The I'm out. The End I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Would like to get started please take your seats council members Good afternoon. Before we have our usual work session, we will have a special meeting of the Council for the first reading of the fiscal year 17 budget, and the first item on that agenda is for the Clerk to call the roll, please. Yes, sir. Mr. Farmer? Mr. Kay? Here. Mr. Stinnett? Ms. Henson? Here. Ms. Akers? Here. Ms. Massadi? Here. Ms. Gutchfield? Here. Mr. Maloney? Yes, ma'am. Ms. Bledsoe? Yes. Mr. Gibbs? Here. Ms. Lamb? Here. Ms. Evans? Here. Mr. Fred Brown? Here. Mr. James Brown? Here. And Mr. Hensley? Thank you. I think Council was a little confused because the order was not alphabetical. so they didn't. Everyone's here, but they weren't in alphabetical order. Thank you. Thank you. That allows us to move to the first reading of the ordinance. Madam Clerk, if you would. Ordinance number one, an ordinance appropriating the revenues, expenditures, expenses, and interfund transfers for the General Services District Fund, the Tenant Relocation Fund, the Full Urban Services Districts Fund, the Police-Confiscated Federal Fund, the Police-Confiscated State Fund, the Public Safety Fund, the Municipal Aid Program Fund, the County Aid Program Fund, the Mineral Severance Fund, the Coal Severance Fund, the Miscellaneous Special Revenue Fund, the Police-Confiscated Treasury Fund, the Lexington Jobs Fund, the Affordable Housing and Homelessness Fund, the Fiscal Year 2017 Bond Projects Fund, the Sanitary Sewer Revenue and Operating Fund, the Sanitary Sewer Construction Fund, the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Public Facilities Corporation General Fund, the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Public Facilities Corporation Parks Projects Fund, the Water Quality Management Fund, the Water Quality Management Construction Fund, the Landfill Fund, the Right-of-Way Program Fund, the Extended School Program Fund, the Prisoner's Account Fund, the Enhanced 911 Fund, the Central Kentucky 911 Fund, the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Public Library Corporation Fund, the City Employees Pension Fund, the Police and Fire Retirement Fund of the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, the Medical Insurance Fund, the Property and Casualty Claims Fund, and the reallocation of bond project funds on a divisional level by four control levels for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, for the Lexington Fayette-Irving County Government and its agencies and instrumentalities, approving and adopting the Capital Improvement Program for fiscal years 2017 through 2022 as a portion of the fiscal year 2017 annual capital improvements budget and approving funding for the Lexington Fayette-Irving County Tourist and Convention Commission from the transient room tax, said funding to equal 99.5% of the revenue from the tax. Thank you. That allows us to move to the next item, which is announcements from Council members. Seeing no one signed up, that allows us to move to public comment. Is there anybody here who is here to comment on the budget? seeing none I believe I can recognize someone for a motion to adjourn Vice Mayor I believe we do have some people signed up I'm sorry I'm sorry are there people signed up are they on the budget I believe so yes for work session I have a fairly long list. I'd like to ask if one or more of the people who've signed up are here to comment on the budget before we go to work session. If you would come forward. Just for our information, there were two groups there. One of them is your LFUCG comp group that had also signed up ahead of us, the sports conference group. I believe the other people who signed up are signed up to speak before the work session. Is that correct? So if you're here to speak on the budget, if you'd give your name and address. So you can go in whatever order you would like. If there's two of you. I can't sort out who's on here for which. Yeah, if you'd come to the microphone. Thank you. and give your name, if you're here to speak on the budget, give your name and address, and you'll have, according to our usual rules, three minutes. I'm Tom Creech, and I live at 4100 Herald-Record, and I'd like to pass these around. I guess the clock is ticking. I opted to go first because I'm, I guess, the senior person here, and I kind of want to give you a description of Wellesley Heights or the park system out there. I built my house in 1983 and approximately 10 years after that the land that is the park was supposed to be one acre tracks of land just like we have in Wellesley Heights and there was a developer that came in and wanted to put five houses per acre and like a 500 house development in there we along with Calumet were able to defeat that At that time, the land did belong to Kentucky River Coal, and they nicely donated the property to the city for a park for the people. There were 30-something people from all the neighborhoods in the area, Cardinal Valley, Garden Springs, Garden Side. they were all able to have input as to what the park would be and this is a drawing of what it was. There is two things that would change in that. There is a building that was an indoor swimming center and at the time that once the YMCA built the unit over at Beaumont they scratched that off which was fine. There was also an area of about 15 acres, if my memory is right, for Lexington Catholic High School to build a football stadium. They opted that they would rather build a new one at their school, and they did so, and they sold that property then to the city. So with that said, there was discussion of the soccer fields that you see moving up to where the football thing was going to be for the Catholic school, and then they were going to put, I think, a Frisbee golf thing in that other area. I'm not sure what they were going to do with the swimming pool area, but that's kind of the way it was then. This park was a lot of people put a lot of time in. We were told at that time that there was no money to do it, and, of course, the economy went a little rough, and we understood that. It was fine to stay the way it was. But anyway, it was the park that was promised to us, and this was during Pam Miller's, so it's a long time ago, like nearly 20 years. So anyway, we're kind of thrilled to see that you all are going to put $7 million in the budget. We'd just like to see this kind of park for all the people instead of a commercial development, you know, that you're also getting ready to donate. They say it's $25 million, but the property's valued nearly $6 million, so it makes it more like a $31 million thing for a commercial development, and that's not really what we want. so all the subdivisions we would prefer to have a park like this Mr. Creech, I'm sorry can you right up here I need to ask you to conclude, your time is up okay well then I'll conclude, there is an arboretum in there and I'm the guy that makes compost here in town, I would be very willing to donate the compost to go in there would spread it and till it and I will make a $50,000 donation personally if this park goes in Thank you. And I think I now have the order on this sheet. Let's see if the next person who wants to speak on the budget, is that Trig Bowman? Again, if you'd give us your name and address. I think it looks pretty good. And you have three minutes. I'm Trig Bowman. I'm with West Gardenside Neighborhood Association. And I have a little letter here, a small letter that I just want to read from one of our members on Parker's Mill Road, because this is going to affect Parker's Mill Road. Living on Parker's Mill Road for 50 years, I have had my chances. The change is not all of them good. With shock, what shocks me the most of all is how the residents are ignored when changes involve all of us. Prior to the opening of Manowar, traffic on Parker's Mill Road was of no concern, but now the number of cars and the speed is unbelievable. Just recently, my mailbox was shattered, sending brick two lanes and lawns down the street. During peak hours, the traffic is bumper to bumper from Williamsburg Road to Vercels Road, making it impossible to exit our driveways. What is also disappointing is we attend a meeting that involves our neighborhood, voice our concern, then nothing happens. So our opinion is ignored once again. In 1966, we purchased our home at the rural setting that appealed to us as we were reared in a rural community. Time has really changed all of that. But there is still home, and this is still home. Thanks. Yeah, Julia, it is. We must not forget that our residents do matter, and we must keep in mind that massive changes in a quiet area is not always the best solution. Give a moment to think. If this happened in your neighborhood, would you vote yay or nay? Parker's Mill is the last barrier before serious horse farm country begins. Parker's Mill Road is the last barrier before the rural meandering road for sightseeing is now used as a cut-through from downtown and expanded area around it. It's like Beaumont, Palomar, Dunbar High School. And then after the opening of Man of War, that really pumped up our body. There are several reasons why the whole Parker's Mill Cardinal Run Park new sports complex should not be in this location. Number one, I find it shocking that anyone, especially our government, would even consider a complex with 20 sports fields of whatever type across from the prestigious Calumet farm. Ms. Bowman, I need to ask you also to wrap up. Your time is up. Okay. Well, basically, a major portion, and the major reason is Cardinal Run is in a historic scenic corridor of rural and upscale acreage. and like, you know, it's like Millbrun Farm and Calumet, plus the James Lane Allen residence on Lane Allen Road and other historical properties in the area. And then there's the ambiance of Kingland, you know. So this is just not appropriate, but okay, I'll skip over everything else. Do one more little paragraph, okay? The land was originally supposed to be farming, and the soil and the drainage characteristics are karst and very volatile. Are you reading another section or another sentence? Yes. I'm sorry. All right. But in any case, I'll turn this in, and I would appreciate it if everybody would get a copy of it and read it, because it tells you about the water problems that are in that area and the sinkholes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Thank you very much. Do I give this to somebody here? If you give it, yes. Do you see it? Staff will take it and make sure we get copies. Thank you. Next would be Mr. Paul Natoff. Hi, I'm Paul Natoff. I live at Wellesley Heights. I'll take about three minutes and 15 seconds, if that's okay. Along with my neighbors, I'm here to urge you to remove the $7 million for the proposed sports complex from the city's budget. I live in the Wellesley Heights subdivision, which is directly adjacent the 135-acre site of the proposed sports complex. While several houses in our neighborhood share a property line with the adjacent site, I personally live a stone's throw away, which is about four houses, on a good day. In addition to the other issues that have been written about and that have been and will be discussed here today, the noise and light produced by the sports complex is an issue I would like to discuss. us. Our neighborhood board was fortunate to be able to meet with Brian Miller, the president and CEO of the Bluegrass Sports Commission. During the meeting, Mr. Miller informed us that there would be about 21 fields on the site, and he discussed how often the fields would be used. We were told that on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, the fields would be used by sports teams of local schools for practice. On Thursdays, the fields would be getting set up for tournaments, and on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, the fields would be used to host tournaments and would include the use of a PA system and lights. The fields will be used for about seven months each year. That is, for several hours each day, six days a week, and seven months a year, there would be about 21 sports fields being used right in our backyard. That's a lot of noise. While we do live quite close to the airport, the infrequent noise we hear from helicopters and small airplanes pales in comparison to the near-constant conversation-stopping noise that will be generated from the sports complex. Such noisy conditions will make it impossible to enjoy a quiet afternoon in our own backyards. Luckily for us, the Kentucky legislature has written laws to protect its citizens from such noise. For example, KRS Title 18, Chapter 224, 30, 105 defines noise as the intensity, frequency, duration, and character of sounds from source or number of sources. The noise produced from the proposed sports complex would be unpredictable by nature, very loud, would occur seven months a year, six days per week, and would last for hours each day. I think you would agree that this qualifies as noise as defined by the statute. Additionally, KRS Title 18, Chapter 224.30, Subsection 100, states that each person has a right to an environment free from noise that jeopardizes his health or welfare or degrades the quality of life or lowers property value, and that it is the policy of the state to promote an environment for all people free from noise that jeopardizes their health or welfare or degrades the quality of life. At our meeting with Mr. Miller, he told us that studies have shown that living near such a sports complex would actually increase our property value. According to readily available research, and I'm sure you would agree, the construction of such a sports complex would significantly decrease our property values and would thus be in violation of these statutes. Mr. Natoff, I need to also remind you, your time is up. Can you just wrap up? I will wrap up. There are also public and private nuisance laws that protect us. The Bluegrass Sports Commission has failed to demonstrate how they plan to mitigate the noise and light that the sports complex would produce. Do they plan to build a wall? Who is going to pay for the wall? Would such a wall even be effective against noise and light to preserve our quality of life in accordance with the relevant laws? I'm asking each of you, council members, that in addition to the Kentucky laws protecting us from noise, light, and nuisance, that you too protect us, the citizens of Lexington, from noise, light, and nuisance by removing the $7 million for the proposed sports complex from the city's budget. Please do not enable the Bluegrass Sports Commission to pave our paradise and put up a noisy parking lot. Thank you. Thank you. Next would be Marty Weeks. Again, if you'd give us your name and address, and you'd have three minutes. Good afternoon. Marty Weeks here, and Council Members, Vice Mayor Kaye. Thank you for your time. I have spent half of my life as a Lexington resident and almost a decade in Wellesley Heights. I am very familiar with sports complexes across Kentucky, as my son has played baseball almost all year round for nine years. I and my family love sports and love healthy activities. And my graduate degree is in recreation and park administration, with an emphasis in programming for facilities and events. I feel very qualified to speak on this matter of the sports complex, and I ask that you put a hold to the allocation of funds to the Bluegrass Sports Commission sports complex project, and here are some reasons why. In the immediate area, we have Calumet Farm right across the road from one side of the proposed sports complex. Calumet is arguably one of the most iconic horse farms in the world, breeding many thoroughbreds, eight Kentucky Derby winners, two Triple Crown winners, eight Preakness Steak winners, and 11 horses in the National Museum of Horse Racing. The farm and horse land is the gateway of Lexington. The state is known as the Bluegrass State and four horses. So why would we want to add a sports complex immediately across from Calumet? Environmentally, the change of topography of the land, I might add, this is my second degree, could have disastrous results in the runoff of chemicals and runoff of petroleum-based turf products leaching into the groundwater. The natural drainage that exists through the karst limestones and sinkholes is an important factor to look at. In building sports complexes, studies have been conducted in the past that show how water and drainage would be highly affected. In times of heavy rain, with the turf being laid and the natural drainage system being altered, flooding can occur and leaching of chemicals into the groundwater is of great concern. The danger to the immediate area would be potential contamination to the bluegrass and these prize-winning horses, the bluegrass that they graze on. Other environmental factors are light and pollution and noise pollution. Have the questions been asked how this may affect brooding mares and foals? Has it been questioned as to the loud PA systems that will disrupt the balance of these horses and their lives? What if the noise is so loud that one of these foals is startled and it runs through a fence, having to be put down at great expense? I have other environmental concerns as well. This is home to many protected species, some of which may be endangered, namely bats. The ecosystem is inhabited by deer, coyote, piloted woodpeckers, great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, bats, and the list goes on. It would be prudent to do a study of the land. I'm sorry, but I'd ask you to wrap up as well. Your time is up. Yes, sir. With these factors, cost of tree removal, erosion control, I would like to see that a hold to the fund is made on this project until a more suitable land can be found for this project. I don't disagree with the project. I disagree with the area. Thank you very much. Thank you. And next would be David Stone. I'm David Stone. I'm a member of Wellesley Heights Neighborhood Association, and I live at 1580 Wellesley Drive. And I'm a native Lexingtonian. It's been here a long time. And first, I want to thank you all for your commitment of time and effort that you put into making Lexington a better place for all of its residents. Today, I'm here in that same spirit. I urge you not to support the proposed location for the sports complex. As you know, Wellesley Heights is located adjacent to the post 135-acre site that is sandwiched between Vercels Road and Parker's Mill Road. Today, I have several concerns that I'd like for you to consider before making the decision of this matter. The sports complex is going to cost the taxpayers approximately $18 million. There will be little benefit to the majority of the citizens of Lexington. I understand that the public-private nature of this arrangement and those types of projects, when they benefit all, they make sense because there's a win-win for everybody. And I support projects like this. However, again, the facility will not be used by the majority of Lexington citizens. This particular project leaves many unanswered questions and should be thoroughly vetted. What happens when the project's experience cost overruns? Who will be responsible for an annual deficit, such one as the one that we see in Owensboro? Who will it be, the taxpayer's responsibility to absorb those losses? When the economic impact study was developed for this project, did it consider competition from the other sports complex in the state? We have Owensboro, Northern Kentucky complex. Now we're going to have one in Lexington. We have one on the borders of Tennessee. Every new complex is diluting the masses. So there's going to be less revenue, less teams going to these places. So everybody will be in competition for them. My second concern is the proposed location of the sports complex, which is very closely in proximity to our neighborhood. The sports complex, as you heard, will be utilized six days a week, at least seven months out of the year. The weekend tournaments are particularly concerning to us. As they start early in the morning, they go late into the evening, and even into the wee hours of the next morning. I have personal experiences with this, with these complexes. My daughter has participated in softball games in Owensboro. That's lasted until 2 o'clock in the morning when the fog rose in. And so you have all this noise going on. The sports complex will be subjecting many residents in the neighborhood to all that noise, light pollution. the sports complex should not be located in a neighborhood area, but rather in a commercial setting closer to the interstate highways. Mr. Stone, I need to ask you to wrap up as well. Okay. All right. I'd like to conclude by thanking you for your time and attention. And, Peggy, your newsletters are great. You keep us all informed, and I wish everybody else would do that. But anyway, I just would ask you not to support the sports complex in this location. I, too, like sports complexes. But if we could have them more in a location where Athens Ballpark is located, that's an ideal location. Thank you. Thank you. I believe the next is, I can't read the first name. Mr. Trapp? Mrs. Trapp. Welcome. Vice Mayor, Council, many faces here today look familiar. Good to see you. Some names sound familiar. Thank you very much for your service. It is the 3 o'clock hour on Tuesday afternoon, and I have other colleagues and neighbors who are at work. I do have written remarks, but I would ask if I may have five minutes of your time today to share three main points rather than just three so that I can make sure I'm speaking on behalf of other people who cannot attend. Do I hear a motion to extend an extra two minutes? Thank you very much. I'm sorry. Is there a second? I have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. My professional background has been in fundraising. I actually have been an executive director of a 501c3, so I'm very familiar with the traditional sense of collecting funds, asking for money, and then stewarding other people's donations to try to do good for a community like the Bluegrass Sports Commission is trying to do. I love sports. I'm not very athletic, but I appreciate people who are. Along with that said, though, as I look at the traditional sense of what fundraising 501c3s do, I'm a little concerned about the funding structure for where this money is coming from. It is a tremendous project. It is a massive undertaking. When we look, number one, at the park structures here in Lexington, our largest park is Jacobson Park with 216 acres. This will now be the second largest park that Lexington is building, if you can call it a park. I'll go back to my written remarks because I'm kind of talking off of them. But with that said, I really want to pull the focus back and slow this process down. All of us first learned about the Bluegrass Sports Commission Youth Sports Complex 89 days ago at your March 15th meeting. We heard a little bit about it. We had a quick meeting. But it almost appears like we're trying to steal second base, slide this into the budget, and then all of a sudden say, go bonding. It hasn't had the public input and the process that normally goes along with spending 80% of the city's and taxpayers' dollars and assets to make sure that it is the best use of taxpayer dollars and land. Today, I would like to ask you, as a council, because a project of this size and a park of this many acres will bring in people from every district. It's not just District 12. It's every citizen who wants to participate and go to a park that we're saying is supposed to be a park, but it's a youth sports complex. When we look at these current plans, there are two playgrounds. One is a toddler playground. One is not even larger than the playground at my son's school that we just did our own private fundraising to increase it. It has two miles of trail lines out of 135 acres. Even Veterans Park has 3.65 trail miles for public use. It has one amphitheater, and the reason that an amphitheater is designed there is because it's over a sinkhole. That in acreage doesn't even equate to enough for spending $20 million and bonding it now. I am not opposed to this in any form or fashion. I know you're shaking your head. I would like to see this $7 million bond be pulled from this year's budget. Take a year, plan it out, get the due diligence put into place and the questions answered so that we know that it is the best use of this parcel of land and it's the best use of our tax dollars, all in all, for Lexington to make it a better place. I think I have one more thing that I do want to say. Oh, I have two more things that I need to say with my extra two minutes. I wholeheartedly, because I drive it every day, up and down Parkersmo Road, know that the primary access point is going to be across from the Cardinal Hill area. Right now, it's my understanding that that is a Department of Transportation road and that they do not have any funding put into place for that. Safety, because I'm the daughter of a fire captain and I've grown up around emergency response, is very important to me. We are bringing kids in busloads on roads that are already narrow with cyclists, and I would like to, again, slow the process down and have more conversations with the Department of Transportation and the city to properly expand that from a two-lane road to a four-lane road. If we are going to build a first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art, sports youth complex, then the road getting us there needs to be a state-of-the-art road, not a hilly-rolly, bringing people out of town, driving along, oops, distracted driving, off into a fence. That road is lined with, it's a narrow road. It is not the safest road for bringing out-of-town people in to travel to get to a destination. And that is a number one concern because you wouldn't want something drastic to happen with a bus full of kids getting ready to head into a sports tournament. I think that as a council, I truly support all that you do and the time and commitment that you have to the city of Lexington. But I really wish that you would please remove this $7 million from this initial bond year. Put it in next year. Take the time to properly vet this project now so that it doesn't get hiccuped along the way. Thank you all very, very much for all that you do and for taking our points into consideration as a collective group today. Thank you. I believe the next person would be Joshua Hicks. Thank you. Council members and Vice Mayor Kay, my name is Joshua Hicks. A couple of weeks ago I came up and spoke about this issue. It was probably the first time many of you had seen me. My friends have already spoken at length about specific issues that they have and questions about this project, questions of where it is and questions of how it's going to operate, questions about the environmental concerns, the economic concerns, noise and light pollution concerns, and traffic or safety concerns. They asked a number of questions that I think are pertinent and frankly needed to be answered long before $7 million got appropriated to go in this budget. But I'm not going to cover those same topics. I don't want to talk about the location. I don't want to talk about a different use. I'm just going to ask you a question about this specific project. To whose benefit and at whose detriment? So those that reap the benefit in this project are very clear. We saw it in the Lexington Herald Leader's article from June 10th. Hotel and restaurant ownership will allegedly see $23 million in a revenue boost. That benefit, as we know it, is free. There's no special tax imposed on these hotels and restaurants. that would pay back the bond service on the $18.75 million worth of debt the city is ready to incur. There's no provision to pay back the value of the $6 million piece of property that the city is ready to give away for $1 a year at 99 years. Those who bear the detriment are also clear. The taxpayer of the city of Lexington will bear the bond service debt on that $18.75 million. Citizens, including historic Calumet Farm, will be negatively impacted by all of those things that my neighbors just told you about. The environmental concerns, the light concerns, the noise concerns, the traffic concerns. Cities with existing sports complexes similar to this will also be negatively impacted. This $23 million is not going to be created out of thin air. It's going to be a shift in current spending at hotels and restaurants in cities like Elizabethtown and Owensboro who already have existing facilities. I believe that Lexington dollars and Lexington property should be used for Lexington citizens and in the spirit of Lexington, not for private businesses in the spirit of competition and profit. All of us want a solution more suitable to this area, this gateway to the city that's used to benefit to our citizens, our city government, and the thriving thoroughbred community that has been here for 92 years. Let's call this what it is because it's not a park and it's not a sports complex. It's bait. It's bait to attract out-of-towners to come to our city and spend money at hotels and restaurants. And we want to bait this hook on the backs of the taxpayers and the citizens of Lexington who will bear the brunt of the detriment. The risk of the failed part, the hook, that's going to go directly in the mouths of our taxpayers and citizens. That's not going to be borne by the people who want to build this. This is a project that denies the original wishes of the donor of this parcel of land and turns what is currently a green space into a concrete parking lot full of artificial fields, halogen lights, loudspeakers, and hot dog stands. Ask yourselves this question. At whose detriment and for whose benefit? Because if you can answer that truthfully, you'll remove this $7 million. Thank you. Thank you. I believe that's everybody who signed up to speak on that particular issue. Are you here to speak on that issue? I am. Have you? We did time. Name and address, please. Yeah. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Brian Miller, Presidency of the Bluegrass Sports Commission. A couple of my colleagues are here today. Our Chairman of the Board, Brooks Downing, who signed up. Alan Stein, our past Chair and Representative of Commerce Lexington, Kenny Jackson. And Rick Ford, David Bertram, and others. You know, this has been a long process, and we knew that the Wellesley Heights neighborhood was one that we would need to address and have had a couple meetings and certainly will continue to work with Wellesley Heights to address their concerns. This is a real opportunity and a big opportunity for the city of Lexington. You know, whether you call it bait, I mean, also here today is Mary Quinn Raymer of Visit Lexington. And this is a big opportunity for us to capitalize on sports tourism and bring people into our wonderful city to showcase what we have to offer, bring families in and impact and make a difference. The economic impact study was $23 million a year. Very real. Hearing the concerns and seeing the old design of what was talked about, I'm certain there could be a compromise and we can work with what that design looks like. I mean, what's being referenced as far as the number of playgrounds is still very much up in the air to be worked out and discussed. You know, traffic, we know that's an issue. Steve Cummings is here. He's handling our traffic study, and we're evaluating and discussing that. This $7 million, as we all know, is a placeholder in the budget to be able to have conversations and answer questions and be able to come to the table with the city on a memorandum of understanding. This $7 million allows us to secure our financing, almost a dollar-for-dollar match, to begin this process and have very real conversations on what is this giant opportunity. The noise is something that we have discussed and will continue to discuss. The lights, there's opportunities and folks that we will study and look at. So I'm certain that working with Wellesley Heights, we'll be able to address some of the concerns. Will they like it? Absolutely not. I mean, wherever this project is, you will have NIMBY neighbors. And this is a great opportunity. It's a great piece of land. It fits into the economic plan. We've worked with Commerce Lexington. We're working with Visit Lex. We're working with Fayette County Public Schools. We're certainly working with Wellesley Heights. And as a board, this has not been a quick effort. I mean, this land is currently under contract with LISA. There could be soccer fields today, given the agreement that the city has with LISA. I think this plan is much nicer, much more viable, makes a lot more sense for our community, and appreciate the time. Thank you. Mr. Downing or Mr. Jackson? Mr. Downing? Vice Mayor Kaye, distinguished members of council, thank you for your time. I'm a ninth-generation Lexingtonian as well. I live at 776 Andover Village Drive, but grew up across from the Kentucky Horse Park well before the Kentucky Horse Park was there. Saw I-75 come in on the south side of our farm, seen the horse park come in. Now we'll be welcoming the new cattle sales across the interstate. So things happen, things grow, and as a neighbor of various things of that nature, I totally am sympathetic to the concerns of our neighbors here to this property. Just to give you a little background, my career has been in sports in this area, Kentucky High School Athletic Association, UK Athletics. Now I have my own private business at BD Global, and we run events all over the country. I've served on this sports commission since the days of Teresa Isaac's administration, the last five years as chairman. It was in the last five to ten years that my daughter started playing club soccer. And we've traveled all over this region. Brentwood, Tennessee, Columbus, Ohio, Atlanta, Georgia, you name it. If there's a flat field, we play soccer on it. We've seen wonderful facilities like E-Town, like Brentwood, other places that are in high residential communities that have welcomed it and understood the value that a piece of property like this and a mission like this generates, we simply asked the question, can we positively impact our community with a facility of this nature? So we began discussions with key constituents here in the marketplace. We talked to Fayette County Public Schools that cannot offer enough of its middle school programs and even high school programs to our own children here in Lexington because the space and the fill space and the area is not available. The time on those spots are not available. So there was quick interest from Fayette County Public Schools to be a tenant and be involved. We talked to LISA, which, as Brian indicated, holds the lease currently and can build soccer fields tomorrow on that property and needs our help in developing a property of this structure. Currently, the LFC, the Select Club, which has 700 of our kids playing in it, practices in backyards, church facilities, and any piece of mowed grass that they can find, because the space at Masterson cannot even adequately be rested, much less utilized for all the emphasis that we have on that sport. The growing sport of lacrosse. You have baseball and softball in this community, and we run so many games through this area. on a daily and summer basis. The space is needed. The park is needed. It will have an impact economically, without question. And it will go far beyond the walls of the hotels and the restaurants. If I could get away with the hotel and restaurant bills when we travel, that would be great. But it's all the other dollars we spend in the community, too, while we're visiting these other locations. And we hope to bring those, too. Yes, sir. I'll wrap up. Wrap up. And so we hope to bring those dollars into the community. So I think you'll find that this serves two primary purposes. It's going to help our children in central Kentucky, and it's going to help as an economic driver for central Kentucky. And we will make the commitment to the neighbors to work with them to get this to a satisfactory position, as difficult as that may sound. But we will make that commitment, and we look forward to making that happen. We thank you for including this in the budget. We hope you keep it there. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Downing? Yes, I'm going to ask you about Mr. Stein. I know that there's so many people about it. There's so many that have responded. Okay. Mr. Stein. Mr. Vice Mayor, Council People, I'm here to get the sympathy vote. I've still got an IV. I've been in the hospital all day, but I had to come talk to you today. You look too tan to be sick. I'll try to remain calm. This project is a wonderful opportunity for our community. For those amongst us who look at the entire community holistically, those of us who can and often do think big and dream great dreams for our community, there's no question that this fits into that. I'm wearing two hats today. I was amongst the original folks with whom these first conversations came up many years ago. Interesting and ironically enough from a couple of urban county council persons. And I also serve currently as Commerce Lexington chairman of the board this year. I can tell you that without question, both of those organizations understand and see the value of this project. And I am very mindful of the comments that we just received about to whose benefit this will be and to whose detriment would a project like this be. And I'd like to address that very briefly. The benefit is clear. Indeed, the speaker was correct. the first direct beneficiaries of a project like this, as in any significant project in our community, will impact those who are directly related to it. In this case, as Mr. Downing just told you, there are thousands upon thousands of folks who come to our community and spend money. These are not smokestep dollars. These are dollars that are clean, entertainment, family-based, and they come to our community now, the benefit directly goes to the hotels and restaurants and movie theaters and malls and gas stations and all manner of businesses in our community. But what does that really mean? In fact, was it completely an honest evaluation of a project that generates $23 million in economic benefit to our community every year? was it fair to suggest that no one in our community benefits that because we don't get property taxes from it and the state sales taxes go somewhere else? Both of those things, by the way, benefit us. Property taxes come back to us in many ways, most particularly through our Fayette County Public Schools. And our state taxes come back in all manner of things that come to us as a community. But it's not just those. With this economic development, we can create new jobs. Jobs that pay payroll taxes that come to this community. We can, in fact, develop opportunities in our schools for new sports, for many new kids to be able to become athletes because they will now have many more opportunities to grow sports, new sports as they come along. There are plenty of benefits that come from all of this, and they inure to all of us. So I would suggest to you that there is benefit to all. In terms of detriment, I'm a person who likes to make investments in the bigger picture. This is indeed an investment that our community will make on behalf of our community. And we shouldn't forget that it also includes all of the thousands, if not tens of thousands of families like Mr. Downing who travel from our community taking dollars out of Lexington and spending them in Elizabethtown and Owensboro and other places. It's very simple to me. This is an opportunity for a big company to have economic value for our community. and all of the benefits that come from that. And we're asking a relatively significant investment in the long term as a placeholder in this budget so that we can begin these conversations and answer the very important questions that we've heard from the neighborhoods. You know, I built a big project, bigger than this one. And we were in a neighborhood. We learned how to listen and how to work with that neighborhood. And I suggest to you that 16 years later, those neighborhoods would tell you what a benefit to the entire part of town that original project was. So we're not just proud of that. We're always looking for opportunities to make Lexington better. I would submit to you that this project, this sportsplex, would indeed do that for all of us. I appreciate your time, and I look forward to hearing your result. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to speak about the budget? I'm sorry, ma'am. You've had an opportunity. Unless anybody wants to make a motion to waive the rules. Is there anybody else who has not spoken who wishes to speak on the budget? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. We'll take a five-minute recess. we will come back and start the work session. I'm out. The End Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you.