I said I'm a man, I said I'm a man Good morning. Here at the Kentucky Horse Park. And what a gorgeous day to be at the Kentucky Horse Park. But then every day is a gorgeous day to be at the Kentucky Horse Park. I'm Councilmember Kathy Plumman, and I have with me Executive Director Lee Carter here at the Horse Park. And so we're going to spend some time just talking about everything that you can see and do out here. and a little bit of history and a little bit about you, which I'm going to start out with right now. Lee, you're somewhat new in your position, six months perhaps, and I know you're here, but you've done a lot of other things that are related to this. Can you share that with our viewers? Absolutely. I started in this position February the 1st as executive director. Prior to this, for about 10 years, I ran the Land Rover Kentucky 3-Day event as their executive director, so formerly known as Rolex. A lot of folks still remember that. And so I was new to that position in April of 2012. Yeah. Prior to that, I worked for host communications or a version thereof for roughly 12 or 13 years. So I was with an international travel association doing their meetings and events all throughout North America and Europe. So you're no stranger to any of this. I'm no stranger. Now, what is, many folks don't know is I'm not an equestrian by trade. Like I don't know a great deal about horses, but my background is events, nonprofits, venues, those kinds of things. That's a great experience to have. And you mentioned the three-day event, and I had the opportunity. I've been able to come a couple times, but because we hadn't had it in the past two years, this year was just really, really special. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because that's such a big international event. It really is. And we're very fortunate to even have that in Lexington. If you go back and look at the history of that event, it came here because in 1974, a gentleman by the name of Bruce Davidson won the world championships. And a benefit at that time of winning the championship was that your country got to host the next one, which would have been 1978. And it came here to Lexington, to the horse park, and has evolved since then, you know, from the World Championships to then Rolex to now the Land Rover Kentucky three-day event. They had roughly 76,000 people here at the last weekend. Broke records. It was record-breaking. Again, not having it for two years, you know, there was a lot of demand, a lot of interest in coming. and the weather was fabulous. It was. And they had competitors from Germany, from England, from Canada, from the U.S., all over. And it was tremendous. The gentleman that won, Mikael Young, has never lost here in Kentucky. He actually won WEG, the eventing WEG, when it was here in 2010. And then he's competed at Land Rover multiple times and has won every single time he's been to Kentucky. So he's a fan of coming to the Kentucky Rose Park. I got to see him. He cleared those. Like, you know, he had so much room to spare. Yeah. It was fascinating to watch. Well, I know we have events like an event like that, a stellar event, but throughout the year you've got equine and other events going on. You want to share what that's like? Absolutely. So the horse park, really, there are three big functions for us. One, we're an office park. There are about 33 organizations that have their offices out here. They come to here work day to day. Second is the tourism aspect. In fact, we're standing in front of our Hall of Champions, and then we have the competition side. So there is something all year round, whether you know equine or not. One of the things that we talk about in our mission is how do we connect people to equine? How do we connect the heart to the horse? And so we try to educate folks, again, regardless of your level of knowledge, you can come learn about the horse and maybe hopefully evolve into a true horseman if that's something you wish to do. Well, you know, Kentucky is so well known for our equine. And so I know this is like a big tourist attraction, but we also have our own residents that need to come out and check things out. I think you've shared in the past, aren't there like a Monday night, like a big walk run or something? Monday night from the starting right after Memorial Day is the walk run club. So anybody's welcome to come out to the horse park. We're closed to tourists on Mondays and Tuesdays. So Monday night's a great night to come out. You're able to walk and or run. I don't run, Kathy. Guess what? I walk. We'll walk back to my car. That's right. So they can come out, walk, run through the park, just kind of enjoy themselves. We have five K's that come through out here all the time. The Legacy Trail actually comes through and across Ironworks Parkway into the horse park, runs along the front of our horse park, and may one day get extended. And so it's a great opportunity. Folks can be around the park in a lot of different ways. And just get to, again, it's a beautiful landscape. Ah, you can't beat it. How many acres is all of this? So we have 1,200 acres, and it is a lot. And we are a working horse farm. We have people that have to do landscaping. We've got mechanical maintenance. We've got event organizers. I mean, we have our own horses that we have to take care of. So we have an equine ops team that is a response for the care and upkeep of those horses. And so we are a living, working horse farm. And it takes a lot to upkeep. How many employees then do you? Not enough. I'll just be honest with you. I mean, right now, probably as many employers, workforce is a challenge. We have roughly 75 year-round, and then we add some seasonals and some interims like that. But workforce is a major issue right now all across Kentucky. But specifically for us, we're struggling to get the number of employees we need. Well, doing as many things as you all do and hosting so many events here, I could see where that would be a challenge and something you need to take care of. You briefly mentioned, I think you called it the horse center, because when you come into the park, right before you come to the visitor center, you will see all these buildings, cool things in front of statues of horses. Absolutely. And tell me a little bit about that. So when you come in, you'll go through our parking booth there and then get into the center of the park. And that's, again, where our national horse center is largely based. A lot of those are just office buildings. Again, we have everything from the governing body who governs all of the equestrian sport at the Olympic level. They're officed here, U.S. Equestrian. We also have United States Pony Club, which is kind of the younger, you know, kind of getting into the sport kind of a thing. We have the American Association of Equine Practitioners, which is the largest veterinary group in the country that kind of governs that. So we've got a large, it's an office park, right? Then as our guests come in, if you're here as a tourist, you come into our visitor center. We have a video there that you can watch that talks a little bit about the horse park. We have the International Museum of the Horse, which has some tremendous exhibits in it right now. I hope you get to go and look at May Day Madness, which they are dresses on loan to us from Anita Madden. Oh, I would love to see that. And there's a very unique one there. I think it's 1997 where Ali Sheba is pictured there because, you know, she was there in the winner's circle and wore the outfits for that. Oh, I would love to see that. And Ali Sheba was here at the horse park. He lived in our Hall of Champions for a period of time. You know, I forgot that. Yeah. Well, also the China exhibit because that was, when that first came in, gosh, that had to be 15, 20 years ago. But it was a big deal. It was major. The Imperial China History of the Horse, I think it was here in the early 2000s, had just an absolute tremendous following that came through. I had the good fortune of hosting the minister counselor from China the other day here at the park. He and his colleague are based out of Washington, D.C., and we're in Kentucky just to meet different tourism folks and attractions. So they were here, which was neat, and I got to share that with them. So they were excited. But, yeah, there's a lot of things to see. And just, again, go out and experience something that folks don't often do. No, and what a better place. Right. I mean, it's right here. Is there any other place that's similar to the Kentucky Horse Park in the United States? Not really, in my opinion. Again, when you look at our three pillars, right, the office park, the tourism, and then the competition venues, I don't think there's anyone else that combines all three. There are some other competition facilities that are quite nice. But not the whole picture. But not the whole picture. And that is one of the challenges that we have is you have these out-of-state venues that have developed under private enterprise. We are a state venue, but we are the, you know, for lack of a better description, we are the Fenway Park, the Crosby Field of equine facilities. And so we want to celebrate that heritage. We want to, you know, we are who we are, but we still have to maintain. We still have to be competitive. And so, again, when you maintain a 1,200-acre park, infrastructure is big. Painting fences, it may seem like a small thing, but it's a lot of labor. I would hate to think how much fencing you have. It's got to be... Over 30 miles. Oh, wow. Over 30 miles. Do you ever quit painting? I mean, do you just continually paint? You paint, and then you go back and you paint again because boards will rot, and that's just part of a horse farm. And so it's the upkeep that happens there. You know, one thing, riding my bike, my husband and I like to ride our bikes out here. And the campground is so cool. I mean, nobody's been to the campground. And isn't it always full? It is usually always full. It's a great staycation, you know, for those that live in Central Pawtuckin around. To want to get away from, you know, the normalcy of living at home for a bit and come out to the campground, it's beautiful. I mean, we've got a pool. We've got basketball courts. You know, again, you've got the walking trail and the legacy trail. Beautiful canopy of trees throughout the hole. So it's worth checking into for our residents. And that's what I think sets it apart. I've been to other campgrounds, and they're just large asphalt lots, right? But if you go back into ours, it's that canopy of trees, that shade that you can just sit there. And even if it's 80, 90 degrees, you've got that cover to keep you comfortable. And this is a question I've always wondered. Can you ride a horse here? Actually, yes, you can. Okay. So this is one of the few places, in my opinion, or that I'm aware of, in central Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, where you can ride a horse. So as you come into our visitor center, they can share that with you. But we have a horseback riding trail that guests are welcome to ride. We even have little ponies for younger individuals. But, yes, you can absolutely ride a horse through the horse park. Now, we may not let you jump like some of our competitors do, but you can at least do the trailback ride and go out and experience it. Yeah, that's good to know. Is there anything else about the park that you'd like to share before we end here today? You know, I think the park is a unique place. I think it's the intersection point for us to understand both the equine and the tourism side of it. I think we are, you know, when you begin to look at the economic impact of the park to our region, it's tremendous. You know, we started a survey about a month, month and a half ago. And in that, within the first three weeks, we recognized that we had people come to the horse park from 38 different states within three weeks. And so, again, as you begin to look at not only the quality of life that we provide here or add to here in central Kentucky, but you look at the economic impact that we bring from tourism, it's significant. Well, and the businesses that you mentioned when you first come into the park. Yeah, so I think in terms of how we contribute, you know, a lot of folks say, oh, well, it might not be for me, But we add in so many different ways to, again, just the overall quality of life and economics here in Central Kentucky. Well, you do it all. I mean, there are so many different things out here at the Kentucky Horse Park. You know, we are known as the horse capital of the world. And so this sits here, 1,200 acres that expresses all those different facets of equine, but also family. You know, family visit and something to do with your family. So, Lee, it's been a pleasure. And thank you so much for hosting us out here this morning to tell us a little bit more about the horse park. And if you haven't been out here recently, come out. It's here for all of us. Lee, thank you so much. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jennifer Reynolds, and I am the 11th District Councilmember here in Lexington. And today we are in the 11th district and we're standing in the new Central Bank Center. And today I have the privilege to have president and CEO, just for a few more days, of Lexington Center Corporation, Bill Owen with me. Thank you for joining me today. Delighted to be here. Delighted you're here. It's super exciting. Maybe if you've passed by Rep Arena and the new convention center, you've seen that it's been a long time coming, just the grand opening of the renovations here. And we're in just a beautiful spot right now. You can see behind me the lighting and the new design. And so I just thought I would take a few minutes to give you all a tour of the area, see some pictures, and talk with Mr. Owen about just the details and the labor of love and years of work that have gone into this project. So tell us a little bit about the background of this project, how it came to be, and who's involved. Okay, well the project is nearing about 12 years in planning and construction. We went under construction in September of 2018, so we've been under construction a long time. We're within just a couple of months, but prior than that, the planning came as a result of a couple of things. Visit Lex, when it comes to our convention center space, visit Lexington Center. every 10 or 12 years evaluate how well our convention improvements fit the destination or fit the marketplace that Lexington should be able to attract. And they last did that in 2011. Previous to that, it was in 1996 they did one that led to an expansion. In 1986 they did one that led to an expansion. So it's not unusual to learn after 10 or 12 years that our convention center needs to be refreshed and perhaps enlarged. So that's really kind of what led to this and that report and that investigation was in 2011. Beginning in 2012, Lexington Center Corporation began engaging design candidates to evaluate doing a design to expand the building, began working with urban county government, with the Commonwealth of Kentucky for funding and support to make the project happen. It took a slight pause in 2014 because some of the help that was needed from the Commonwealth we weren't able to secure at that time but we were able to secure it in 2016 and kind of reinvigorate the project and get it under construction design finished by 2018. So now after four years it's of construction and again over 12 years in planning it's nice to see it come to a conclusion. Yes I bet you're thrilled because this has been a passion project for you hasn't it? I've been at it a long time and lots of people to thank lots of people share in the success but for me personally it has been a kind of an everyday activity that I have lived for the last 12 years. Well we're so appreciative of your leadership on this project and like you said it really took the state and the city and many others coming together in order to be able to get it done. Absolutely. And why is this expansion so important? I know you said with Visit Lex and everything, it had been evaluated for conventions and things like that, but how is this expansion going to serve the city? Well, it was all about economic expansion and economic impact. That study I mentioned in 2011 reported that from conventions and meetings at Lexington Center, now Central Bank Center, the economic impact was about $42 million. dollars and it was forecasted had leveled off over a seven-year period it was forecast to grow to about 57 million dollars if we did the expansion because we would fit so much more of users and potential clients that visit lex and lexington center corporation could send a proposal to to try to attract. So and that was enough but even worse though by not doing that project that same study forecast that that 42 million dollars would begin to shrink to 29 million dollars and we had already seen that happening. So it was almost a double impact to where the economic expansion capability from doing the project was almost, you know, $25 million by itself. And that's every year just from conventions. That doesn't count Rupp Arena. And being able to extend the life of Rupp Arena, it led to a new agreement with the University of Kentucky for them to continue to use Rupp Arena through 2033. It led eventually to the Town Branch Commons project and now soon the Town Branch Park project. All of that grew out of this project beginning in 2012. That's amazing. That's a huge impact on the city and now the new convention center is able to accommodate about 90 percent of large conventions. Is that correct? Yes, it was it was estimated that in that before we did the expansion we could accommodate about 60 percent of conventions that happen somewhere every year around the country and now we can accommodate about 90 percent of those conventions that's incredible so it's kind of about about having a larger pond to fish in right you know you if you know that your facilities do not meet the minimum needs of a potential customer or client, you don't even send them a proposal. So now there's just a lot, and we already have secured National Beta Club for three years, Southeast Theater Conference that we hosted in 2007 and again in 2017. They had outgrown us. We could not get them. And now we're hosting them again, I think in 2023. So that's just a layering effect and allows us to sustain the repeat business from some users that we've already had that have outgrown us. And they like coming here. Lexington's a great place to come for a meeting. Yes, yes, it is. It's a wonderful place. So that's why this whole renovation had a huge price tag, but it will bring in a lot every year. and that will be recuperated. Yes, absolutely. And so I think that sometimes when we think about the price tag, it can seem a little overwhelming. But if we realize the impact that it has on our whole city and tourism and dollars into the city, it will definitely pay off. It is an investment the city has made that has clearly paid a return for the last 45 years. And it's important to sustain that. Yeah, to keep it growing and reinvigorating. Right. I'm thrilled and I've been to the renovated Rupp Arena and taken a tour here and I'm just super impressed with everything. It's wonderful. Are there certain details that you want people to know about maybe square footage or if you want to talk about this walkway at all? Well, the new exhibit hall is 103,000 square feet. The new ballroom is 25,000 square feet. That's about a, the old exhibit hall was 66,000 square feet. So not completely doubled, but about a 40% increase in both. You know, it strengthened our agreement with the University of Kentucky. They're relocating a lab for the Department of Communications in the College of Journalism and Media that has been announced. It's going in the pavilion building out on Main Street. Yeah. You know, we have just bigger space and converted about 9000 seats in the upper arena in Rupp to chair back seats. Everybody goes to a basketball game or Elton John or whatever it is. You might that makes a much more comfortable seat. It does for sure. Just a whole new exterior and lots of natural light, an iconic architecture. It is still connected to the Hyatt at first and second level in a significant way. And the lobby where we are standing is connected to the Hyatt lobby. So that's a bit of misinformation that people have had that we're no longer connected to the hotel. Well, yes, we are. Right. Right. This space is just, it's magnificent space, and I'm anxious for people to attend events and be able to experience and share in it. Yeah, that's exciting. I love all the little details of the windows and the angles and this walkway that connects High Street with Main Street, which is fabulous. and there'll be some... We refer to that as the catwalk. The catwalk. That's a great name for it, for sure. Well, can you describe a little bit about the, just really quick, about the kind of management setup here? So people can be a little confused. Who runs Rupp Arena? Who runs the convention center? How do they work together? What is the LCC? Lexington Center Corporation, or LCC, since 1976 has owned Rupp Arena, the convention center. the Lexington Opera House and Triangle Park. Some don't realize that we do operate the Opera House and Triangle Park. And for all of those years, Lexington Center Corporation had its own base of employees. My predecessor, it's only had two president CEOs in its history, 45 years. The first one, Tom Minner served for 25 years. I have been CEO here for 22 years and actually worked here for 32 years. But in working through succession with retirement of a number of senior management people, including myself, in the next few weeks, actually, they chose to expand a relationship they had with Oakview Group, which is now called OVG 360 that has been booking Rupp Arena since 2018 to undertake and actually manage all of our facilities. So operational management last fall fell under, was transferred to Oakview Group. And I'm the last of the Lexington Centerans, I guess, not the last of the Mohicans. I'm the last of the Lexington Centerans. and management now begins with that and they're doing a great job and other than that from from the public standpoint it's pretty seamless right a lot of our employees transferred over to them all of our relationships with the ticket office our sales team our marketing team all of that is is pretty much from the outside looking in remains pretty much the same and LCC will still kind of of over overlook LCC is a city agency and our board of directors is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council and they are a they are a city agency much like the airport or Lex Tran or some of the other agencies so they work they work together to kind of have a little bit of an oversight over what's going on and they'll also be dealing with the RFPs across the street at the parking lot, which we won't get into right now because that's a whole other topic. But that's really wonderful and I just want to congratulate you. I know you're stepping down and you're going to be working in a part-time capacity for a while, but you have dedicated so much of your life to this work and I'm appreciative. Thank you very much. I'm a pretty much lifelong Lexingtonian and I grew up in the Ashland Park area and I was Cassidy Morton and Henry Clay Blue Devils and University of Kentucky, so I'll still be around a while. Well, that's great. We're so happy to have you around and for all of your dedication and work. Thank you. It makes a difference for the whole city, so we're just very grateful. And you all should come out anytime. Come see a show at Rep Arena or a game. Attend an event at the Convention Center or in the ballroom, and I'm sure you will be just thrilled with what you see. So thanks for joining us, and come on out to Lexington's 11th anytime. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. do you want us to raise our hands all right that's fine Thank you. Okay, the motion passes unanimously. Next, on the agenda, we'd like to go out of order on page three, performance bonds and letters of credit, I'd like to get the approval for the performance bonds and letters of credit. Mr. Chairman? Yes, Mr. Pien? I move for approval of the performance sounds and letters of credit as presented by staff. Thank you for your motion. Do we have a second to that motion? Seconded by Mr. Davis. Please vote via Granicus when it comes up. Okay, motion passes. All right, I don't think we have any postponements or withdrawals. I'm going to open it up to the citizens. Are there any postponements or withdrawals? Okay, not seeing any. Staff? We also don't have any postponements this afternoon with such a short agenda. I think we'll be happy to get through the projects we do have, but we do have a consent agenda this afternoon. Okay. So for the consent agenda, there are four items that appear on this agenda. And I'll just ask Mr. Martin. Were you aware that someone was present for the Trinity Flats project? I believe someone is now here. So we have four cases on our consent agenda, and I will read those aloud. And if someone is present that wants to have one of these cases removed from the consent agenda, if you'll just raise your hand, and then the Planning Commission will have a full hearing on that case. The first item appears on page two of our regular agenda. It's item A, ZDP 2015-52 for the Clark property, unit 4. This is property located at 1551 Deerhaven Lane in Lexington. This is actually an extension of a preliminary subdivision plan and final development plan in the expansion area. So they're asking for a one-year extension of previous approval. The next item is for a development plan on page 2, item B. PLN MJDP 2224 for Trinity Flats previously known as Race and Midland for property at 143 through 155 Midland Avenue and 133 33 through 164 Race Street as well as 495 and 501 East short street is there anyone present that wishes to have this item heard today ms mallory does okay so we'll just ask that the trinity flats project be removed from the consent agenda okay yeah we're just asking if there's anyone present who wishes to have the case presented and there's a member of the public who does want the planning commission here thanks Our next item is on page 3, item C, PLN MJDP 22-27 for Webb Properties Office Park, Unit 2, Block A, Lot 1B. This is an amended final development plan for property located at 2350 Regency Road. Anyone present who wishes to have this one heard by the Planning Commission? Okay. And then the last item is page 4, item D, PLN MJDP 22-30 for the James R. Massengill property, also an amended final development plan. And that's for property located at 705 East Loudoun Avenue. Is there anyone present who wishes to have this case heard by the commission? Okay. Seeing none, it looks like we just have the one to remove for Trinity Flats and the other three items can be taken by the Planning Commission with one motion, unless one of the members of the commission wishes to have it heard. Just one correction, Tracy, on the last item. This is actually page three, item D, on our, so just making sure that that's accurately mentioned. Thank you, yes. Page three, item D, instead of page four. So is there anyone for James Massengill property? Okay, thank you. Does any commission member have any questions, concerns? If not, the floor is open for a motion for the consent agenda as presented. Yes, Mr. Pien. Mr. Chair, I move for approval of the consent agenda, taking PLN and MJD 2224 off of it and approving the other three. Okay. Thank you. Let me have a second by Ms. Wirth. All in favor, please vote via Granicus. Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay. So that'll bring us to page two. PLN, MJDP, dash 22, dash 24. Trinity Flats. That's bad. Sorry, I was trying to help you out. I thought I had done that through the sheer power of my intellect. Not this time, Mr. Martin. Okay. All right. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, we are on page two of your agenda. This is Major Development Plan 22-24, Trinity Flats. property located at Race in Midland. Now this is a final development plan for this property. For a, oops, I did do that part. There we go. Again, we have Midland, Short, Race Street here in the rear, stubs into the property that you can see outlined here on this color up. Now this is a multifamily development. It is in the B2A zone. It's a legal use in the B2A zone. And the only reason you have it before you today is that anything that's over three stories tall in the B2A requires a development plan. So this is before you today. It is a final development plan, as I stated, for a multifamily building. It'll have over 251,000 just over square feet on seven floors. That includes parking garage structure that will be the base of the apartment building. They're proposing 245 units with 352 total bedrooms. They are providing 331 parking spaces on site. Now that's considerably more than what B2A requires. B2A is one of those zones that has a greatly reduced parking requirement. It's only 25% of the required. And again, that's to encourage redevelopment in these types of areas, just like the distillery districts, for instance, has a very reduced actual parking requirement. So again, they are providing 331 spaces for the 245 units. Now, this plan has been reviewed by your committee, subdivision committee, and it has a lot of standard sign-offs. there's a few issues that'll need to be resolved. One issue is Race Street. It just stubs in here. It used to extend all the way through to Short. It's been closed. Staff raised the issue of that in essence, this is a driveway now into the structure. Right here we have a KU substation. Their principal access is off the adjoining street in this location. They do have an access into the rear of their utility station here. Again, staff sees no reason why the public should continue to maintain this little stub street that's going to function. So our recommendation has been that a closure process be instituted, and they take over control of the street and maintain it themselves, and it can be an access easement, and it can allow KU rear access. It doesn't have to physically change whatsoever. That's one issue that will need to be resolved on this. An additional issue, one that is standard. It's just a flag that we waived. This is, in essence, a redevelopment of this property. It's currently vacant, and that is, of course, retention or detention. And they have already been in discussions with engineering on how the best way to approach that. that staff is aware that there have been some issues in this area of our community, particularly across Midland, there's been some drainage issues. So they're very much aware of that and the site will have to accommodate what is required under the stormwater manuals. And again, that is an issue they're well aware of as is engineering. And then another issue is the connection to Northeastern Park. Let's move. Here we go. Here's an aerial. We're talking about this area right in here. There's the KU substation again, short street. Here we've got Midland. This is Thoroughbred Park. This little area right in here is Northeastern Park. And that relationship staff highlighted, and they have been talking to parks about how to integrate their development with that small park right there. In addition, as you all are well aware, Article 18, the landscaping ordinance will require landscaping along the property line next to the park. It's in a different zone. It's R4. And this is B2A, as I say. So they are required to landscape. But one of the issues that they need to resolve ultimately is trying to have a good relationship with that small park right there. Now, you all have received a letter we handed out of concern from the East End Community Development Corporation, and there's been several issues raised, and I think one, let's see if I can do this. We'll come back to this. Let's see if I got, there we go. Here are some renderings. I know the subdivision committee has seen these, so I believe these are for you. I think it's important to note. You see the wings? You see the structure, how it is? It's not a big monolithic structure. They're not just putting a big seven-story building down and covering up the whole lot. That's not what's happening here. Again, you can see the various wings of the building. Open space here and here. This is the short street frontage. And one aspect of that is that in the B2A, when you go up over those three stories, as you go up, you're required to add a percentage to your setback. So again, that is to help cushion that relationship with the public realm, with the right of way. So that's one of the, that's one of the, they have met that condition on their development plan. So again, you can see the layout. There's additional renderings. There is a note on the plan where they have committed to substantially comply with these renderings. We use the word substantial because there could be circumstances where a facade material might change, something like that. And we're not real concerned about those details, but rather that they just substantially comply with the breakup in the facade, with the balconies, with having different materials. So again, they have agreed to comply with that. more renderings. Oops. Now, I want to go back because I know there is concern about size. And again, it is a seven-story building, but it's only 60 feet tall. In that zone, you can build 35 feet without a development plan. In the zone surrounding it, R3, you can build 35 feet. So, again, they're proposing, although it sounds to be a lot bigger, it's 30 more feet, or 25, it says, to 60. So this building right here, that's five stories. This is Main Street. Here we have Thoroughbred Park, the little East End Park right here. Again, KU, which is kind of an open area. You know how substations are. And, of course, Charles Young Park. Here is Midland. Now that is 85 feet of right-of-way. So again, that horizontal distance helps, we know, the perspective on vertical, as does Short Street in this location. This is the, now it's Fayette County School Building. It was the Herald-Leader Building. As you all know, it's very tall and kind of a, it is a monolithic structure. So they are proposing this apartment building here. It is oriented more towards Midland and short and is on the edge of the neighborhood is where it's located, similar to this building as well really across the street with the Herald-Leader building. So again, just to give you an idea that it will fit in staff's estimation in this location. And really, with that, unless you have any specific questions for staff, I know the applicant will be happy to get up and talk to you as well about this project. Yes, Ms. Worth. I'm just looking at Ms. Mallory's letter. And could you speak to the issues she raised about parking and access on Corral, where the Phillips Memorial AME Church and Businesses and also the issue about access to Northeastern Park? Well, again, here's Northeastern Park and there's frontage. It's got frontage. So staff's concern was the building and its relationship on the property line with the park and trying to soften that and incorporate a way, hopefully, that these residents can also utilize the park as well. And as I stated, they have 335, double check my numbers, 31 parking spaces. So they're very well parked on site. So staff wouldn't anticipate that there would be a lot of conflicts with on-street parking in the area. Tom, do we know what the use that the school is going to do with that hair leader building? I believe it's going to be technically oriented with vocational education. And I say, and one reason I think that staff's aware of that is on the rear side at Indiana, There's been some talk about how the garage doors are going to operate because they're going to be working on cars and that sort of thing in the building. But they'll have plenty of parking on site? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. You can see all that parking. All that parking. I got you. Thank you. Yes, Robin. looking at that view from short street um i'm just having a little bit of trouble making it out since that was a bird's eye view the parking is that ground that's a parking garage and is that the first story of the building? Is that the ground floor of the building? Yes, that's my understanding, yes, and the applicant could elaborate on that. But yes, it's seven stories including the parking garage. Could you go to that bird's eye view of the Short Street side? That's the top image there. This is Short Street. So the sort of upper stories go back and leave room and are airy, but that parking garage comes all the way out, right? I believe that's this area and these areas. Yes, I believe that's structure. As a pedestrian, they are walking along sort of a monolith wall of a parking garage along Short Street. Part of it right here, of course, this is mostly open in this area and open, and their entrance is off Short Street, and they have a further setback. And although it's not well represented here, we have seen, and actually it's in the folder, I can probably dig it out for you, demonstrate some of the proposals along Short Street with the open area, the sidewalk, and some things that they're going to do with that relationship. What, because I know, you know, one of the things that, you know, I just, with these developments, the cheapest place to put the parking is on the ground floor. And so that's why it shows up. But then you create this pedestrian environment where you're walking along the entire parking garage. So we have some design guidelines to engage the pedestrian aspect. Could you just go over those briefly and then explain why this complies with those? Well, again, I wish I had another display that would show that. But the setback is greater along through here where they have an entrance and a, let's see if it might show up better, where they're breaking it up with a large sidewalk with the entrance with landscape features is how they're breaking it up. And then articulation in the building itself and a change in materials. There it is. You've got your hand on it right there. There you go. Let's put it on the overhead. Hope you all can read that better than I can from here. But yeah. Right. See, there's the right. So again, with that with that increased setback. to the building that's required with their front yard setback. These are features that they are incorporating into their streetscape. There you go. That is the one I'm used to looking at. You can see the landscaping, yeah, and the various features, how they're breaking it all up along that short street frontage. That is their principal entrance, so they're emphasizing that. What would the facade of the parking garage be along that first story? Yeah, it won't be visible if you look right. Thank you. Any more questions for staff? Thank you, Tom. Okay. Applicant? Mr. Murphy? Thank you very much. I'm Dick Murphy. I'm representing the developer Miller Valentine Group, which is out of Cincinnati. Valentine has done other projects here in Lexington. They built the Waterstone apartments out on Polo Club Boulevard right across from Costco. If you've ever been out to Costco, it's the apartments right across from Costco which have received a lot of compliments that I've heard over the last couple years that they've done. Rod Musselman is with me today from Miller Valentine. These folks are all in the back row here. Patrick Deming of CMWR engineers with us. Clay Angelouci from Block and Lot Real Estate is with them as well. And I'm going to try to respond to some of the issues. We didn't know exactly what was coming up since this was on the consent agenda. I do have a few exhibits as well. This is Well, let me give you a little background here. This property has been vacant since around 2006. At your subcommittees, Mr. Martin had mentioned that Jed Dunn was the original developer of this property in 2006, and I worked for Mr. Dunn, and he had a nice plan for that. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could accomplish that plan. The property has been vacant for a while. prior to it being vacant, I think it had a number of different buildings on it, some of them commercial and industrial, some residential. But the commercial and the sort of warehouse-type buildings were sort of, instead of bringing the residential to the north into downtown, it was sort of separating the residential from downtown. We're real pleased to bring this with you. This is an infill development. We've been talking to the staff about this for six months, and talking to various divisions, Mr. Musselman and people from Miller-Valentine have had extensive discussions with the Parks Department about incorporating how we relate to the park, what our entrance to the park will be, and even giving a contribution to the city to make improvements to Northeastern Park. So that is ongoing. That's one of your conditions, which is a resolve, which will keep it ongoing, the discussion between Miller Valentine and the Division of Parks. Mr. Martin mentioned the height of the building. We do have seven stories here technically, but I think walking along Short Street, you're not going to know that there's a parking garage there. As Mr. Martin was pointed out, this is the Short Street frontage. This is our conceptual landscape plan. This is the main vehicular access into the parking garage. Then up here, we have the main pedestrian entrance into the parking garage. These red and dark green are ornamental bushes and plantings along Short Street up here. So you're not, if you didn't know, well, if you didn't see cars going down to the parking garage, I'm not sure you'd even know that there was a parking crotch here. I think I can click on, can I go to the next file? Go to the one right below the one you're on. Sorry about that, I was just putting this together. This is the, this is a newer rendering of the development. This is the Short Street side. As you can see, Tom mentions it's seven stories, but as you can see, it really presents itself more as five stories here. This wall is where the parking garage is coming out to, but as I said, you wouldn't know that's a parking garage if you're just walking by it. As you saw the entrance down there into the parking garage, we have, this does not have quite all the landscape features we were showing on our later landscape plan. here but you can see the items we have up along the right-of-way of short street as well the this is another view of the property so it it's going to present itself as either six or five stories from short street and from corral street it'll present itself as five stories because of the grade situation if you could go back and I'll try to get you to show some of the pictures I had on that same go to the one right below there yeah yeah go to the next the last one one one more one more down on that menu right yeah those those bottoms no way to my campus I'm sorry go above those I understood this may come off the consent agenda but and I was putting this together we are trying to show the I want you to show the one that has the Yeah, I brought this because this I was taking the PNC building in the distance behind there to show the height of that. That's about 14 stories. But this shows the elevation we have along Short Street. This is the elevation along Short Street. We're about 8 to 10 to 12 feet above the Short Street elevation. So our parking garage is the underground first two stories of the building. Then the apartment building is constructed on top of the parking garage, five stories. And this just illustrates what the grade situation is on that portion of Short Street between Eastern and then Midland is coming out to where I am. And if we could show the picture that's labeled Herald-Leader Building, HL Village. Yeah, this shows what our view, I'm sort of standing in the middle of our property. That's what our view is across Midland Avenue. We're going to be a little taller than the Herald-Leader Building, but we will be no way as massive as what the Herald-Leader building is. If you could go to the other one that's laid in Field and Main, I'll show that. That's just another view here across our building. That's the new Field and Main bank fronting on Main Street, which is, I think, a five-story building, which is condominiums on top. This gives you a little flavor, too. I'm not all the way back on the building, but you can see the grade because those cars are parked on short. And then there's some others you can't see on the other side of short. It shows the grade that goes down on this property. So it's an urban site, but they've done a very good job, I think, adapting this to the terrain that they have here by putting the parking garage underground for two stories. Some of the other issues that were brought up is the, Mr. Martin mentioned the Ray Street connection. There is a stub of Ray Street that comes into the property, and we have agreed that that would be a good idea to close that. We've had some discussions with KU, and they'll need to agree to that. I've got one more picture, if you could show the one with KU on that one. Yeah, that one right there. That's our next door neighbor. That's a very large KU substation. That's about by itself is three or four stories tall. This is immediately across the street from us from that Ray Street stub. And so that gives you an idea of the mass and size of the structures. It's not a building, but it's a structure right across the street from us. But they have said that they need an access easement still into that, which we will do, we'll work out who's going to own what portion of Ray Street as we come in and out of there. The connection to Northeastern Park, as Mr. Martin mentioned, and as I mentioned, the Miller-Valentine group has been in close touch with the Parks Department and is still continuing their discussions, even to the extent of contributing some money to the city for upgrades to Northeastern Park. Corral Street, we don't plan any changes to the width or paving of Corral Street. There is the Phillips Memorial Church Caddy Corner from us on Corral Street. We don't anticipate any impact there. As Mr. Martin said, we are well, well above the required parking for this project, and we are well above one car per unit. I think we're about 1.4 spaces per unit, excuse me, on this development, all contained on-site under our building. So we don't anticipate street parking. We don't think it'll be visible. And anyway, I think those are the issues that I mentioned. We're real pleased with this. As I said, we've discussed this with the staff. I think when it was determined that there was no zone change required for this, this is just a development plan. It's not a zone change issue. I think perhaps there should have been some more neighborhood outreach, which there wasn't, but we have been in continuous contact with the Parks Department Planning Division, Division of Traffic Engineering on this one. And we do agree with all the staff conditions. We comply, I think, with all the requirements of the zoning ordinance, and we'd hope that you would approve this. Reserve maybe a little time to respond to whatever other issues may be brought up to you. We'd be happy to answer any questions, and as I said, Mr. Musselman is here as well from Miller-Valentine. Mr. Penn? Mr. Murphy, can you address the retention issue with the water retention issue? Is there somebody that can speak to that? I'll ask Mr. Deming to respond to that from CMW, our engineer. I will, Mr. Boas has been doing a lot of work on it. He's on vacation, so Mr. Deming has volunteered to be here on that. Yes. Thank you. I'm Patrick Deming with CMW. I'm the engineer with CMW. And we're looking at doing an underground vault below the parking garage. And all the detention and water quality will be handled in that vault. Will it be on site? Yeah. That'll be below the parking garage. Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions at this time for the applicant? Yes, Mr. Mickler. Yeah, Mr. Murphy, just to clarify what I think I understand. So from the Short Street side, you've got a base of a two-story parking garage. and you're entering at the lower level from that short street entrance sort of through that hill. And then are you all grading that property down, or are you leaving that sort of hillside slope in front of the building up adjacent to the parking lot? It appears to me we'll still have a hillside slope there, but Mr. Deming is nodding his head yes from what I said to our engineer. Thank you. All right, thank you Mr. Murphy. Thank you. All right, so next up citizen comments. This is time if you come up to the podium, state your name, address, and citizen comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Michael Wilson. I live at 317 Wilson Street, which happens to be very close in proximity, maybe less than two blocks from this particular project. I come this afternoon representing hastily put together neighborhood association which is Arts Village and what we call Lee or Lower East End. The reason I say hastily put together is because we have just very recently become aware of this particular project. And we are very concerned. I appreciate Mr. Murphy saying what he did, that there hasn't been the outreach that probably needed to take place as far as our community is concerned. We are experiencing a real renaissance in this area of East End. We have a lot of property transfers, some wonderful properties that have been transferred and some $400,000 homes that actually are on what used to be my old neighborhood when I was four to six years old. Goodlow, there's a hill that goes down. We used to have boxcar races when Mr. John Will Brown, Scoop Brown, was a park director. Down where I lived, the hill, Goodlow Hill. and then of course we were kind of like gypsies there for a while at Easton. We lived on Eastern, lived on Wilson Street. We lived on when Eastern was the actual street, went further. And of course our home, if you follow the addresses, was right in the middle of Short Street. So I'm very familiar with this neighborhood. Our first home was on Third Street living right across the street from Charles Young Center when I was just two, three years old. So it's my home. It's my home. It's where I grew up until I went to Brewstown. And of course, now that I'm there on the corner of Wilson and Elm Tree Lane, we are really concerned about what is taking place. We know what can happen to an organization or a neighborhood is they can be embraced or come into the good fortune of a nice project, but then they become second class. One of the first things, and I was really concerned about that, was the closure of Ray Street. And talking with Mr. Martin, I think that was kind of up in the air at some point. Now, of course, it's the closure. I'm concerned about where is that going to take place. We, for 17 years, had a little church on Ray Street at 153 Ray Street, Faith Center Baptist Church. And I'm concerned about that area. I'm concerned about what's it going to look like on Ray Street on that end. Is it going to be that institutional look like we're looking at the back of this building and then it's a brick wall and no real fantastic, wonderful landscaping that's going to take place? I have no desire to look at the back of a building that looks like some institutional type prison or something or whatever. There's got to be some things that take place that cause a certain aesthetic value for our community. And these are things that have come out of our meeting that persons in our neighborhood have said, I don't want that. And then, of course, I'm glad to hear that it's kind of hard to picture how tall seven stories were. But I had no desire for our neighborhood not to get a view of Thoroughbred Park down the way. and have all of that blocked up. So I'm glad to hear that it's not going to be seven stories that's up here and we can't see anything beyond where we are. I've done the same kind of assessment, the web properties across the street. Mr. Wilson. Yes, please. I'm right here. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. No, I just want you to, you can talk to us. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, sometimes you come in here and people up here and listening to you. unfortunately it's totally disrespectful but thank you thank you so very much but so we're concerned about that I'm glad Mr. Martin addressed some things that we were concerned about just the parking because we wanted given the restricted parking in our area and how difficult it is to find a place to park and then of course the residential parking that it will be a parking structure so that will be taken care of. We sure hope so. And then, of course, the park. I saw in the minutes today that that was still to be resolved, but I'm glad to hear that evidently this organization, these investors have decided to do some things with the park, even helping. But then, of course, that makes me mindful of the fact that, unfortunately, the city embraces the community and works with the community as far as improvements with the park is concerned and that hasn't happened but of course we will just kind of check with the city and see why not. Usually they come to the children and ask the children what do they want in the park. That has not even taken place. So we're concerned about that and we're glad at least that the park will be there and we will do our checking on those types of things. I guess the thing that concerns us most is that we realize that a project like this is going to be so very beneficial to our businesses in that area, to other things. We are mindful of the fact that there are some other things that need to be done in our area so it's not the jewel in the pigsty. And so we want to make sure that those things happen, that those dollars, hopefully the council will understand how important it is to invest those dollars in this area so we don't have that imbalance, but then that there'd be a situation where it's actually helping us so that there's a balance where it's not just them and us, but all of us together as a community, making the community better. We will be, hopefully, and I'm glad to see that these investors are willing to work with the community, as Mr. Murphy has mentioned, because we're here, and we're here to stay, and we'll be there and we will be monitoring the situation because we owe it to ourselves. There are those of us who have made investments in this area, like a number of persons, a lady who came from California and invested in a $400,000 home on, what is that, Cross Street? That's Goodloe and that's whatever that other one is. okay that's what happens when you're 72 you forget where you lived. But we do want you to understand and I'm really sorry that some outreach was not done and I hope that this becomes a lesson for of course it wasn't a zone change you didn't have to do a lot of notifications that sort of thing but then you have a community right there and nobody even took the time to say, let's talk to the people. I'm glad to hear the things that the staff had to say, but it would have been nice to know what Frank Walker or Mark Johnson or Mrs. Searcy or somebody else had to say about what was getting ready to happen in their community. And I hope that this planning commission will make sure that that sort of thing happens in the future. I sat where you sat in the Urban County Council seat for eight years, 36 years ago. and we always just kind of, the staff came forward, they told us what was good and we said, that's cool. And we go with it and that's fine. But then, of course, we have to understand that there are persons beyond the investors and those persons that are part of the market that need to be asked, what do you think is good for your neighborhood? And that's one of the things that we want to do as a neighborhood association is come together and to basically say that there are things we feel we need. You know, yes, we appreciate this housing complex, but we need like Lexington and especially this area is a food desert. We need a grocery store. And, of course, I'm glad that we have this complex to say, yeah, oh, this is here. And we have the Met. And we have Urban League housing. We have South Creek properties. And we have the owner-occupied housing that's in place on Elm Street. So that needs to be thought about. There are a lot of things as a community we need. And we're going to be there. We're going to raise as much hell as we can so we can get the things that we need in our community. and those things will help to service things like this complex. And we'll talk with the Parks and Recreation Department. We'll talk with these investors and try to see. Oh, that's cool. Ah, cool. All kinds of things happening here now. Whoa! But I will do that. We appreciate the time to speak. I hope that those persons living in the area will let me know if I did or not. I hope I have represented these persons well because there are things that they wanted me to speak to and speak to this body. I appreciate so very much this time and this opportunity to speak with you about a very important situation with us. I can only hope as we move through that we will get an opportunity to speak with the investors and be able to do what is in the best interest of our entire community, not just this particular project. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. I'm Billy Mallory, and I represent the East End Community Development Corporation, and I share some of the same concerns as Brother Wilson. No one in our neighborhood was notified of this development. And I understand because it wasn't a zone change, it wasn't necessary. But we're talking about a significant development that by their own description, they've called a monolith. And from the bird's eye view, if you look down on it, it actually looks like half the Pentagon. And even though you've answered the question of the parking, the parking is going to be on the front side, partially underground. our neighborhood is at the backside. Nearly all the discussion today has been about Short Street and Midland. That is not our residential area. Our residential area starts there at Race and Corral. We are a historic neighborhood. All of the housing and the businesses in that part of the neighborhood, There's nothing that's over two stories. Most of the houses are one-story shotgun houses. And the church that he mentioned that's directly across Corral Street that will be looking at the backside of this building. And though it's minimized with the parking, it's still going to be five stories high. It's pretty much going to block out the sunshine. if you compare that to one and two story homes. And our concern is how this structure is going to interact with our neighborhood. And as Mr. Wilson said, basically our neighborhood's gonna be looking at the backside of this building. I think we deserve a little more than that. And yes, we already have to look at the KU, whatever that thing is that has a constant buzz. So I don't know who would want to live next to something that makes a constant sound. But our concern is this interacting with the neighborhood, not just cutting off the neighborhood, not that there's anything beyond corral down that hill because it is a huge slope. but there's going to be no there'll be no view there will be absolutely no view of thoroughbred park there are some businesses at the very corner of corral and midland that is a one-story structure i'm assuming that those businesses are going to stay but again they're pretty much going to be overpowered by this building. And I haven't really heard much about landscaping, buffers at the backside. And that's the part that we're concerned about because that's the part that will impact our neighborhood is the backside of that building as well as how it buffers up to the park. Our people who come to the park, they're just going to look at this side of a tall building. I heard there was going to be a little bit of landscaping, but there needs to be something to blend this building in with our neighborhood. And, you know, we would just appreciate today's the first time that I have seen those plans. And it's quite striking. It's quite striking. We want to maintain the integrity of our neighborhood. And as Brother Wilson mentioned, there's an artist village that's very close that has the newest homes from our neighborhood. Beautiful homes, but are they going to be overpowered by this building? Is there going to be any kind of interaction except the backside, the butt that butts up to our neighborhood? Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Murphy, do you want to speak on behalf of the citizens' comments? Thank you. I mentioned Mr. Musselman that now that we know neighborhood representatives, one of the issues out here has been an association, or is there one or not, we will, I'll ask Mr. Gentry, Ms. Mallory, to give us their phone numbers so we can talk to them. There's going to be continuing work, especially on the park. As I mentioned, we're working with the parks department. the parks department is conducting a review of what they want at northeastern park and we're participating in that and participating to the extent of contributing money to the upgrade of northeastern park the the landscaping i had because there were the discussion was along short street i showed you the landscaping along short street we will have landscaping along the other sides of this building too we have three frontages we have short street we have midland avenue and we have corral street plus the frontage along the on the fourth side the stub of ray street that is still there now we will have landscaping along all sides our our rendering showed some landscaping but we'll be doing additional landscaping along those sections as well we will be the parking garage will not be visible from from corral street we're going to be that because that's a even higher grade than we are along short street we will have i think one exit out there but the it won't the parking garage will not be impacting the the view shed along Corral Street. The some discussion of the closure of Ray Street I want to emphasize that is only the stub to the south of Corral Street that now services as a driveway into the KU substation. None of the rest of Ray Street would be proposed to be closed whatsoever. I want to emphasize there's Mr. Gentry rightfully mentioned food desert. Wilson I'm sorry I remember you Mike back from from when and I apologize I apologize. The Mr. Wilson mentioned the food desert And I want to emphasize that our comprehensive plan, the 2018 Comprehensive Plan, emphasizes the importance of getting people to live downtown. The downtown plan that was done a few years ago before that also emphasized the importance of residents downtown. town and we have an investor here who's willing to pay the price for doing very expensive underground parking and a building here and I want to emphasize the building this is I think the comment that was made by the staff Mr. Martin was this is not a monolith this is spread out with with some wings coming out so it's not I hate to say it but the Herald Leader building is more of monolith. It's a big, long, one wall concrete with windows. That's not what we are. We are the opposite of that. We have architectural interest here. We have landscaping. And the way to solve things like the food desert downtown, as many of your comprehensive plans have pointed out, is to get more people living downtown. Here we're going to have 245 units. We'll have 245 families. living here who will also want to shop here. They'll also want food here and they're going to be adding to the demand and pressure for more retail, more food in this area. They'll be supporting our downtown businesses as well. We came in, as I said, very early on the process to talk to the staff, talk to your design people on this and and we're very pleased with the plan that we have presented to you. This is not a zone change. It's just a development plan. We meet all the requirements of the B2A zone, including height, setback, size. We think we've gone above and beyond that because of the good architectural work that has been done by architects, both in Cincinnati and the engineering here in Lexington with CMW. So we're very pleased with what we present to you. We're going to be continuing to work with the city on the parks issue and the other issues. And we'd be happy to reach out and continue to talk to Mike Wilson and Ms. Mallory's organization as well and continue our work. So again, we do meet all the requirements of the zoning ordinance, as your staff has pointed out. We agree to all the staff conditions on that. We'd ask for your approval of our plan. Thank you very much for hearing us. Any questions? Yes. Yes. Mr. Nickel. Yes, sir. I've got a question for you, Mr. Murphy. We are in a unique position here because this is not a zone change. We are dealing with the development plan or the subdivision plan. Therefore, a meeting with the neighborhood was not required. What we are seeing here is that I know you all would like to engage with the neighborhood. I know the neighborhood would like to engage with you. I am interested in trying to find a way to add an additional condition that is a condition where Somehow you have the ability to bring into the conversation in regards to landscaping, not only the parks and recreations team, but also representatives from the neighborhood. Because you have a certain amount of money that you are going to be spending on landscaping, I would highly recommend that you all come to some sort of agreement or resolve or provide the documentation that makes the neighborhood comfortable and trusting in the fact that it's not going to be all of the things that they are fearful of it being. So I don't know how we put that into language, but if you all would be willing to make that effort to communicate directly with the neighborhood and include them in the conversation with the city in regards to the park and the landscaping dollars, your budget is your budget your budget let's just make sure all the money's not spend the front let's make sure it's spread around and we make a very attractive building from the rear as well so we're not asking to increase your overall budget but just be thoughtful and encourage participation with the neighborhoods in regards to landscaping so I don't know how we would write that down but that let me back up my question to you is would you be willing to to add an additional condition that includes the neighborhood in the use of the resources that you already have allocated for landscaping on the building? Absolutely. And I might propose we worded to say that prior to, I was going to say prior to us getting any permits or maybe prior to us working in a final agreement with the Parks Department, that we meet with, at a minimum, the two people who have been here today to express their concern with you and meet about the landscaping and how it's going to be done. Okay, thank you. Yes, Tom. If I may, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Nichols, to address the concerns, they're going to have to resolve with the Parks Department the issue with the park. And by the way, they're required under our plan 18 to landscape along that zone line. Okay, that's required. That they meet with the neighborhood prior to certification. the plan so the neighborhood's had some input into the situation they can document that meeting it's simple enough it's done some changes where they report on their public outreach and then once they've done that we know the neighborhood has had their input and we won't certify the plan until they document that is that satisfactory that's what i was looking for and i also wanted to make the point that right now in the budgeting process to get to this point there is a line item for landscaping. We're not asking you to increase the line item for landscaping above and beyond what needs to be met for subdivision, but the allocation of those resources need to involve the neighbors who are going to be in the back. I'm requesting that as a goodwill gesture. They don't need to be. And we totally agree with that. Okay. Good, I'd like to add to that. As a neighborhood member who's been met with, there's a difference between being met with and having some allocation of resources that make a difference. I just have a question regarding the Corral Street side. Was there any, presumably this probably came up at your technical meeting or along the way, was there any discussion of alternative sites for that dumpster? Then along the sidewalk of Corral Street. Mr. Musselman is indicating there was. I do not know what that discussion was, however. And while he's coming over here, just to interject, normally those are placed where they're placed. Well, but that could have been discussed at the technical committee and we're not aware of that. Hi, I'm Rod Musselman with Miller Valentine. There was a lengthy discussion that included our civil engineers, and it also included representatives of, I believe Rumpke was a service provider. And if you look at the site, there just simply is no other location. as is true with a lot of other elements of the design. It's simply dictated by the paragon that is the site itself. Thank you. Can I say one other thing? Yeah, in this forum, I wanted to offer a public and personal apology to the neighborhood, to Mr. Wilson and to Ms. Mallory, it's not our typical MO to not have a meeting early on, but by way of explanation, and I don't like explanations or reasons when it comes with an apology, but the fact is, for months, we have been wrestling with this site about the constructability, partly to this issue of how the form of the building is dictated by the site itself, where things go, but moreover, street closures, how we would manage to get a crane on site, was KU going to allow it? So it's really just been within the last two or three weeks that we believe that this is what the building was destined to be and that it could actually be constructed. And I, again, publicly and personally offer my commitment that over the next 30 days there will be personal contact and there will be discussion about the building as we intend to build it and how we can help make sure that that integrates into your neighborhood. So, that's. Thank you all. Appreciate it. I guess staff at some point you'll try to write something that addresses Mr. Nichols' concern about is there something, we need to put another condition on there or are we just going to agree? I think it, Mr. Pena, I think it's a very simple condition and that is document neighborhood meeting prior to certification of the plan. Okay, will that suit you, Mr. Nichols? So that would be number 16. And we'll probably let you make that motion, but what time comes we'll get to that. Ms. Mowry, do you have something very briefly you wanted to add to it? For the rebuttal? Yes, I'd like to request a copy of the plans. If we could do that, then we could share that with neighbors rather than us try to explain if we could get a copy of the plans that were shared today. Mr. Martin. Mr. Wilson picked up a copy from me in my office, though. Mr. Wilson has a copy of the development plan. Second, it's also on Acela to be viewed through the Citizens' Court. So everyone in Lexington can go on to Citizens' Court and see the plan. That being said, we're more than happy to give Billy a copy of the development plan. Sure. That's fine. Just so we're all on the same page. You know you were around here, but you've been here a long time. So we appreciate you coming down today. All right, we've had the rebuttal on both sides. Let me close the hearing at this point and turn it back over to the commission for any discussion that you might want to have among yourselves, and then we'll entertain a motion. Anybody on the commission want to speak to this side? Mr. Nichols? Yes, I would. We are on the verge of a major affordable housing crisis. With negative 1,500 units a year for our community, this is a major concern, and we're getting ready to see even more with the moratorium on evictions being removed. So it's going to get ugly. One of the comments I have about this project is these are the spots we need developers looking at to provide much needed housing. We have a vacant and underutilized piece of property that is already zoned for this type of use. I'm very encouraged to see that housing is the intended use to help meet this need that we're seeing now. we're getting ready to really see. One of the unintended consequences of not adding subdivision meeting, making the subdivision committee require a meeting with the I'm babbling on here, hold on one second, let me get my thoughts together. It is an unintended consequence that there was no neighborhood meeting. We would like neighborhood meetings to occur even if it is not a zone change, but we've got a subdivision plan to be approved. I think that's something that we can work on as a group in our conference and plan. So with all that being said, if it's okay, I would like to make a motion. If there's nobody else in the committee who wants to make a comment, I think the motion is very well in order. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion for PLNMJDP 22-00024, Trinity Flats, Racine Midland, recommend approval. With the 14 noted conditions. You've got one on the back. You have 15 noted. There it is. Okay, with 15 recommendations from staff and we would like to add one. We would like to add number 16 for the applicant to document neighborhood meeting before certification. Yes sir, thank you. Everybody understand the motion? If not, then we'll vote when it comes up on Granneker. I'm sorry, Mr. Penn, who seconded the motion? Ivy did. Who did? Ivy Barksdale. Okay. All right, in Ambrose decision, thank you all for coming. Thank you for your work on this. And thank you for the citizens that came down and kept it straight. Mr. Murphy, thank you for your presentation. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Anything else to come before us? Yeah. We've got a nominating. We need a nominating. Oh, my goodness, we do. Well, being as we don't have a- Did Chairman Forrester talk to you about this, Mr. Penn? If he did, it went in one ear and out the other. so I don't think he did. Per the Planning Commission's bylaws, the chair typically has a nominating committee establish the first meeting in June, which is today, and then next week at the work session, that nominating committee reports a proposed slate of officers for the rest of the commission to consider, and then we have our elections, the first meeting in July. Right. I'm very familiar with that. Okay. I wish our chair, You've got to remember he's coaching today. His mind's a little distracted. I think in the past, Chair, Mr. Penn, we've just asked for volunteers. Or if Mr. Forrester didn't tell you. I've been down this road before. Thank you for not letting me skate on that. I appreciate that. If you all allow me, I will appoint a committee to look at this and come back with recommendations. if uh... if anybody would like to volunteer i'd be glad we had to take volunteers okay we have one there uh... we need three uh... so we have we have one okay we have to live i want to be three All right, so we've got our three, where we got Jan Meyer, we got Mr. Mickler, and we got Mr. Nichols. And they're going to report back at the work session next Thursday. All right, okay. Anything else come before us? Mr. Duncan. Mr. Chair, good afternoon. And to remind you all that the nominating committee is not excluded from nominating one of their own to serve as an officer. And also to remind you that all planning commission members who were up for reconsideration have been returned, so your entire slate will be returned this year. I also want to introduce to you a staff member who's going to be new to you all, but who is not really new to us, although she's not been here that long, Paula Schumacher. She is the new administrative specialist in the planning services section that will be supporting the subdivision meeting. So you'll be seeing her more and more. Paula joined us about six months ago as a staff assistant senior and is already quickly rising through the ranks. So we're glad to have Paula here and glad that she's able to support us in this. And then, Mr. Chair, also to say that we do have a work session scheduled for next Thursday. If for any reason that changes, we will certainly let you know. But at this time, we do have the work session scheduled for June the 16th. Can you share with what Stephanie's going to be doing? Stephanie has taken a promotion as well. So this is the row of promotions over here. One of our planners, Dave Jarman, retired at the end of the year in December, and Stephanie has been promoted to his place. So Stephanie is one of our planners now, and she's helping with the transition with Paula. So you won't see her as much, but she's still very much in our office and available to you all for any support that she can give. I just want to be sure that Stephanie was not leaving us. Absolutely not. We wouldn't have it. All right, anything else? That's all, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. If there's nothing else to come before us, we'll stand adjourned. Thank you.