` ladies and gentlemen I would

like to welcome you to the January 26 planning commission

meeting thank you. If people would like to relocate

at that time, we can adominate

you but unfortunately we are

under the clear eye of the fire department and fire marshalls so

we shall abide as best we can.

With that let's move forward

approval of the meetings. >> I move approval of the

minutes as corrected.

It has been properly moved by

Miss Plumbly.

>> all the people who are here,

we want to make sure we... I

want too make...

>> okay.

Again we apologize, we don't normally get this type of crowd

here, but again we are glad to see you.

We are pleased to see you. And we'll try to move through

these things as expeditiously as possible but we are under a

seating capacity and thank you, Mr. Bigs for helping us out as

best you can. Now with that the motion has

been made about I Miss Carolyn

plumley and seconded by Miss Mundy that we accept the

approval of the minutes as corrected.

Any other discussion on the motion? Hearing none would you please

vote when it comes up on the monitors?

Ayes have it. Motion carries.

Next is postponement and/or

withdrawals. >> Mr. Chairperson, I'm dick

murphy on page 6 of the agenda

item c-1, text amendment zota

2016-5 amendment supportive uses

as aa special provision in the economic development zone.

Council is working on the big economic development zone change.

This of course is what I call

the little economic development text amendment and because the

council is still working on it,

we would request a two-month

postponement to March 23.

That Is The Correct Day: anyone want to speak to that? If not we'll entertain a motion for postponement. >> Mr. Chairman, move post foment of zoda, properly moved and second in this case that we postpone zota 2016-5 amendment to article 23-a-10 supportive uses as a special provision in the economic development zone for two months or until March 23. Any other discussion on the motion? Please vote when it comes up on your monitors? Motion carries. See you March 23. >> Mr. Chairman, I'm rory kaley on behalf of james baker on page 3, item 2, the james d. Baker zone map amendment and the subsequent plan 16-00043, we would like to withdraw this application. >> anyone in the audience like to speak to this particular plan? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion for withdrawal. Miss Plumlee. >> I move withdrawal of plan james d. Baker. >> could I ask you for one other part of that and the associated plan, preliminary plan also mjd. >> also move withdrawal of plan mjdp 1600043 bluegrass executive park. >> moved by Miss Carolyn plumlee second by Miss Mundy the zoning development plan has been withdrawn and that is not only the zoning request but as well as the preliminary plan. >> yes. >> okay. All those in favor, any other discussion on the motion? Hearing and seeing none, please vote when it comes up on the monitors. Ayes have it. >> thank you. >> thank you. Any other postponements or withdrawals? Okay. We have an abbreviated plan which means everybody greaz to the plan so we would like to get that taken care of and that might help free up a few seats up here. >> thank you Mr. Chairman, we think there is one item on the agenda remaining that May qualify for your consideration as an abbreviated hearing this afternoon. It appears on page 4, item 3 mar 16-221 g. Davis zone change request from an a-u to a p-1 professional zone for one and a half acres located at 3280 clays mill road. At this time the staff would ask if anyone is present in the audience this afternoon who wishes to discuss or object to this proposed rezoning for g. Davis at 3280 clays mill road. Seeing none we can have this hearing in abbreviated fashion. >> let's move forward. >> we'll have it set up in just a moment. >> good afternoon Chairman Wilson, members of the commission. This item is plm-mar-16-2 is a request by g. Saves ccm, applicant requesting a rezoning from the agricultural urban zone to our professional office which is the p-1 zone. The property is located at 3280 clays mill road. Take just a minute to discuss the surrounding zoning for the subject property. Subject property is located on clays mill road at the intersection of vincent way. The subject property remains a-u and it is surrounded by other more urban zoning in this vicinity. There is not any other agricultural zoning in this general area until we get to the park, which is on the ndc property to the northeast. Subject property is bound on three sides by what was the ndc property national development corporation that was previously the reynolds tobacco property. That property developed with a number of different zoning categories but in this general vicinity, the subject plot is bordered by r-3 to the north and to the east, r-4 to the southeast and professional r-1 to the south. And single family residential zoning in the r-1 b category and the larger tract that you see here is occupied by the jesse clark middle school and then to the rear of that property and directly across from the subject property is single family residential housing and zoning and that is the stone wall neighborhood. the applicant is proposing to develop a child care center on the subject property along with the associated off street parking. The staff approximate eights that they will have about 200 children at this location just based on the parking generator that they submitted with the development plan. As proposed, the child care center would not access clays mill road but would access vincent way near where the existing access point is for the subject property in terms of the driveway. So on the yasser aerial you can see townhouses reason the r-3 zone and detention basin for the ndc development, professional office townhouse style along clays mill and multifamily along vincent way to the rear of the professional office location. The subject property has a single family residence located on it today but it is about an acre and a half of land and aerial view. The property has been in the a-u zone since 1970. Before that it was actually zoned in a residential zone but the property owner requested it that it be downzoned to the agricultural zone at that time. More recently the staff has received an application for conditional use at this site for a landscape business that after it ran into some issues was subsequently withdrawn, so that's kind of a history, general history there. The applicant contends that it is in agreement with the 2013 comprehensive plan and cited several goals and objectives to first growing successful neighborhoods, supporting infill and redevelopment, supporting green infrastructure and then lastly upholding the urban service area concept. The petitioner contends that their proposed development for the child care center is in agreement with these goals and objectives for several reasons. First the child care center will be constructed utilizing certified green building contractors in a manner it supports a learning environment that focuses on the environment itself, the physical environment. The site will capture rain water and reuse it to water landscaping on site. The child care center will be located near residential neighborhoods in a public school which are both compatible uses. The child care center is a commercial use and this section of clays mill road has quite a bit of commercial development, so it is compatible with that as well and lastly, the applicant also mentioned that their construction of the building on the site will actually appear residential in nature so while it is a professional office zone, the staff believes that the site and the BUILDINGth will be compatible with the adjoining residential development as well. For these reasons the staff is recommending approval of the rezoning. First that it is in agreement with the comprehensive plan specifically the goals and objectives I mentioned earlier. In addition, the staff also believes the p-1 zoning is compatible at this location along clays mill road. Our recommendation is subject to the certification of the associated development plan within the required two weeks and that conclude my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. >> any questions for Miss Wade? Mr. Martin. >> Mr. Chairman, members of the planning commission. The preliminary development plan for this zone change is located at the bottom of page 4. It is plan 16 hfer 4-6d all about kids child care and learning center. This is clays mill road in this location school across the road, here is vincent way. The townhouse professional office townhouses in this location, back in this area that you saw in the photograph is the large detention basin, storm water facility for this area. They are proposing a 10,000 square foot building, 100 by 100, nice square on the property with the associated parking you can see in this location. Lots of green, lots of open space. You can see the play areas have been designated on the plan. There is an existing access in this point that's going to be removed, access will be off vincent way spaced across from the existing access into the rear parking for the office townhouses. The only real issue that staff had initially with this at this point in time I should say was this one way circulation unloading area. We would like to resolve the parking in this area 10 make sure we minimize any conflicts because this is their drop-off and pick-up area for the daycare and there is just some concern about the layout in this particular area. You May also recall we talked about a persimmon tree on this property at the committee meeting, it's rather unusual to see those anymore but there are only a few conditions on the plan. Your subdivision committee recommended a couple of conditions a few resolution item s on a sidewalk along vincent way as well as the parking that I mentioned to you. And with that I'm happy to answer any questions you May have for staff. >> if I question for Mr. Martin? Thank you. Applicant? >> good afternoon. Bruce simpson on behalf of the applicant. We agree with the staff's recommendation for approval on the resoaping and economic development plan and ask that you all follow the recommendations. >> any questions for Mr. Simpson? Thank you. With that we'll entertain a motion for whatever. Two motion are needed. One for the plan and one for the zone. Miss Mundy. >> Mr. Chair, I move for approval of pln-mar-16-21 g. Davis ccm for as recommended by staff. It has been properly moved and seconded. Any other discussion. Hearing and seeing none, please vote when it comes up on the screens. Thank you. Would you like to continue? >> yes. Mr. Chair, I also move for approval of plm-mjdp-16-46 all about sides child care and learning center with the nine recommendations as submitted by staff. >> it has been properly moved and seconded any other discussion on the motion? Please vote when it comes up on the screen? Eye ayes have it. Motion carries. Thank you very much. >> there is one other that May qualify but we are understanding there are objectors to that. The very next item on the agenda. David myers connect lodging and development company incorporated. This is a zone change request from b hf 5 p to b-3. Again at this time the staff would ask if there is anyone present who wishes to discuss or to object to this proposed rezoning on north broadway. Is there anyone present? Sl we'll have a full hearing. We will hear the full item in the meantime what we will do now is back up to the first item on the agenda ball homes incorporated zoning map amendment and the peninsula and zoning development plan. The applicant has requested. The staff has agreed. the people in opposition to the plan have agreed that they wanted some additional time extension we compromised and said yes, that's fair enough. We'll do that so each party will have 45 minutes to make their case. I have been notified that our monitors May not be indicated or you May not be able to see it on the screen but I've asked them to give us sort of a high 5 when you get down to the last five minutes and then we'll try up here as best we can. I'm asking all the speakers to please confine their remarks to that 45 minute limit and that way I think we can move it along. >> our next item is plm-mar-1616 ball homes incorporated. The prop is 478 and 480 squires road requesting a rezoning from agricultural urban zone to a planned neighborhood residential r-3 zone and high density anticipate ror zone. We have form letters, 692 copies of a particular form letter that were submitted by individuals and then we also have individual letters and emails that appear to be more unique than the form letter that we separated out and we have 89 that we counted this morning of those so a total of 781 communications. I would characterize those all in opposition to this request. In addition, Mr. Sahle just handed me anumber of additional communications which appear to be mostly form letters as well. I'll pull this one out on top because it does look unique so I'm going to provide those to the planning commission to review during the course of the hearing the application is for property which is approximately 90-acres in total size located south of squires road and so between squires road and the reservoir 4 owned by kentucky american water. The subject property is currently also owned by kentucky american water but ball homes has a contract to rezone and development the subility property. The property is currently in an agricultural urban zone and then along in terms of the surrounding zoning there is agricultural rural which appears to kind of draw a line through the lake. That was the old urban service boundary and so across the lake we have some ear-1 zoning and delong development, the denton farm. We have some larger agricultural tracts that faced delong road and this portion of a small development along delong road. Inside the urban service boundary we have the east lake neighborhood as well as the hunter's point neighborhood. To the north of the subject property there are a number of zones incorporated within those areas, single family residential in the hunter's point area as well as further into east lake towards man o' war boulevard. In addition long squires is r-1 zoning r 1 t zoning. Along squires road a bit of a transition between alumni to the west and richmond rooted to the east. There are single family residential as you come off alumni and then it transitions to some townhouse type duplexes. inside of the squares road circle we have a small amount of business, a gas station and convenient store as well as a multifamily development single family residential and then it converts back to single family residential. Along richmond road more commercial development with the gas station and other services as well as the auto mile. I should note as well across the existing reservoir 4 lake there are more single residential to the east and further to the southwest. It's difficult to see from our color but I'll move to the aerial photograph of the subject property. The property again is 90 acres and you will see there is a tract that has been carved out, if you will, for 478 squires road of this area that was proposed to be sold to the fayette county public schools for use as a middle school through that process kentucky american water negotiated with the fayette county public schools for a school site it became clear infrastructure would need to be placed on the subject property including streets and sewers for the use of the school and so although that tract has been carved out today, it's anticipated the 20 acres needed for a middle school will be relocated after, if this development is approved by the planning commission and the council. So the property line included there is not necessarily something that will remain in that location. The subject property does include land beyond the edge of the zone they're proposing. I guess maybe reword that. Between the property line or the zone line proposed in front of you today, I would point you to the aerial, I would note that there is land still between that line and the edge of the water. So kentucky american water will maintain some, a small amount of property between the edge of the proposed development and the water's edge. The subject property again is proposed location of a middle school, which fayette county public schools hopes to build here and also a mixture of single family townhouse and multifamily residential as proposed by the applicant. The most recent development plans submitted indicates 162 single family residential lots, 31 townhouse units, and 308 multifamily residential units as well as a clubhouse facility associated with the multifamily development. This equates to a residential density excluding the 20 acres for the school of 7.19 dwelling units per acre. The applicant contends that their request is in agreement with the comprehensive plan. Let me show you a few photographs of the site. This is a large site so our pictometry does not capture large sections of the site. This is a view towards the northwest. This is the hunter's point small subdivision. In the photograph you'll see squires road and this is the small subdivision. So this is the subject property on the lower half of the photo and then in the upper corner is part of the reservoir 4. This is another part of the boundary property. I wanted to note for the planning commission there is a large significant burr oak tree identified through the applicant's tree identification plan and they intend to protect that tree. Then lastly again the aerial photographs for this area are a little choppy but I wanted to point out for the planning commission the southeast corner of the subject property at the water's edge and what the staff noticed and it has seen over time, the property has changed a bit. The upper photograph depicts 2007 and the free existing tree stands generally bordered the water's edge and any of the draws along that area and in the 2016 our most recent aerial photograph from last spring, you can see where the areas that were generally pasture is mowed by kentucky american water have filled in with some newer tree stands and the white indicates those are trees which are considered invasive species generally by a lot of the tree experts not necessarily the most desirable trees in developments. I wanted to point that out before we get into the meat of the application. The applicant believes their request is in agreement with the 2013 comprehensive plan so the staff wants to lay out for the planning commission and the audience as well as the council in the future what the comprehensive plan really does have to say about this property. The comprehensive plan is broken into goals objective and polystatements but no longer has an adopted land use map. In the past portions of this site were recommended for single family residential or low density residential. Parts were recommended for medium density residential closest to the squires circle. Additionally parts were recommended for a park, school sites so all of those things have been on the plan over the course of 60 years. This property was brought into the urban service boundary in 1964. In terms of the themes applicable to the subject property that the staff believes the planning commission and council should consider when making a zoning change decision, first the plan encourage infill redevelopment and adaptive reuse and expanding housing choices which encourages a variety of different housing types providing well designed neighborhoods and communities. Those are all in theme a of the comprehensive plan. In terms of theme b, the comprehensive plan speaks to protection of our environmental resources. First reducing lexington's carbon footprint and encouraging environmentally sustainable use of our natural resources. Identifying and protecting natural areas before they develop and incorporating green infrastructure, principles and to our new plans some of the recommendations have led the staff to make zoning restriction recommendation that we'll hear about in a few minutes. Also the comprehensive plan points to improving a desirable community which speaks to our transportation system so making sure that there are complete streets developing networks for accessible transportation including trails, providing for necessary community facilities like the middle school proposed on the site and protecting our natural landscapes as well. , speaks towards balancing our rural and urban interest and concepts. The comprehensive plan did not identify the subject property as a vacant tract in 2013 because it was or is owned by kentucky american water and thought not to be available for development. So at this point the staff believes or considers this as found land and encourages its future development as an infill site. Additional policy statements that come out of the comprehensive plan, one such... Well, one such area is identified in our comprehensive plan to encourage focal points within neighborhoods, in addition to provide for abundant open space and neighborhood parks and shared use trails, provide fog varied housing types, encouraging single loaded streets open spaces and greenways and providing inviting and walkable neighborhoods and also providing quality connections with parks, schools and stores and then lastly providing for connections of our collector streets which in this case is considered squires road. After the staff's initial review of these... Well let me go into this a little bit. The schools as a neighborhood focal point when the staff reviewed the application, we consider the school as the neighborhood focal point in this development. It's in the center of the development and we looked at some other case studies around our community where schools were identified as being part of the neighborhood but also being fronted by single family residential. Those case studies including cassidy and morton on tate's creek road, the new william wells brown located at shopshire and lafayette high school surrounded on three sides by single family residential off of well in the glen dover neighborhood. The staff went into more depth of the comprehensive plan. The greenway master plan is referenced in the dplif plan as being a viable document and within the greenway master plan, the grown way trail system is identified and the subject property does lie in an area where the trail is not connected currently. The squires road trail ends and there is a trail along richmond road near jacobson park but within this portion of the community there is currently not a connection. This the greenway master plan identified the trail following the edge of the reservoir in this p vicinity. The major objective is the trail connection to jacob son. Before I get into the staff conclusions, the staff, when reviewing the application found that the applicant was meeting many of the goals and objectives and desired policy statements of the comprehensive plan however we were a bit concerned that some things were still missing and that was in November of last year. So the staff recommended postponement at that time and we took that opportunity to meet further with kentucky american water as well as fayette county public schools to find out exactly what they were looking for in terms of development on the subject property: when we did that I just want to run through some of the things the staff found out from those meetings. Kentucky american water will maintain property along the reservoir. They will control the reservoir's edge. Kentucky american water's primary concern is the potential dumping of unauthorized entities near the water's edge and therefore they prefer the rear yard orientation of single family homes to the edge rather than an open street along the water's edge. Kentucky american water representatives also stated that as long as single family residents boarded the water's edge no chain link fence would need to be installed. When we approached the fayette county schools they originally sought this property in the 80s but then approached them for a school site. They need 20-acres, net acreage for their school and 400 feet of frontage an and they need three access points for automobiles, buses and service vehicles the school expects to employ 125 persons at this site for a middle school with 900 students enrolled. Fayette county public schools do not mind an open campus with no residential backing to the property. In those cases they don't fence their property but when single family or multi-residence borders their property they put up a fence to keep them from infringing on the school property. Lastly we know that traffic will increase around the school especially during start and dismissal times which is common for all school sites the staff met since November with the applicant's tree specialist Dr. Kimer and the urban forester and environmental planner to discuss the water's edge which was a primary concern in terms of protection for the division of planning. The urban forester identified after meeting on site with their tree specialist there was a 50 to 100-foot repairian area along the water's edge and I think I would refer back to the photograph from 2007 where you see sort of an edge along the water. That's what our urban forester identified as well. Since it doesn't extend to the water's edge there is a known buffer of about on average my estimation of about 50 feet between the edge of the subject property and the water's edge. That varies from between just a few feet at one location and maybe 100 feet where the water or the fema flood plain comes up on the property a little bit. The fema flood plain comes up to the subject property in certain locations and the staff believes after review of that and the repairian area that a buffer landscape buffer is necessary that would include tree protection in that area. The staff in reviewing this application came to several conclusions, the different housing types meets the comprehensive plan including multifamily. There is a connection on their plan of the lake side greenway trail system although not zone in the location the greenway master plan identified the connection between an existing squires road trail and jacobson park. This connection makes that more feasible or more possible. And the staff, although the applicant is not proposing that, does still prefer single loaded streets along the school site. We think that would meet the comprehensive plan as well lastly but it is important to protect the water's edge so we suggest a conditional zoning restriction in that vain. The staff's initial review, we felt that a set back from the current fema flood plain 2014 fema flood plain of 25 feet would be appropriate and within that buffer to not allow structures like especially fences and accessory structures such as play structures or trampolines or that sort of thing and especially to maintain trees within that area. The staff suggested a three-inch caliper tree be maintained within that area but that dead, diseased, hazardous trees and invasive species could be removed and in addition all other trees that were going to be removed needed to have the permission, written permission of environmental services so there wasn't widespread clearing in the 25-foot buffer. After further review the staff became concerned about the fema flood plain and how that can change over time but the zone line and property line here proposed is more static so the staff modified it to not be 25 feet from the fema flood plain but rather 25 feet from the edge of the subject property, the zone line where it remains a-u on the water company side. That would then go along all of the subject property whereas there was a small area that was not getting any protection in terms of the rear of the lots proposed along this area. So the yellow line is the 25-foot boundary. The are red line is the current zone change boundary proposed and the blue shows the fema flood plain. In some areas it would be more restrictive and its required 25-foot set back part of article 19 is more restrictive on some of the lots but in many cases the 25-foot set back and tree protection area that the staff is recommending is more restrictive, for instance, in this area. So I didn't reprint our recommendation up here but the staff is recommending approval of the requested rezoning for primary reason it is in agreement with the 2013 comprehensive plan. In your notebook today we included theory vision to the conditional zoning restriction and there was one small change in one of the findings associated with this change. There were four reasons listed we felt this was in agreement with the comprehensive plan in terms of meeting the growing successful neighborhoods theme, meeting the, protecting the environment theme as long as the conditional zoning restriction was in place. Also improving desirable community theme and lastly the 2013 plan recommends compablght and contig use development. So this is the revised conditional zoning restriction which we believe reflects the change of not being from the set back from the flood plain but rather from the zone change boundary. We believe this is a necessary restriction to protect the environmentally sensitive nature of the lake edge and because it is a fema flood plain as well. I would be happy to answer any questions about the staff's recommendation. >> any questions for Miss Wade? >> gracie, if you would, thank you but if you would clarify for me once again the zone line that you are proposing. Is that in essence away from the water's edge or flood plain or where is that? >> the zone line is what is proposed by the applicant so I'm going to go to the aerial. And it is not the same as the water's edge. It's not the same as the fema flood plain. it is what kentucky american woort is willing to allow ball homes to develop, if you l. The set back we think should be from that line so the 25 feet would be in addition to what kentucky american water will maintain which we feel is on average about 50 feet, so there will be a 50-foot preservation area that american water won't be making changes to and a 25-foot set back on to the development side for a total of 75 feet of tree protection area. >> if the flood plain approaches farther into that, obviously they would have to stay out of that as well? >> exactly. They would and the normal fema flood plain restrictions would come into place then. >> right now just one other question when you were talking about the 50-foot buffer, you said that it varied from just a few feet in some areas. Why is it that close in some areas? >> you know, I can't really answer that question. That would be a question for kentucky american water. It seems like this corner here appears to be only a few feet off the water's edge whereas this site here and here appear to be larger. >> okay. >> I don't know why they chose that geometry. >> okay. Thank you. >> any other question for Miss Wade? Mr. Martin. Mr. Chairperson, members of the planning commission, the preliminary development plan that you see before you begins on the bottom of page 2 and continues over on to the top of page 3. I will add a couple of quick cleanup items as you are much aware of but other folks May not be. This is a preliminary development plan. Before any development happens on this property, this body will of course have to see either a final development plan or a preliminary subdivision plan on the property. And in conjunction with that as you all well know, staff is charged with reviewing this plan as if the zoning is in place. So of course that's the way we look at it when we examine the technical aspects of the plan before you and I just wanted to take care of that a little bit up front. Hoor as you can see... Here as you can see the preliminary development plan for this property, squires circle in this location as it is being proposed to extend down into here and at this location squires road which will come and the intersection will be realigned into this location. We have the apartments being proposed in this location, have an access point here and here. You can see how they have aligned the apartment houses with the interior parking they are proposing 308 apartments, 516 bedrooms and over 465 parking spaces. So this is the area of the principle density they're proposing for this development and this location we have the 31 townhouses. they are proposing to loop as you can see around the central school site of 20 acres. And again you can see the single family homes that they're proposing in this area. They're going to vary from approximately 55 to 110 to 130 feet in size, typical lots. There will be some variation. 162 single family lots shown on this plan. 50, approximately 50 border the water, as you can see in this location. One of the principle changes on this plan is the street now connects. Previously there was a cul-de-sac. You heard Miss Wade talk about single loading streets and staff certainly have been an advocate of single loaded streets. In the school you can see that in this area they have accomplished about 2,000 feet of frontage which is more than adequate for the schools needs and fairly open site. Again, this relationship does exist. It mimics a relationship that exists in many parts of our community with single family homes that do back up. They are proposing a pedestrian connection so if there are children living in this area of the development, they can walk to the proposed middle school once it is constructed. In this area you can see open space clubhouse parking, proposing a clubhouse restaurant in this particular location. Now staff, in reviewing this, we have our standard sign-offs for preliminary development plan as I stated. there are a few little items they have to clean up. You can see on your agenda, one we would like for them to note on the plan the phasing of the development and that goes to the infrastructure primarily we would like to know what is coming first and what they anticipate building first and how they plan to stage it. Infrastructure obviously being an important component of the development. They need to denote any significant tree protection areas on the plan that exist on the plan. It is a requirement of the preliminary. They've indicated a large burr oak in this location. There are other large trees that are sprinkled throughout the development. There are several on the school site as a matter of fact that are not of course really a part of the plan and there are some concentrated in an area through here as well. There is a revision they need to make to a note specifying utility access that does not apply to single family homes. We want to be clear that would apply to the apartments. That's a standard note that we see on plans. And then there has been... There is one condition that we will modify. I'm going to return to that. That is the buffer but I want to quickly point out with this realignment there are single family homes in this area that rely on access here. At the time of the final development plan or preliminary subdivision plan, we are going have to resolve how these homes will continue to access the existing right of way because obviously we don't want to see a problem created for these few homes in this location with access. There is a condition on your agenda, number 12, that says denote there shall be a tree protection zoning buffer along the reservoir that corresponds with the 25-foot flood plain set back and you heard the staff has changed that recommendation. And that condition will change as well. The condition is going to be from the zone line and you can see it's denoted as the property line for this development and you can see a perspective and we blew this up for you of the land and the strip of land that kentucky american water is going to maintain ownership of and that's not a part of this development. That is kentucky american water. It's under their control and under their stewardship. This is that narrow point that Miss Wade explained to you when she showed you the map where the property comes down in this location. What we have here is the flood plain, 100-year flood plain, this location, this line. The dash line above that and also blue is the 25-foot set back and that's a requirement from the flood plain. Doesn't allow any buildings within that set back. The 100 year flood plain in and of itself has a lot of conditions, you basically cannot develop very much at all within a 100-year flood plain and there are many levels of review. The green line is the approximate location of the conditional zone line that staff is recommending to you so you can see the relationship here. And in virtually all circumstances, it exceeds the set back. A few inlets and with the flood plain there are some, a little bit of conflict with that and it May actually exceed it a little bit but again it's governed quite extensively by existing regulations both local state and federal regulations so we wanted you, we blew that up so you could get a better idea because you are going to hear no doubt a lot of talk about the buffer and the set back and how that area should be protected. So we wanted to make it clear that you could see that area along the plan. One other item I would like to touch on if you could put that up. And again staff stresses there is a preliminary development plan. Nothing is going to be developed off this plan. There are not going to be any construction standards or anything like that subjected to the plan. There will be a plan in the future should you approve it. And the applicant any plans they submit will have to meet all the requirements that exist, including the storm water manuals, your zoning ordinance, your subdivision regulations. They're going to be subject to that. I know there has been some concern by folks es pressed about the storm water manual and its conditions and what you see before you is an example of how that would work along a stream and the reservoir, interesting enough because it's not intuitive is considered a perennial stream. The buffer is generally that 50-foot buffer is from the top of the stream. What our staff and consultants and engineering staff have learns that that top of bank can vary. The word variable came up quite a bit. And again that points to why staff is comfortable with the conditional zoning condition bass based on the static. It is going to be known whereas when it comes to stream banks, the top of stream banks, when it comes to the flood plain and various items, they do vary. And establishing the height of any water at any time, the normal pool, for instance is a term that we used frequently in our conversations with our engineers of this reservoir. The normal pool. Again that normal pool fluctuates as kentucky american water utilizes it as part of our water treatment system. So with that I just wanted to put that out in front of you so you would have it for some information to help consider what staff has recommended along with some other aspects and other conditions you May hear from participants in this meeting. Subdivision committee did recommen plan. your staff, however, at this point is and I would be happy to answer any questions you May have for staff. >> any questions? We'll put ow notice. We May call you back later. We have a traffic report Mr. Mat conyers? >> good afternoon. >> I'm max conyers, transportation planning manager of lfucg. I will be telling you the traffic report. I'll do this quickly because I know you have seen a lot of these. Here are the arterial streets, man o war bloostled and richmond are the main ones serving this area. We also have a collector system in this area. You see squires road, squires circle, east hills, beaver creek alumni, pretty good distribution points you also see the trail system that is proposed to connect through here, alumni drive just to give you the names of the roads. We have assumptions made which way the traffic would distribute in this area from the development. It was assumed, based on existing traffic demand, 35% going east and west of course to your major arterials and then another 15% each on the collectors headed out to man o' war. Main intersections with the arterials and the collectors right there. Minor intersections that will directly affect this development so when you look at the basic information, you've heard most of that. You look at squires road, it's going to take the brunt of the existing traffic. It's about 5700 average daily traffic which is pretty good for a collector road like that. That's not over capacity. You look at the trip generation and get a volume. We look at the peak hour because that's when you are congestion that rest of the day is not that bad. The road system can handle it. You see 779 entering, 510 exiting during the peak hours and that's about split in the A.M. And the pm. You can see the A.M. Is a little more volume in this area. The school is designed for 750, however most of our schools as you know, are over the design volume so 900 students was a reasonable estimate with fluctuation, you know, throughout attendance throughout the years. There was a revised traffic study that looked more in detail at the intersections and that's what this traffic review is based upon. If you look at the level of service, pretty much this road system throughout here this area can handle it. You'll see the greatest impact where you get into the red, service o'and f at richmond road and squares road. That is going to be where you will see some traffic impact and concern and kind of off site but the city is working to look at things to do in those areas, some things in the works in other words. that's pretty small font. I have to talk to jimmy about that, sorry. But basically bottom line is transit is well served in this area, very, very well served. We have route 18 which connects with tates creek wood hill hamburg routes, very good transit access. We have very good pedestrian facilities throughout and the developers are proposing good pedestrian access. One of the main things especially with our master plan coming up is here to be given to the trail that is proposed through here. That's a major good connection that we want to see happen. We'll have, we got a grant for some nice connection from richmond road on squires road over to this area with good sidewalks that will have good bike, a wide sidewalk probably eight or nine foot that would serve bike and pedestrian and be safe and very connective. And would serve not only recreational but also commuter traffic which we focus on here at the metropolitan planning organization and our area, lfucg looking at the consultant's recommendations they would like to have a right turn lane installed at squires road, squires circle. Also all way stops and reconfigure the intersection of squire's road and squire's circle closest to alumni drive. That would help immensely. I think traffic engineering will agree with these types improvements so you look at our recommendations, I think special care should be given to the intersections. They should maybe become all way stops which function much better, especially with pedestrian comdayses and considering the school, this is very important and again the final location and design of squire's trail. >> you have a minute to wrap up. >> I'll get right through. Final thoughts development plan, these are our summaries. We work, modernize squire's road circle intersection. There's the two circled areas complete squire's road trail very important in our bicycle and system. There is the alignment that is proposed by the developers plan and should be well accommodated on the road and on the side of the road there to get up to squire's road east. Also the collector street width around the school site would be recommended you see the purple there, those areas will experience quite heavy traffic and it is recommended that they be built at a collector width. And that is it. I would be glad to answer any questions you May have. >> thank you. Any questions for Mr. Conyers. >> yes, Mr. Smith. >> max, thank you. A couple questions. One you mentioned earlier I think on squire's road or squire's circle, you were talking about and 00 traffic count. Can you point out a comparable collector street that handles that sort of traffic already as an example? >> that would be a challenge. i had not prepared for that question, however that volume is very low given capacity of a collector street. If you look at a street to say kennesaw, there is a lot more than that, I would say like 7,000 a day given more housing, the shopping center there, destination and so forth. So when collectors get up above 10,000, that's when you start to worry. You start to think about... >> that was the second question. When you are recommending a right turn squire's road squire's circle would that be part of the development or is it already... I'm just wondering is there right of way there to make that happen? Is this an already developed area? >> now that would be a question I think for the engineers. I'm not sure of the right of way available for that. At the collectors usually 60 feet I believe of right of way so there is usually room to carve it out if you need it especially turn pockets, not long. You don't need a long decelebration lane and so forth. >> thank you. >> any other questions? Thank you. >> thank you very much. >> applicant. And while they're coming let me say I'm going make a slight adjustment from the chair. I noted that any time the commission takes time out of your presentation to ask you questions, we won't hold that against you and I extend accordingly the number of questions and amount of minutes that we have. Mr. Leer. >> Mr. Chairman, members of the commission. My name is william m. Leer, Jr., nicauagua olson and I are here representing the applicant ball homes. Others who are here with us today representing the developers are Mr. Ray ball, al gross and rory kaley with V.A. Partners project engineers, Mr. Fill stupford who is a land planner with H.R. Green and associates out of denver, diane zimmerman traffic engineer and Dr. Tom kimler whose chief scientist with venerable trees. Nick and I will take turns back and forth going through the various slides and commentary relative to the case. What you have is you have seen is a proposal for r-3 and r-4 zoning to allow mix of housing types, residential uses only in accord with the comprehensive plan on land that has been inside the urban service area and slated for development in a mix of housing types since, I thought 1967. I heard tracey say 1964. That's relevant for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most important reasons this is a sizeable tract of land. We can't afford to waste it. It is inside the urban service area. The date is important for this reason and this is one upon which I can be both lawyer and witness. What that means is this property has been inside the urban service area slated for a mix of residential developments before anything else in any of these other neighborhoods around was developed. I know this firsthand. I lived in southeast lexington near gains way when I was in high school. I used to drive squire's road. It wasn't viewed as a cut through, the only way to get from tate's creek pike to richmond road was to go out armstrong mill and across squire's unless you wanted to go really far down. One thing that I believe everybody on both sides of this case would agree to is this is April important piece of land. As is often the case, we have been through, even though many of the neighbors have not been through a process like this before, the rest of us have. As is the case with all significant and important pieces of land that were bypassed for development for a significant period of time, allowing all the areas around them to develop, the controversy associated with it is heightened. We saw that on the rjr property many years ago. We saw it more recently on the fritz farm. We've seen it on the property Dr. Kimer helped us with where the big oak tree was involved on harrodsburg road. That does not mean that we can back away from what the comprehensive plan wants us to do, which is to make appropriate, efficient, property density mixed developments on tracts of land inside the urban service area boundary. Our first presenter who is going to give us a little bit more detail about the way this land plan was developed and the key concepts is phil stupor. Phil if you would come on up here. >> good afternoon everyone. I'm phil stooper out of denver, colorado working with H.R. Green. I know we have a lot of people who need to speak but we are eye 100-year-old company. We have offices all around the united states. I have been doing this for 21 years and I have worked in about 20 states around the country and also done some work internationally as well so certainly I have a lot of experience. Doesn't mean I know everything but I've seen a lot and one of the reasons I mention that is, you as you know, portland oregon, miami dade county, minneapo one of the things I really wouldn't to kind of remind everybody the idea is to preserve the character outside of it. You have beautiful horse farms. I came here and visited the horse farms and in college we studied those facilities. You want to preserve that and that makes sense. You drew an urban growth boundary obviously years ago knowing that to protect those areas out there. What that means is that within the boundaries and other cities like portland is a great example, they've done that within the urban growth boundary, every piece of land that comes up that is infill, they've maximized it to a great extent and up to 40, 50 units per acre and sometimes higher than that. I'm not saying you are portland or that you need do that kind of density. What I am saying is that when an important piece of property like this comes up to develop, you want to have mixed uses. You want to have high density. You want to have all kinds of different people can live in this community. And I think that's really important because from what I understand and I have been working in lexington over 15 years on a number of projects, this is one of the largest pieces left within the urban service boundary. It would be a shame to see it go to lower density or acre lots or anything like that. All the other cities around the country that have the urban service boundaries make the most of these types of properties. So I just want to give my perspective on that because think it is an important piece of property. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because a lot of it was shared very well. I just want to point out a couple of things. When we went to lay out this property, when you put the land use into circulation, it made sense to, you know, with the dmer usually properties that are up in here and the attached product here, it makes sense to have the attached product next to here. So I know that there are some areas like in here where there are single family and then over in this location that abut some of the multifamily. It's going happen sometimes and I'm sure some of the neighbors are probably upset about that happening. But we have to take some precautions and tried to work the best we could; for example, the trees in this area here are remaining, actually over on this side, are going to remain. That helps the natural transition or buffer occur between the land uses. Same thing in this area down through here, and the plan you'll see where we have a large area where we have not put units adjacent to the single family. We are trying the best we can to be kind and to be not too obtrusive to the neighbors. With the existing trees I'm not going to spend too much time because tom is going to come up, an expert. I have a big horticultural aspect in my background but I want to say where some of the more significant trees are is where we are preserving them and along the water's edge where there is three inch and above, we are preserving those trees of high quality. I think that's important to note. When we looked at laying out where the multifamily would go, I gave you the reason why we did that. We put the school right up in that location which happens to be the most developable piece of ground on the entire site. It's the flattest and it's the center piece of the entire development. So this school truly is going to be a center piece of this entire community. I think that's really neat and a great asset of this project. So land use transitions they make sense, okay. From north to south, higher density next to the high density and we transition to single family as we get next to the water. The school is the center piece. We respected the topography and the trees where it makes sense to. We have some unique things like the entrance as you come in, you actually go up on the crest of a hill, come down, see the water and the rec center in the foreground. It's going to be... >> let me interrupt you. >> okay. >> the people in the audience. You are using your pointer to make indications but they can't see it here. >> absolutely. So what I was just talking about there is a ridge here as you come down through this community and you drop down and you got the rec center with views of the water. We purposely designed some things to be a fantastic community. There are going to be great lots all down through here. We are working with the topography where we have these units down here that will have walkout units and up in here we can also do that as well so we are stepping down with the topography. As I mentioned on the multifamily, there are existing trees through here that we are preserving and you know, we could have placed these apartment buildings and stripped them along here right up to the property... Not up to the property line, there would be a set back here but instead we put the smaller buildings in here and we kind of angled these to work around the existing trees so again trying to work around the trees and be sensitive to the single families that are there. This is where we did not play any units or multifamily or anything adjacent to the single family in there for the soul purpose to be sensitive to the adjacent land uses and zoning. The rec center I already mentioned we have open space and the trail connection that was mentioned earlier that ties through the right of access along the reservoir there. School, you know, later there is a lot more questions about the single loaded streets I would like to address that because I know at one point it was talked about single loaded streets around the entire school sounds like maybe it's now going to be a mix. Is that something you want to hear about, I have several thoughts and opinions on that subject. But if the school is truly a center piece it's going to be a fantastic aspect in the center of the community. Last sli this main drive you are going to get to this intersection here and get a view across the entire reservoir so it kind of opens up so residents can come down here and see that and we May end up putting some sort of sitting hear things like that so you can be there and oversee the reservoir. So with that, I will wrap up my comments and keep them short and again be here to answer questions later on so thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. I'm here to address the broad strokes of the compliance with comprehensive plan. I'm going do my best not to reiterate all of the points that Miss Wade talked about today and also in the staff report but needless to say we wholeheartedly support the recommendation of approval that Miss Wade gave based on compliance with the dplif plan and if it has been clear yet we are in complete agreement with the conditions zoning restriction regarding the buffer area. While Miss Wade gave a little history, this property came in about 64, the first comprehensive plan showed up with 67. It was zoned for low density at that point. The very next plan that came out with in '73 had it for low, medium and high density residential on this property. Oddlyh 1980 plan switches back to low density and every plan since then, 1988, 1996, 2001, 2007, plan all had it as a mix of low and medium as you all are aware about that time that is when units per acre really came into effect. The maxed out a five medium density at 10. 2013 no longer part of the map based plan. We are focused on other policy issues as opposed to individual recommendations for individual parcels. The reason I bring all this up is that no one can say this was not unanticipated to be zoned for residential, to be eventually developed and to be developed with a mix of density and that is one of the reasons why we feel with the 2013 plan specifically why we are in compliance because of that mix of density. Very broad strokes here. We are a major infill project that is expanding housing choices and being able to basically take vacant land that has been in the urban service boundary for over 50 years and turn it into a neighborhood asset. That is, I think, in the big picture rs some of the core points of the comprehensive plan. Goal one expand housing choices. Our comprehensive plan specifies way to do that. Says to create diverse neighborhoods with featured town homes and apartments with mixed single family. That's exactly the plan that is before you today. We are even throwing in the middle school site which is also a specific recommendation of the comprehensive plan for a middle school site in this location and town. Again you've heard it before and will hear it again today. This is an infill site, a major infill site, 90 acres of vacant land that goes right to the heart of one of the main themes when is upholding the urban service area concept. The comprehensive plan specifies in ways you can do that. What are the strategies? It talks about plexbility and housing types and density. Provide a mix of housing types and density. Allow hire density in order to achieve critical mass of residential. This is the broad strokes of this type of argument but we feel that it very much is in compliance with comprehensive plan because we hit these exact strategies on how we can maintain the urban service area. For all the reasons that Miss Wade already spoke about and staff report we believe we are in compliance. Now I have to point out the other argument for a zone change. A-u is inappropriate. I will be surprised if anyone in this room will actually argue that a-u would be appropriate in this site based on how much urban housing is around, how much urban development is around. Its proximity to local streets, proximity to the collectorses and arterials. The thft thing I think the neighbors want are farm strucks going up and down squire's road. With this much acreage in the urban service boundary, this community has decided we don't want to waste 90 acres for a-u land. That is what the urban service boundary is for. Now with regards to r-3 and r-4 being an appropriate zone, we have discussed density. do I wasn't want to get into that but as Miss Wade pointed out the density numbers are 7.2 for the area not including the school site. This is right in between the kind of low and medium dns at this that has always been discussed. Now r-3 is very common zone. You are seeing it a lot lately. I think Mr. Berkeley you pointed out a month ago all these new neighborhoods that are coming in are coming in at r-3. The reasons is it gives developers the flexibility to have multiple different housing types like the town homes and the single family and this one also the school site without having to come back and tweaking the zone change where we file for a zone change for.2 acres of two r 1 t to realign a road. This isn't a major subdivision plan for this very reason. This is an r-3 request and it gives the develop rs the type of flexibility they need. If you just look around town, a lot of major developments are this way. You start out by hamburg. Hamburg place tuscany, summer field and glassford, waterford, pinnacle, fire brook, parts of palomar, all of these are r-3. It is an appropriate zone for this type of size of a single family and town home development. With that I want to pass it back to Mr. Leer in order to kind of talk about some more specifics of the comprehensive plan itself. >> I do want to take a moment to address a couple things that, let's see if I... This is on Mr. Chairman, so I can get away. Can you hear me? A couple things that are relevant to what was mentioned before. There has been some discussion about the buffer that works in conjunction with the property line as well as the water's edge. This particular map that we put up there shows a couple of things. One, it shows that especially in the single family area, if you look ter single family development as round, the lotting scheme is very similar. One thing of interest and if you spent any time around the lakes or if you have to live around the lakes as I do, not this one but one of the others, the predominant housing pattern is cul-de-sac because you don't have traffic transportation certainl richmond road and the extension of alumni drive. So a great percentage probably a great majority if you look closely of all the housing in this immediate area, as it is many places around the lake is in non-threw streets. You can call them cul-de-sacs except some of them are pretty long. Now the set back, we just had rory and E.A. Partners go through and look the distance from the water's edge at various points and these are not the longest points away. This one is a total of 60 feet. This one is 75. This one is just a little under 60. This is 90. you can see some down here that are probably well over 100 feet of set back so it does vary but there is, as tracey said, the average from the edge of the water is 50. Chances are it is more than that but that's what this map shows is the set back and then if you look closely at the lotting scheme, for example, in here as compared to across the water, you'll see it's very similar lotting scheme. Okay this is an important slide because it shows where the middle schools are today and as you can see, there is a gap. And if you go to the next one, you'll see where the proposed middle school will be here. You see some of the circles on that do overlap and this one would overlap but the primary thing that the school site would do is frankly pull traffic away from edith hayes and some of the other schools. U8' see information about the traffic generated by the school site largely it will will be redirected traffic, especially in this neighborhood, middle school traffic that is going out to richmond road and edith hayes will not go out there. It will stay within the neighborhood. This also shows you the current way in which the middle school districts are set up and again you can see the proposed site for the middle school and it's pretty immediately apparent it would pull a lot of the district out of the edith hayes middle school. Again, concentrating the traffic. We probably dealt with how much, how many running feet of single loaded streets we would have in this development more than any other development plan issue. What you have there is a part of the comprehensive plan that deals with single loaded streets. It says at the edge of the urban service area boundary which it is clearly not. It says to provide for connection of new neighborhood should the usa boundary be expanded. Again that maybe would have applied some places. It doesn't apply here because this is not on the edge of the boundary. It says next to public parks, this is not a public park although the school site as you know, is often used at least in part in that way and the neighborhood centers particularly village centers with a mix of uses. Again it talks about the urban edge and then in the last paragraph it mentions conservation. So the parks that are listed in there are things like gratz parke. 1.1 acre. It's not a 20-acre site. Bell court is mentioned as an example and it's about, it's not a 20-acre site. It's about four acres. Both of those are really, really old as you know. Duncan park is mentioned and it's not surrounded by single loaded streets. It's about a third. Ours is 52% single loaded streets around the school site. Castlewoodings not completely surrounded. Kirk leafington is a larger site and only about a third of it is non-or about 36% is non-single loaded street. Veteran's park you can see how much is not single load kirk leafington we added some single loaded streets, addressed some concepts that originally were floated to us which frankly would have added more than half a mile of additional streets and a significant amount of impervious surface in this development, which made no real sense since the way the thing is set up, has the school is the real focal point of the entire site. Any way you get into it you are coming into an open corner of the school site. And I think that's the reason that even though we talked about this, the staff ultimately came to its recommendation of support and notwithstanding the fact that we don't have a single loaded street all the way around the middle school. Speaking of middle schools, they did mention morton and cassidy but then if you look at a lot of other schools, old and newer middle schools, you will see that they do not have single loaded streets all around them. Jesse clark about a fourth of it is single loaded. Edith hayes one of the brand new ones only about a fifth of it is single loaded around it. Beaumont, less than a fourth. Again we are 52% and this same thing for elementary schools. I didn't put a lot of those in there but if you look at the average singling loaded street around the elementary schools it's 34% and we are 52%. There is an example of a new one, rosa parks sandersville, 25%. In your packet are a couple of letters from kentucky american. Staff asked them did they want to see a single loaded street around the edge of the reservoir and as you'll see from the letter I'm not going to go through it, a cop of it is in your packet. For a number of reasons, and they're highlighted, they believe that that would not be a good development concept in terms of both security and water quality around the reservoir. As I said those two are in your packet. I'd like to ask diane zimmerman if she would come up and take us through her traffic report. >> good afternoon, my name is diane zimmerman. 2525 harrodsburg road with C.M. Smith in lexington, kentucky. I prepared the traffic impact study completed this version is dated December 6, 2016. In consultation with the staff of both the planning staff and the traffic engineering staff we agreed that the intersections that needed to be more fully evaluated for this proposal are the alumni drive at squire's road, squire's road circle, east hills drive, beaver creek drive around again on the squire's road and coming up on the north side at richmond road, you can see I like to start with this type of maps because it indicates, let's us see how the road systems connects into the existing road system. I want to reiterate some of the points quickly that max started off with as far as what the difference between the arterials and collectors and that this development really has quite a bit of access to the collector level system in this area. Max also covered this. This is showing how I believe that the traffic will be disbursed from the development with 35% heading out towards alumni drive and 35% to richmond road and that 15% would consider using the collectors of beaver creek and east hills drives. Again the trip generation, there are three types of uses in this development. We generate A.M. And P.M. Trips. And the students, the school itself May not actually have that many students but this gives us a conservative approach to make sure we've handled what the maximum that could be in this facility would be. I also want to point out that the time that we made the traffic counts in November of this, of 2016, the A.M. Peak power was 7:30 to 8:30 and right now fayette county middle schools do not come, the majority of the middle school traffic would not appear in the A.M. Peak hours so again this is a conservative approach that we said all of the middle school traffic or market of it would be occurring during the A.M. Peak hour, but in reality that May not be the case. So this table is a summary of the level of service at all of the intersections at were evaluated. Pretty much the top two-thirds of the table minimal differences between what is out there today and what will be once the development is built. Back up one slide for me. We also did a comparison of what with and without the middle school because at this point we don't control whether or not the middle school is really coming. We wanted to be able to say is there a difference if this is not built? So there was an addendum submitted the second week of December and this chart shows that the differences between what the school will do and what if it is only residential only so that information is available if you need it. That's it for me. >> let me recap some things that are in the report of diane's and are relevant to the traffic issues. Obviously it's the A.M. Peak hour that has the biggest change. Most of that would be due to the school which is to say if the school goes here, it will be here whether or not there is anything developed on the rest of the property. Most of the middle school traffic is already on the road today. You heard about the comprehensive plan goal of being efficient in terms of land use. This will simply redirect it and in many cases keep it, especially that in the immediate vicinity a lot closer to home with less miles and less time on the road. Her model is conservative in a couple of respects. I know will you hear about cut through traffic. It is real. It exists. i understand that. Having lived in this part and still live in this part of town, one, whether you like it or not, one of the things that happens at points of congestion especially certain times of day is the cut through traffic finds a different way. It simply does. That's a fact of life. We've all experienced it. I'm going to mention in a minute the time of day if you are your only way out of a major development is past henry clay high school you don't go up less you are dropping off a kid. You don't go past henry clay high school between five minutes of 8:00 and 25 minutes after 8:00. Before that or after that it is a breeze. But during that period of time you don't go. Had her model also doesn't take into account any reduced trips in the richmond road squire's road interchange or intersection as a result of the traffic not going out to edith hayes but staying, it doesn't take into account. It would be hard quantify but she agrees it would be there. There are some significant wait times at the intersection of some of the side streets and the majorv [\+p<;v1 squire's road, yorkshire, east hills, those, that is true of every side street intersection with a major arterial in our community because all the green time goes to the major arterials. If you don't believe that, you can sit... I tell people you can sit at the corner of fontaine and high street and celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Seems like it takes forever for it to change. That is true all over lexington and if you drive in rush hour and I'm sure most of you do. You know that. Why did I put this slide up here other than the fact that I know a lot about it firsthand experience. I said before that there are a lot of cul-de-sacs around the lake and lots of situations where there aren't great access points or there are no the a large number of access points to get out of the lake. This happens to be one that I'm familiar with and I know you all are familiar with. Lake shore drive past henry clay high school. There is a development out at the very end, the lower part of that, called the island. It does have a gated access just for the residents there out the back way although the market of the pacific goes out front. For everybody else outside that yellow including hundreds of units, single family detached, large lots, small lots, duplexes, townhouses, patio homes, a big bunch of apartments. One way in and one way out. You can during dose times you mentioned you can take a route through wallace way and bixby but primarily it's got one way out and one way only goes past henry clay high school. Middle schools are big, high schools are bigger, 2400 students at henry clay high school and unlike the middle schools, a lot of them drive. this is the area that we are dealing with. You see the number of ways in and out. You can come out of our development or the other streets around there you can go and hit buck horn. You can go out and turn left or right on to alumni. You can get out to man o' war that way. You can go out of east hills, beaver creek, you can go out and reach richmond road next to the old jacob's car dealership or you can go out squire's road. Is there traffic out there? There absolutely is traffic. Nobody that's familiar with that is going to assume otherwise. But look at the number of points of access I respectfully suggest to you that this area has more ways in and out than any other development around any of the lakes in lexington. And that's why we believe that the level of traffic, while it will be greater, will be very manageable and should not be a reason to either restrict the density or disen the zone change proposal. >> we are running short of time and you need to hear tom kimer who is the tree expert that I believe will be talked about a fair amount, I do want to very briefly mention compliance with the greenway master plan. We've heard it at neighborhood meetings, conversations with the neighbors and at the committee hearings that they do not believe we are in compliance with the greenway master plan and since 2013 comprehensive plan adopts the 2001 greenway plan, that means for some reason we are not in compliance with the 2013 comprehensive plan. I want to point out the very specific implementation item in the 2013 comprehensive plan is to update this greenway plan. That update was supposed to happen by 2015 and has yet to happen but it certainly is indick atic dick tiff that some things May be out of date. The comprehensive plan says we are supposed to reassess the feasibility of trail alignments. One of the very big issues with the neighbors of why we are not in compliance with the 211 page documents that on two maps for the trails it shows basically a trail going all the way around the reservoir. Instead we have it going through the development not around the water. We would submit that that is not a reason why we are not in compliance with the existing greenway master plan. I don't want to reiterate but tracey already said if you look at the objectives of the man o' war trail and the lake side greenway trail, we are achieving those objectives. She went through it already and we are running out of time so I will not but I do want to point out the trail components for the lake side specifically states that existing neighborhood sidewalks can be utilized in this trail. All of the trail for squire's trail that is not part of old squire eats road is neighborhood sidewalks and so I am anticipating a kind of, based on the conditions that were passed out by Mr. Bigs to want a wider trail system, I just want to point out that not only are we in compliance with the objectives but also the individual components on how the trail should be designed. With regards to the conservation'sment that has been brought up, we've said this many times when developer comes and either a neighbor or a city wants a large basically dedicated area, the greenway master plan shows a conservation easement or greenway of 32 acres on our site. That is clearly not just for the benefit of that site. It is the benefit of the community which kentucky law U.S. Law requires and negotiated dedication. That is specifically in the greenway master plan and contemplated in any type of large taking. I'm going to hand it off to tom kimer now. This slide was shown earlier and I wanted to reiterate what this was. This is from 2002. This is about the time where kentucky american water kind of stopped mowing around the area. This should show you what kind of significant trees are and where they are and that is why we are in agreement with the staff's recommendation of the 25-foot buffer because as you can see, that is where there are actual tree as round this lake water. >> I'm tom kimer chief scientist of venerable trees incorporated dedicated to conserving and ensuring a future for the ancient trees of the bluegrass. We live in the midst of the largest population of ancient pre-settlement trees, trees that pre-date the united states of any settled region in the united states. Most of these trees are in the rural areas of the bluegrass and part of our motivation on working on projects like this is to ensure that we can maintain the current urban service boundary to conserve those trees. At the same time we are interested in preserve as many trees of the ancient trees within the urban service boundary as possible and protecting them during development. Fayette county has lost 90% of its burr oak trees in the last 60 year and most of that is due to development. Y if you look at the aerial photos from 2016 which is what you get when you look at google earth it looks like a forested site. But it's not. It is a site that was primarily agricultural. What you see are the bands of woods are simply fence row and hedge row trees. There is, as we've heard, a very significant 54-inch diameter burr oak on the edge of the property. It is in superb condition. But it is completely surrounded by invasive species. All that red you see there, the green there is honeysuckle. The vast majority of trees and shrubs on this property, in fact about 80% of what we foresters call stock on this entire site consist of non native invasive species. The burr oak is in superb condition. We have inspected it very carefully. We are going to keep and protect it. One thing interesting about this tree is it is surrounded by its progeny, it's baby. There are a cluster of young burr oaks adds well as other tree species around this. If we were develop a tree preservation plan according to the lfucg and the 300 standards we would create a circle of about 81 feet radius. That won't work because of the hill slope that leads down to the apartment complex so instead we've designed an alternative which is the red line you see that's about three quarters of an acre that will not only protect the large burr oak but will protect all of her progeny where are the small various colored dots around there. We'll create a park like area in here, manual will I remove all the invasive species so that people will be able to walk through here and protect this tree. I think this will be successful as most of you know we were very successful at the old schoolhouse tree on harrodsburg road. If you look at the remaining woods. I've spbt a lot of time on this property. You see very young blrg forest. That's a stand of black locust and hack berry with honeysuckle below it. There is no rational reason to retain a woods like that. If you wanted a woods lot I would say start over and plant desirable species. Now let's go down to the lake edge. From a distance across the lake, it looks like a nice stand of forest but up close when you see is a typical very, very dense stands of calorie pair and honeysuckle and a small number of healthy vigorous trees. I've heard this heard as a piperrian forest. It is not. If you look at the top picture of west hickman creek, what you see is the riperrian forest shade the water below it. And therefore protects the temperature of that water and the habitat. The lake edge woods that you see in the lower right there does not have those properties at all. It's far enough back from the water. There are no big trees that are shading the lake. It is not providing the kind of riparian services that the picture shows. If you walk through this, it is extremely difficult. You don't walk through the woods without a chainsaw. It's very dense and what you are seeing here is almost all honeysuckle and now I notice as we start to do this work a lot of dead trees and I realized there was a change in the water level a fairly long-term change in the water level between 2007 and 2010 that resulted in the death of a large number of large trees. If you look at the top picture you can see a lot of large living trees, some of them standing in water and some outside the water close to the water's edge. By 2010 those are all dead and if you look at the bottom left you seat the snags that are left from the death of those trees so the result of that change in the water level is very few large trees near the water's edge. If you look around the lake you find some areas where there are woods, the neighborhood immediately across from this property, there is really nothing down near the shore. A few honeysuckle have been allowed to come in but nobody made any attempt to maintain any forested buffer around the neighborhood. Now we are at preliminary stages of our tree protection plan which will be done as we go along but I'll just tell you what we are going to do. We are going to first of all remove non-native invasive species. I think we have an ethical obligation do that and because the land is within the waters of the united states we May have a legal obligation to remove these invasive species according to the corps of engineers so we'll take care those trees, and the large invasive crack willowses. We'll leave the native trees in place and we are going to do this by hand. We are not going in here with bulldozers. We are going to retain healthy native trees greater than three inches in diameter. Take out for example the white ash because they're going to die anyway. Take out trees that are in poor condition. we'll work with the urban forester to identify trees that we'll retain we are going do this collaboratively with kentucky american because they're retaining ownership of some of this. Just to go back to the 2002 photograph I gruft want to emphasize that we are actually going to be retaining quite a lot of what was there a few years ago. To me as a forester 2002 is the day before yesterday. That's a short time in terms of tree growth so I think we are doing a really good job of preserving a lot of the most important tree features of the property. >> thank you. >> we are in agreement with the staff's conditions and I'm happy to answers any questions. Now for the petitioner. Let me ask first of all is there anyone that wants to speak on behalf of this particular project. That is for it? I got the message. Here what is we would like to do because I don't know how many of you would like to say something or speak on this. First of all I'd like your representative if it's okay to speak first and to have him here. After that, if you hear something you want to come up, you will have that opportunity. We will extend that opportunity. There are some people obviously that May be downstairs in the lobby and if you all would like to come up, we will give you an extra minute or two to get up the stairs or if you are in the mezzanine we will allow you also the same opportunity to come in and to make your comments. We would ask however if you would to limit your comments to three mi we've got numerous number of people here that are desiring to speak. With that Mr. Billings. Well, let me put it this way, Mr. Billings, my commission members up here, their eyes are getting a little watery. Two gl two minute break. >> a three minute break if we could. I know they'll probably take four. >> whatever is necessary. >> exactly right. And come back. I'm here to represent east lake neighborhood association and hundreds of individuals who have submitted no the only written comments in opposition to this proposed zone change and development plan but hundreds of individuals who have shown up here today to be heard. I have 45 minutes for my comments and because one of my experts has to return back to university, I would like to first call Dr. Dan potter from the university of kentucky. Dr. Potter is a distinguished research professor who specialized in entomology and research regarding environmentally responsible methods and means for managing insects, pest if... I guess we are... Let me start that over. Who manages insects and pests of trees. Never put those two words together in a presentation. Shrubs, turf grass and urban and suburban landscape and the effect of pollinators and other beneficial species and his program mainly supports pest management lawns, ornamental shade trees parks urban forests and other green spaces. >> let me clarify one thing. >> that's what I wanted to do. >> so I have been with the university of kentucky for 38 years. >> your name again. >> Dr. Daniel potter. And I'm a university distinguished research professor. Been with the U.K. For 38 years. I study mainly insect pest management in urban landscapes especially lawns. I teach the industry worldwide. Keynote speaker at the mid atlantic turf grass expo in the chesapeake bay area speaking on responsible lawn care management tuesday of next week. And a big focus of my research is the ecotoxicology of pesticides which means the environmental impact. And who took the changer. Here it is. Okay. I want to talk about lawn pesticides first. Okay. In the development like this, we are going have high end homes. They're going to have managed lawns and many of those lawns are going to be maintained by commercial lawn care companies or worse homeowners, fertilized with nitrogen and fossilized fertilizers and I brought along a few slides to show you what the pesticide labels look like. These are four or five of the comoaft commonly used lawn pesticides in lexington. used in a very wide number most are safe are for people but not for fish or other inspects. This pesticide is toxic to fish and aquart cantic vertebraes. To protect the environment, don't allow it to enter or run off into water. Number one product being used for grub control in lexington right now. Environmental hazards toxic to aquatic invert greats oyster shrimp do not apply to water and basically it says it has high potential for storm water runoff into reservoirs and lakes. Merit another one used for grub control. A pollinator hazard but basically the same caveat. This is federal law the products should not be applied close to bodies of water. Tenacity, a herbicide. Again a level well maintained vegetative buffer strip between areas to which this product as plied and surface water features such as ponds, streams and springs to redue deuce -- reduce the potential contamination of the water run off. Another herbicide high potential for reaching surface water via runoff. Buffer strip is necessary to prevent basically water plutionz from runoff. So these are of the pesticides, the same caveats apply to the nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers which are major contributors to water pollution throughout the united states. More than 50% of the lakes in the U.S. Are degraded by the runoff of fertilizers into the lakes. Now how do we, first of all, these are going to be developed homes, the soil will be compacted, it is going to be a slope going down towards the water. The primary best management practice we recommend for minimizing these kinds of problems are adequate green belts. Now I've got a document here from university of kentucky systems of agricultural engineering and bioengineering and agricultural economics planting a buffer zone and I'm going to quote from this, our university of kentucky college of agricultural recommendation. If the goal is to reduce nutrients nitrogens and pesticide runoffs in water, buffer zones of at least 100 feet May be needed. Now I've heard some domestics about 25 feet, water runs downhill. These products are dislodgable for at much as two weeks sometimes longer. Plenty of heavy rains in lexington and I think there is a very high potential on these compacted soils for the run off of pesticides and fertilizers into the reservoir. Okay and that's why I think and I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't live in that neighborhood, okay, but a buffer feet of 25 or 50 feet is simply not enough to prevent runoff of what will be applied to these lawns into the city reservoir. That's why I think that maintaining a buffer zone of at least 100 feet including, you know, talking about above the flood plain, okay because again water is high, that's why I think the 100-foot buffer is really prudent and, you know, most of these recommendations are for golf course ponds. We are talking about the city reservoir here, okay that's about all I have to say. Do you have any questions? I think this is... There are a number of other things could I talk about. Pollen air impact. The fact that cutting down green space has been shown to increase heart disease and stress and mental distress and things but that's for another day. >> we do have a question. I understand you have the lead any how, let's give our panel members if they have questions. >> I do have a question. I think I'm on. First of all, you kept mentioning all the chemical runoff and everything. That chemical runoff, you were mentioning were ponds on golf courses places like that. You have a large, large volume of water here. To my understanding in a conversation with an engineer because I had some concerns that there is enough water in that reservoir to deal with dispayings of those chemicals. Do you disagree with that? >> I don't know how much water is in the reservoir but there are going to be a lot of houses around this property. >> but you are saying they're high end houses on a 55 x 110 lot. I don't know what you are calling high end but that's not typically considered a high end house. >> 80% or more of the homeowners in lexington apply fertilizers to their lawns and this is a sloped environment. The aggregate impact, I think could be significant. Now, you know, obviously depending on the slope, when the products are applied, how much rainfall occurs afterwards, the research shows that there is a potential for storm water runoff which is why the federal labels of all these pesticides, in a number of states, they don't even allow the use of phosphate and nitrogen based fertilizers in environments like this. States like new york state require 100-foot buffer zones around bodies of water. These are the federal labels. >> I understand that. I just, you know, as I say, in my conversation with a local engineer, he felt that there was enough water in that that those chemicals would be diluted or dissipated before they did any harm. >> that's difficult to say. >> okay. We don't want to... We want to err on the conservative side. We have had fish killed from the golf course in the past. There have been well documented fish kills in the reservoir from electrics side golf course. I have the newspaper clippings from the "herald-leader" to profit. >> thank you. >> just one other quick question. I think your study that you referenced there said May need to be 100 feet. Can I assume by that that obviously something that is a slope like that, you would need a further set back. The pictures we have seen of this shoreline is a much gentler slope. Can we assume then that, you would not get the same runoff on something like that? >> you don't get as much runoff on a flat surface as you do on the slope but research shows on compacted soils as in these types of developments there is more runoff. I used to live in a neighborhood that had storm water runoff. If water runs downhill from tree to turf grass lawns into the reservoir you've got a problem. The greater the buffer zone, the bottom of that slope, the more likely it is that that area will buffer the movement of that storm water runoff into the reservoir. It just makes common sense. >> anyone else? >> you said you talked to a scientist or researcher, I'm not sure who that was but what our presentation will show you in kentucky american water did a water quality survey in 2013 and found jacobson reservoir had higher degree of pollutants in it because of this issue. This will only exacerbate which included things like discoloration, odor and therefore they have decreased the use of this as bakeup reservoir because of that issue. I don't know if it is the volume of the water but they've found that that is an issue in the reservoir and decreased the water pool on it. The reason this is important and you are going to see it through my presentation if you could put it up now, thank you, is that there is a myth here today, which they're trying to convince you that... That this tree protection area, which is a distance between the water's edge and all of the paper maps don't show the water's edge. Theories mats because the water level fluctuates in and out and the water fluctuates at a contour line and none of the maps provided actually show the contours. They're all estimates from these. Now there May be some aerial forecasts that show actual water lines at various times but the issue is that in this protection area that they want to suggest, trees only certain trees, not all trees, certain trees greater than three inches will be preserved and you will have turf, grass that goes all the way down to the property line and you will have limited trees in that area. So what you'll actually have is backyards that go all the way to the property line. That's what they don't want to tell you is part of this issue. The binder you have in front of you is not all of the slides but a substantial amount of the slides that I want to go through with you all today. This is my overview r50eu78 going going to talk about the introduction, background and history, going to talk about the density and position of traffic. Going to talk about the conservation easement, repairian buffer and other several denominator but our suggestion is that it should be a 50-foot buffer from the property line and then we are going talk about the trail which we believe should be a 25 trail easement adjacent to or beyond the 50-foot repairian or conservation buffer. You've seen the aerial photographs. Widespread public opposition to this plan. Let me say this. We are not here today to fight that there shouldn't be any development on the peninsula. There is a part of me that would like to make that argument. There is a part of me that would like to say we should preserve 90 acres for public park but I'm not making that. We have jacobson about a mile and a half away from this area for that purpose. What I'm here today is to say we have an opportunity that is one of very few left in fayette county to make a really, really excellent decision on what our development standards are and what development should be. There are a handful of parcels, at least two other more the I know of or a third inside the urban service boundary that will be developed. The reason you had 750 plus letters. The reason Mr. Leer is going to make fun of my math, at least 200 people here today that can't get up here, they're downstairs, is because this is important to them. It's important that the decision for this development be a good decision. I give the applicant credit. They've worked with staff and made some changes since we started the process but haven't made enough to make the plan acceptable. But instead of sitting here and telling you you should deny it. Instead of saying it's not acceptable. And being a road block, what we've done is instead say here is what we think would be acceptable solutions. And the front of your binders you will find our proposed conditional zoning restrictions and two amended development notes that we believe at the end of today you all should adopt.If you are going to approve the zone change. You all note standard krs 200 section 4, the proposed plan has to be in conformity with the comp plan and it is no or the existing zoning is inappropriate and I think everyone nodes a-u is inappropriate for this. And that the proposed zoning is appropriate. Again r-3 is not without conditions and the same as r-4. There is also an issue about economic situations changing and that's not applicable to this case. Tab 2, a summary of the comprehensive plan for each of you all to look at. The applicant went through a different process. We went through one where we identified every element, every theme of the comp plan and did a chart that showed you where it was met or not met. This is a summary of the chart, red, red, red, red. Yes, there is a little green in there. Every plan by its nature can check a box that says we have mixed use housing. that's the drum they seem to beat. But because you meet one box or two boxes doesn't mean that it's good enough. It doesn't mean it's excellent. So some examples are single loaded streets. (Please stand by) But he said the tree protection area, the 50 to 100 foot zone should be preserved to improve aesthetic, wildlife habitat and sustainable management practices. The tree board, your own tree board at fayette county has written a letter that recommends a 50 foot buffer off the property line. And that a trail system should be adjacent or beyond that trail buffer end of the property. Bridget abernathy the chair of the board I anticipate will talk today there were a number of articles regarding rye riparian zones. There are articles and here is what they say across the board. 100 feet is what is required. I would have liked to have found stuff that said more than 100 feet. But I didn't. What we did is we went by what the research showed, not a pre-determined figure. And what we have found is that 100 foot a reasonable and almost uniformly recommended suggestion. For example, here is from the study from yale. That is the riparian buffer zones and recommended bids widths. This is the conclusion. We believe it is necessary to make a fixed buffer with wider than average minimum recommendation of 100 feet. They say it show greater than 100 which is the minimum recommended width. Tab 11, audubon society, is sierra club, audubon society of kentucky. Yes, there are two. Cook submitted one and some of these individuals May speak as well and also you will hear from dave leonard who is a tree arborist specialist and tree expert and he'll testify by video in a few minutes. He was not able to be here today. If you'll recall, we actually moved the zone change from two weeks ago to today so the applicants, witnesses could be here, dave couldn't so we videotaped him. And tab 12 is photos of wild? Life and we'll go through these. These are bald eagles taken out there in the last 60 days we have bald eagles in fayette county and we have not discussed that here is other wildlife. Deer existing on the property, blue herons and all types of birds. February and wildlife said any development has a chance to significantly impact wildlife, especially the bald eagles. If there was an eagles nest, we would have a different discussion you we don't. We were told clearly any development will affect the eagles but that the creation of buffer zones help to keep them in the area, otherwise, they will leave and has been at a habitate in other places. Tab 13. You heard me talk about an alternative proposal, and what we're suggesting here has been done in fayette county before. I did not go back and check the minutes to see which of you was on the planning commission when elersly was developed. But of you who do remember, that was hotly contested between the developer and the neighborhoods. They actually reached an agreement, surprisingly, for a 50 foot zone from the property line in to protect all trees greater than one and a half inches, and that anything that is dead or damaged or dissed -- disease cod be removed which is the urban county forester's permission. Which is what we're approving. The planning commission agreed. Urban county council agreed and kentucky american water agreed. That's the same thing that we're asking for today. Further in that case, which is why you have heard in the committee hearings, I have been a bit frustrated in that case, kentucky american water again tab 13, the first letter there. You'll see two pages in, there is a reservoir protection agreement that kentucky american water required the developer to sign and agree to in that case. That has multiple aspects which include, education of owners regarding pollutants in the water, requires security fencing and it requires phased building. And ultimately, it required the buffer. Why is that not being discussed here? I don't know. I wrote a letter to kentucky american and they said we don't want to talk you to, you can talk to bald homes. They May not have to talk to me but it is a little frustrating the entity that will benefit the most from the sale of this land, ie money, won't even talk to the other group about what could be sustainable management practices. That in fact will protect them. One of the confusing things is, kentucky american says we're going to keep a small sliver of land around the exterior that we'll own and we'll maintain. How are they going to maintain it? There is no road there. There is no access there. Single family lots are there. They have to go through single family lots. Our proposal is if there is a buffer and trail system there is a way to access that. If somebody is hurt on the lakeside, you have a way. You have a systematic way to protect. Water runoff, property boundaries, the marketing of the property, and the environment, wild? Life, trees. The very thing done on the lake when a development was done on the lake is what we're suggesting. It has been rejected so far. I told you money in a he could is. We'll get to the 2013 kentucky american service planning guide. This is a comprehensive guide, it found water quality runoff issues, pesticides, in the jacobson reservoir and reservoir 4. High organic matter which is why it was sort of funny that you asked that because that's exactly what we have found from that survey a copy of the exerts from that are in here. That document is abou4m; 500 pages so I have it double copied if you all would like to see it. Tab 15. You all May remember this zone change from two years ago. It came back a second time last year with some different changes but, in that report, staff noted some important things. They noted several instances where single family residential lots, creeks and flood plain areas like we have here led to a degradation of environmental quality of land and impact the storm water quality. I don't know why they would write it for that one which is only ten acres instead of here which is 90 acres. That was exactly the same one. And everything else was r1c. You all found that r3 was not appropriate because the plan encouraged development at a context sensitive manner to both the environment and the scale of lots to the adjoining neighborhood. There was concern about the flood plain set backs, the proposed density was troubling to staff and pc and you denied the zone change. They revised the plan and came back a year later and you approved it and everything was out of the flood plain with significant set backs. And tab 16, I told that you I would get this to maps in a second. I appreciate you bearing with me. i have a lot of information to cover in less than 45 minutes. What you'll see here is tab 16, I don't have a slide on it but, we went around and measured on an aerial view, a map with numbers that show average distances on three different areas. It showed the average distances on the east lake side, which is down over this way. Sorry, right here in this area. And it shows the average distances over here on shore side and ellerslie. Here is what we have found. The east lake has the smallest average distance back. And east lake doesn't have the heavily forest all over it. The trees were stripped is out years ago but has a significant buffer. It has about 160 feet average. Shore side the second most, 212 foot setback from the water to either the back of the property line of tree line. Shore side is 212 feet and ellerslie has the most. We're not asking you all to do any of those. We're asking you for less than half of shore side. Which if you all looked at aerial views in this and I'm sure that you have. This area here is the same type of tree areas that we're talking about here. Sycamore, oaks, black cherry, black locusts, it have have honeysuckle undergrowth and it does have calipiri or pear trees to be removed. We're not objecting. We're saying protect trees greater than one and a half inch, not just three inches. second is, in tab 17, is our measure of distances. I don't know where staff got 50, he said it is more than 50. I'll tell you it is about 25. You know, one May pay a lot of money to go out there and do pens the measurements. I have 16 average distances that you'll see in our maps right here that we went around and we went to the smallest and we went to the biggest. So, it wasn't just self selected and we did 16 of them so it would be a fair sample. Not just four random ones and our average shows that it is actually a little less than 24 it is 24 but we said 25. And that's off the normal water mark. You saw photos here today, they were taken when the water level was doan down past the normal level. The water level is not normally that low. So what are we suggesting? Tab 17 we just talked about, tab 18 is our comparison. So you saw some apps that staff had done. Here is my map. Staff did not color theirs in so I don't know if mine is easier or harder to read. But this diagram is orange. And it is a full colored in with what is being proposed. That's to scale. You see how little of it is being protected. Our proposal is right here. The green, is this 50 foot buffer around there. And the blue would be the 25 foot trail. How many of those lots are actually unsellable then? hardly any of them. With the little bit of design work, they are still marketable or perhaps there is variances needed. The great thing if they get with it these conditions, they have a lower backyard set back. That's one of the myths an this case that says this case is about selling lots, on the waterfront, not about a great excellent development plan for lexington. 19 is Dr. Potter's letter. I have all of the references that he made here original for his research. If you like them, I'm happy to give them to you as well. Staff has a copy that was given to staff yesterday. So I'm sure that they are in the formal terms. Next tab 21, and let me come back real quick to Dr. Potter. Now, one of the things that he was very clear in his testimony and he said to me before in his letter is that a 50 foot buffer from the waters's edge in which is what they are proposing, a buffer from the water to the property. And then from the property -- or the property which is about a 50 foot buffer is not enough to create the sustainable easement to protect water quality control surface runoff, stabilize banks and food and cover for wild? Life to improve aquatic habitats for fish and other aquatic species. Next, well, the report earlier said that 35% of the property was covered by frees and the photos show that he relied on photos that are ten years old and he wants to go back 15 years but what they used to mow is not what it is today and what what is today is significant, what is today is trees that some of them do need removal. There is bush hockey ask youle. During the break you May have seen a picture and I'll show it at the owned of my presentation. I'll show you the pictures. They went out and cut trees that were 12 and 14 and 18 inchs thick. I'll show you the ruts ruts from the bulldozers. I'm not saying that they were intentional, I'm not saying that there was malfeasance, I'm saying that something happened in the process and whatever they said before, wasn't wasn't going to happen. It happened and I want to make sure it doesn't happen. So there is our proposed zoning restriction. Again, it is in the front of your binders. Finally trails. We have suggested that 25 foot trail easement beyond the 50 foot conservation riparian zone. Who opens or maintains that? You'll see in our notes, in my proposal in the development plan, we've added a note which is won on your development plans. It says that it shall be deed or dedicated to lfucg or a homeowner association the way that almost every single other way of green space now or trails is done in fayette county . The city doesn't have to condemn it. I'm a realist. I understand that that is not likely to happen. but I have a proposal that is better than nothing. It is better than 25 feet to help us to get there. The multi-use trail system, documents referenced this should be built and reference where it should be built. There May be a study that says you should update the bicycle and pedestrian master plan. Absolutely. It does not say because we need to move the trail on a peninsula. The trail system has been in process for over 20 years and one of the reasons why and here is the picture, why it extends ash it is because it is not meant to be a sidewalk cut through. It is meant to be part of an extensive trail system for fayette county. An integral trail system that winds through multiple subdivisions and areas giving distance for bikers and walker and not a straight not a direct line which is what they are proposing. Bluegrass cycling club, tab 22 isn'ted a letter, they have over a thousand members and the President Is here today to speak in favor of maintaining the trail proposed here. So finally, the trail system that they are proposing, is not an acceptable location or design and does not have construction excellence. I want to show you what a trail system is. Can you darken that a little bit. My brother used to live behind one of these houses. Ball home just built this one. they proposed it and it works really great. That's a trail system. The trees, behind houses, and shady lane the arboretum. Can you imagine the legacy trail going through an apartment complex? So instead, this is what we'll have, now, this is a main street off broadway. So I understand that it is not going to be exactly like this. But the problem is, I couldn't find a photograph in fayette counsel that I show as trail system along a multi-use family. I have one example that's close to that. The closest that I could find is a sidewalk next to the apartments. If that's what a trail system is, if that's what a trail system is, we have failed the city of lexington. We have failed urban county council. We haveb_kf failed our citizens and we have failed the people here today, we have failed the people who will live there in the future, if that's what we put in there. We can we should expect better than this again my conclusion I don't come here to create a problem, a solution. My solution is this. We need conditional zoning restrictions on this property if you're going to approve a zone change to r-3 and 4. Density should be limited to 328 dwelling units, a 75 foot buffer area. The trees one and a half cal per which is exactly like ellerslie. And I used, and it says non-native in vasive species like bush, honey ask you. I use the language on how they should be removed, in fact. To make sure that it is done properly. And then we talk about you have to replant with native species. Without these it will not be in compliance with the comprehensive plan you and should deny the zone change and development plan. Thank you all very much. [Applause] >> folks. >> any questions for Mr. Billings? Okay, now what we're going to have is audience participation or our citizen engagement. Again, you will be rep stricted to three minutes, and it would also be good if someone is already indicated what you wanted to say, it would be nice if you would forgo but obviously, if you're passionate about this as I figure that you are, you have a right to be here and you have a right to speak and we'll protect that. So, again, we would ask that we do this in an orderly fashion. Three minutes, and as soon as Mr. Billings gets his materials off and after that we'll go to a kind of a brief present buttal. Who is first? A brief rebuttal. Always when you come to the microphone, give us your name and your address would be helpful. Thank you. , and use it for gravelle for highways out in the midwest. And thank God, they did not do that. so we don't want that to be our legacy. >> okay. >> okay, and the other FIdt  point was, whatever comes out of this, people, it will be forever. It is going to be forever there snow going back. >> thank you. >> I'm Dr. David greenly. I live at 3205 fox chase court which is a part of the hunter's point neighborhood. I am in my 12th year as the incident photographer for the lexington fire department. Plus my 20 years in madison county, I have been on fire service for 32 years. I'm going to give you some information that I am sure that no one else but I can give you, and up have never thought about. If you look at the drawings, and you look at some of the measurements, you need to really take a look at the measurements of the streets. The engine companies that are now responding to that -- that would be responding to this area along with the aerials, if you were to put two cars, one on each side of the street, the new engines which we are so proud to have, cannot go between those two cars. The tragedy of all of this happened and became a big reality in a two-alarm fire in smuggler's gulch. It received a lot of play in the lexington paper, about the fact that we could not get into the neighborhood, because of the way the streets were laid out, the streets were too narrow, and we had to go through a front yard in order to get the ambulance out that had a burn patient in it. Now, I realize that this is not the normal information you probably would read about. But I'm sure in 32 year, remember it minute your granddaughter, or your son, or your relative, or a close friend, that needs our first responders, to be there and I am very, very proud that the lexington fire department is one of the finest responding fire departments in the united states of america. And if you don't believe me, look up in fire engineering magazine and you'll see that we are at the top. That is a gift for all of us to have. And last but not least, in my 40 seconds, the gentleman spoke about traffic on squires road. I -- my backyard is squires road. I closed it off finally with a wooden fence. Because, the speeding had become so traumatic. Please, don't add -- please don't think that the traffic on kenasaw and squires road are comparable at all. Stand behind the big tree at the intersection of green bow street and squires road, and count how many people are speeding and then check how many traffic tickets have been given by the lexington police for that. That's only going to be exacerbated by that we thank you for the privilege of you listening to us today. Thank you. >> and all of the other wild? Life that depend upon the combination of woods and water that is not found anywhere else in town. It is hard to imagine where the comprehensive plan applies if it is not here. With its emphasis on as we develop the infill areas and linking neighborhoods with parks through greenways and trails. The woods for the conservation greenway and the trail to connect this and the other adjoining areas to jacobson park, they are already there complete with a thriving wildlife refuge. If we just don't cut them down and lock them up into private property. Dr. Kimer's latest tree survey stated that heavy equipment would be used to sub substantially remove and thin invasive species. The woods there are not pristine. Like the other local refuges, they are also full of honeysuckle but we do not take bulldozers in there to clear them and we shouldn't do that here either. Instead, the trees should be protected from cutting by the developers and by individual homeowners by separating them from the private lots and placing them under public management. If there is to be any invasive species removal, it should happen in the same careful way that we do in our preserves, and proposed for the -- by hand with immediate replacement with native species to the same density of understory and overstory trees as recommended by tim and tom so that we don't displace the wildlife there. This place is too special to build just another development here. This is our only chance to create an amazing asset for this entire city. By wrapping this development in a park, with teaming wild? Life, and surrounded by a trail that would be a counterpart to the legacy trail in the north. It would be a major permanent loss for the city if this current development plan is approved. Finally, I urge you to reject promises the final development plan will address these issues in future, ball homes made no effort to address neighbor concerns even after several meetings and numerous months of -- several month of comments. Ensuring that any development protects and incorporates the trees of the peninsula, really needs to occur now. Please, adopt the conditions that we have asked for today, and thank you for this opportunity to speak. >> thank you. >> next. >> >> my name is ken cook, and I live on cardinal lane and I work with the friends of wolf run. I work for the kentucky division of water, retired from there and worked as a consultant operating restoration projects here in lexington in hickman south elk horn and wolf run watersheds. I would like to bring to you all today the elements of the storm water management plan that address buffers. And that address the setbacks. You if you could go to the next slide, please. We have specific recommendations in here. We heard 25 feet from the developer from the property line. A specific criteria that's establishs a 50 foot vegetative buffer from the high water mark or the stream bank. I'll go to next slide, please. If you can see, it is hard to see and I'm pointing at the line that makes the urban boundary or makes the zoning boundary. Go to the next slide, please. So you can see how this line basically is really close to the water's edge. Let's go to next slide, please. And, that's different from the other side where we have a little more of a buffer just as an example. Next slide, please. You might wonder where is the water's edge? Well, actually we can defer to the U.S. Army corps of engineers for an answer to that question. And, in their reservoir management, and in other reservoirs here based on the louisville district, we deal with the spillway elevation that creates an elevation around the lake that is the normal high water mark. In other words, at the top of the spillway. Next slide, please. On this particular lake, that's 967 feet of elevation. Now, I do know that it is very difficult to tell where is 967 feet when you're out there in the woods. But I would submit that the developers, engineers, partners can shoot elevations. they know how to do that. So, we can find those lines. Okay, let's go to the next slide, please. Now, this is based on the -- what was called the 100 year flood plain. Now the flood hazard area basically that elevation, zoom in a little bit, please. Next slide. Go to the next slide. That's interesting. It ended there. Okay. Back, back. Basically the only elevation district, difference between the top of the spillway and the flood hazard line is two feet of elevation. So we're thinking the storm water design manual require as significant greater distance than the 50 feet or than the 25 feet proposeedbity developer. I would ask, you can ask the developer this question. What line did they draw the water's edge on? What elevation are they using for the water's edge? And we can find out how far apart we are in what the storm water manual requires versus what we're expecting. Two other components of the storm water manual that I would like to bring. 9.3, section 9.3 of the lexington storm water manual deals with the plant plant communities and standard and specifications within buffer. We would encourage you to make sure that language ensures compliance with that standard in the preliminary development plan. The next component regards to subdivision of the storm water feature. The buffer is the feature that is used to treat the runoff coming from this property. That's a storm water control feature. And, that is not to be S.U. -- subdivided. You're not supposed to chop those things up with depent on individual property owners to maintain the plant communities and the standards and specifications this particular development does that basically, I think that this is a great document. It was proprepared with planning staff through the storm water stakeholders advisory committee, ball homes had representatives at that, home builder association. Our group. So I would encourage you to make sure that your language that you adopt today does not conflict with what is in this document. And using the au boundary of the property boundary as a line for determining the buffer conflicts with that. Thank you. >> thank you. >> my name the addieson and I live on hundreder's point drive. Which boarders the western edge of the proposed development, hunters point drive. I'm concerned a tonight quality of the water that will result from the runoff of lawns, parking lots and driveways from this development. The quality of the water which we have already seen diminished over the years by the development, will be negatively affectled by this proposal. i've seen a wide variety of birds including heron, eagles and other species use the lake as a source of food. Because the lake is used for fishing by the sportsmen club, I'm surprised on occasion to see a boat drifting on the water behind my house. Kaw's water study of 2013 says time and again that the water quality of lake and jacobson lake is already considered poor. The report attributes the increased siltation rates to development. High algae growth is already a problem and kw has hard time treating it without customer complaints of taste and smell. My greatest concern is that many of the new homeowners will be adding fertilizer to their lawns and this was spoken to earlier which will inevitably run off and contaminate the water further. Reduce the density of the development will help to reduce the amount of pollutants. Whether the contaminants flow fast or slow downhill, these chemicals will eventually end up in the lake. The comprehensive plan and storm water manual encourage the protection of our water resources. The proposed rezoning and development plans for this unique area does not show enough recognition by ball homes, of ball homes' obligation to protect a drinking water resource. With some mage nation, this new neighborhood cannot protect the water and habitat, that surround much of the border, but, can incorporate the intangibles that make lexington area special. Intangibles that include a sense of place, the natural beauty and developing in the context of the existing environment. This development can actually be a source of pride to the city of lexington and to us, its neighbors. And not just a source of pride to ball homes' accountants. >> thank you. >> I live at 1000 rain court. I'm a professor at U.K. I an opposed to this plan for several reasons but I'm going to concentrate in in interest of time on one majorrishtion which is the green space. The unfortunately for us, ball homes insists on subdividing the conservation into homes. That means we're depending upon individual homeowners maintaining this buffer in the future. Think about for it a minute. How is this going to happen? Are we going to ask a homeowner to not remove bushs or trees in his backyard because he will be within the flood plain or within the 50 foot buffer. Le how is it for the land owner to know where the land ends and kentucky american property begins. Why are we setting app plan bound to fail? That's why the comprehensive plan says that, conservation green space should be publicly owned by city or by the homeowners association. Welsh this is what the staff said in other cases like nathan pointed out, that it is best for public ownership of this bit of land that we're trying to conserve. now, if ball homes insists on having individual homes, then they should combine that with the hiking and biking trailing but in the interest of not having a hiking and biking trail they need to have a fence. If it is not obvious to everybody by now, I'm an immigrant. I'm a legal immigrant but I'm asking for a wall. [Laughter] I'm asking for -- [Laughter] I mean, how are we going to protect in the future. We can hire the best buffer generated now but if you leave this to the homeowners, how are they going to make sure that they are going to protect that in the future? There the a very simple solution. Right now all of the lake, the whole lake is protected by a fence. Every development that's been put in since 30, 40 years ago, since the development was if you in has a fence around it. Why are we trying to go backwards and not have a fence here? There is a way to move forward and the way to move forward is if we adopt the zoning restrictions proposed by nathan. It is not extreme, it will just match what is presented in other developments in the area. It would be a wonderful gift from ball homes to the city if they also had a nice hiking and biking path around there. Wouldn't it be wonderful in thank you very much. >> thank you. >> >> my name is danita hynes and I do not live in the neighborhood, I live near jessie clark middle school but I drink the water and I'm also a registered dietitian and I previously worked as a water quality specialist in california so I know the importance of abundant and clean water. Couple of points. This land is not wasted, and it is not vacant as the developer said. We could expect the number of wild? Life and native flora species to increase further if the invasive trees were selectively removed in the area allowed to a riparian habitat. As such there is already a school on this unique parcel. If this land is allowed to flourish and blossom to what it could be as a preserve. Conserving this area would help to ensure the high-quality of life for the human and non-human residents of lexington in an uncertain future. The eastern united states has very recently had five 1,000-year floods in less than a year's time in a moment 100-year floods, thousand year floods. Five of them. Since the 1950s, the amount of waterfalling in heavy rain events has increased substantial ly. From 30 to 70% in kentucky and our surrounding states. I have not heard anyone say how climate change could change the water levels of this reservoir in the future. Rising waters into an already too narrow buffer zone would exacerbate the problems. lower water levels due to repeated and extended droughts would concentrate the runoff pollutants and water supply further. Thank you. >> >> I'm bob kennedy and I live -- and I'm also a neighborhood association President For east lake. And I might added that we also did a comp plan transportation section provided the information for that. I left lexington in 2001 for transportation planning management position with palmer engineering. I was there seven years working on various transportation and traffic engineering studies. Retired from palmer in 2009. Called be able for staff consultations this traffic study , 500, we agree with that. And it was approximately 2700 in 2011 so it is almost double. But I'll get into that in a second. And sorry, max, you May find 10,000 -- in fayette county but if you have it, you sure don't want it. According to the us D.O.T. Highway functional classification development, they say the range goes up to about 6,000, 6,082. If we're already approaching this, you know there to be a problem. We're right on the cusp of it. The cdm smith study, they emphasize that the development issue is probably the schools as opposed to development. The SCHOOLSjo&sq a given. So any development is going to add to that. it is going to create more traffic. And this has been said before, in 2016 and level service f in 2022. No build and build. Squires at the new intersection at least the approaches to that intersection, would be eastbound and level service e in the westbound in the P.M. If you go over that, then you're getting into f. And, you don't want that in a residential area. A residential collector like this. They didn't account in their proposal, and in the study for -- they did in the proposal but they did not account for the additional density that they added to this development proposal and it does not include what we have found out is they are planning to redevelopment existing apartments in squires circle to an even higher density. And I know that's not part of this issue, but it is an issue for us because it is right there in the neighborhood and it is going to make the traffic all that much worse. So it is already bad. And I have heard people say, oh, it is okay, it could handle it. Right now we have problems. We have got people that can't get out of their side streets with the spacing and access standards, we have in that neighborhood, that is going to be an issue. Cut through traffic. >> would you give us a concluding statement, please, sir. >> okay. well, I'm just going to say part of the biggest part of the problem is the cut-through traffic is coming from man of war through the alumni through richmond road, and that is, you know, typical when arterials are not operating properly in the t intersection, it is not going to avert traffic for man of war. We saw a crash, I saw a crash right where this entrance is going to be, and, people were cutting through but not only were they cutting through, they did not stop entirely for the accident. Some people turned around and other people drove over the occur can bes and drove through the utilities and had numerous, just to sum this up, we've had numerous speeding tickets in the last five years on squires road. And,for disregarding the stop and five at east hills, 53 crashes in the last five years and 9 east hills -- (Inaudible) And so, I wanted to add one last -- sorry. One last thing. This bike trail because I know that I was around here but this bike trail has been included in the plans since the 1990s and with that I'll concludes. Sorry for taking so long, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> >> my name is tony, and I'm the President Of the central kentucky audubon society. I do not live in this area but I represent 60 local members of the national audubon society, the oldest existing bird protection group in the world. This proposed development plan contrasts sharply with our non-profit's mission. this well-known as habitat for wide variety of bird and other wildlife. Look at the data which is a national database of bird sightss used extensively for research and conservation. It documented 117 species of birds in this area. Ten of which are listed on the most recent state state of the birds record report, species of concern. Meaning they have shown significant population declines. I have that list here, it includes rare duck, sand pipers and yellow legs, red headed wood peckers all reported in this area. I should note that that note of 117 species May be higher. The limited access to the peninsula makes it very difficult to get an accurate tally. Fayette county reported over 200 species of bird and they are likely more that utilize this area over that time. Bird species that find themselves in decline is primarily because of habitat loss. Limiting the riparian buffer ignores the fact this area is a critical and unmatched resource for birds. Song bird, my grants and even raptors mentioned the mature and immature bald eagles that have been documented. The prime habitat to retain only a minimal riparian buffer managed by individual home owners not yet set at least fencing to keep them from cutting every tree all the way down to the water's edge, your buffer is going to be a scoff law in no time. It will in varley lead to degradation if not complete destruction of the area's wildlife value. Lexington's master plan incorporate as forward thinking vision of balanced protection of natural areas with well planned urban growth. That plan calls for the protection of a conservation greenway bordered by a trail that would open the area to public nature viewing bird watching and it could potentially be a significant asset for this city. We urge the planning commission to deny rezoning approval to any plan that does not abide to that original master greenway plan. And to rigorously enforce protection of a substantial broad riparian buffer to ensure the critical habitat function remains intact. Thank you. >> thank you. >> hello, Mr. Chairman and members of the planning commission. My name is teresa sutherland and I live at hunter's point drive down at the bottom of the hill. This is a unique place. And I think that it is evident from the 700 letters that you all have received for over 700 from the mass of people that are here today. In addition, the hope that you will low pressure to each and every one of us and all of the concerns that we have. We try to meet with ball homes back in late fall, and we had over 75 people attend that meeting. They did not listen to any concerns that we've expressed here today. This is not vacant land but as everybody said there is all kinds of wildlife there is deer but not one or two. There has 14 seen at that time. This is important to assault of us and it should be as a city that we want to preserve this land. We want to preserve the bald eagles. If you live on this property, live anywhere around there, you do know that traffic is bad at times and if you put 2,000, 3,000 more cars on this property, it is going to get worse. If they put a middle school in and that's the word they said, if they put a middle school in, something needs to be addressed with that. It needs though be stated that they can't put more high-density apartments, town homes in this property. That will only increase our traffic flow. I think that miching they want to do a four-story apartment complex and that's not you would community area so I don't see how they can do that as well. So we do ask you to take our considerations, 2,000 to 3,000 more cars on the load and would you want that on your road or road that you have to use to get out. I certainly don't. And the last thing is I'll take the farm truck or hay truck as opposed to 3,000 more cars on my road. Thank you. >> >> marilyn siler, cool water drive and I overlook the reservoir. I understand that city planning does not encourage radical jumps in the prevailing character of established neighborhoods. Build allege new development and homes beside adjacent neighborhoods with generous yards does not fit the prevailing character. Building newhouses with essentially lake front property directly across from established neighborhood yards with a trade and fenced buffer, is another big leap in character. Building up to four story apartments that will by nature be rented by transient populations, towering over a stable neighborhood with the majority owner occupied one, to two-story houses, is out of character for our quiet, safe, close knit community. Developing a new neighborhood without continuing the scenic family friendly squires walk bike path connecting established neighborhoods with new is an unfortunate deviation in character. Adding immensely to the traffic impact on squires road, a hilly curving two-lane road that already suffers from crowded drive times, I would call that a leap in the character of the neighborhood that will bring our streets to a bottle neck. Removing and not replating the habitat with birds amphibians enjoyed and photographed and loved by our neighborhood animal lovers and bird watchers, why? That is a huge salt as well as a terrible infringement on the existing neighborhood owners, quiet enjoyment of their properties. But it is not about a view. I can't begin to describe indiana fringements that I it we make on the peninsula's flora and fauna. It will be a jolt to the point that we'll be escaping and or dying as the bulldozers destroy their homes. >> thank you. Next. >> >> I live at 124 idle hour drive. I am the President Of wild runs native plants and natural landscapes. It is an organization that promotes the growing of native plants and gardens, public and private and I'm also a professional landscaper. The lexington chapter fully supports the ideas laid out by Mr. Billings and the alternative development plan that he presented. The trail much better, which would be much better than proposed, the 100 foot buffer and the much lower density. We stand completely behind this our chapter has 150 members. And many are still here today. We support the urban service boundary. And, also the need for infill. We're not against development. We know it needs to happen but we also believe that there exists a unique opportunity to think creatively. About the kind of urban housing that allows residents to be surrounded by nature, and to engage with it. Study after study has shop people in a natural environment are healthier and happier than those who dwell in an entirely human built environment which is the kind we pretty much have in the suburban environments in lexington now. So we hope you'll consider the nature that will get lost and that could be preserved as you make your decision. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you for hearing me. My name the aralsman and I live at 1004 fog court. My house backs up directly to the reservoir. I have a beautiful view. I was a lexington firefighter for over 30 years and I personally drove ambulances and fire trucks through most of the neighborhoods, and probably if you live here through your neighbor. My other firefighter friend so graciously said many of the points that I was going to point out. So I'm going to point just a couple of other things out and I'll be finished quickly. One thing that as a medic on the lexington fire department, that is one of the primary things that we learn is when you're in trouble, when your life is in danger and choking and flood circulation stops, anything that throws you into a critical mode, you have four to six minutes. That's it. And then unsustainable brain death starts to occur. You don't want to come back. You won't be able to breathe on your own. It is critical. So many times even on some of the older streets in lexington like oldham avenue when the college kids park on friday nights, it is tough to maneuverer the streets and you can see the house burning, I can assure you that like my friend said, the lexington fire department will do anything to get it. Lexington is a fabulous place. I moved here from another place because I came once and I said this place is great. Many years ago. And it has remained that way. Most places, we had problems. There are a couple of apartment communities in lexington that are so dense, that at nighttime, when the traffic is there, when they are parked, we cannot maneuver through them so we have problems. So if the building is burning, it is going to be difficult. We have to drag the lines through the apartment community to get to the building. It is tough. Especially when the lines get water in them. The next thing that I want to tell you is that this whole thing because, and I understand profit. I was also a builder for about ten years in this town. I built a lot of houses and commercial buildings. But, money can't be the only thing that is of importance. It is kind of like, the movie jimmy stewart was in. A wonderful life. This is going to be bedford falls WHICHs a place that people want to come and raise their children, or it is going to be pottersville. And you have that authority to keep it one way or the other. any ebay, thank you. >> thank you. >> >> anyway, thank you. >> thank you. >> and I believe that the traffic impact has been downplayed for streets coming on to squires. Next point, I believe that we're already low on our tree canopy. We need to take great care to save more than the minimum number of trees. Bald eagles remained under the federal protection from the 1962 bald eagle and golden eagle protection act and I would like to look at the language of that to see if a nest is required or if it would really be -- if it would be a problem to just be tampering with the habitat and I think we need to reject the idea if something was always planned to be used, that it must be used. And that as densely as possible. It is already in use just not by us. And must the property's value only be into development value. Thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you all for giving us all of the opportunity to speak and for listening to all of us. My name is jeff heron and I live at 3205 buck horn drive. For the last four years now, I have driven past the property in question every morning to drop first my daughter and later my son off at the hayes middle school. A school which is for a long time been overcrowded, overcapacity. When I heard there was a middle school going here, I was excited and hoped that it would be time for my first grader to attend there. However, I have the feeling that the applicant has thrown together a plan and feels that because it has a much-needed middle school on it, it will be given defacto approval and I want to ask you not to provide that. By the way, I wanted to mention I dropped my child off at the middle school at 7:20, even though school doesn't start until 9:00, there are lots of traffic going in and out for clubs, before school care and such. I would be happy to support a plan with adequate accommodation for the increased traffic that will be there. I would be happy to support new neighborhood where our reservoir has adequate fenced or otherwise buffered. And I would even be able to accept the r-3 rating that they are asking for the we could have the -- accept the proposals made by Mr. Billings. I urge you to consider the proposal, the modifications from Mr. Billings, and this zone change's co-requisite. Do not adopt one without the other. Thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is bob williams and I live at 2109 broad head place and if you recognize that address, you know that I don't live in neighborhood. That is directly affected by this. Going this late in the day, it is hard not to be repetitive but I'll try my best not to be. i have not a lawyer or a civil engineer, I am not a -- I wouldn't call myself an environmentalist. Or an animal lover of sorts. But, I have been in lexington a long time and I came here as a cyclist probably selfishly to support lexington on the trails and around the roads. And I was pretty excited to hear what could be coming here on the east side of town, the southeast side of town instead of having to travel to the legacy trail and I want to make sure that I thank the city for making cycling more safe for those who do cycle. The opportunity with the legacy trail, it is great. The opportunity to drive or ride out in the country, it is wonderful. But, I can't be here just as a selfish cyclist. There is more to it than this, and after listening there is more to this. I have lived here 34 year and one thing I learned about lexington is important is water. And, what I have heard is, how important this piece of land is. And I think that probably not the least of which, maybe the most important is that it is surrounded by water. And, what I see lexington doing and I'm enthused about is lexington making water more accessible to people. Not just homeowners that might live on there but what you're doing with the cane run concerned -- with restoring cane run. What you're doing with a town branch commons and making water or maybe you rediscovering water within lexington, making it available to people. So I hope that as part of this process, that this May be the last big opportunity you have. There isn't that much undeveloped land around the water. And you make this opportunity available to give that space to the public, not just to those lucky 50 homeowners that might back up to that reservoir. So anyhow, I appreciate the time and I was a little surprised the neighborhood only asked for 100 feet. I thought that maybe a little more with that safe bike trail. One thing that I want to mention is that, I do ride the trail. I do ride the roads around lexington fayette county. And when I go to the rides on the road, I make sure that I tell my wife where I'm going, and when I get done, I tell her I'm done. So she doesn't worry about it. And that's what these trails offer. When I go to legacy trail she knows that I'm safe. These trails offer that safety. These wide trails so take that into consideration, please. When you make the decisions about widening this buffer. Thank you. >> thank you. >> ma'am. >> my name is nancy kennedy and live at 661 squires on the corner of squires and alumni. I could testify for the 20 years that I have lived there what the traffic problems are but I want to hit three points about the traffic. That we' mentioned getting into the traffic flow. Everybody on squires road, back out driveways, I have to make myself go to work before 7:30 as it is. These people will be land locked when you increase the traffic on squires road. There is absolutely no way for them to get out of their driveways and back out. Point one. Point two is, if the traffic flow increases 779 cars, per hour, that's 13 cars a minute. That's a whole lot of trafficful third point is they have not discussed -- I also own the house on 3200, hundreder's point. My son lives there with my grandchildren. I commute back and forth a lot. It is four tenths of a mile from my corner to his corner. And there are four intersections. The only way to handle the traffic is to put four all way stops in four tenths of a mile and I think that's unreasonable. We won't even talk about the fact they should have had a red light at the corner of squires and alumni years ago. Because 9% of the people don't even stop and I see numerous accidents there. But those are the three points that I wanted to make that I did not think were covered on the traffic studies. >> thank you. >> >> I'm glad that I didn't run for council earlier. My name is tom, 4033. What you're not familiar, with I sat between east hills drive, and beaver creek. >> the circle road, this trail that we're talking about, if ball is building the same one he proposed at the corner of squires circle, and squires road, that would be a good example to look at. Traffic is a bigger issue to me than anything. Development is going to happen. I have no problem with that. But I do think that you'll have to cut it down. Thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> >> hello. I'm rebecca abner and I represent my son who owns a home at 636 squires road. I am at his house a lot. His house is right at the corner where the trail starts that you can walk up and go all the way down to buck horn. To back out of his driveway, you have to turn your flashers on to get out of there. He has had his mailbox knocked down three times, and just took out a mailbox up the street, straight into a brick mailbox. The fact is that the traffic will be deplorable. If this is developed which I'm sure it will be. So what I'm saying about the multiple dwelling needs to be cut back. I live p in an area where it was developed by said developer, and they destroyed our area. You can't get it in and out. They have house upon house and I agree with the firemen, there is no way that they could get car back in this one area. A truck in this area. You do good to get a car. there is going to be parking problems if they do multiple out there. Property values are going to be lowered. When you start putting multiple units in, you have transit renters, you have people that leave, you have people that don't care for the property, and you have landlords who don't care for the property either. Cookie cutter neighborhoods, lexington has become famous for it. We have terrible housing. You can't get a lawn mower between some houses. It needs to be cut back. The eagles are the consideration. My son, you could sit on his deck and he sent me a picture at squires. There is an eagle seth setting on his tree on the pathway there. He was out there for several weeks. He roosted every night out there. I went out and I sat on the porch, and watched him come and in the evening. You need -- and as my thinking is about the school, if they are going to put a school in, has that contract been signed. If it hasn't, and the school doesn't -- fayette county doesn't take for it a school, what happens to that big plop of land right in the middle? My suggestion would be as a good citizen and good developer, the ball would donate property to fayette county for that middle school. And the last thing is our water quality. is no way that you can think that our water is not going to be contaminated. When you have got people, you have trash and water. It is a standard. You go out squires road, reservoir is here and you're going to richmond road. On that side there is a back pond. It has been low because of the drought. It is full of trash. Nobody whoever is responsible for that, nobody cleans that out. Downsize or have them do it. >> thank you. >> my husband and I are from -- >> your name, please. >> I'm sorry. >> and address. >> I'm helen born and I live at 1004 rain court. And I love living there because God knows that I hate brown grass and I have lived a lot of places that have it. We recently retired and moved here because personal reasons. But, we were impressed for a lot of reasons. But we took quite a few months finding a home and where we settled at, is quiet. I'm a veteran. I spent over 30 years serving my country. So did my husband serving the red cross. And we needed some place quiet. And we see the stars, and we lived in government housing for years. And we wanted to have a home that we worked hard for. So we were told that the across us was a bird sanctuary and that caught our attention because birds very fragile. They are very precious. And, since I'm military, nip who would not appreciate the american eagle is sort of unamerican. Bird sang years can disappear -- bird sanctuaries can disappear. You know what happens when pesticides get in the water. It doesn't look good. And once it is taken, it never comes back. Military is expected to sacrifice. Personally I feel that every american has to sacrifice and it is sort of irritating to come to america and to discover places being rearranged, destroyed because people who stayed under the protection of their military are able to do that without anybody saying anything about it. Except maybe you. I think that sacrifice falls on everybody. I have never seen a squirrel or a rabbit hop on a bus or a deer get in a truck to drive off to work. The difference I'm trying to make here is that humans can. New york city realizes it was outgrowing bounds in the 1800 1800s, -- hired Mr. Olmstead to punch out or carve out a piece of property and develop it into central park. New york city did it also. Lexington has been talking about it, expanding and growing and developing. I'm sorry that you're yaw inning. We are tired too much in san francisco, new york, they realized they had to keep a piece of wild forest. for the future. And if lexington continues to grow, you have to look at how much forest is left. There is plenty of farmland that has been used for years. Then develop those. But forest, with the sanctuaries and habitats need to be protected. Anyway, I see all of the flat bed trucks going down squires road, ripping off the limbs and eating the curbs, bringing in the concrete windows, pipes, electricity. Whatever at the need to build with. Who is going to is a country tis there? The citizens that live along squires road. They did not expect this to happen. I did not expect it to happen. Like a lot of veterans and I'm sure that there are some in the room, my hearing is not great. I sort of looked for a place that was quiet. And I walk at night, I can see the stars. That is something that is unique. Someone mentioned a special place, one of our visitors to our home from our church, she sort of had tears in her eyes because she said her father used to take her boating on the reservoir where the trees were big, where our house is. You know, people have to have a place to live but there has to be a balance. People have to have jobs. But there has to be a balance. Sorry, I took more time. >> thank you. >> make the right decision. >> hello, my name is libby king and I live on dewey drive. World class city. I believe that is a phrase that I have heard mayor gray use to describe his vision for our city. Ask yourselves if this proposal by ball homes is part of a world class city. Thank you. >> >> good afternoon, my name is nancy ruger. I'm just here to tell you how much I would love lexington, did not grow up here. I grew up in canada and london, ontario. And I travel a lot, and I love madison wisconsin as I think that many of the people in lexington do who are using madison wisconsin as a way of studying how a city has become a number one best city and I just really encourage you to continue to consider the development of properties, utilizing our rivers, and our waterfronts, and a way that encourages the wildlife. But also, the green spaces and the areas for walking and I think the property around the reservoir is beautiful, and encourage that we just allow trails, walking trails, biking and access and also that buffer that will allow for proper habitat for our amazing birds and wild? Life. Thank you. >> thank you. >> >> hi, I'm david and I live on dewey drive in lexington. And it is late. I would like to thank you all for giving me just a second. We're all reasonable people. It is reasonable for ball homes to want to develop this land and to make money doing it. It is reasonable for the people in the neighborhood to voice their concerns about what that agreement is going to be. But what it comes down to is, compromise. So a sidewalk is no more a bike path than the space between the sidewalk and the street as a park. They talked about people having to back out in order to get on to squires. That's a huge concern if you're going to increase traffic bus must they showed the pretty diagrams with all of the roads that lead out to alumni and to richmond road but they don't show the traffic that is backed all the way up beyond those streets. So how people are going to -- how you manage that is another concern. So, as a reasonable man, I ask you to consider, make them build the trail before they do anything else, make them improve the streets or agree to improve the streets before you do anything else and then with a development, err on the side of preserving the nature and the beautiful unique views that come from that end of that peninsula rather than give it over to maximizing profits. Thank you. >> thank you. >> >> I have someone that wasn't able to be here so we videoed him. >> okay. >> so who is this? >> it is ready to go. >> I'll tell what we'll do. We'll take another little break and get it cueed up and what have you. Or is he ready to do it? Okay. Sorry. I didn't know. >> I've been taking care of trees in lexington for almost 50 years and a board certified master arborist. And a good definition of me would be a tree expert. So, the area to be developed is -- it contains the best soil in lexington. And when it is developed, basically there is not going to be any soil left in the area that is developed. And what that does, the remaining soil is so compacted that it will not support good tree growth, but, the other part that it does is, it causes extensive runoff, and not normal filtration of the soil and we get tremendous pesticide and herb cite runoff into the reservoir. And that is not acceptable. In lexington, we're trying to preserve canopy right now. We need to. We're a growing heat island. And we have tremendous storm water issues, and here we're not doing that very well at all. So another step we need to preserve would be more than removing canopy. The photos they used in the tree inventory, the photos they used in the tree inventory report are not accurate, not correct. They are actually ten years old. And the area is actually a lot more forested than it shows. By almost 50% more. >> you think there is about 65% total cover about canopy today? >> a good 60%. The -- is to be protected and that's a start. But it is not nearly good enough. There are hundreds of significant trees in the area that are not showing on the report. And to me, a significant tree is something that is 50, 60 foot tall, I'm standing in a forest of them, those are significant. And they are present and they are not accounted for. What we need is a minimum of 50 foot conservation easement from the property line, in order to have enough soil volume to support the existing trees, and trees in the future. If we don't have that, you won't grow a tree that is worth anything. If you have a fish in a fish tank, and it is a five gallon fish tank versus a 100 gallon, it grows to that size. Trees are just like that. And they need a volume of soil, and if you don't have the appropriate volume of soil, you'll not have a decent tree. We're finding that out and that's a huge problem in lexington already. So, besides the significant tree issue, there is significant tree stands. We have forests of black locusts, individual tree clusters, that are a natural -- not really sink holes but obviously, they are there for some reason. And they are significant trees. they are 50, 60, 70 feet tall and none of them are shown on the program. None of those are shown on the report. The 50 foot easement really is necessary to support the trees that we need, but, also, to catch the pesticide and herbicide that will be applied to how many yards? Hundreds of yards. And we know everybody wants a nice lawn. And this is what we're going to be dealing with and we have to be -- we need to be environmentally responsible and mindful and these residences needs to be taught -- residents need to be taught. >> okay. First of all, ladies and gentlemen, I was just informed that by my colleagues in a couple of places that potentially that May not have been a good thing for me to allowed to happen. Because we can't cross-examine this gentleman, and we can't, you know, -- so that was my mistake. And I apologize for that. With that said, let me go back and, someone said there are over 93,000 words in the webster's dictionary but the two most critical words are thank you. Thank you for coming down, and expressing yourment for your communities and the passion that you have brought here. I did something else that's unusual because we don't allow clapping but I did promise that if you wanted to applaud your people, that I would allow you to do that so this is your time if you want to -- [Applause] It seems like we're breaking new ground in many ways. We've never had quite this many people here as well. The other thing, here is the other way that we'll follow our process. We now have a time for rebuttal. And the applicant has an opportunity to come forward and to make some final statements. Time limit of about five -- five minutes. >> thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to begin by echoing a little bit of what the chair just said. I would -- I know that there are a lot of strong feelings. I have been in a lot of these hearings over a lot of years and this is as respectful and civil a presentation by the opposition as I believe that I have ever seen. And that doesn't always happen in this day and time. And I do appreciate it. Let me tick off a number of things that came up. One of the things that is interesting to me, I sat with ray ball and I kept asking him of those folks that are appearing in opposition, how many of them live in neighborhoods that you all built? And it is maybe the majority. They developed and built houses in this whole area. And they built houses on things that once were farms. I told you that. When I was a boy and when I was a teenager driving, they were farms. Home to all of the wild? Life that we have heard that this properties is home to. And, them, living in areas like that and not wanting to lose something like where they originally or where the houses are now built is a natural sort of thing. We have bald eagles. My son sent me an email about one that dropped a fish on the road way not that long ago. We have ducks all kinds. We have birds, bird watchers that show up out there and watch the birds on those lakes around which development has occurred. Statement was made that we don't need apartments. Reality is we need single family apartments homes. We need both. The other area set backs if you look at the topography you will notice something pretty significant and I think researches was made to it earlier, just happens that this is an area that slopes jeptly down to the edge of the reservoir. Elersly does have a big set back there is a huge slope difference between the development where it is on the top and the edge of the lake a young lady spoke passionately about the concerns about extension of her street. I get it. I don't have young kids anymore but I have grandkids. Any street that is stubbed into an area projected for future development has that potential and that's what has happened here. This street is being connected where it was projected to be connected for decades not just years. As far as tree removal, dr. Kimer said that trees in the protected area would be handled by hand and not by machine. Last but not least. You have the neighbors on the one hand and they have their issues and their agenda. You got the developer. Who is always in the middle? The staff. Tim query signed off on the buffer proposed in the conditional use permit. The staff has considered the argument from both sides and believe me the neighbors and lawyers and representatives have met with them as much as we have. They've taken everything into account and they've come up with a balanced approach and a recommendation for approval for the development plan and the zone change and at the end of the day we respectfully submit that should carry the day. Thank you. >> Mr. Billings. >> thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the commission's time on this long and lengthy hearing approaching four hours at this point. I want to briefly in rebutal do two things. We didn't talk about it earlier but it's called squire's circle. The reasons and this is from an old development it was intended to be a circle and one of the reasons is it promotes traffic flows with right turns, right ins and right outs and the proposal dise signed has a road plan if you want to go across, has a right turn and left turn or a left turn. It creates a stop in traffic instead of the design of a traffic. We didn't deal with it extensively earlier, the design of this is going to cause enhanced traffic problems because it doesn't flow in a circle like the road says. Second we didn't talk about it much but there is a set of townhouses here that is going to be redeveloped. It is not part of the zone change so there is no vote on it but something you should take into consideration considering the traffic density in the future because what happens here is going to further impact here. Staff made four conclusions regarding why they believe the zone change is appropriate and I want to briefly address each one of them. Number one, they said that this development has a mixture of housing types. That's correct but they also missed the comprehensive plan said it should be done with context and design features of neighboring area, gold 2-a. We suggest to you set backs we provided does do that. There is no neighboring r-3. R-3 could have over 800 units on this parcel if it was done without restrictions which is why we believe a density limitation is necessary and appropriate under that goal. Number two we talk about trail connection. Staff says the trail connection because it has a connection is sufficient under the comprehensive plan. The trailings a sidewalk, a sidewalk, a sidewalk, a sidewalk. A sidewalk by any other name is still a walk. -- is still a sidewalk. Finally single loaded streets we talked significantly about that before. Every school by its definition is a single loaded street because the school is on street frontage. Therefore by definition every single school anywhere is going to meet the definition if we look at it by simple language because the school itself is on the street and therefore something is single loaded. I think we Miss The import of the comprehensive plan especially with respect to how it should interact with the neighborhood. What you didn't hear us argue is that on its face the plan should be denied because of the lack of single loaded streets although we think that is a justification, was we believe is when you begin to look at other things like the buffer and trail system that other things like the single loaded streets along the waterfront that should be protected by the comprehensive plan, those can be surrendered as part of the negotiation as part of a compromise to use Mr. Martin's words. I know this is a complex process and at times you compromise. I think we have tried to go beyond. We've gone beyond what we probably could have or should have asked for. And tried to make a proposal we think does compromise a lot of things like single loaded streets around the school or around the lake. And finally, 25-foot buffer. you can look at our map up here and you can see what it creates and what it doesn't do. It doesn't destroy their development. It doesn't destroy the economic conditions of their development. It doesn't destroy their ability to market lots as waterfront property. It doesn't prohibit development. What it does do is reaches a unique balance between density for multipurpose housing. It reaches a balance between recreation with trails for pedestrians and bikes, reaches a balances between lots that face wooded areas and waterways and reaches a balance of conservation repairing areas and sufficient distance that mimics the neighborhoods on three other areas of the lake that protect soil quality aquatic life, wildlife, fowl life and is a better balance together that a mere 25-foot buffer the staff has recommended. Commissioners it has been a long day. I know you all have a lot of comments. I really, really, really want to ask you to consider what we've proposed. We have fought long and hard internally to make sure what we proposed did not overreach. We had serious and long discussions about what we should propose and we think at the end of the day our proposal cuts the delicate balance that you all should adopt today. Thank you. >> thank you. Staff. >> I'll be brief. You heard some comments from retired firefighter and Dr. Greenly who actually is a volunteer for the fire department. He is not a sworn employee, just to clear that up. With that said they did bring up some good points and the division of fire with traffic and jr.Ing and planning are looking at street width and how we can make those better in future developments, new developments. Comping back to this plan, it is a preliminary plan. We are in talks with making that a collector street with traffic and I think they're on board with that going around the 20-acre school zone and also the streets on the the side streets, if they're not built wide enough for parking on both sides, then we are going to push for restricted parking. So we are reviewing this at the division of fire to make it a workable plan. Can I answer anything else? >> not right now. >> thank you. Just want to get that out there. >> Mr. Martin. >> just very briefly would like to be sure we clarify a point with you because I know you hear an awful lot at these meetings. And you hear a lot about how our regulations work. And so I want to make something very clear to you that the storm water manual, and the requirement, will of course be followed at the time that actual construction documents are being prepared. Plans are boo for example prepared. They will be followed. and so when people cite these requirements, I would have you know that the storm water manual states that all storm water infrastructure that is designated as part of the public drainage system shall be designed and constructed in accordance with the storm water manual and standard drawings and the point of that is they have to follow those requirements. And when it comes to the staff's recommendation with the 25-foot conditional zoning buffer, we are confident that it should incorporate that vegetative buffer required by the storm water manual. Now they will have to document that. It will have to be proven. And if it proves to be more restrictive, then it will be more restrictive but we wanted to make that very clear to you, that the manuals will be followed and they will be followed at the appropriate time and that again staff is confident that our recommendation should encompass that. Just wanted to make that clear. >> thank you, Mr. Martin. >> Miss Wade. >> thank you. Three points. First I think that perhaps Mr. Billings misspoke when he quoted an average density for, I believe he said the county. The information I have is that six units per acre is the average density inside the urban service boundary. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page with that. Secondly, I did speak to the engineering representative from the american kentucky water this morning to clarify some concerns that had been expressed to the staff. And my conversation with him indicated that beyond the zone change and beyond the council approval of a zone change, kentucky american water will still be working to negotiate the standards for soil erosion and sedimentation control with ball homes. There is not an open door we are going to do nothing policy. They are going to continue to work to ensure the safety of their water, the water body that is adjacent to the subject property. I wanted to make sure the planning commission understood there was not just no understanding that kentucky american water is, you know, still concerned and plans to further mitigate as appropriate: lastly there were conditional zoning restrictions suggested and bill, if you could put that on the overhead by the opposition. The staff are concerned about several of those in terms of being appropriate as a conditional zoning restriction. Krs and article 6 of the zoning ordinance actually lay out what the planning commission can consider in terms of conditional zoning restrictions and I believe three of those go above and beyond what we feel comfortable with the planning commission adopting and would be better as if the planning commission wants to adopt those, would be better as development plan notes. For the planning commission items under 3 which is conditional zoning restrictions suggested by the opposition b 1-1. Not sure about the numbering. That in addition to the size and the distance suggested that go beyond that and actually require the removal to be by hand and that there be a one to one replacement. We think that that goes beyond planning zoning restrictions and if they plan to adopt those part of development plan notes. In addition, item 2 below that also circled and noted with dp next to it, the phased approach. We also believe that is appropriate as a development plan note not conditional zoning restriction. And item 3 on their submittal is more of a finding not a zone conditional zoning restriction asy with. I believe that addresses... That addresses the staff's comments but I would, as always let the planning commission know that we are available for questions as are the rest of the staff and other divisions available for other questions if the planning commission has them. Thank you. >> is that it? Thank you. What we are going to do and we ask your patience on this. We are going take another break. It has been a long day. After that we'll come back and wind up. We'll open it up for the commission members to ask any of you any questions that they May have. After that we close it off and we have our own deliberation here and then we vote. All right. Thank you. About five minutes. Thank you very much for your patience and the opportunity to take a second break and now I'm going to ask my commission members if they have any questions of any of the applicant or the citizens or whatever. We'll do that as part of a general question and answer session for clarification. After that we'll close it off and we'll have our own little discussion for which you all can certainly be there to listen to. Miss Mundy. >> I'm not sure who to ask this of but I think it would be counsel for ball homes. Is not the contractor the school between kentucky american and fayette county public schools? >> they have not signed a contract. >> but that agreement is working for kentucky american and the school and ball homes has nothing do with that, correct? >> that is correct. There is a process the school has to go through, petitioned the state board of education and got a letter approving the site subject to conditions they typically I am impose and they're moving forward with that. >> thank you. >> thank you. Miss Mundy asked first question. The second one we are hearing a lot, we've heard a lot of numbers, 50, 25, 50, 50, 25 as far as the buffering and so forth. My question is more specific in the fact that and I think you touched on it a little bit. The water company said this is what they're recommending on the side that you want to develop. We've heard that there is more buffering on other places other land banks, other sides of the reservoir. >> right. >> you mentioned ellis leer. Can you expand on the reasons any? >> I think if you look at all the other properties developed it wasn't a situation where the water company owned the developable area. Elersly is built on the old denton farm and kentucky american already owned the property where the current boundary is and I'm pretty sure, now I don't want to go too far, I'm pretty sure each of the other places around there, they didn't own a tract of land like they own in this case. They owned the perimeter of the reservoir so I believe, and I want you to... Other than the elersly one, I'm not entirely sure, but I believe this is different in that they actually own the property and they were able to decide where they thought the boundary lines should be. They decided the boundary lines before we had any contract with them. They decided those before the whole process whereby we became the successful entity to purchase it. >> okay. Thank you, sir. Mr. Cravens. >> Mr. Leer. >> aalong those lines I was reading the letter from the water company here, weren't they, didn't they give ball homes some design criteria on the way the streets and lots were to be around the lake for homeland security or whatever. >> they did. Their statement about the street in particular was reactive to suggestions that there be a single loaded street around it. They didn't set that parameter out initially. They did set several parameters out such as their ability to access the lots. In one of the letters you will see that they believe that the single family ownership that backs up with no fence is the best measure for security for the reservoir and they also the best measure for quality control because they will have the individual properties there rather than an open area along there. So and this... You see one of the letters and this is consistent with the way they presented this whole concept to us. They want the access across the individual properties if need be to get to the area that they will still own and maintain the water's edge and have access at the one opening that the designer said gives you a view along the lake and the club area. They'll have access. >> the trail they would be opposed to? >> they didn't weigh in on the trail. They weighed in on security concerns if the area were generally open to the public. i don't want to overstate what is in the letter. If you have been out there, nobody is going to put a bike path through there. We heard a lot about bike trails unless you are going to go up and tear up the roots on the trees. It's hard enough to walk. >> any other questions? Okay then in that case what we'll do is I'm going to close this part of the hearing and now we'll come back to the council. That means no more presentations or anything of that nature. We have our own individual discussions and a vote. So does anyone want to have anything else... Mr. Berkeley. >> thank you. I want to say thank you to the neighbors, Mr. Leer's made this comment earlier and I have to echo it. I think this hearing has gone as smooth as any that's I've ever been involved with so thank you for that. When I've been sitting here and thinking about this, the kind of three things that I think the focus has been on is the buffer. I think there is evidence that the kentucky american buffer is about 50 feet. The staff has recommended another 25 feet beyond that. And I think that in this case it's appropriate. The greenway connection. Right now it's not there. If this development goes through, it will be there. There is no funding for that trail otherwise at this point if you look at the maps. So as far as where that trail is located, I do not believe that it would be appropriate to put it along the waterways for several reasons. First of all, you know, the intent of this is to provide eventually connection to jacobson park. If, you know, there is obviously going to be homes that are built along the reservoir to take advantage of the views, so from a marketing standpoint and just a safety and security standpoint, I don't know how you stop someone accessing the reservoir from a bike path. You know, if they have to go through someone else's backyard, I think it creates a barrier. And I think that's needed in this case. The last thing that's kind of been talked about is the density and while I recognize that the actual zones they've asked for r-3 and r-4, when you get right down to it, it's at 464 units and Mr. Billings has a chart that shows the r-1 d maximum density to be between 350 and 523 and we are clearly wen that and that is now similar to the surrounding area's zoning. It May not be r-3 or r-4, it is developed to a density that is compatible with that neighborhood. So for those reasons, I will have to support the staff's opinion on this and I would be willing to make a motion whenever you are ready. >> anyone else like to have any comments. >> Miss Plumlee. >> thank you to the neighbors who have come and made a very good presentation. We appreciate that. I would disagree a little bit with my colleague in that I would like to see number 1 of the conditions imposed with this zoning approval. The number 1 would be the conditions that Mr. Billings presented with the 50-foot conservation easement buffer. And that I think would be more fitting for this area. >> thank you. >> yes, thank everyone for coming in and speaking. This is always difficult, you know, what I'm seeing here and hearing a lot of, I think has to do with change, which I'm reluctant to at times myself; however, something has to happen with this piece of property. And I can applaud everyone for providing compromise or attempting to provide compromise to that. Where it's going to exactly fall, I don't know. Personally I would like to see a little bit more of a buffer and if we can, if we could improve the trail system, I would like to see that as well. I think any time we can do that much as what we were shown as far as the beaumont area, that's just an amenity to the neighborhood which, I think, would help the developer as well when it comes to making a buck. But, you know, I'm not for sure where this is going to fall, but thank you and you know, this is serious and believe me, we are all sitting here trying to figure out what is best for everyone in lexington. Thank you. >> Mr. Drake. >> thank you, Mr. Chairman and again I apologize. I lose my voice every time i come in this building. Like my colleagues, I would like to thank everybody for coming and expressing their opinion. I appreciate the position you are in. I have been in it quite a few years ago my wife and I bought a four-bedroom house in a beautiful bucolic neighborhood with a golf course in our backyard and dead end street and by the time our second child was born, it was a thru street, the hundreds of acres we were looking out on were being developed and city buses going in front of our house. There was nothing we could do about it. Progress, we can't stand in the way of it. I'm like commissioner owen, I don't know how this is going to turn out. I do think that the habitat preservation is a very powerful argument; however, it's not without cost. And I hope that everyone, which ever side of this argument you are on, however it turns out, you will appreciate the position that the planning commission is in. These decisions are not easy and we can't satisfy everybody every week. We've just begun a process of updating the comprehensive plan and it's going to involve an issue with as much emotion and perhaps more than this and that is whether or not we expand the urban services boundary. And for every acre that is not in -- or that is inside the urban services boundary that we exclude from development, we are going have to take an acre of farmland and those are the kinds of trade-offs that we are faced with and I'm sure you all know that. I hope you appreciate it. And like commissioner owen said, I don't know how it's going to turn out. But thank you for coming. >> okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Miss Mundy? >> I sure would like to thank all of you for coming and for all the heart ache and heart felt emotion you've put into this. I am a country girl. I grew up in the country and I certainly appreciate your concerns for the wildlife and the fauna and the floral and all of those things. And unfortunately we find ourselves in a position where housing is needed and as we are starting to see with the housing studies and those things, we are finding that we are needing more single family dwellings and we still need more apartments. But most importantly for me right now, I want to thank you for coming and giving us your opinions because that's really important to us as we are making decisions. And there were some of you who expressed that you've been former firemen, some of you have been former military, and I'd like to also thank you for that time in your service for our country so that we can do exactly what we are doing today. We have the freedom to do this. So I, like my colleagues, I don't know where this is going to land, but we have a heavy task in our hands right now. Again thank you for coming and thank you for the information you have shared with us, all of you. >> anyone else? Okay now, let me just give a procedural thing. I see Miss Carolyn plumlee would like to make a motion. I understand you would like to make a motion as well. Is there any agreement on the motions or any adeny dumbs addendums. >> I think a motion needs to be made and you haven't called for it. I did ask to do it first, so... >> okay Mr. Berkeley. >> all right. Mr. Chair, I'm going to make a recommendation of approval of pln-mar-16-16 ball homes, inc. For the reasons noted by staff but also noting that the buffer from the a-u zoning boundary would be 25 feet so moved. >> it has been properly moved by Mr. Berkeley and seconded by Mr. Cravens that we approve pln-mar manufacture 16-16 with the reasons and conditions provided by staff with the 25-foot... >> it's actually in their revised staff recommendation. >> okay. With the 25... Okay. >> my motion is at a 25-foot buffer, not the 50. >> that's the motion and that's the second. Any discussion? Now at this time Miss Plumlee. >> Mr. Chair I wonder if my colleague would accept a friendly amendment to a 50-foot buffer. >> Mr. Berkeley. >> not at this time. >> okay. Any other amendments propossessioned amendments? Any other discussion on the motion? Hearing none please vote when it comes up on the monitors. Motion carries. 8-1. >> Mr. Chair, ready for the development plan. >> yes, sir. >> all right. >> I move for approval of plan mjdp-1640 the pe lins la for the 13 reasons noted by staff changing number 12 to read zoning boundary set back rather than flood plain set back. So moved. >> properly moved by Mr. Will berkeley second by Miss Carolyn richardson that we approve the 13 conditions provided by staff with one note change on number 12 where it should be the zone line boundary set back as opposed to the 25-foot flood plain setback. Any other discussion on the motion? Hearing none would you please vote when it comes up on your monitors? Ayes have it. Vote carries, motion carries 8- 8-1. I think that's it. I know, I wish...... What is the next we've got another one to. Is the staff ready for presentation? Are you all snread. >> yeah. >> okay. Miss Wade. >> thank you, the next item appears on page 5 of the planning commission's agenda today. This is pln manufacture mar-25. The applicant is david myers kentucky lodging and development company incorporated. The applicant is requesting a rezoning from the interchange service business which is our bif p tone to our bee zone using the board here I will just orient the planning commission to the subject of the property located on the north side of north broadway and to the northeast of the subject property north broadway turns into paris pike. The subject property is at the intersection of north broadway and jude elaine. And this is just to the northeast of the interchange of I-64 and I-65 with north broadway so the interchange is a folded diamond and occurs only on the northwest side of north broadway and the interstate runs north-south in the general vicinity with north broadway running more of a northeast and southwest direction. The subject property itself is b-5-p similar to other areas to the northeast and to the northwest of the subject property. Other zoning in this vicinity include single family residential across north broadway as well as single family to the north of this site along circle drive and freeman drive as well as jude elaine. We've looked at the aerial. You will see that there is sort of a mixture of commercial in this vicinity of the interchange of north broadway and the interstate here. Just to the northeast is an existing hotel site and to the southwest is a gas station across jude elaine is the waffle house and if you traverse up north broadway towards paris pike there is a small shopping center as well and at the intersection of paris and old paris is a small bar. Across north broadway is the interstate. I'm sorry, not the interstate, R.J. Coreman rail line although it's residential across the street, the residential is fronting on old paris not on to north broadway. The applicant is asking for rezoning from the b-5 p to the b-3 zone because there is a restriction in our b-5 p zone that limits the square footage of retail sales. Retail sales in the b-5-p zone have to be really geared towards the traveling public so it's only allowed to be in accessory use as a convenient store associated with the gas station. The applicant wants to build a dollar general at this location which is about 75 square feet and that exceeds obviously the current limitation in the b-5 p zone. They've asked for a b-3 zone. The b-3 does not have a limitation and the staff's review of this application, we did find that the b-3 and the b-5 p both seem to be appropriate at this location. B-5 p because it's at the interchange but b-3 because north broadway is still an actsive highway in this vicinity. The applicant does contend that their request is in agreement with the comprehensive plan and did cite several of the goals and object itches of the plan for this location; specifically they cited the theme a goal 2 which is to allow infill development on long time vacant sites within the urban service area. They also cited theme a goal 3 which is providing enhancement to existing neighborhoods and in this case providing additional shopping options in this area. They said theme c goal 1 creating new jobs, residential neighborhoods to promote the live where you work concept and lastly that they're upholding the urban service boundary concept by absorbing underutilized land in this location. The property was rezoned in 1970 when hotel and gas station were also rezoned but it has remained vacant since then so little surprising it has been vacant for over well almost 50 years now. The staff agrees that the b-3 zoning is appropriate here and substantially in agreement with the comprehensive plan. We do think there should be conditional zoning restrictions associated with this location, primarily because of the location of single family residential across jude elaine to the, I guess northeast of the site. And the potential that some of the r b-3 zone like gas -- not gas stations -- I'm talking about what is there. The car lots, cocktail lounges and night clubs, car washes, pawn shops, adult entertainment and advertising signs that those uses should be restricted. the staff's recommendation is on our staff report and we found four reasons why it's in agreement with the comprehensive plan. Our recommendation is also made subject to the approval of the development plan by the planning commission and its certification. Happy to answer any questions about this requested rezoning. >> any questions for Miss Wade? Okay. Mr. Martin around for the... He hides from me. I can't see him. >> Mr. Chairman, members of the planning commission, the development plan that you have before you today is on the top of page 6 and there should be a revised conditions have been passed out to you on this development plan as you can see from the rendering here we have north broadway with center intersection with jude elaine. This is the lot they're proposing 7500 square foot store with parking in this location with the entrance off jude elaine. The back that has been used by hotel motel and of course here is the gas station in this location. Again they have an entrance off north broadway. Thrses a little interesting situation here on this property. As tracey mentioned it was rezoned in 1970 and when it was being developed north broadway being an arterial, there is actually an easement established through here that functions as a service road. In fact they reference it as a service road but it is an easement on the property. and the original plan and we handed you out an exhibit that we just passed out and I neglected to hand it... That reflects the original submission. This was a revised submission where they met many of the conditions but which resulted not only in this revision but the issue staff have had with this particular revision, there is a hotel sign that has been sitting here for many, many years. It's actually on the applicant's property but it's part of the motel. It's my understanding they're working with them on a solution for the siep to be moved or dealt with. You can see they're proposing landscape, constreetscape that would block this easement. Now this is not something staff would be comfortable approving because the easement exists. They stated their intention to have it released. They used extension but at this time it has not happened so these revised conditions, I'm going to summarize these for you. They're basically designed to take this plan back to be more in line with the original submittal that chose this access easement being open through here, although as I stated the sign is right in here on their property and then this apron is somewhat smaller on this plan than the one on the rnlg plan but they have been working with traffic engineering. The key here is to get the trucks in and it's staff's understanding they worked it out with traffic and they believe their trucks can function in that manner. So we anticipate when you see a final development plan that they will be addressing this issue at that time. But again that easement is currently legally still encumbering the property. So with that, we made these revisions and are recommending approval to the planning commission. >> any question for Mr. Martin? >> I hope I didn't muddy the waters? >> no, we are in good shape. Thank you. Applicant. >> good evening. Tanner nichols for the applicant. Not near as exiting as of the la last one, I know. So I think I just want to summarize what is going on because some of the things today we got the change here, maybe an hour ago talking with the staff and we are in agreement with the staff, right? We think that it meets the goals and the objectives of the comprehensive plan and we think it should be rezoned but when we look at the map, I kind of like to explain what was going on there with the service road or the easement as he spoke. When this was originally developed, all of it, they were thinking they were going to do a different development and there was going to be internal traffic within this development so there is a service road that gives the rights of these three lots to access the other portions of the development so obviously for us to be able to build on this property, we have to terminate or extinguish the service road and we are in negotiations with the hotel owner and the gas station owner now to have that extinguished. As the staff has said, they can't approve a preliminary plan that would block that service road until it's been extinguished so we are fine with the approval of the preliminary plan with what is shown on the screen there with the two entrances, one from kind of the hotel property and then the other off jude elaine but our intent and the final development plan that it will look like this and the service road will be extinguished and the only entrance will be off jude elaine. >> any questions? Thank you. Anyone in the audience would like to speak? Okay. >> my name is catherine perkins, secretary of joyland neighborhood association and I was, the President Was here earlier but she couldn't come back, couldn't do the duration. We have some concerns about the development as it stands right now. We are not concerned with the zone change. We like that you've put those stipulations on it because we really don't want a pawn shop or titty joint right there in joyland but we are a little concerned with the entrance off jude elaine. Jude elaine is a very old road. I believe it has been there longer than josie jones has been in joyland so 65 plus years. It's not as wide so we are concerned about the semis and delivery trucks going in and out of there and it's very close to the branch off of the other... >> ma'am, you need make the microphone with you. I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry, too. I'm not real sorry. We are concerned about that and we feel that a traffic study is warranted for development of property in this area. We have a lot of accidents that happen as a result of the development of paris pike, old paris pike, that light there and now we are putting another business in and it is going to be a lot more traffic going, turning into jude elaine, coming out of jude elaine from that business and a light there when you have a light 200 feet from there for the interstate, another light, you know, you are putting three lights in about a 700-foot area. I don't know if that's what you want or not. But so we feel in joyland that it warrants a little more study. And that's what we are asking and we are concerned again as I said about the large vehicles accessing on jude elaine and we are also a little afraid that where they will be accessing is right at the branch off of the road into the neighborhood and so that might be causing a little bit of a traffic issue within joyland. So that's our biggest concern. A lot of our residents asked me to mention that we are also constantly dealing with ramada and their trash, trying to get them to pick up along their perimeter on the outside of their fence and trash comes from their, people throwing it over the fence all the time and we just really don't want more increased trash in that area or crime but we are getting a lot of crime these days in joyland. I think you might have heard about the guy they found shot in his truck right there on faulkner. So that's all. Thank you very much for... >> thank you. Anyone else would like to speak to this particular agenda item? All right then we'll close this part of the hearing and I'm ready for discussion or a motion from the commission. >> Mr. Chairman. >> yes, sir. >> I guess nobody else stepped up to do this so... I'm going to move approval of mar-16-00025 for reasons provided by the staff. >> okay. >> the motion has been made by Mr. Cravens second by Miss Richardson that we approve pln-mar-16-00025 david meyers kentucky lodging and development incorporated. Please vote when it comes up on the monitors. Motion carries. >> and Mr. Chairman, I'm going to move approval of the revised staff recommendations for the development plan 16-000-53 and I guess I got to do something with this revision by staff on the site plan. >> Mr. Cravens if you approve the staff recommendation, that will be incorporated. >> good. >> it has been moved that we approve pln-sansan francisco-53 hospitality motor inn incorporated and bp oil incorporated. Revised staff recommendation with nine conditions set forth by staff any discussion on the motion. Would you please vote when it comes up on the screen motion carries. Thank you very much for that. >> does anyone have five loafs of bread and two fishes? I'm sorry. It's late in the oong. >> it is. Our last item is zoda 2017. This is something the planning commission initiated last fall and something the staff has been working on to dim plement part of the comprehensive plan recommendations since 2014, we researched and met with several stakeholders before we developed proposed language. The council has already adopted community garden regulations that allow community gardens across the county in any zone. But this will allow market gardens, which, in essence is selling of products on site, not just growing them but selling them. In certain zones so the regulations that are in your notebook have changed since we met with the zoning committee three weeks ago based on some conversations that the staff had with fayette alliance. They submitted a letter in support of the changes because they meet with their suggested changes, so they were definitional changes though not any changes to how the use itself would be allowed. The staff in working with the local food coordinator and mayor's service and U.K. Extension office developed thoo es recommendations so in -- regulations so in a residence zone a market garden would be a conditional use. In a business zone principal and in professional office and agricultural zones it would be prohibited because retail sales in professional offices is not currently allowed and in the ag zones there are other avenues to sell your own produce on site roadside stands and value added sales that is already in existence so they didn't need an additional market garden allowance. The staultural use and today we are suggesting another change to that definition as well as a change to market garden, which you'll find in your notebooks and it appears like this. The only changes are on the front page shown in bold the changes on market garden is not identifying off site sales but clarifying market gardens solely being its purpose of allowing on site sales. That's a clarification point and agricultural use urban, the staff had already suggested striking language about private gardens because the code of ordinance regulations did not regulate those or even define them and then fayette alliance wanted to make sure that the less than five acres was an urban agricultural use and that the line of five acres and above remained a standard agricultural use and that was consistent with the rest of the regulations so we also made that change. >> any questions for Miss Wade? >> the staff is recommending approval. >> okay. Mr. Cravens. >> so in a residential zone, I mean you have to go to the board of adjustment to get approval? >> in order to sell your products. >> sell. Not to grow but to sell. >> so everybody could have one in their backyard? >> personal private garden? >> yes. >> yes. >> one of these market gardens? >> if you went to the board of adjustment and got permission. >> so that would give them permission to sell in their front yard? >> the plarkt garden -- the market garden conditional use would dictate where the sales or hours if necessary any restrictions that the board would normally consider for conditional use. >> is there anything about cleaning up the garden mess after its over. >> that's part of the code of ordinances related to community gardens. There are regulations about that. >> any other questions? >> I have a motion on the floor but by Mr. Mike owens to approve and seconded. Any other discussion on the motion? Hearing none would you please vote when it comes up on the mop tores? >> thank you. >> I can almost anticipate what was going to happen there but we are still on the air so I'll retrain. Are there any other commission items? Anything else? Any commission members have anything? Okay. If not, I without objection the meeting is adjourned.