Mr. Chairman, I'm glad to say I've met the time limit. That concludes my prepared remarks. I'd be glad to entertain any questions from the commission at this time. Mr. Wade and Mr. Martin may also be available for other questions that may arise. Mr. Chairman. Yes, ma'am. I have a legal question, actually, before we proceed, that I'd like to personally be able to understand. The commission always has had a number of reasons that you could use for postponement of an application. There are two numerous, I mean, I can't probably even think of all of them. But I would like to have a clarification on whether or not we can, could legally postpone an applicant's application based upon the changing of the zoning ordinance at some future date. since the ZODA that we've been discussing has not been finalized by any means and will certainly be in the year 2015, hopefully, before that will take place. So I'm questioning whether or not we could legally postpone and ask indefinitely because it's sort of like a football game. We're going to play the first, seems appropriate, example for this time of year. First two quarters, both teams are going to play the game, and they're going to go into the locker rooms at halftime, and one team's going to decide that they're going to not play this game until next winter because it's too hot. So it's like playing from two different playbooks, and I just am having a lot of trouble figuring out whether or not we can legally ask them to postpone something that has not yet been determined. Does that make sense? Yes, that makes sense. And I had a feeling that question would be coming. No, you cannot postpone today based on the possibility of the recreational text amendment coming. I guess what I would say to you is that staff put that before you because it's out there, that's of concern. obviously in the community and with the people that worked on it. However, and so they were saying, you know, if all things were just exactly the way we all want them to be, maybe we'd prefer that. However, legally you can't do that because there is no moratorium pending applications while this text amendment goes through. The text amendment has not gone back to the Urban County Council. It's still in its, it's not the law. So you have to consider this application based on what the law is today. Thank you very much. Mr. Penn? Tracy, this is for you also. By the revised staff report, am I to assume that you're not concerned about what the court cases are going to be and we would get up on both sides of this like we were concerned in February? I understand we have to have the hearing, but I also understand that this is a litigation. or do we run the risk of ruling one way for or against whatever the Board of Adjustment did, the court ruling another way? Do we still have that risk? Well, you know, I can't tell you what the court's going to do in those other pending matters or what this particular landowner's going to do in relation to those. They are still pending. I don't know what the outcome could be, so it could be different. However, you're under an order to hear this today, so I think you need to hear it and make your decisions based on what you hear in this hearing today. And that would include postponement? You cannot postpone. Okay, so the postponement's off the table. We're going to rule up or down on this, and we're going to take the results of whatever happens from the court and take our chances. I think that's correct. Thank you. Mr. Berkeley. I guess this is for staff. If this is something that we cannot consider as an item to postpone on, would that cause you all to change your recommendation? Our recommendation was that the applicant consider postponing or withdrawing, and they have it within their ability to do that. And then we understand should they not wish to do it, and we don't expect them to, that our serving you required us to go above and beyond to try and provide you with the best possible findings for your use at this hearing. Let me just add to that. You're going to hear quite a bit more proof today. The staff has worked very diligently and very hard to try to get prepared for today for all outcomes that we know could be any number of things. So based on what you hear and what you want to decide, certainly some of these findings may need to be changed or altered or you may wish to do that, but that's your decision. Other questions? Mr. Wilson. Just one other question for the staff. It seems like you're all getting quizzed today. Right now, what is your recommendation regarding this? To approve? The condition? Are you asking the condition of use? Yes. I mean, I'm not going to answer that. I just wanted to be clear. Mr. Wilson, our recommendation is that the applicant consider postponing or withdrawing this part of the request so that the text amendment can be completed. Okay. in light of that, which has now been kind of taken off the table? Well, I think what's been taken off the table is if the commission wishes to postpone it by your direction versus the applicant's. The applicant is key to whether or not this can be postponed. Okay. Other questions? Mr. Sally, I've got one. It may seem odd considering what's come to questions that came before. Clarification with some of your information. If I understand Tom Martin correctly, and Tom Martin on the ZDP says there's a note that says, delete note about incidental sales of items. And if I understood him correct, that would mean they would not be any incidental sales of retail items. I thought I heard you say something in conflict with that, but yet in one of the conditions that says that there shall not concessions involving on-site preparation food may be provided in a limited manner. Now, concessions not involved may be provided in a limited amount. Where are we on this? The word there is provided. Okay. It doesn't necessarily say that they could be sold. Okay. They could potentially offer refreshments to some of their training or things of that nature. But I think they're not in conflict. Retail sale of items versus them being provided on the property. Again, that would, under this draft, be subject to review and approval by the health department. Staff is not sure if that's a possibility or not. Okay. All right. I'll think. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am? That caused me to come up with it. So they could have a food truck? Possibly. Possibly. I'm not sure that they're permitted in this zone. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Sally and staff for doing everything in a timely manner. Thank you. We did have a few questions. We'll move on to the applicant. He'll have one hour. I guess I have to ask the one question right up front. Do you and NAPLON have any interest in postponing or withdrawing? No, we do not. And I'll explain that a little bit further on. But no, we do not. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Go right ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to ask Burgess Carey to be handing out some of our exhibit books to you. I'm going to talk faster than I normally do because I only have an hour. And my transition between topics may not be very good, but I'm going to try to hit up on as much information as I can in the hour that I have, because this is important. We appreciate your hearing this. I'm representing Broon Creek Outdoors. The owner of Broon Creek Outdoors is Burgess Carey, who is handing out documents to you, and his wife, Sarah Carey. Sarah has to be at a child school activity, which requires presence of a parent, so she can't be here today. Sarah Smith of Smith Management Group was also handing out documents to you. Tony Barrett has to be away. Joey Zvek from his office is here from Barrett Partners, who's worked on this from the beginning. John Park, the next door neighbor of Burgess, and also my co-counsel on this case is with us today. I think there's a number of other people in the audience who are going to want to speak as well. We thank you for hearing this. I know there was some recent discussion, just discussion now, about our zone change. One reason we're asking for the zone change, and I'll discuss this in a minute, is we do want to start with a clean slate. We know there's a history here, and we apologize for our portion of the history. Yes, this operated for a few months last year. It was built without a permit. Burgess felt that because no building permit was required, because these did not qualify as structures after he checked with the Division of Building Inspection, that no permit was required. He was wrong. The court has proved him wrong. And the courts have ruled, Kentucky Supreme Court had ruled, that the temporary injunction that the city got to stop the zipline tour from operating under the 2000 permit was correct. We understand that. We accept that. We understand there's a lot of feelings hard on both sides. I'm going to try not to get in today about who's done what to who or who's mad at who. But we're starting at, we want to start with this with an AN zone for a number of reasons I'll tell you about. Partially because the grant of the AN zone will render everything else moot. Because the other applications are in the AR zone. If we get the AN zone, we'll be starting anew with the application here. Obviously, the Angler's Club will stay as a nonconforming use, but we understand that no expansion of the Angler's Club may be attempted or made other than what has been going on there for the last 14 years. If they wanted to expand that 2,000 permit, we understand from the court case that we'd have to come back to the Board of Adjustment for a permit on that. We understand that. We apologize for our part in this, but Burgess is a visionary. He's a passionate man, and he sees the possibilities that this property provides for giving recreational opportunities for people in Fayette and other places, and for educating people about the value of natural areas here in Fayette County. I want to tell you a little bit about the surrounding areas. Burgess, if you could take those exhibits over there and show us, and that talks a little bit about the history of the area here, just to give us a little background. We're in the Clay's Ferry Neighborhood Association, and Burgess is going to put up a poster, and I'm going to keep talking because I don't have much time while he's putting up the poster there, but the poster is showing the outline of the Clay's Ferry Association. I think you are not putting up right now, but you're putting up the next one right now. That's the Clay's Ferry Neighborhood Association. This is the Kentucky River. This is Interstate 75. We have US 25, 421 coming down here. Our property is outlined in red, 23-acre parcel fronting on Old Richmond Road, US 25. This is Boone's Creek coming into the Kentucky River right here. As I said, here's the Clay's Ferry Bridge. This is about the extent of the Clays Ferry Neighborhood Association. We have a letter in our packet from the Clays Ferry Neighborhood Association recommending approval of this. They've discussed it, loaded up on it. The areas we show in yellow on these two maps are people that Burgess has contacted and have indicated their support of our proposal. I want to point out that every property touching our property, with one exception, one obvious exception, is in support of our proposal. That is the small white area here, which is owned by the Martins. The Martins do not support this. We understand that. The Martins property here on this bigger map, our property is right here in red. The Martins touch us at this point back here to get from the driveway of Boone Creek Outdoors to the Martins. It's about 3.2 miles. It's a long way by road, but they touch back at the waterfall, which you saw on the slide that Ms. Wade showed you. I want to emphasize, too, that waterfall is not on the canopy tour. Nobody on the canopy tour will be able to set foot in the waterfall, and that's because nobody on the canopy tour will be able to set foot in any of the areas down in the gorge. That's because they're going to be strapped in a trolley on a zip line or they're going to be on a suspended bridge and are not going to be able to be walking around in the gorge area. But that waterfall is not part of this application. There will be no contact with that. There will be no walking through the bottom of the gorge because they're going to be above it. This has an area which has a number of other recreational uses. If you have the handout, if you could look in your handout and go to the tabs, I'm going quickly through it, but I'll talk about the history first. If we can go to, well, I'm starting right here. This is an 1830 map of the area. Here's the Kentucky River. Here's Boone's Creek coming up here. You can see, if you look right there, that's what's now Old Richmond Road. That's the Toll House. There's also a distillery there down on the creek, and there's a mill down on the creek. The Toll House is where the Jolly Roger is. It's not the same building. The building burned a few times, but the Jolly Roger is where the Toll House used to be located. That was the toll for the ferry across the Kentucky River. They put it at the top of the hill so they'd collect the toll before the farmers went down the big hill down to the ferry down there. So there's a history of this, and if you go through the handout which I've got with the tabs, you can see the topo maps that are up there. The one right behind on tab, excuse me, tab one right behind this historical map is a topo map. and on the map we're showing where the, you could give one to the operator there. The Eagle Scouts a few years ago had mapped the existing trails on the property. Those are showed on that topo map. Get up there in just a second here hopefully. And I'm going to go on to the next one. We have an aerial photograph showing right after that the meanders on this. our property. We get that up there, the meanders picture. Well, you've got it in your handout here. You can see the meander. This gorge was created by the meanders of the creek. It's interesting because the creek was not always where it is now. The gorge was created by a large meander, which carved out the gorge, and then the meander cut itself off. So the gorge is a large area. The creek's down toward the bottom of it, but the creek once was in an area much higher up, which created the gorge. Going back to this exhibit. In 1976. No, it's not on. I'll go back to the main one here. This is an ad which ran in the paper in 1974. This was an auction of the property, the Jolly Roger property. Thank you very much. And the, it's interesting that in the auction they note 23 acres located on US 25, only 200 yards from I-75. That's the exit 99, the Clay's Ferry exit. We're 200 yards from the Clay's Ferry exit. 14 miles south of Lexington, 10 miles from Richmond. We're closer to Richmond than we are the old city of Lexington out here. Clay's Ferry business operates as a restaurant and service station with 1973 sales in excess of $280,000. 40 years ago, $280,000 was a pretty big gross for a store out there. It's a restaurant has living quarters, plenty of building sites overlooking Boone Creek, also zoned for overnight campers. Has Lexington City water, Columbia Gas, Kentucky utilities. Restaurant has liquor by the drink and beer license and it was the last chance going south in Fayette County to get liquor. And as you all know, a lot of people availed themselves of that last chance before they got to the Madison County, Clark County. But anyway, just wanted to demonstrate, and there's a picture in the paper showing the same building that's there now, the same parking layout. Back then they had gas tanks in there. If you go to the next page in my handout, there's some other interesting history. There was a fuel leak from those papers of those tanks in the 70s. The next picture in my handout after that, we just put a picture in there. after Burgess bought this in 1994. Burgess and his wife, one of the first things they did was take out the fuel tanks. The fuel had already leaked out many years before, but they took out the tanks and they removed all the contaminated soil in accord with all environmental laws. That's one of the first things they did. So the tanks are not there. Next page, just in case you want to know, that's the headline, Gold May Be Mined on this property. That was from 1902. I don't think they actually found much gold, but there was a lot of interest in it. There's some history on there. I'm not going to go totally over because of time constraints, but it's interesting if you get a chance to look at that. I'd like to take you on a brief tour up Old Richmond Road to show you some of the uses which are in this area. And we have some pictures in the book. You can see those as we go along here. because there's a number of tourism-related entities on Old Richmond Road starting up near the, well, the Jack's Creek Pike intersection is just off this map up here. That's about six miles from the river, six miles from the river from Jack's Creek Pike. First one is the J&D Market, which is at Jack's Creek Pike and Richmond Road. That's closed right now. The second one is right here. It's the Champagne Run Equestrian Center. It has a riding facility, has riding meets. It has, in one of these you can see it parks horse fans overnight, has activities there. Next one is the Kelly Farm Corn Maze coming down closer to us. The Kelly Farm Corn Maze has obviously a corn maze, pumpkin patch. Interestingly enough, pretty neat. I'd never seen a goat tower before. I didn't know what a goat tower was until I saw the Kelly Farm Maze. I guess the goats like to go up in the tower. They offer packages, groups for 20 or more. Groups can bring food trucks to events. Nearby also is Botanica Garden Center. They have a corn maze, petting zoo, pumpkin patch, sell seasonal items, have a craft fair weekend. We have the Gene Ferris Winery, which is located right here, which is a famous institution here in Lexington. A fine restaurant, fine winery available for private parties. Next we have the Grimes Mill Winery. It has tastings, and they've advertised recently they have seven events there in the fall season, and that is we are fully in support of all these activities. Next one is not a tourist activity. It's the Vulcan plant, which is on Old Richmond Road. Next coming down is there's a wholesale greenhouse, which is now closed but is for lease. Next near our property, we have the Dykes Hilltop Grocery, which is former grocery. It now is a mechanic's garage and a dog rescue facility. Next is just Burgess and Sarah's driveway. They live two doors up from this property. Next is us, Boone Creek Outdoors. You can see a picture of. Next is the 200 or 300 yards down, the entrance to I-75. We have tremendous accessibility to Interstate 75 for a tourist-related attraction. Most traffic coming to us will use that exit. That's how they get the directions to it. That's the easiest way to give directions. Exit 99, Interstate 75, 200 yards north on your right. That's how you get there. Very easy to tell people how to get there. Next we have the old Kelly Grocery now abandoned. Then there's the Pier 99 Bar and Grill. Is that the old Riptides, I think? Yes, it is. And next we don't have a picture of it. There's the China Grove which is a garden, has weddings and receptions, which was approved six months ago by the Board of Adjustment. I would mention that was a use which was approved while the Recreational Text Amendment was pending. They had discussion of that at the Board of Adjustment and decided they should go forward with it and take action on the China Grove. And we're in support of all the tourist activities on Richmond Road. We think they're good for this area, good for this community, and we think we will add to that and add to the active recreational possibilities for Lexington and Fayette County. Since they purchased the property, Burgess and Sarah have been searching for a way to maintain this property. And I'm going to use a dirty word here, dirty two words. They want to make money on this. They want to be able to support themselves by being good stewards of the land and by allowing people to see and access this property. And they want to be able to support themselves doing it. And that, I guess, means making money. Just like any farmer wants to do, a farmer wants to be able to utilize the land, they conserve the land, and they want to be able to support themselves. Burgess and Sarah feel very strongly that they want to be able to show you can support yourself by maintaining this land. What does it mean to maintain the land? One thing it means is to remove invasive species on this property. Sarah Smith of Smith Management Group will talk in a few minutes about what that means, but basically we have four invasive species on this property. We have winter creeper, we have burning bush, we have bush honeysuckle, three plants, and we have the emerald ash borer. This area is totally treed. It takes a lot of money to do that. And why is it important to remove bush honeysuckle when we're trying to preserve trees? Well, that's because the young trees cannot survive with an under canopy of bush honeysuckle, winter creeper, and the other invasive species. And the ash trees are being attacked by the emerald ash borer. They have made tremendous progress in trying to eradicate those. That's part of what they educate people about, why it is important to remove invasive species from a natural habitat here. That's part of the canopy tour. Why are we asking for AN? Staff has told you, and I've got a tab in our handout about the comprehensive plan as well. The only thing I'd add to that, we indicate the comprehensive plan says we are trying to attract knowledge-based professional young people to this city. It says so in our comprehensive plan. Our mayor has said that. Our economic development people say that. And there is no better way to attract knowledge-based professionals than provide active recreational uses. It's nice to have passive. It's nice to have a museum that you can see and that sort of thing. We need all that, but we also need to have an alternative with active recreational uses. And these are the type of things that appeal to knowledge-based professionals. But we asked for AN also because when we first started this, where there was some feedback from horse farm interests that they were concerned of what a precedent might be to have the type of uses in the AR zone. The AR zone covers 70% of Fayette County. That's the horse farm area. We want to make clear that we're going to the AN zone. That's not the horse farm area. It's the natural area. We want a recreational use in the natural area here so that it can't be used as precedent for things that might not be a precedent for. The AN zone is designed for this. As the staff pointed out to you, it's designed for areas where the topography and the terrain, the steep slopes, the treed, the wooded nature of the property do not make it suitable for conventional agriculture. There's a cattle, there's people who've tried cattle next door to us, as Ms. Smith may mention to you, they compact the soil. Our soil along our fence line is about a foot or more higher than the cattle, the property next door to us. And that's because cattle have compacted the soil. We have preserved this in a natural way and want to preserve it in a natural way. I want to talk to you about what exactly a canopy tour is. We have a few photographs in our handout starting at tab four about what a canopy tour is. Ms. Wade showed you very well. She had photographs of that. But it's a canopy tour is something that utilizes a number of different modes to get through the canopy. You get a vision of the natural area from higher up rather than low. It's a totally different vision. It's a totally different experience. And you know something? It's a lot of fun, too. It's a whole lot of fun. People enjoy it very much. But it also educates people. You go on a combination of zip lines, floating staircases, suspended bridges, suspended ladders. There's a repelling station. you get a flavor of outdoor activity that people enjoy. A lot of people comment that it gives them a sense of accomplishment, gives them more confidence in themselves. They enjoy being able to see trees and this terrain from a higher elevation. The tours consist of 8 to 10 people, as the staff mentioned. Generally, they leave about 30 minutes, and busy times they may leave every 20 minutes on there. You have to make reservations here. If you show up on Saturday and there are no reservations, you will be told, we'd like to make a reservation for you on another day, but sorry, you cannot visit today because we're full. You can make reservations over the Internet, by the telephone. but that that what that does is it spreads the traffic throughout we don't have the large bulges in traffic of everybody decides that three o'clock on Saturday afternoon they want to go out and look visit the canopy tour you can't do that because there are limited slots available that limits the number of people who can visit and as the staff mentioned to you and it and it controls the traffic coming in and out. It's, when you're on the zip line, the zip line, if you can go some of those other pictures, is a half inch wide, multiple threaded steel cable, extremely very, extremely strong steel cable. When it is anchored in trees, the cable itself does not touch the tree in any location. It is cushioned by wood blocks which spread the force along an area of the tree so that the tree's growth is not damaged. And Dave Leonard has inspected these trees along with another inspection agency. His letter is in the front of the packet, the very front behind the cover page. If you only read two of the hundreds of letters of support we have, we'd ask you to read these two in the front. One is from Dave Leonard who says that he has inspected trees for many of the operations in neighboring states, he's an inspector for the accrediting agency, none compare to this. He said he was very skeptical when he first looked at these about being able to preserve the health of trees. But he says this has become, these trees have become very special guests in these woods. And another sentence he says is that these trees are better cared for than most of the trees in the city and in your own yards. and he's very, very supportive of our use. The other letter is from Beverly James who's writing on her own behalf. She is the manager of the Flora Cliff Sanctuary who is very supportive of this. She writes that management of profit and non-profit reservations comes at a significant cost for both government, non-profit, and private landowners. The tree canopy tours, Real Grass Outdoors has developed an innovative plan to address the invasive species on the property, and she's been able to observe interactions between a rare bird species while enjoying the canopy tour. She's very supportive of it. She's riding on her own behalf, not on behalf of the organization she works for. We wanted to point that out to you. These people are familiar with this type of operation and are very supportive of it. As you go through the canopy tour, we have some photographs showing what it is. We have next photograph. The photograph in there shows the, there you go. We show one of the suspended bridges on the tour. The next few photographs we wanted to show you because the staff had some questions about, We had showed a recreational activity area on our development plan that was separate and apart from the canopy tour. We wanted to explain to you what that is. And that is because to take the canopy tour, you have to weigh, I think, at least 75 pounds. You have to be under 250 pounds. And that rules out a lot of kids. A lot of children cannot take the canopy tour. We don't want a situation where you get down there, a family has made reservations, and Junior cannot go on the tour so the family is faced with going back home or not much else. We want to have a place where we can have the children have a taste of this. So these pictures are not at this location. They are just some photographs of some type of facilities we'd like to have to keep children active when the family's on the canopy tour. An adult would have to stay with them. Obviously, another adult would have to miss the canopy tour to do this, to stay with these kids. But just some semi-wilderness-type activities that give them a flavor of what it is. We have a suspended bridge that's one foot above the ground and that sort of thing that could keep the children active during that time. Every guide has to have 80 hours of training before they can accompany anyone on a tour. Each person is strapped into a trolley, and it is propelled by the force of gravity. The biggest concern is that they are taught how to brake. The biggest concern, if they brake themselves before they reach the next station, we have a pull up we have a pull up to try to do natural braking and a braking system what happens if they stop before they reach the next station well the guides are trained they can go out and get them and bring them back in that's something the guides learn in the 80 hours of training this system was inspected if you have our box of exhibits here we put a We've given to the staff our emergency plans, our operational plans, our environmental plan. We did that seven months ago. The only thing we didn't give them, which we have in our exhibits today, is a set of the safety standards, which are promulgated by the Association for Challenge Course Technology. This is, in essence, the building code for canopy tours and zip lines. This is about 80 pages long. The ACCT, Association for Challenge Course Technology, authorizes third-party independent inspectors to inspect canopy lines and zip line tours for compliance with these standards. We have been inspected by a third-party inspector called Bonsai Designs out of Colorado and passed the inspection. They had suggestions to be made, which were incorporated in. So we have independent standards. We have an independent inspection agency, and we have insurance. You have to get inspection not only for the owner's peace of mind, but the peace of mind of insurance companies before they will issue insurance. Burgess did qualify for insurance on this project. So we wanted to emphasize that, and I wanted to just give you also figures on safety issues for canopy tours. I've got to move some of these notebooks off. So on the tab at number 18, we have excerpts from a study which was conducted by Canopy Tour, which has been in existence about 40 years, and they had a presentation on our zip lines and Canopy Tour safe. I'll give you the quick summary of this. Per million hours of participation, we have a rate, the highest rate they reported over a 10-year period was five injuries per million hours of participation. These are mainly cuts and bruises and that sort of thing. Compare that to backpacking. 192 injuries per one million participant hours. compare it to basketball, 500 times as great a rate of injury playing basketball as you do on a zipline or canopy tour. When you think about that, that makes sense. We have a lower rate even than hiking because you're strapped in a trolley. Your legs and feet are not contacting the ground. You don't have the opportunity to slip and twist an ankle or break a bone. our rates are comparable to people who are working in a bank, insurance office, or real estate as far as the amount of injuries go. These are very safe. There have been zipline accidents. I googled zipline accidents, and I found that there have been some, and the vast majority of those are in backyard ziplines that somebody's used to connect the garage to the swing set, and they don't always have good results on those. But the professionally run, professionally inspected zipline tours have an outstanding, outstanding safety record. I'm going to zip through the rest of this, and I want to compare this also with Raven Run, because there's issues about what's our traffic impact, that sort of thing. we're 200, 300 yards from an interstate interchange. To get to Raven Run, you have to go down Old Richmond Road. We're on Old Richmond Road. You have to go on Jack's Creek Pike. But as far as I know, there's never been an issue about traffic congestion getting to Raven Run. Traffic comes predominantly on nice days, on weekends at Raven Run. We are smooth through the day, dissipated through the day because we have a reservation system. Police and fire response. We are both covered by the same fire station at Cleveland Road. Our response time is two miles, four minutes from that station, which has emergency medical technicians who ride every truck. It does not have an ambulance. The response time to Raven Run is about four times that, as I recall, because it's about 7.2 miles, I think, to Raven Run from that fire station. Ambulances are available, are called, but the emergency medical technicians are on the truck. If they're ever needed, they will be first responders. They can respond. They can perform life-saving activities. They can administer drugs. They can stabilize people and administer IVs before the ambulance gets there. Talk to the fire department about this, but I'm using Raven Run as a comparison because it's the closest thing we have to compare with, and we will have a lesser rate of injuries, as I mentioned to you, than hiking is. We have a much quicker response time than Raven Run does, and about a number of visitors. last year 34,500 people visited Raven Run, 34,500. Maximum, we anticipate 10 to 15,000. If we had every tour full, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., we might get 25,000 in there. We'll never reach that because at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, nobody's going to come, even though we're going to be open. But the maximum number would be 25. We anticipate more like 15,000 people coming to this compared to 34,500 going to Raven Run. We think we have good safety. We have very good response time. We don't think there's any issue about that. We have a septic system. There's an existing septic system for the property. Just like Raven Run has a septic system, our visitor center is smaller. Hours of operation are very similar. But here, everybody will be under direct supervision of guides at all times, unlike Raven Run. We're a commercial enterprise. I put in my exhibits at one tab a clarification from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture that we are not an amusement ride. This issue came up a couple years ago. They said they'd never regulated zip lines. They didn't consider them amusement rides. After that, they changed the official state regulations of the state of Kentucky to clarify that canopy tours and zip lines are not considered amusement enterprises. We have very low noise. We have great access to the interstate. I'm going to, I've probably forgotten half my presentation, but I'm going to slow down and conclude here. I want to bring a couple of witnesses up to you. And we've received a great number of e-mails and support. We have, we're in the electronic age now. We have electronic petitions, which we put in. And there's about 590 people have signed electronic petitions. We have hundreds of letters. We have, in the past, people have signed letters of support, everyone from Everett McCorvey to Jim Host to 11-year-old Scout Troop members to people from out of state who would like to see this. We have a broad range of support. As I said, Dave Leonard has looked at this and gone over it, but I don't have time to get into everybody who is in support of this. You can see those as they come along. But in conclusion, I just want to mention a couple things the staff mentioned to us. We find that about four cars, four people come per car because people come as a group. This is a group activity. People like to go with family or take visitors from out of town, too. The main building was left because back when the 2000 application was filed, We wanted to have two houses on there. The Board of Adjustment removed that and also disapproved the request to shift something from the main building to another building. So the building remained there and two houses were never built because they were never approved by the Board of Adjustment. We would like to be able to take photographs of people taking the canopy tour. However, we found that people find that in tourist-related activities, people want to have a memento of their stay at a place like this. Most places have a photographer who will take a picture and you'll be able to buy that when you come out. We'd like to be able to sell a t-shirt with the name on it. We leave that up to you, obviously. We'd like to be able to, but obviously that's your call on this sort of thing. If you're in doubt about it, if you don't know what you want to do about this, we'd ask you this. Put us on a review a year from now. Let us operate for a year. See how this impacts the community. We know, we're confident what we're telling you is correct. But if you have any doubt about it, put us on a review in a year and we can come back and show you after. We'd like to be able to operate for a full year, show you how it goes. If you have any doubts, bring us back and have it on here for review. As I said, this is the type of active recreation that young people today like, knowledge-based professionals. And another one last thing I want to say before I get my witnesses here is accessibility is preservation. Why do people who own historic houses let thousands of people troop through there on Sunday afternoon on historic house tours? It certainly doesn't do anything for their house. But people learned in the historic preservation movement years ago that if people know what needs to be preserved, that builds support in the community for historic preservation. Same thing happens here. If people know what natural areas we have in Fayette County and are allowed to see them and access them and have active recreation, that builds support for preservation of our natural areas. Two years ago we were named the most sedentary community in the United States of America, if you understand that. If you remember that, excuse me. This is an opportunity to change that. I have a couple witnesses I'd like to come up. The first is Sarah Smith of Smith Management Company who did an environmental study. How much time do I have here to divide up? Three minutes. I've got 23 minutes left, so we got three witnesses. I got 23 minutes. So keep it down to seven and a half minutes there, Sarah, if you could. I've asked Sarah to talk about her investigation of the property and the management of the property. Thank you very much, Sarah. Okay. A number of years ago when Burgess began thinking of this, he gave us a call and asked us to step in and do at least a preliminary environmental assessment of the property, and we did that. We also were asked to begin creating a management plan because the idea was to use best management practices to maintain this property in its pristine shape, to allow people to see what the members of the fishing club can see, but in a way that barely touches the land. So that's what we did. What you have in front of you is a preliminary assessment that is a smaller plan than we started with. We started with a bigger piece of property with more activities. This has been pared down to what we're talking about today. it is probably the lightest touch on the land that you can do. You know, hiking trails are a pretty light use of the property as long as they're well built and well maintained and well managed. But you still put your feet on the ground on a hiking trail. You still go off on a hike and you're not supervised or escorted necessarily. So you might get off the hiking trail. You might go stick your feet in the creek and muddy it up a little bit or do whatever. In this case, you're going to have your feet on the ground up at the top. You're going to learn how to manage yourself on a zip line. And then you're going to leave the ground. The few places that you'll touch it, there is a path, there are stone steps, but mostly you are above the ground. You're not touching it. You're not damaging the trees. You're not falling down the incredibly steep slopes that are here. This is not a property that you can do row crops on most of it because it's like this. I can lose my breath and a heartbeat trying to make it up that path and did several times. It is a beautiful and pristine area that will be able to be visible and accessible to people who right now can't go there, can't see it, can't wander Boone Creek and see this marvelously beautiful area. and they're going to be able to do it in a very environmentally friendly and protective way. We've talked about invasive species, and we've talked about how having an understory of these invasive species can harm some of the young trees trying to grow. Another thing that happens is you end up with a monoculture. You have these species that come in that don't have natural enemies, and so they take over. They push the natural plants out, the native plants. when you change the flora environment to a monoculture, to these invasive species, you also change the habitat for what we call the fauna. As in my business, we affectionately refer to them as bugs, bunnies, and bees. You change where they live, you change who lives there. So you have a domino effect, and that's one of the reasons that pulling these invasive species out is important. We've heard lots about the ash borer. And this property has lots and lots of ash trees. Many of them are involved in this canopy tour, and many of them are already being treated. And we're not talking about the ones you've got in the front yard that you pour a little stuff around the bottom. This is serious treatment to try to keep these trees healthy and alive. So that's another benefit of this. One of the things that we've talked about is the septic system. And a septic system can work very well for a property like this. As Dick said, Raven runs on a septic system. There is an existing septic system. When you look at the state regulations for how big a system do you really have to have, a visitor center that has a maximum of 90 people, which is the maximum based on their numbers that you might see, you have to account for five gallons a person. That works out to about the same thing as a three-bedroom house. Because in a three-bedroom house, you're taking showers and you're washing dishes and you're running clothes and things. With a visitor center, you assume everybody goes in once, uses it once, and moves on. So same size system. There is an existing system. I am not a septic system engineer, so I can't tell you anything about it. but I can tell you that there is plenty of property if this needs to be expanded or rebuilt. There is an upper area along there where they're talking about putting in the activity center as well as the parking area and the drive area, and all of that could be used for an expanded septic system if it's necessary. It's one of the conditions that this project would be subject to is having that septic system cleared by the health department. Let me just talk to you a little bit about agriculture. It's one of the most important things we do in this state. It's one of the most important things we do in this county. But agriculture is not necessarily really nice to the natural environment. We've gotten better at it. but at the moment, living in the world I live in, I'm very conscious of EPA programs. One of the big ones coming at us right now is called nutrients. Nutrients in your water. That translates to fertilizer that runs off of your lawn. That translates to fertilizer that runs off of agriculture. It also translates to those cows standing in the stream. They're all adding nutrients to the water. too much in the way of nutrients, and you end up with a water balance that's out of kilter. We've gotten a lot better at it, not necessarily on our lawns, but in our agriculture, we're getting better at putting the nutrients where we really need them and preventing runoff. But it's still there. And one of the dramatic things that we've noticed on site is what I think Dick referred to, which is the difference in the soil, you can have a piece of property next to the fence line and see a huge difference. And that difference is simply from farm equipment, but more frequently cows marching over that land and over time compacting it. And this land has been walked on by foxes and squirrels and you got a wildcat there, didn't you? Bobcat? A lot lighter. that has made the trees on this property surprisingly healthy because they have a lot of loose soil and air that their roots can get to and they can get to water. That's what is needed to be preserved and that's what this project will do. I'd be glad to answer any questions. Questions at this point? Don't think so. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Thank you. I'm going to add that Smith Management Group is one of the leading environmental consulting companies in Kentucky. They work all over the United States and Canada. Next witness is Dr. Ryan Sharp, who is, Dr. Sharp is an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation and Park Management at Eastern Kentucky University. He served on the Citizens Recreational Text Amendment Committee here in Lexington, and And he also has been an outdoor recreational planner for the National Park Service. We thought his insight would be important to you. We asked him to give you his thoughts on this project. Thank you all. I appreciate your time. Just a couple things I just want to hit on. The term ecotourism has been thrown around a lot. There's been, in the committee that I was on that was just mentioned, we talked about ecotourism for what felt like at least three or four months, and we never came up with a definite definition, so I'm not sure that we even have a definition to this point. We may, but it's still being thrown around. But basically, ecotourism is something that, at least in the literature, and being a professor and a researcher in this area, the literature supports that ecotourism, which Mr. Carey is promoting, promotes environmentally positive behavior. So this is what the literature is saying. It supports it for pro-environmental behaviors, for economic reasons. And also, with these things, there are many, many, many, many frameworks that can be utilized to properly and responsibly manage these areas. Right. It's it's it's in the business owners. And we'll talk about commercial rec here in a second. But it's in the business owners, in this case, best interest to preserve the area that is essential to them owning the business. I know that may sound elementary, but it is in Mr. Kerry's best interest to not ruin this area or otherwise he has no reason for these people to come there. Right. I want to talk about real quick just about trails, because we're talking about physical impacts. We're talking about ecotourism. So what could the physical impacts be? I think we've kind of already addressed that. I don't want to belabor the point. But with this aerial canopy tour, no one's touching the ground. The impact that could have happened has happened already, which is impacting the trees. And the Association for Challenge Course Technology has already said that Mr. Carey has done a fantastic job of following best practices, being conscious of the health of the trees, doing what he can to make sure that these trees are healthy. And again, if he's killing the trees, he's killing his canopy tour. So in contrast, there are many public, this is going to be a private entity, right? But many public recreational areas are suffering from erosion on their trails, compaction, trampling, social trails all over the place. And what's the big deal with all this erosion, compaction, trampling issues, right? So if I'm on a trail and all these people walk over, there's no longer any vegetation on these trails, what happens every time it rains? Water goes to the least, water follows the path of least resistance. All that water goes into, all that rain water goes into streams, rivers, creeks. That may not seem like a big deal, but those are very sensitive areas, and any time you alter the chemistry of these bodies of water, it has the potential to have an impact. So in this case, we don't have to worry about that, because the canopy tour will not be touching the ground. We don't have to worry about compaction. We don't have to worry about erosion. We don't have to worry about trampling. We don't have to worry about social trails. Okay, so commercial and non-commercial recreation. There could be an argument made that commercial recreation could have more of a negative impact than non-commercial. Maybe a non-profit would be better stewards of the land than a commercial entity, which is its sole existence, at least in theory, is to make money. inherently there really is no difference between a commercial and non-commercial entity when it comes to impacts. It's how the area is managed. There's plenty of public lands in this country, in this state, in this region that are completely hammered because of overuse. So it's not necessarily a commercial versus a non-commercial recreation thing. It's about how the area is managed. If it's managed responsibly, it doesn't matter if you're trying to make money or you're not. One of the positive aspects of potentially a commercial recreation opportunity that Mr. Carey is pursuing is many public recreational areas, whether that be a Raven Run, a Mammoth Cave, a Daniel Boone National Forest, whatever the case may be, all public areas that we can enjoy. We all know they're strapped for cash. They have very little money. They have very few resources. They have very little staff because they're not very well funded. I'm not saying that his endeavor will be successful. I hope it is if it is approved. But potentially, if it is successful, he will have more resources to actually manage the land. We were just talking about invasive species. If he is successful, he will have more money to manage these areas and remove the invasive species that are detrimental to this area. So that's a potential positive. Restricted use versus public access, just real quick about that. We can say that this is a potential pay-to-play, maybe you've heard that, a potential pay-to-play type situation. Restricted access will actually reduce, has the potential anyway, to reduce impacts. Public areas, they're open. They're open all the time. We can go there. There is no restricted access. Therefore, there's the potential for larger impacts. our restricted access that we're talking about here, we can control the amount of people that are coming in, and at least hypothetically, we can control the amount of impacts, which are going to be minimal anyway, because again, we're not touching the ground. From a professor's standpoint, Eastern Kentucky University, as was mentioned, I teach in the Recreation and Park Administration Department. Unbelievable resource for my students. Almost all of my students are from Eastern Kentucky. And I don't need to tell anybody about Eastern Kentucky, but this is potentially a great model for my students to see how an environmentally friendly, well done tourism operation can be run. And as you all may, you may all be very aware, the SOAR initiative that is being talked about tourism is coming out at the top of a lot of these conversations. So this could be a tremendous model, a tremendous laboratory for my students. And finally, people cannot connect to areas they don't have access to. I can go to Raven Run. I can go to Daniel Boone. I can go to Mammoth Cave. I can form a connection to that. People typically don't care about things they don't have connections to. So if we're talking preservation, if we're talking conservation of an area, All the literature in my own research points to if they're not allowed in there, they won't care. And if they don't care, they're less likely to preserve it. And in this day and age, when kids are going outside less, when activity levels are at an all-time low, this is a fantastic opportunity for people to get out, form a connection with the land, with the environment, and develop pro-environmental behaviors. And one more thing I'd like to say is a person much smarter than me, a writer, farmer, environmental activist, native Kentuckian, Wendell Berry, said we have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. To take good care of it, we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sharp. Mr. Chairman, my last witness, who has 30 seconds less than the other ones, is David Brassfield, who is the owner of a company called Steps. Now, Steps is the leading constructor of canopy and zipline tours, I think, around America. He's very well known in this. He was the principal subcontractor here, and we wanted him to tell you his experience with zip lines and construction and safety. Before he gets up, I forgot to put in the record the zip line safety plan that I talked to you about. This surveyed 15 years, 57 million user hours of zip lines. I just want to put that in the record. I'll give Mr. Todd a copy of that, too. Thank you, Dick. I would say that Dick has done much of my work for me already, and if he's available, I would be glad to hire him to explain to others what it is that our company does. We came into the Boone Creek project with Burgess in the summer of 2011, and our purpose was to come down and see whether he had an appropriate site and whether he was the sort of owner that we would want to work with. What we specialize is in outdoor education. Recreation is obviously a part of it. Active recreation is a part of it. We're looking to provide opportunities for recreation and education. and the canopy tour provides a way of offering guided exploration of a natural setting with very little impact on the setting. I often say that a canopy tour is something like an arboretum, but not from the ground trails, from the bird's eye perspective. When we come and look at who we want to work with, there are a number of things we want to know about the owner. We want to know about their values. We want to know about their experience. We want to know why they want to do this. We spoke with Burgess at great length. We trudged around the property. My partner, who is our designer and our chief builder, ran around the property along with Burgess. We want to know whether he has a true commitment to outdoor education. We want to know whether he has a commitment to conservation and to environmentalism. We want to know whether he's got a strong commitment to good customer service. And we want to know whether we can count on him to commit to ongoing guide training, intensive guide training, regular reviews, continuing education for guides, and to operate according to best practices. We want to make sure that he's committed to sustainable environmental practices, and we want to make sure above all, because this impacts us, it impacts every one of our clients historically or for the future, that he's committed to following absolute first-rate safety practices and ongoing course inspection and course maintenance. And we determined that Burgess is that sort of person, and this was an ideal setting to do it. There is a clear market for it. It's a gorgeous place, probably the most beautiful place that we've ever built a tour. And it was possible to lay out a spectacular tour that tells the story, both in terms of the forest, in terms of the topography, in terms of the geology, in terms of the history of this area with well-trained guides who act as a kind of docent as well as an outdoor recreation leader. So all those things were part of what we looked at before we agreed to undertake this project. From there, it was a matter of surveying the land, getting high up in the trees, seeing what there was to see, figuring out how to lay out a course that told a story that began in a way that was not threatening to people who are afraid to be at height. Start them out low, start them out slow, start them out with short zip lines. Build as they get confidence in what they're able to do. And then break it up with aerial walkways, which allow people to pause and look around They're usually placed at particularly scenic outlooks and give them the experience, if we can, and we could on Burgess's course of doing something like a guide-operated rappel from an upper platform down to a lower platform. We were able to lay Burgess's out in a way that requires almost no internal transportation. it begins pretty much where it ends. They're just about 300 yards apart. So it's an ideal course design. It's an ideal site, an ideal owner. And we were able to thread the canopy and to minimize any sort of intrusion or pruning on the trees, taking out trees, anything of that sort. I've been asked to talk about safety on these courses. Those courses, and I spent a long time yesterday afternoon talking to Robert Monahan of the Hibbs Hallmark Company in Tyler, Texas, who is the principal program creator for insurance policies that cover canopy tour courses, adventure challenge courses, summer camp adventure challenge courses, and professional builders liability insurance like our companies. He told me that obviously we hear about commercial canopy operations and not canopy operations, zip lines, where there have been some accidents and some with some severity. However, on the whole, what Dick has said about the record of incidents and how it compares with other activities is remarkably small. Those places that have had severe accidents have generally been places that have not used professional builders, that do not follow best practices, that try to do it all on their own. contractors who figure that they can build stuff so they must be able to build a canopy tour. And obviously a lot of the backyard zip lines and summer camps sometimes that build something and then they never ever have a builder come back and check it. Those are places we have accidents. I asked him. Sir, I'm going to have to try and, don't mean to be heavy handed, but I'm going to have to try and get you to close. Okay, I'm closing. I asked him whether he'd ever had a claim in the last nine years on the 25 courses that run about 200,000 people a year that we've been involved with. And he said not one single incident had ever been reported. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. At this point, before we move on, I think we'll take like a brief five-minute recess. See you soon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. If everyone take their seats, we'll resume in about one minute. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, if everyone take their seats, we'll resume. Please. Attention. Attention. If everyone take their seats, we'll resume. What we will do to resume, I'll ask if there's any questions from the Commission for any one of the three that has spoke so far. We can always reserve that for later, either way. If there's no, Mr. Todd, hold on just a second. No, I'm not heard. If there's no questions at this point, then what we will do is let Mr. Todd speak, and then we'll take citizen comments after that on supporting side and opposition side. So if we're ready to resume. Mr. Chairman, it's my pleasure to represent the Boone Creek and Old Richmond Road Neighborhood Associations, two historic neighborhood associations that have been in existence for a number of years. apparently not responsive to the most recent neighborhood association, which my understanding was formulated for this particular purpose. I and myself and a number of witnesses want to testify to present to you information, so I'm not going to take as much time as one would normally anticipate. But I do want to set some things fairly clear. And I think it's important that we begin from the proposition and understanding that this is really not ecotourism. Ecotourism, and I want to hand you out. Thanks. Just hand me, give everybody a copy. Ecotourism, the travel industry defines. Sandy, come over here. Okay. The travel industry defines ecotourism as a form of low-impact tourism to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas intended to provide funds for ecological conservation in that resource and the local inhabitants. This is not ecotourism. This is not low impact. This request does not protect the environmentally sensitive areas or the unique qualities of the area. This request provides funds towards the investors as opposed to the preservation of the resource. This request would add pressure to the existing sanitary facilities, safety facilities, police, fire, transportation, not to mention the impact on the surrounding neighbors. What you have to understand is this is a 21-acre request for 20,000 people a year to ride a zip line to use all of those facilities that Bill Sally outlined to you. This is not Raven Run. Raven Run is 200 to 300 acres. It's pristine. It's passive. It does not have zip lines. And trust me, this is not a canopy tour. It's a zip line. There is a marked distinction between the two. A canopy tour is a passive tour, usually in a gondola, with a number of people that are observing flora and fauna, birds. This is a high speed, 25 to 60 miles an hour. ride in a harness where you're zipping by the trees so fast the only thing you're hoping for is to get to the bottom of the ground safely this is not a a tour a canopy tour this is a zip line and a zip line is an amusement ride this is the money generator this is the big issue in the whole case if if if Burgess had come in here and asked for you know a ropes challenge course or walking courses or some, you know, more passive activities without the zip line, he wouldn't have got any opposition. The zip line is the key. And as long as we know from the beginning that's the issue we're talking about, then I think we'll be fine. 20,000 people at $80 a head, you know, it's $1.6 million. It's big business. And it's for the investors from out of state who've brought in here to generate profit. This is the modern day roller coaster. And we submit to you that it is not passive recreation, but it's an amusement ride. Let's talk for a moment quickly about how we got here. As Tracy indicated to you, we've been involved in a lot of litigation. There's three cases. And the Supreme Court just this week issued an opinion, which you all, I assume, have received and read. And the Supreme Court of the state said, we stand behind the city because you have a process in Fayette County that's unique. You have a wonderful planning and zoning process. You have preserved through your comprehensive plan and your urban service concept, some unique areas. And we respect that and everybody should respect it. And that's why the Supreme Court said that that injunction which was slapped on Mr. Carey should stand. Now, you know, there are a number of folks here who understand how long and how arduous this process has been and how deeply committed they are. We've been before the Board of Adjustment on at least two, possibly three occasions to litigate this same daggone case. We have argued it through top to bottom. Each time the Board of Adjustment has said we're not ready for the conditional use permit. As the staff has said, we need to have in place an ordinance that governs this. There is no means by which the staff or the law department, or for that matter you, can make a decision about what are appropriate parameters, what are appropriate restrictions, what are appropriate guidelines, so that we can make the right decision and not set a bad precedent. which is what you would do here by approving the conditional use permit. Folks, this case is bigger than this case. This case involves the entire planning process. That's why we're so adamant about this. These people from my neighborhood, they've served on the planning commission. They've served on city council. They've served on the board of adjustment. They've served on the long-range comprehensive plan update committee. They've been invested in this process for a long time. I've been involved in it since 1976. And I've served in all those capacities at one time except the Board of Justice. So I submit to you, this is not some, not in my backyard, foolishness. This is about what the Supreme Court said was preserving this very unique process we have. And when Bill Sally and Chris King tell you, we really wish they would continue this so we could get this process in place, they're begging them. They're begging, don't do this. And they won't do it because that's not the way Burgess has handled this particular case. As you know, his request for a conditional use permit was denied. And he went forward and built the daggone thing anyway. And he constructed it out there. And when we came out to cite him, he said, I think I have the right to do it. Even though in all the hearings and his previous attorneys said, no, you don't. He went ahead and built it anyway. And finally, the courts had to tell them no. So you wonder why my residents, my constituents say, you know, there's a problem here. You know, we have a disconnect in terms of responsiveness. Second issue, the conditional use permit that he was given in 2000 for the Anglers Club was obtained in about 2000 from a piece of property he bought in 1997. he went before the neighbors and before the board of adjustment said i'd like to have an angler's club and i will agree to the terms and conditions one of which was to remove the jolly roger the other of which was we'll have 60 permanent members we'll limit the club to that usage and you know it'll be an angler's club well as we all know historically he's had hundreds and hundreds of people down there he he's opened up and and rented out the fishing angler's club for corporate events, for weddings, for overnight. He never took down the Jolly Roger as he promised. There's just ongoing issues where the neighborhood has lost their feeling of credibility towards him. So as a consequence, we have opposed this and say to you it's even more important, given his track record, given his past performances, given his history, that we ought to have this ordinance in place first and make sure that we do a good job and a thorough job in developing it so that he will abide by it. And I think his track record was a disservice to him in this case, but he made it. He's got to live with it. And I think that's important for you to remember in this process. And I think the staff is cognizant of that, and I think that's why they're so adamant that we go forward and have this particular issue resolved first by the ordinance and go through the natural logical progression. Okay, I've handed out to you this exhibit which talks about permitted conditional uses. And if you think about it for a minute, the current statute, current ordinance, works against Mr. Carey. A new ordinance would be in his favor because zip lines are not permitted conditional uses in the AN or the AG zone, nor are they substantially similar to any permitted use in the AN zone. That's what our current statute is, current ordinance. That's Zoning Ordinance 3-1, subparagraph F. And I've given you a copy of that in your handout. And I've actually, if you will look at it, summarized what are the accepted conditional uses and what are not. And as you can see, the prohibited uses are amusement parks, bowling alleys, skating rinks, those kinds of things. Permitted uses are zoological gardens, sportsman's farms, native animal game preserves, hunting, trapping, rodeos, riding stables. You can read it. So that ordinance is pretty specific, and nowhere is there mentioned that a zip line is one of those permitted uses. In fact, the statute says if it's not mentioned in either regard, which one is it more akin to? Which one is it more like? Well, I submit to you a zip line with 20,000 or 15,000 people riding on a mechanical device with pulleys, traveling at 25 to 35 miles an hour, which experience is designed to thrill and exhilarate and to give you an adrenaline rush, that's an amusement ride. That's not an ecotourism phenomenon. So I submit to you that the definition of a zip line is more like those prohibited uses under the ordinance and is not a permitted conditional use under the current ordinance. Now, if you were to adopt a new ordinance and make provisions for that, Burgess would be in a better position than he is today. Number three, Tommy. The next issue I want to talk briefly about is the non-conforming uses. This particular piece of property... property. And what I'm handing you out in these exhibits is a copy of the appropriate, make sure you give Dick one too, Sandy, the appropriate ordinances and other documents. Mr. Carey acquired this property on April 17, 1997. That's what the deed says. And the deed is, I'm handing you a copy of the deed. It's in deed book 1911, page 347. And the deed book indicates that it is one track of land. If you look at the description in the deed, it's one track of land contending it says 23 acres. In 19, in 2000, 1999-2000, he filed for a conditional use for the anglers club, which was given to him. He now seeks a second conditional use for the same track of land. One description, one track of land. Now a scouring of the ordinance that says you can ask for more than one conditional use, but it's our opinion that you can only have one principal residence or one principal building for one track of land regardless of how many conditional use permits you may have filed for or received. it's our position that the conditional use permit which was given to him in 2000 for the anglers club and identified the anglers club as the principal permitted structure that's it he doesn't get a second bite at the apple when he comes in for a second conditional use application or a third or a fourth if he had more than one track of land it'd be a different story But he has one track of land, one deed source. It's also our position that the Jolly Roger building should be torn down because it's a nonconforming use that was abandoned. As you may recall, he purchased that property in 1997, according to the deed. And that property was not used for a restaurant or a gasoline station from that point forward. it's our position that when he abandoned that use then he no longer can utilize that facility. In fact, he has to now recognize that 300 foot setback on the property. And I gave you a case in that handout that supports that particular case in Louisville. It's Holloway Ready Mix versus Monfort and it's a 1968 case, and I've even highlighted the important parts. And the court says that where it was shown that the property was abandoned, in this case it was a quarry, for more than 10 years, and obviously there's a presumption that it was abandoned. So that's our second argument to get rid of the Jolly Roger. It's abandoned. Our third argument is that he, in 2000, went before the neighborhood, went before the staff even indicated on his development plan and I think his engineer that submitted the application said we will take that down the neighbors relied upon that they gave him their support then for the anglers club he agreed to do it he got the benefit of his bargain he got his deal neighbors didn't get it. He reneged on that deal. He backed up on it. He did not tear that property down as he promised. And now he's back here asking for a new use, for a new conditional use for this particular property. He's not entitled to it. Make him take it down. Make him do what he said he was going to do. Make him do what he promised he'd do. So it's our position that that Welcome Center that he calls it, the Jolly Roger, was abandoned. You can't have two principal structures or uses and that he should honor his commitment to the neighbors and honor his commitment to the Board of Adjustment and make sure that he tears that down. to further underline or underscore the abandonment argument the staff's report for the conditional use permit which I believe was issued in March I'm passing out to you now. Under Board of Adjustment History, the staff said in this bottom of the page there, and I'm underlining to put, note of Wayneum next to it, it was noted that there used to be a restaurant and truck stop slash gas station on the property which was the subject of the change, or change of non-conforming use request. However, it was determined that the non-conforming use had been abandoned and that portion of request was disapproved. That's the staff's own determination. Okay, those are the legal issues that I wanted to raise and put in the record and all the exhibits that I've tendered to you. I asked to be made a part of the record and now we'll begin with our neighbor's presentation to you. I appreciate your patience and understanding and I want you to remember one thing. These are a group of fellow citizens that live in your community invested their lives here and they work for this they're not a bunch of crazy people that are out raising cane this is about integrity this is about doing what you said you were going to do this is about not trying to sell a commercial venture on 23 acres as ecotourism and this is about remembering that as a community we have a conscience we have a legacy that's been given to us to try and preserve these areas and do it right and the way you do it right is you put in place the framework, the ordinance, the statute, and then as each case comes forward, you have the same measuring stick to value those cases by. You don't let somebody in-run the Board of Adjustments two decisions saying no, and come over here with a zone change as the vehicle, knowing that the only issue is the Board of Adjustments conditional use permit. That's the key here. And the zone change to AN is irrelevant. We don't care about that. The conditional use permit, specifically the zip line, is the issue. Thanks. Mr. Todd, let me ask you a question real quick with who you're planning on bringing up. You've got 18 minutes left. Are these going to be expert witnesses, or are they just citizens making their own comments? Some citizens and witnesses. These are all neighbors that have worked. I've told them three minutes apiece. That's the same rule, I assume, applies to any citizen figure. If it's simply citizens' voice and their own opinion, I'd like for them to wait and go through the three minutes. If there are expert witnesses, like Mr. Murphy had three of, then we can move forward. Otherwise, what we'll do is go to citizens that are in support of this and then take citizens in opposition. Well, how much time do I have left? I started at what time? You've got 18 minutes. No, I've got more than that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm counting wrong. You sound like Burgess. No, no. Wait a second now. There's 40 minutes left. 40 minutes? Okay. Well, then we'll prioritize our presentation. Thank you. Bring them forward. Mary Diane. Mary Diane. I'd like these to go into the record. Hi, I'm Cabby Boone. I'm a neighbor in the Richmond Road Association on Walnut Hill Road. The request before you from the Boone Creek Outdoors Group and the Boone Creek Anglers Club is a little confusing as today you can tell. It's mainly confusing because this is not a single place where all the requests for this organization to be on one document. So the document that I'm handing out has all the requests that have been on. Is this going to be an adventure in tourism, ecotourism, or agritourism? They're listed in all the requests. It is to be assumed that all, not only the zip line of the activities and amenities listed in the application, in the letters, on the development plan, and on the website for this property, are to be a part of the request for the commercial recreation facility. They talk a lot about how the zip line isn't going to affect the ground, but most of those listed on your page are all on foot, in the water, hiking, camping, hunting, swimming, fishing, all those things. So those definitely will be evasive. In the November 218 letter, it indicates the private Anglers Club was to be incorporated into the latest condition use request and would carry on as it has been since 2000. However, some of the activities from that time have been offered on the property that have never been approved and in some cases prohibited by law for both the AR and the AN zones. Many of these activities have nothing to do with fishing. The original lieutenant's facility was fishing. And some are not even feasible for the area that is around the 20-some-odd acres. The request from this group is not specific, like Champagne Run for horseback riding, like Gene Ferris or Grimes Mill Fenery for wine and for food and for celebrating the grapes that Kentucky land is producing. I like zip lining, but I have to say to encourage that, that's not going to make kids be more active. They're going to go sit on a line and roll down. the zip line it's a beautiful area i would love everyone to see it and appreciate it but as you can tell from the requests on this this is not the only thing that they're asking for so before you make your decision today on anything please be advised all the things they're asking for on that piece of paper that you have thank you very much for your time thank you thank you miss boone next In the interest of time, I would encourage those that are speaking to be close. Hello. My name is Marquette Gardner-Pieres Hall, and on May the 10th of 2014, my 11-year-old daughter, Aaliyah Tompkins, was severely injured when she fell from a portable zip line that was set up at the Crawfish Festival at Red Mile. That incident has changed both of us. That changed both of our lives. Following the incident, I have since learned that commercial zip lining are not regulated nor inspected by Commonwealth of Kentucky. I've also discovered that my local government does not regulate or inspect commercial zip lines, and in fact allows them to operate anywhere in Fayette County. I've come here today on behalf of my daughter, Leah, to urge you not to issue any permits, including conditional use permits for commercial zip lines, canopy tours, or portable zip lines of any kind until significant laws and regulations are in place. So the general public who might choose to ride have some assurance of their safety. this is an obvious public health and safety issue that cannot be ignored any longer for the safety of all our residents none of these activities should be allowed until there are laws in place regulating this industry I am currently obtaining signatures for petition and I right now approximately have about 500 our state and local governments to enact laws regarding commercial zip lines canopy tours portable zip lines i wish that you all please accept my statement here today as evidence that no permits for this conduct should be issued until proper measurements are taken to reduce the risk of any injuries and relate and regulate these activities on behalf of my daughter alia please Please do not let another family go through what we've been through. Thank you for your time and your attention. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, sir. Hi, members of commission. My name is Dr. Mike Hanley. I'm a physician. I work at the hospital just up the street, Samaritan. I'm also a neighbor. I live out in the area. I live on Munch's Corner, which is just off Grimesman Road, which is just off Old Richon Road. I'd like to speak to the idea of the safety issues and the rescue issues. Now, as you know, it's a very steep slope, and as they pointed out earlier, there's not a whole lot of accidents that ever happened to this, except the woman who's just here, his daughter, Aaliyah, got severely injured. If that would have happened where the zip line tour is now, like if something broke, I guess the carabiner broke in her case, if that would happen, and she would fall 20, 30 feet and get severely injured, an open fracture of the upper leg, you know, an unstable neck fracture. It's all well and good that the fire department can come down here and get them out, but getting them out is another matter. That is a four-wheel drive road that goes down there. You're not going to get an ambulance down there. You have to get somebody to hike down there. You have to take a gurney down there to get down there to get the patient out. Personally, I'm an avid hiker. I'm a mountain biker. I'm a skier. I've had two incidents in my past where I've witnessed this kind of thing. I was in Red River Gorge mountain biking with a fellow who broke his leg. From the time it happened, the time we got him out of there, it took three hours. Now, that was even a little more accessible than this is where I was. And the other time was on a ski slope where they tried to pick him up with a helicopter, a person that got killed, and they couldn't use a helicopter on this because of the canopy. You can't do that. They need an open space to use a helicopter to pick up stuff. If we had to take the gentleman's body to an open space so they could pick it up. So this slope here is so steep that if anything seriously happened, it would be a long time before they could get the person out of there. And it would be very difficult, and that's what I'm concerned about. And maintaining all this equipment out there, you know, it's a lot to do. You've got to do a lot of maintenance. Now, given Mr. Carey's track record, I don't know if I would trust him to maintain that. You know, maybe he will, maybe he won't. But judging what he's done so far, I wouldn't believe in anything he's going to do. But anyway, my position is it's very dangerous. If anything seriously, anybody seriously gets injured, it's going to be a heck of a job getting them out of there. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Plenty of air. I'll pass my point. Ms. Shaver, go ahead. Hi, my name is Sandy Schaefer. I have been a council member here in these chambers from 1994 through 2006. I've participated in the parks master plan, helped create the parks board, built four playgrounds, which now it looks like I'm going to be a grandmother of maybe two more. Those are all volunteer projects and 2,000 people or more. I helped start the Kentucky Rails to Trails Council, the Town Branch Trail. I've helped preserve the rural settlements, which thankfully are now in the comp plan. And I'm not even, I'm a district, not a rural advocate. However, I understand the importance of rural activities and the importance it is to our community. I also participated on the Kentucky Parks and Recreation Society. I was the Kentucky representative to the National Recreation Park Society. I was the Kentucky delegate on the Parks and Recreation Board of Trustees at the National Parks and Recreation. Now, I don't know if that makes me an expert, but I hung around a lot of experts. We were all volunteers. We're all citizens in our communities that participated here. And I am speaking today against the conditional use permit, and I'm speaking for environmentally sensitive areas and focus areas and how they should be reserved for non-commercial passive types of recreation uses such as hiking, fishing, and wildlife observation. If you go ahead and follow with me on the next page, I want to go ahead and say there are thousands of acres of non-commercial open space and parkland open to the general public in the rural service area. There are, in the southeastern part of Fayette County, it is not an underserved area when it comes to both active and passive recreation. And if you note through there, there are several bullet points that hit the point of this area being served and served well. This Boone Creek focus area is designated in all adopted plans, which are attached, and they are for conservation and preservation. There should be no misunderstanding that this is an environmentally sensitive area and is reserved for passive recreation, such as hiking, fishing, and wildlife, and nature observation is not meant to be a place for adventure tourism, such as active recreational activities that we've been mentioning. Going on, access for active and passive recreation beyond the urban service boundary in Fayette County's rural zone includes, and I have a list of things here, which I want to note that Jacobson Park is on our list of things that we own. Thank you. And also, did you all know we have Boone Station, which is a Kentucky State Park? We have other semi-public uses that are in the urban service area that goes all the way down to water-based trails. Going on, there's a map that shows the parks within the urban service area and outside the urban service area and going on. We even have bike routes within the Greenway Master Plan. I wanted to show you the next three pages deal with Raven Run. It is 734 acres dedicated to preserving the natural beauty of our Kentucky River Palisades. It has, it goes on to just talk about the preservation, the species of the plants and the birds throughout the year, how many people attend, the staffing. So again, some details there. Going on to the Heisel Park Equestrian Trails Map and Rules. It has a trail that's open to hikers and horses. Again, a great asset to our rural area. going on. I want to point out that we try to, we strive, again, turn the page, to maintain a balance between our planning for the urban uses and safeguarding our rural land. Good intentions do not always mean good rules for our rural area. Raven Run again, 732 acre nature sanctuary and public park. I have highlighted here, and if you turn the page, other points and uses of how we are safeguarding this rural park so that we even have around that area, we have designated a share the road program that allows cyclists, even in rural areas, to appreciate the natural beauty of our area. We have trails, again, in our service area land management plan and Greenway Master Plan that call for development and really thought out ways of getting people to enjoy our farms while providing for security for agricultural operations and avoiding environmentally sensitive areas. going on we do have a we are listed under riverfacts.com and we're listed um at the boone creek is listed as a whitewater recreational use again we have other trails along the kentucky river going on water trails on the boone creek and I just included a map of the Sayre area that is usable and also just to note that the Iroquois Hunt Club is also active down in that area. So again, I appreciate you allowing me this time to speak and appreciate your time to this community. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Shaver. Next. I'm Tom Lowry. I live about a mile upstream from this operation. I was going to talk about safety, but one issue came up that sort of surprised me. I kept hearing no feet on the ground. Everything is in a canopy tour. If you look on the website, there's a picture right there. It says hiking trails. I don't know which one we're supposed to believe, and given the track record, who knows which one will happen. But as far as safety goes, being an engineer, zip lines sort of scare me. I've heard that we have all sorts of inspections in place by organizations that I've never heard of, but it seems like the council would want to pick which organizations inspect these lines. I know this is one of those cases where it's a low probability of anything happening, but when something does happen, it's catastrophic. If you fall from 20 or 30 or 40 feet, it's bad. So it is important, I think, to have some sort of safety inspection specified by the government, not just picked by the landowner. Thank you. My name is Jim Lurton. I live about two miles north of the piece of property we're discussing. I'll be very brief. I'm going to say something about that Mr. Todd covered and that you all know better than I do, but I want to emphasize it for this hearing. The zoning regulation requires that any conditional uses in a zone be specifically enumerated in that zone, in the regulation, and R be substantially similar to those. The ones in the middle of the page there are the ones that are called out in the AN zone. It would be a terrible leap of faith to think that a zip line is substantially similar to any of those. So it seems difficult to me that you could make that leap of faith and approve a zip line. One other thing. I inserted into the record three things that I don't think concern you guys today, but they might concern the future. And just so you know, I did it. They concerned the 2,000 conditional use permit, the notice of violation that was given to Mr. Carey by the city, and the circuit court injunction that prohibited his operation of the zip line up to this point. So those things were put into the record. Thank you very much. Thank you. Chairman Owens, members of the Planning Commission, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to this important issue. I'm here today because the zone change proposed by Boone Creek Outdoors will adversely impact the historic and ecological significance of the Boone Creek Rural Historic District, which was listed on the National Register in 1994. That might be a surprise to you because that has not been mentioned so far this afternoon. I'm well acquainted with Boone Creek. I wrote the nomination. I've been a citizen of the Bluegrass for 37 years and have owned a consulting firm that focused on historic preservation for 33 years and in 1994 was the co-author of the Green Space Plan. The Green Space Plan is one of the foundations of the 2013 Comprehensive Plan and refers to it again and again. Anyone who reads the 2013 Comprehensive Plan will come away knowing exactly where it stands on preservation of cultural and natural resources. Over and over and over again, it says, Protect natural resources. Protect historic and archaeological sites. Preserve unique bluegrass landscape. The Comprehensive Plan reminds us that Boone Creek was one of the five focal areas in the green space plan. Valuable resources include not only man-made elements such as farm buildings, rock fences, rural lanes, but also streams and natural areas. Boone Creek demonstrates how settlers interacted with the natural environment. The natural features provide a context, physical limitations, which have influenced land use in Boone Creek and the other nearby Kentucky River tributaries for more than 250 years. The historical agricultural pattern in Boone Creek is different from other areas of Fayette County. Within the narrow Creek Gorge, the Palisades, steep slopes, and shallow soils were left undisturbed. Agricultural production was limited to the uplands, while mills and distilleries were established along the swiftly moving stream. You have a map now where you can see the Boone Creek National Register District down in the lower right-hand corner. In 1994, the National Park Service recognized the historic significance of the Boone Creek Rural Historic District by listing it on the National Register. This recognition indicates that an area of such national historic significance should be protected. The property owned by Boone Creek Outdoors is located within the boundary of the National Register District, but they must not agree with the National Park Service. Moon Creek Outdoors must not think that this designation is important. It makes no acknowledgement of the existence of the Moon Creek Rural Historic District on its website or in its zone change application, despite the districts being mapped in the 2013 Comprehensive Plan. If this is their attitude, what will happen to the archaeological sites on the property? The Comprehensive Plan points out that lands in southeastern Fayette County contain Kentucky River tributaries, which feature cliffs, gorges, which support diversity of native plants and wildlife. West of Boone Creek in Fayette County are Elk Lake Creek, which is also known as Floracliff, and also Raven Run. To the east in Clark County is Lower Howard's Creek. Floracliff and Lower Howard's Creek have been designated Kentucky State Nature Preserves. 600 species of plants and 200 species of birds have been identified in the Raven Run Nature Sanctuary. In these three nature sanctuaries, activities which have the potential to harm the native trees whose root systems and canopies protect ecologically rich steep slopes are strictly prohibited. Recreation is passive to limit harm to the natural resources. Boone Creek possesses the same geology, biodiversity of plants, and wildlife habits as Floracliff, Raven Run, and Howard's Creek. Why is Boone Creek outdoors pursuing activities which would never be allowed in neighboring Floracliff, Raven Run, and Lower Howard's Creek? Boone Creek outdoors plans exploit and disfigure trees. These actions will ultimately lead to the trees' demise and subsequent reduction of tree canopy which protects the steep slopes and diverse plants harbored by the cliffs of Boone Creek Gorge. And why is this important? Again, we look to the 2013 comprehensive plan which says that Lexington citizens view the bluegrass landscape as the defining feature that makes Lexington unique. It forms a foundation for a high quality of life. There's no doubt that visitors to our area agree with this assessment. According to the Lexington Visitor Center, the most requested brochure is the walking and driving tour map. This map includes the Grimes Mill Road and Athens Boonesboro Roads in the Boone Creek Historic District. Our bluegrass cultural landscape is our equivalent of California's redwoods. If we degrade this with improper development, we will lose not only a world-class landscape, but also give up an essential factor in our own quality of life. The front cover of the 2013 comprehensive plan features a photograph of a beautiful tree-lined rural road passing through the rolling bluegrass landscape. The text in the comprehensive plan repeatedly calls for the preservation of our cultural and natural resources. It is very clear that the 2013 comprehensive plan reflects the very high value that we, the citizens of Fayette County, place on our unique cultural and natural landscape exemplified by places such as Boone Creek. As Planning Commission members, you are charged with upholding the vision and values expressed in the 2013 Comprehensive Plan and must vote no on the proposals for zone changes proposed by Boone Creek Outdoors. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Joan Mayer, and I represent an area that no one has even mentioned, but will highly be impacted if this is allowed to go forward. Nobody's paid any attention to Clark County. I live in Clark County. I live on the edge of Boone Creek. I have a farm on Boone Creek. And no one cares of what we, no one's asked what we think about this. So I decided we're just going to come and tell you what we think about it. First of all, they didn't even ask for a conditional use plan. You know, we're right next door. We're right over Boone Creek from you. And nobody cares. There are three things that I'd like to talk to you about that I have had over the years work with our group, the Roll Richmond Road Neighborhood Association. Because they have been so dependable, so reliable, so honest in their thinking, we just got really busy and started the Southwest Clark County Neighborhood Association. And Clark County Neighborhood Association looks right over into Burgess Carey's business over here, his opportunity to make money. And our farmers are sitting there, and you would think that he was the only one that cut any old dead brush out. I want to tell you, we fight that fight all the time in Clark County. He's not alone. Every farmer that has that has the same problem. Now, one thing that when I first got into this, I saw a couple of years, oh, gosh, it's been so long ago, I can't even remember the name, the time. But I saw a big plan that Mr. Carey had. Big old boy. He was going to build three bridges over Boone Creek into Clark County. There was going to be a hiking bridge. There was going to be a biking bridge. No one asked if anybody wanted all that stuff in Clark County. We're farmers. And have you ever, if you lived in the country, you would know tourists don't stay on the paths. They don't stay where they're asked to stay. We've had sheep shot by tourists. They're out there using their guns. Come across a dead lamb with a bullet in its head. So I don't believe in tourists staying where they say they're going to stay. I don't believe in this hypothetical heaven that's going to be up here where they're all just going to be off the ground, flying around from one tree to the next, like Tarzan. and so I also would like to suggest that Mr. Kerry go back to Natural Bridge where they have a wonderful zip line. Huge, goes over the gorge. They get hours of it for their money. Going to pay $80 for about 30 minutes of time on the zip line. And to what loss, to what loss are you asking us to pay in Clark County? we're your neighbor think of us please thank you thank you ma'am i thought we went out of time i'm sorry austin kerr old richmond road old richmond road neighborhood association and i will promise to be at three minutes because an important fact that we cannot forget is that basically stated a commercial outdoor recreational facility shall be limited to a total of 10,000 square feet. I think I spoke on this before. The development plan that has been submitted did not calculate all the square footage because it didn't show all the buildings and structures that are supposed to be on this piece of property. The zoning ordinance states that no building or structure or part thereof shall be erected or constructed except in comparison with the regulations specified for the zone in which it is located, and that is 10,000 square feet maximum in an AN zone. Structures are defined in the zone, anything constructed or made, the use of which requires permanent location in or on the ground or attached to something having a permanent location in or on the ground. And by definition, the permanent decks and platforms that are constructed on the ground or constructed and attached to the trees in the ground are structures and totally need to be figured in this total square footage. A deck is a deck, whether the deck is on the ground or in a tree or on a second story. Decks are required to obtain a building permit, and this is important because there is a statute to this, and pay a fee based on the square footage of the deck. Since these decks are already built and we've already seen them, very easy to get the square footage of the decks. The numbers that are listed in the site statistics panel on the development pan do not add up to the total amount that are shown. I am a CPA. I tried to add them up. I couldn't do it. Missing structure footages per the plan are the 10-stall barn that is advertised as part of the livery, the permanent structure that comprises the canopy tour, the permanent zip line, decks, platforms, et cetera, that are erected in the trees, the ropes course, and the children's playground. When we tried to add this all up, we came well in excess of the 10,000 square feet. The 10,000 square feet maximum is also in an A-N zone, and they use words in the ordinance as any total of 10,000 square foot maximum spelled out shall and for all structures. Also, commercial and non-commercial recreational facilities, including private clubs, for these uses shall not exceed 10,000 square feet. The written application or the letters or the development plan are extremely vague as to what structures and or building are currently or will be finally erected on the piece of property. Figuring the exact final square footage for this commercial recreational facility is very easy for all those buildings that have already been constructed. They're there. They should have had a permit, and they should have a square foot associated with it. So I ask you all, please, when I look at some of the structures on the thing, a building that is marked as a 26 foot by 36 foot cannot be 320 square feet. The math just doesn't add up. It's 910. Also on the plan, we see that there is a proposed 5,790 square feet, But where are they? Also, where are the decks that you all see in the platforms? The existing shed is 26 by 35, and it's advertised. Again, add that square footage, plus the parking spaces. And most important about these numbers, they are prior to including any of these platforms, tree platforms, or other structures that are already located. So basically, I think if you do things like add up the numbers on the written application, the size and location of the 15 platforms, size and locations of three sky bridges, one floating staircase, one rappel, two ladders, seven zip lines, where is going to be the ground school, where is going to be the rescue school that is mentioned, where is going to be the size and location for the vocational school, size for incidental sales, where are they going to put that, what type of building, Also, outdoor children's play area, the livery, and the horseback riding stables. I won't take your time any longer, but I do ask you to please do me a favor. Do the math. And if it is against our zoning regulations, which I have been in this room way too many times to say, let's stick to it. Change the zoning regulation as if you need to, but stick to the square footage that says 10,000 is maximum. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Carr. Yes sir. I'm Charles Martin. I live at 7416 Grimes Mill Road and I've been active in trying to preserve and enhance the natural resources along this creek since 1978. We've been involved in first the natural area designation with state nature preserves, the implementation of agricultural water quality plan, the Boone Creek watershed study, the National Registry Rural Historic District study We currently have next contracts with the NRSA, NRCS for honeysuckle, which we cleared 15 acres last year and chipped it. I wouldn't recommend. And next, we have contracts with the Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet, Department of Fish and Wildlife. We've installed 4,000 feet of fence to keep cattle out of the creek and out of ponds. And this will give us a little more pasture, but it will give us pasture that will be usable. Next. Perhaps the most important thing we've done is given conservation easements over our entire farm. Every bit of it has conservation easements, as do some of our neighbors. Next. These easements do two things. They say that one of the factors that made it valuable was the waterfall that is truly beautiful along Boone Creek, and it is a calcified waterfall, a tufa, that is fragile and should be protected. They're uncommon in the world, although we have more than our share here. The little stream, Cleveland branch that forms it, is also special. This shows you the PBR easement, one-handed, passive recreation. I can do this. Yeah, I can do this. This is our easement, the neighbor's easement. This is the subject property. we share this bit of property. The waterfall in question is here, which we've enjoyed since about 1976, really. And next, I was kind of surprised when photographs of this waterfall started showing up everywhere. This is the waterfall. It is pretty. This was from the Cumberland Sierra Club newsletter just talking about Kentucky waterways. Next. Then here it is in the Lexington paper, and there's Mr. Carey there in front of the waterfall with another neighbor enjoying the waterfall. That's nice. Next. Then here is Mr. Carey in front of the waterfall saying the highlight of this tour is a canyoneering portion where participants will climb the waterfall with a support rope and careful guidance and make this your only activity of the day or follow the equally thrilling canopy tour with this hike to get both perspectives. This is not just a zip line tour. This is all of this stuff, and a lot of it is not in the air. Most of it's not in the air. Next. The other aspect of our conservation easements is that outdoor recreational activities are encouraged. outdoor recreational activities, specifically hunting, fishing, and hiking, are prohibited. So in your PDR easement, your other conservation easement, commercial outdoor recreational is prohibited. Next. You've missed a couple there. You have, go back to the, no, go again. This is a suggestion that there are some other items going on that are off of the site. You can also, for some reason, you can board horses. You can hike from mill to mill. We don't know where the mills are. There are no mills, I don't believe, on the subject property. which is here. I think there is a mill down here on one of these properties, and there's perhaps a remnant here on Mr. Carey's newest purchase, which is on the other side of Mr. Park and not contiguous with that. Next. Let's see. We're missing one important one. Let me see if I have it here. I guess not. The point was, this is a good one. We worried about our surveying. Were we being silly? Were we confused because all of this marketing of this beautiful waterfall, it's not his waterfall. It's not on his property at all. It's not within 117 feet of his property. And it's on property, which is protected by the purchase of development rights program. It's in conservation easements, which specifically prohibits this type of activity. And also, it's a fragile resource that deserves to be protected. Next. So we got our new surveyor down. We got Baldwin came over from Winchester and surveyed it all up. So we went down to the point of the connection between there, the point of connection between Park, Martin, Boone Creek. And you're standing on that point right there, and you're looking at the waterfall. So you're a long way off, and the waterfall is a little bit around the corner. Next. You cannot properly integrate this project into the planning without having very significant deleterious effects on the subject property as well as the surrounding property. You've already had those deleterious effects. I have hiking trails going all across the property now. I had survey stakes, blue and green lettered survey stakes. I have no idea where they came from. This project does not contribute to the historic district. It doesn't contribute to the conservation easements, and it does not enhance water quality. There are no studies available to suggest that it will not. You cannot say that it will not adversely affect this area. You cannot say that. It already has adversely affected it. So please do not allow this gross, poorly defined activity in perhaps Fayette County's most fragile and special environmental area. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Horton. Others? Mr. Todd, you've got a minute and a half. Quickly, my name is Betty Webb. I'm here to represent something that nobody else has spoken to, and that's someone who's actually been on a zipline tour. Unfortunately, I have not been on this particular tour, but the one I took looked very similar to this one. I loved it. It was great fun. It was also frightening, terrifying, dangerous, and don't for a minute think, I assumed that I was on a tour that was regulated like any other. Like if I was up at King's Island, I assumed these things were inspected, the people looking at it. I, looking back on it, I'm like, I was climbing straight up ladders. This is 20 feet high here, folks. That's a long way to climb up a straight ladder. And I also want to just reiterate this picture. I don't know if anyone can see it from here. You're on a platform. They said there'd be up to 10 people on this platform. It's only about, it's not very big. And that's the way mine was. I was terrified the entire time. I loved it. I have no problem with zip lines. It's part of introducing people to nature. I'm a huge preservationist. I want to save our pristine areas. This is one of the most pristine areas left in Fayette County, and it's a shame to have this happen here. We have an entire eastern part of our state, which has no future if it's not ecotourism, if it's not protecting wilderness areas, and then building things to reinforce those activities, things that include zip lines in the outlying areas beyond the pristine areas. I just think it's important. I want every one of you to know that this zone chain goes through and anyone is hurt because you need to know your children and your grandchildren will be on a zip line, although I trust that these people have done everything in their power to make it safe. Just remember, we have regulated activities and we have inspections for a reason because eventually someone does not meet them. And when someone falls 20 feet accidentally, as that poor child did, just because the guy didn't clip it correctly, she fell 30 feet. Please close, ma'am. It's a dangerous thing to have happen. It's an accident, and you don't want it happening to your children and grandchildren until there are regulations in place. I'm looking forward to seeing zip lines throughout the state of Kentucky. I'm looking forward to having more wilderness areas. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Webb. So that takes care of the one hour. And what I'd ask at this point, commission members, do you have any questions for Mr. Todd? Yes, sir. I'm asking if the commission members have any questions for you, or we can hold them for later and move on either way. what I would do offer at this point would be to continue citizen comments at this point in time three minutes I would start with anyone that is in favor in support of this application so any any citizens that would like to speak in support of this you would have three minutes please come up and give us your name Hi, I'm Sarah Brown. I don't have a lot of accolades following my name. I'm just a mom. I've lived on Old Richmond Road right in the same area. I'm a neighbor of Burgess Cary. I'm a direct neighbor to Boone Creek Outdoors. I've lived right there for 17 years. I have seen absolutely no impact in traffic, in sound, in all these things that everybody else is saying is happening. I've been on the zip line five times. It is, it's amazing. And I encourage each and every one of you to go out and visit, to bring your kids, to bring people with you, to see how beautiful it is. Because that's hidden. from a lot of people in Fayette County. I didn't know that was back there. I've lived there for 17 years. I am amazed every single time that I am up there how very careful they are with the trees and how the trees are managed and maintained. I've taken two of my children up there. They love it. I've taken my father up there. He is boggled at why anyone would oppose this. It's fun. It's great for youth groups. It's great for your children. You, after two hours on the zip line, yes, two hours, not 30 minutes, after two hours on the zip line, I'm exhausted and I want to go home and take a nap. Because you're not just on this trolley being inactive. You're on the sky bridges. You're on the floating stairs. You're on, it's active. You're not just sitting in a harness. And, yes, you can get injured anywhere. You can get injured walking in your neighborhood. You can get injured at the Red River Gorge. And, yes, there's all kinds of things to do in Fayette County. So, what, we don't need any more? Do we not need to have more things to do, more tourism right here in this one localized area? and it would be so cool to do a Groupon with the corn maze down the road or to do order food from the Gene Ferris and include all these little businesses that are right there in this area and have them come together and be a great community of local businesses that we can attract people from Indianapolis that have their own zip line that would want to come here to view these businesses people from Lexington go to West Virginia. They drive all the way to the gorge. They drive all the way to Indianapolis. Why? When we can have that right here where we live. I really appreciate you guys taking into consideration to have this here. There's no impact at all whatsoever from anything that I have seen at all in the area. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brown. Others, please. Hi there. My name's Jane Snyder Herod. I am a neighbor. My farm is the farm that goes from Burgess's place all the way down to the mouth of Kentucky River. And then we have the 35 acres across the way. We've been farmers for five generations on this land. and we try to talk about this as a pristine area. That is for only those people who don't know what really would be there because the euonymus, the shrub honeysuckle, has completely taken over. In 1948, when the big bridge went in, when my grandfather was there, they used the shrub honeysuckle as erosion control and it's worked its way all the way up Boone's Creek and has taken over. Since the time I was a child and we walked around on the farm looking at wildflowers because my grandmother, my mother, we were all avid wildflower nature lovers. Those wildflowers have been wiped out, completely wiped off the cliff faces. There was running buffalo clover. There was saline rotundifolia, which is the round leaf plant with the beautiful little red flowers. Those things, they've been wiped out by, not by people, by euonymus, by the plants we have brought in thinking we were doing a good job. So those things backfire on us. When you think you're doing a good thing, sometimes it's not what you think it is. And in fact, when you put so many restrictions on people that still are trying to farm, we have cattle, we have hogs, we grow vegetables. We are still trying to farm, but we are not rich thoroughbred owners. We do not farm as a tax break like so many people in this county do, and you know that's very true. We farm to make a living, and there is nothing more detrimental to land than farming. Farming creates more erosion, compaction. We have cattle. Yes, compaction, and our land since I-75 came through and took all of our tillable land from our farm that dropped off to the Boone Creek on our east side and to the west to the Kentucky River. So we had very little tillable ground on our beautiful Kentucky River Boone Creek Palisade Farm, and the interstate got it. We have exit 99 in the front yard. I can walk out 500 feet and look down at 68,000 cars every day going past us. If you think this is pristine, then I'm just not sure what your definitions are. Yes, we have an old remnants of an old mill. We've got smoke house. We've got ice house. We've got all kinds of great historic buildings on the place. But they don't pay the taxes, do they? Ms. Herod, I'm going to have to ask you to close up real quick. I am a huge supporter of Boone Creek Outdoors. Burgess Cary and his wife have been fabulous neighbors. John Park has been a fabulous neighbor. They are folks that do care deeply about the area. I do native preservation for a living. I grow native plants. So I know what I'm looking at, and this is not a pristine area. Thank you, ma'am. Others I'd like to speak in favor. Chair, members of the commission, my name is John Park. I live at 8151 Old Richmond Road, which is the property immediately to the north of the subject property. As many of you may know, I have served as legal counsel for Mr. Carey and Boone Creek Properties previously. I want to speak as a neighbor today and as a friend of Mr. Carey. there's no other property owner that lives closer to this Canopy Tour project than I do. But first I have to say how hard it was to sit there and listen to people attack my friend, to malign his motives, and attack his integrity. That's pretty much what the opposition has sunk to, and our community is better than that. First, I want to say something about the impact. While the Canopy Tour was operating last summer, it had absolutely no impact on me. I could not see it. I could not hear it. There was no increase in traffic, nothing. I know noise has been a concern. It was brought up in the Zoda work group, which I attended multiple meetings. I cannot speak to other properties, Mr. Penn. It very well could be. At this particular location, you can't hear it. It had no impact on my animals. I've bored horses occasionally. And part of that is due to the fact that the tour is in the forest canopy, which naturally muffles it. but really it's more of the fact that we're right next to the interstate. There's constant noise from the interstate, trucks crossing the bridge. We've got a neighbor with a firing range. You hear automatic weapon going off out there. You're not going to be bothered by the zip line. Let me talk about my neighborhood. As Mr. Murphy indicated, this property is not in the old Richmond Road Neighborhood Association territory. It's in the Clay's Ferry Neighborhood Association. There are a lot of fine and distinguished individuals associated with the old Richmond Road Neighborhood Association. And indeed, they have been instrumental in the last 30 years, creating our land use policies that have preserved our rural landscape. That does not give them veto authority over everything that happens in our rural area. They do not represent me, they do not represent my neighbors, and they do not represent my neighborhood. My neighborhood is dominated by two things. That's Interstate 75 and the Kentucky River. We have our own unique challenges and unique problems and unique opportunities. In my opinion, the most appropriate opportunity we have is low-impact, outdoor, nature-based recreation, far less of an impact on the environment than residences and agriculture. Finally, my property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's known as the Cleveland Rogers property. This project has served to increase people's awareness of our history and the importance of the river and the Palisades to our early settlement and development. its use as a water source, as a means of transportation, it does not detract from my property. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Park. Others that would like to speak in favor of this? Yes, ma'am. Hello, my name is Sarah Steele. I am a caretaker and canopy tour guide at Boone Creek Outdoors. I help to maintain the course through frequent inspections and make sure that no one is on the property who isn't meant to be there. A large part of my job is to ensure the safety of our participants through the proper upkeep of lines and platforms, as well as enforcement of necessary safety procedures. Sometimes I am called upon to help the many people who just end up there. For the past year, I have lived at the BCO business location at the top of the hill, which is not an abandoned structure, and I have seen a multitude of people use this spot as a place to pull off the interstate to get directions, deal with car trouble, and even because of health problems. Once, when we were still in operation, a man having a heart attack pulled into our parking lot while his wife dialed 911. She was initially connected to the emergency services in Richmond, which could not locate the couple outside of Madison County. Luckily, we were there to help her get in touch with the response team in Fayette County, saving her husband priceless time and getting help. It is necessary for there to be people at this location willing to direct and assist the people who naturally pool there. Before I was hired as a Canopy tour guide, I was afraid of heights. But after the 80 hours of guide training we received to teach us about proper safety procedures and emergency response scenarios, I found that I had overcome my fear and replaced it with knowledge. As a tour guide, I have seen numerous others conquer their own fears while learning about Kentucky's natural environment from a bird's eye view. I honestly couldn't imagine a better line of work. Our canopy tour is a fun, safe, and exciting experience for tourists and native Kentuckians alike. It also serves to raise awareness about the history and natural landscape of the area. Given knowledge of the land and access to it, many people have already volunteered to help maintain and preserve the natural beauty of Boone Creek. Without their help, winter creeper and other invasive species would slowly but surely strangle the native vegetation. And without the canopy tour, few people would even be aware of the beauty that is hidden in Lexington's own backyard, let alone of the need to preserve it. It seems strange that, under the current zoning restrictions, the land in question could be legally clear-cut for profit. It would be a far better alternative to share this area with others who would help to care for it. I understand that there is fear about how the land will be used if it is rezoned, but that shouldn't keep us from exploring new ways of using the land in a way that actually benefits it. This is a good thing we are doing, and we want to do it in a good way. So let's open a dialogue about how to best regulate ecotourism instead of shutting down the conversation. Let's figure out how to allow business that changes the way people think about the land and their connection to it. Let's move beyond our fears, step off the edge, and fly. Thank you. Thank you. Others that would like to speak? In favor. In favor. Yes, sir? Come forward, sir. I've been a lifelong resident of Fayette County. I think this is a wonderful idea. There's very little way you can get to Boone Creek. And they'll provide access to be able to see it via the canopy tour. They've done lots of things to help clean up the area. Breachman Road clean up, pick up trash along the road and things like that to help beautify Fayette County. all the way down to Kentucky River. We've picked up trash and things like that. I just think it would be a great opportunity for people to see Boone Creek because there's very little access to be able to get to it. Thank you. Your name for the record, sir? James Fennell. Okay, thank you, sir. Anyone else that would like to speak in favor and support of? If not, we'll move to those in opposition. and we may have to be vacating here before too long but who else likes to speak would like to speak raise your hand one two others a few others okay all right thank you let's proceed on yes my name is Carolyn King and I have 79 acres 2470 Grimes Mill Road it runs along Boone Creek and I have a conservation easement with Bluegrass Conservancy and I'm registered with American Tree Farm Association and all of this area is in the rural national historic district like mine and I cut honeysuckle and my place is a wildlife sanctuary. The intentions of the landowners in the Boone Creek area is is conservation and farming, not development and commercialism. I brought, I got this map that shows the green spaces, the farmland, the woodland, and the natural area of Vinn Creek. It demonstrates appreciation for the land in Vinn Creek. I'd say at least 95% of the landowners want to protect Boone Creek from commercial development. Each year, there is more interest in conservation, biodynamic farming, no-till farming, the farmers are cutting their honeysuckle, and there are more conservation easements every year. The direction of the future is towards conservation and preserving. The unique geology with tiring limestone bluffs and the intricate, undisturbed, healthy ecosystem took millions of years to get to where it is today. and it will only get better if we have the courage to protect it the way it is now. It is primordial place. It is inspiring and priceless in its natural state. It only becomes better the longer it's preserved. Boone Creek has its own long-term development plan. It cannot be improved by altering it, developing it, or making it commercial. I ask you to consider the long-term consequences of commercial development in this area. Once commercial development starts, this will just be the beginning. Many others will want to claim the same rights as the first commercial developer. Thank you for hearing my comments, and I ask that you please deny the request based on the facts and information presented to you. Thank you, Ms. King. Yes, sir. Hello, my name is Keith Moorman. I work in Lexington, but I live in Clark County on the creek. not exactly across from the planned project, but adjacent to the property that's exactly across. I'm not opposed to development in rural areas. I think it's certainly something we need to explore. Looking over this proposal, though, it just doesn't seem like it's completely thought out, and that may be because there aren't any standards yet for how to have a development in a rural area. I'll give you a couple examples. My guess is that most of the time when you're hearing presentations, you don't hear a lot of presentation on, well, how would an ambulance get to the property? That's not a problem in downtown Lexington. It's a problem here. And you've heard that the Zipline tours go across Clark County. I can tell you that to get access to the property from Clark County, they would have to come across my property. No one's asked if they can come across it. the road that comes to my property dead ends and you're at least a mile from the site that you'd have to go over country. There's no road there to go through. There's also a locked gate and a fence. So an emergency on the Clark County side, there's no way to access. I don't think the safety plan that's included in your materials even has a number for the Clark County Sheriff. There's no way to get to them. The second concern is that if you have a development in town and there's too much traffic, you make them put up a stoplight. There aren't any stoplights on Old Richmond Road. And Old Richmond Road, despite the name, is not a quiet country road. It's a cut through from the Clays Ferry access into town. Lots of people get off and exit early rather than go to Athens, and then they cut through. People drive 60, 70, 90 miles an hour. If you drive out there, it's saddening how many makeshift memorials there are to people who've been killed on Old Richmond Road. The problem isn't going to be traffic congestion. The problem is going to be with people zipping down Old Richmond Road, not expecting to have cars stopped in the road, turning left or right into this facility, you're going to have accidents. I don't see how you couldn't have them. I think the problem is again, it's a rural area. Should you require turn lane? I don't know. But to just think, well, it's out in the country and this won't be a problem. I believe is naive. And so I'm not opposed to rural development. I think this project right now is not fully fleshed out. And I think for that reason, it should be denied. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Others? Yes, ma'am. Chairman Owens, members of the commission, my name is Julie Goodman. I am a resident of Fayette County. I live at 4998 8th and Spoonsboro Road. I am here speaking only for myself, but I am here to tell you that while I do not oppose the AN request, I do oppose the conditional use permit. The reason I oppose the permit is I feel very strongly that the laws and the zoning ordinance and our statutes should be followed. It is clear that we have non-conforming property here. The land itself is only 20 acres. AN and AR both require 40 acres for this type of development. We don't have that here. We also have a situation where the property as it now exists and some of the items that the conditional use permit asked be allowed to remain are presently non-conforming. Most importantly, in 2000, the applicant got the right to have an angler's club, and in that he agreed that he would take down a building. a building that was at that time 2000 non-conforming. It is still, as of today, non-conforming, and he was told and agreed that in 2000 he would tear it down. He is in violation of that conditional use permit, and the zoning ordinance make it very clear that you can't ask and incorporate a present conditional use or try to amend one where there are violations. It is also very clear, because I attended both the hearing in 2011 and the hearing today that what the applicant is asking for is the same zip line that he asked for in 2011 in which the Board of Adjustment denied. You can look at the development plan now. You can see that the tree structures, the places where he's put the zip line up already are the same places that were in 2011. The Board of Adjustment found that it was not appropriate to do it then. Not only did the Board of Adjustment deny that development plan, but the Fayette County Court upheld that and found that it had followed the law and then issued a cease and desist order. In fact, to quote Judge Ismail's order of September 24th, he said that the Boone Creek properties shall cease operating zip lines and canopy tours on the property and shall comply with the 2,000 conditional use permit on the property. The 2,000 conditional use permit required that that building come down. the building that is on the 300-foot area right in the front on Old Richmond Road. To this day, that building is still there. I feel very strongly that until he complies with the 2000 conditional use, complies with the cease and desist order, and complies with it, as Judge Ishmael said, that nothing has changed. The conditions are all the same as they were in 2011 and in 2013 when Judge Ishmael ruled. The question I would ask is, why are we even here when there are no new conditions or anything that would justify changing the same decisions as those entities made? For that reason, I would ask at this time that you deny the conditional use permit. Thank you. Thank you. Others? Come on. Hi, my name is Melissa King, and I live out 8th and Spoonsboro Road. I'd like to enter this information into the official record. The topic I'm talking today is there's not enough parking spaces are shown on the development plan in order to accommodate all the activities and uses being requested. On the letter submitted and the preliminary development plan submitted by Boone Creek and the attorney's development plan, they have all these activities and multiple uses requested. Lodging, campgrounds, Sportman's Farm, riding stables, private clubs, zip line. Some of the additional activities and uses listed on the property since 2000 by the applicant's attorney are marked on the accompanying sheet, some of which including not limited to fishing, hiking, mountain biking, yoga. In the zoning ordinance, it states in A-3N and off-street parking, combinations, combined uses shall provide parking equal to the sum of the individual requirements. In this case, we don't know all what is really going to be going on here. There are so many activities listed and requested that you'd have no idea how many are really needed. But one thing is for certain, given everything that's requested, it's more than what's shown on the plan. So I request that this be denied based upon these additional facts presented. Thank you, Ms. King. Others? Yes, sir. Hello, my name is Graham Wilson. I live in Lexington, and I'm here as a concerned citizen and a business owner. The request is in violation of the Article 26 of the Zoning Ordinance for not filing a tree inventory map, a tree protection plan, or designating a tree protection area prior to construction. And I have been asked to kind of hurry this along. So the zoning ordinance says that for any conditional use request for an AN zone, the board must find that adequate safeguards will be in place to ensure the least negative impact on the land. there has already been a negative impact on the land since the applicant went ahead with the construction of the zip lines and cutting the trees before ever filing the required safeguards. Article 26 of the zoning ordinance says shall, and it does not say if you want to, when filing a preliminary development plan. And in this case, the applicant built a year before filing. The only recourse the Board has at this point is stated in Article 26-12 penalties. Each act or each healthy tree removed or damaged except as described in the approved tree protection plan shall constitute a separate violation. Again, as I said, there was no tree inventory map was filed with the application or development plan as required. You cannot use the 2000 plan as the TMI because Article 26 was not in place and could not pertain to the pertinent 2003 required information. Trees grow a lot in that number of years. Okay, can we put those slides up? Let's go back. Well, we can go out of that one. As you can see here on the photo on the left, ropes have been fastened to the trees in the riparian buffer area along the creek. In the upper right hand corner you'll see a bobcat style equipment in the trees on steep slopes installing zip lines. In the lower picture you'll see numerous trees that have been cut in order to install canopy tour line in the facility. one. Okay, on the left there you'll see the canopy. On the right you'll see, again, you'll see tree stumps, trees that have been cut down, trees and understory cut in order to install the canopy. The next one. Note the date. This is March 30th, 2013. These photographs were taken 40 days after the LFUCG zoning enforcement had sent Boone Creek a letter informing of the violations on their property. Next one, please. Here, steps have been cut into a highly erodible hillside and through tree roots as part of the canopy tour. Critical root zone and surrounding a tree, one foot per inch of the radial measurement is not to be disturbed, especially on a steep slope. And note the date again is March the 30th. And the next one would show the staff had said in their previous presentation earlier that the zip lines and tree platforms needed for the proposed canopy tours have already been installed with minimum environmental impact. here you'll see on the left hand side that you'll have posts and screws, bolts that are directly into the tree these photographs were posted on the Boone Creek showing their progress and types of construction that was being used and with that I would thank you very much for your time and would ask that you do oppose this situation. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yes, sir. John. My name is John Larson. I live at 783 Robin Road, and I hope you've made up your mind by now because I have something totally different to tell you, and it's going to sound like I'm in support of this. I am your elected judge executive. I have control over the county and rural secondary roads or the funds that go to those. And I'm part of other county groups, elected officials and their representatives I meet with. And one of these is the Boogeras Area Development District, to which I'm a part of or an officer of the Tourism Committee. About a year ago, I had an opportunity to go to this particular property. was greeted for the first time I'd never met him before by Burgess Carey. I met in the former restaurant. I rode the zip line. I walked along the non-trespassing area of Boone Creek and the fishing camp, and I'm totally impressed. I'm personally aware of the local history of that fishing camp. sometime I'll tell you about the connection to the Bougarrest conspiracy that occurred in that location. I'm also a member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and we have concerns for the plans in this area and other areas of Fayette County and the region for growth. I'm also on the I-75 Nicholasville Bypass Corridor Committee and I want you to understand if you followed that issue that on my motion we've done away with the zone for Marble Creek, which is a similarly beautiful location. I was on the Green Space Commission with a number of people here. They were worried about the annexation problems. I was on the Environmental Commission. I was lucky enough to stop or have something to do with stopping a landfill that was put into McConnell Springs. I contacted Donald Todd, among others. I'm now a candidate for council at large, and I think the most important issue for me to express to you is regional planning. And I think that has impact in this particular situation. We've outgrown our city. city limits as in particular our southern border we put the urban service area without a rural protection at the jessamine county line i could go through any number of things that are happening from the proposed conveyor belt across the river to bike paths that should be and could be connected to other counties. But I believe in ecotourism. We cannot send a message that we dislike tourism. We can't send a message that we keep our areas for the few who live there. Mr. Morrison, I'm going to have to ask you to wrap up. Okay. Well, my point is that, by the way, I got sick on the zip line. but I believe that it's necessary for you to reach out to other counties and this time it's important that we reach out to other counties there's always been expressed that they don't want to join with us I heard miss mayors tell you that her problem was with Clark County don't go ahead with this until we reach out to other counties in this particular time put it on a fast track make sure these wonderful businesses go through, but make sure we do it on a regional basis. We're bigger than that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Morrison. Yes, ma'am. Hello. My name is Mary Diane Hanna, 6398 Old Richmond Road. I'm not against zip lines, but what I oppose is dealing with someone who flagrantly goes against the law time and time again over many years. If this request were for a gas station or strip club, those people who are so passionately in favor of it would perhaps not be so passionate about it. It's the same. All commercial ventures on a rural piece of land, they are all commercial ventures on a rural piece of land, but they're not allowed in the ag zone. The AN zone was designed to give even more stringent protection to the rural land. I have a question, if I may, to address to Burgess Carey and John Park. Please address your questions to us. We'll try and get an answer for you. Could you please ask them, because I have it on good faith, that there are parts of the zip line or structures supporting the zip line on John Park's property, which is a PDR-protected property. I've received this from a reliable source, and it is part of the course that BCO has put, they have put part of the structures in place on John Park's land and I would like for you to please ask them under oath if this is in fact true. I don't know where the sheds and the barns and the sand arena are on the development plan but those are little things that have been tucked in to different things along with the hiking, the biking, the canopy tour, the anglers club, and so forth. I want you to know, ladies and gentlemen, that the uses that he adds are continuing to be added in various portions and parts of the plan. And what they ask for today is not necessarily what will ensue in the end result. Please be very careful in what you choose today because it will affect the community, the rural area, and set a precedent for planning and zoning forever. Please deny this request, and I do implore you to please find out if part of the structures are off of his particular acres and on John Park's acreage. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Hannah. We will get to that question or to that answer. Others that would like to speak in opposition of this? I see none. We're at the point where we've got, Mr. King, 10 to 15 minutes to wrap up. Mr. Chairman, of course, you have rebuttal. Yes, sir. By each side and then commissions, deliberations. We probably have 10 minutes. and before we will need to vacate this area as the council meeting begins at six unfortunately i think we're going to run out of time here in this chambers to finish for this we do have the third floor set up in the phoenix building to finish this i hate to do that i was hoping we could get finished but I think this would be an appropriate time to take a break and just move to the other building it's the third floor and the Phoenix building the entrance is on the corner of South Limestone and Vine Street so do we need a motion for recess yes Mr. Chairman I think again you have announced where the hearing will continue but to have a probably I would guess 30 minutes or so. Yes, sir. To tear down and move. We'll resume at 6 o'clock. Okay. Thank you.