You know, I forgot that. 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, you know, 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. Oh, wow. Yeah. 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. Yeah. 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, 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 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, you know, because boards will rot, you know, and that's just part of owning 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 for those that live in central Pawtuckian around. To want to get away from the normalcy of living at home for a bit and come out to the campground, it's beautiful. We've got a pool. We've got basketball courts. 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. That's what I think sets it apart. I've been to other campgrounds, and they're just large asphalt lots. 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 trail back 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. We'll be right back. A dream believer and a homecoming queen. Cheer up, sleepy juice. My, my, I could never let you go. Thank you. Welcome, everybody, to the special meeting of the Board of Adjustment this June 28th. The first thing I want to do is to tell everybody who's standing and cannot find a seat or does not have a seat, There is an overflow section out in the mezzanine with a TV camera so you can watch the proceedings that occur here. But the fire marshal has said that we cannot have people standing. So everybody that's standing, please leave the room. You may go out to the overflow section, which is on the mezzanine in that direction. Thank you. And I'll wait a minute until everybody clears the room. Thank you. I also want to announce that anybody who wishes to speak, sign in in the back. There is a provision back there for signing in. So anybody who plans to speak, please make sure that your name and contact information is on the sign in sheet in the back of the room near the door where you came in. I want to say this is a special meeting to consider the continuation of the PLNBOA 22-26 Anderson Communities, Inc. application for conditional use for an outdoor recreational facility in the AR zone. And we've already heard a fair amount of testimony from the first meeting that we had. And so one of the things that we don't want to hear today, because we've already heard it, is repeat of any information that was in the record from the last time we met about this matter. There is a difference between this meeting and the one we had before. The staff had recommended postponement. We did not postpone it at that time. We heard testimony. We then got, most recently, a revised staff report for this application with some new information on it. And so we will hear from both applicant and opponents concerning the new information that's on the staff report. We will also hear from witnesses. And let me talk about the timing of this first and the meeting procedure in general. The meeting procedure in general is we will hear first from the staff. Staff, how much time do you think you will need? Approximately 10 minutes or so. Okay. We'll give you that 10 minutes. and the applicant we'll hear from next. Mr. Murphy, how much time do you think you'll need? I would guess about 20 minutes, Mr. Chairman. Okay. I'm going to give you 20 minutes, and if there's any rebuttal, I'll give you 10 minutes of rebuttal time. And there are opponents to this application. Mr. Simpson, who do you represent? Mr. Chairman, I represent the Fayette Alliance. I will need 20 to 30. I'll do my best. I have a couple of witnesses that I'm going to try to keep brief in their testimony, but sometimes I'm not as skilled at controlling the witnesses as I think I should be, but no more than 30 minutes. How about if we give you 20 minutes for the Fayette Alliance, And there was another corporate opponent as well. Who was that? Jay, yeah. Jay Engel. Chairman Jay Engel here on behalf of Fasig-Tipton. Boyd Browning, the president of Fasig-Tipton, will be speaking on Fasig-Tipton's behalf. Haven't coordinated or seen Mr. Simpson's presentation, but if we're going second, My guess is Mr. Browning can keep his comments to about 10 minutes or so, assuming what might be covered and trying to avoid duplication. Okay. We'll give you 10 minutes then. And as far as the witnesses are concerned, I want the witnesses to limit their time to three minutes. Most of the issues that witnesses will say, I'm guessing, are going to be covered by the attorneys who will present and the staff as well. Also, both witnesses in favor and in opposition, each witness will be limited to three minutes. That has been our custom in the past and the staff will keep track of the time for the staff presentation, the applicant's presentation, and the opposition's presentation as well. The witnesses, when I say witnesses, I mean that anybody in the public who is here who wishes to speak either for or against the application, those people will be limited to three minutes each. I want to say that also that the audience during all the presentation, both for and against this application and the witnesses as well, the audience shall remain quiet. There'll be no outbursts, no clapping, no applause, and we'll maintain good order in the hearing room. Let's see what else. Well, those are the general rules. If we need any others as we go along, we'll consider them. And so the issue on the agenda is PLN BOA 22-26, Anderson Communities. We'll hear from the staff presentation first. Chair, you first need to swear in the witnesses today. I'm sorry, thank you for reminding me. Wasn't on my list. Anyone who plans to speak today, would you please stand and raise your right hand? We're going to swear you in. You solemnly swear that the testimony you'll give today will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Thank you very much. The record will reflect that everybody has been sworn in. Daniel? All right. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Daniel Crum, planning staff. The lone item on the agenda today is a continuation of BOA 2226, a request by Anderson Communities Incorporated, for a conditional use permit for an outdoor recreational facility at 2501 Russell Cave Road. Here we have a vicinity map of the subject property. The subject property is outlined in blue. It fronts on Russell Cave Road in between Russell Cave Road and Newtown Pike, north of the interstate. Here we have a zoning map of the property that is shown. The subject property is zoned AR, Agricultural Rural, as are the adjacent properties to the west, north, and east. The subject property directly abuts land within the urban service boundary to the south that is within the expansion area and is zoned ED economic development. The intent behind the subject property's agricultural rural zone is to preserve the rural character of the agricultural service area by promoting agriculture and related uses and by discouraging all forms of urban development except for a limited amount of conditional uses. The Urban County Council has deemed that outdoor recreational uses, such as soccer fields, are one such non-agricultural use that can be appropriate in certain conditions in the AR zone, provided that they do not involve lighting, loudspeakers, or retail sales of food and merchandise and do not have structures that exceed 10,000 square feet total in size. So here is a little closer view of the subject property. This is an aerial view. So the applicant wishes to use a 60-acre portion of the western portion of the site for this outdoor, non-commercial, recreational use. The use most recently was used as agricultural stables and training facility. It is adjacent to agricultural uses to the west and north, as well as the phasing Tipton facility to the northwest. To the south, they have land within the economic development zone. that will be used for commercial flex space. Moving forward, here we have the revised site plan that was submitted to us and we have reviewed since our last meeting. The kind of the meat and the core of this request is the same as before. This details 12 recreational fields, 750 parking spaces, and access driving from Newtown Pike through Providence Place Parkway into the use. I'm going to zoom in a little bit with the enhanced plan. There were several changes with this newly proposed request. Notably, the parking has been shifted from the western portion of the site to the southern portion of the site here, as well as some changes to the reconfiguration of the fields to accommodate them. The facilities for the restrooms and maintenance remain in the same place. However, staff recommends that if approved, these are relocated adjacent to the parking areas in order to provide better accessibility for the use. The applicant has kind of added a few additional components to this request. One is an increase in pedestrian connectivity, adding sidewalks and trails that connect both the parking areas as well as the larger sighted hole, as well as landscaping areas consisting of a 35-foot landscaping easement buffer along the western and northern property lines. Now, staff has reviewed this. Initially, we recommended postponement of this request due to kind of four main concerns with the original site plan. These were the scale and the scope of the parking areas, two, the lack of screening from adjacent uses, Three, access to the site. And four, the relationship with the proposed future soccer stadium to the south. Staff is going to go into each of these items kind of individually and how the applicant has responded to them. So the first concern that staff had with the initial site plan and the initial submission was the scope of the parking areas. The applicant was proposing 750 spaces, but it was not clear to staff kind of where that demand was coming from and how that was appropriate for the scale of this facility. The applicant in their updated letter of justification has indicated that the larger tournaments, these regional scale tournaments that they would like to host at the site, drive a higher volume of traffic, as well as when they have events going on at site, the kind of carryover or the mixing of the different games at various times would necessitate a higher amount of parking required in order to accommodate that. However, in order to ensure that the parking is only serving the demand of the on-site events, staff is recommending a conditional approval prohibiting the use from being used as off-site parking for other uses. The second kind of item to address that was brought by staff in the original report was the lack of screening from surrounding uses. So originally, the parking area was directed along the western property line here and didn't have any designated screening. In response to this, the applicant has opted to provide a 35-foot boundary, a buffer, and let me actually go back, shown here on the site plan. It is going to consist of the existing fencing along the western and northern property lines, along with a 35-foot buffer that consists of three rows of scattered trees, or staggered trees. Staff is recommending that this buffer be increased 50 feet in width, include a minimum six-foot-tall fencing on both the interior and exterior of the buffer, and to be extended to areas where this adjoins AR zoning. So this would apply not just to the north and west, as originally proposed by the applicant, but also to this eastern project boundary here in order to delineate it from the rest of the parcel. The next issue that staff identified was access to the site. So under the initial proposal, access was still coming through Newtown Pike along Providence Place Parkway, but extended further into the site and was accessed by an access point that was closer to the middle of the property, then looped back in to serve the use here. This added approximately three quarters of a mile of unnecessary pavement and didn't provide a direct access to the site. They have since revised that to provide a more direct route, one that cuts out that unnecessary pavement, a necessary extra length for emergency vehicles and users of the site to access it. They are still showing emergency access, which wraps around the edge of the property and connects to a farm road that then leads out to Russell Cave Road. This is for emergency services only. This is to be gated, and the property is to have no direct access to Russell Cave Road under this proposal. The fourth and final item that staff had identified in the initial staff report was to ask the applicant to clarify the relationship with the potential soccer stadium to the south. So the applicant has submitted a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow for a soccer stadium within the ED zone to the south, so within the urban service area. The applicant has indicated that these two will have some interaction within their letter of justification. The applicant stated that these stadium facilities would provide a space for some of the support uses, so offices, support, and kind of some related uses for the operation of the fields here. However, stated that the only use of the stadium so far, or the only crossover between the professional use, would be that the fields would be used for practicing for the professional players. Other than that, the applicant did not provide much more information on this particular item. So as such, staff still had concerns that this site could be used for stadium-related events, parking, or other types of gatherings that would not be appropriate or in line with the conditions. So we have drafted a condition of approval to limit the use of the site to on-site, non-commercial athletic activities. So with that, staff is recommending approval of this request based on several items. By keeping this use distinct from any future soccer stadium use, we will be upholding the urban service boundary. and with significant conditions relating to lighting, activation of the site, loudspeakers, limitations on use, operation, and duration, and other limitations placed within the conditions of approval should ensure that this would have a minimal impact on the adjacent properties. Second, the proposed facility is supported by the comprehensive plan, which calls for the creation of a regional sports complex. this property's location in relation to the interstate as well as Newtown Pike provides that connectivity to allow that to kind of activate at that scale. And that the proposed use should not have an adverse impact on traffic in the immediate vicinity as there will be no direct access to Russell Cave Road and the access to the site will be limited to Newtown Pike and Providence Place Parkway. So staff has 19 conditions of approval listed with this request in order to make this as minimal of an impact on the adjacent properties as possible. I'm not going to read through those verbatim. They are listed on the screen. I will go through each slide as well as within the staff report. I'm just going to generally summarize the intent behind these. So the first five conditions are pretty standard. These are related to sign-offs and divisional approval. The sixth condition is there no direct vehicular access to these facilities from Russell Cave Road except for the emergency access. Conditions 7 through 10 deal with procedural items regarding updating development plans as necessary and ensuring that the landscaping and VUA areas receive the appropriate approval and are in line with ordinance requirements. conditions 11 on kind of apply more specifically to the site and are more targeted here condition 11 is requiring the 50 foot landscape buffer that was mentioned earlier in the presentation along the eastern western and northern property parcel i'm sorry project boundaries to ensure that is screened from the adjacent properties as well as delineated from the rest of the subject parcel. Number 13 relates to the relocation of those restroom facilities and maintenance areas in order to be more accessible. 13 restates the prohibition that is within the ordinance that outdoor lighting, loudspeakers, and the retail sale in restaurants and food and services are prohibited. 14 deals with the specific operations of the site. So the outdoor recreational facilities shall be limited to use for athletic related activities only and shall not be used for non-athletic commercial events or gatherings, including concerts, festivals, fireworks, off-site parking, and the like. The rest deal with hours of operation, limiting this to daylight hours in line with the applicant's proposal, and the rest deal with tournaments. So we have a condition in here that the staff suggests limiting this to two tournaments per month and shall only take place in April, May, June, September, and October. Condition 17 relates to coordinating with Fasic-Tipton, the adjacent use, to avoid any type of operational impacts through the two events there. 18 relates to traffic management and that until this intersection is signalized, the applicant shall provide traffic management at Providence Place Parkway and New Town Pike during these tournaments in order to mitigate any impact of that additional traffic. The final condition is that should Lexington Sporting Club no longer operate this use, the conditional use shall be considered null and void. So staff with those conditions are recommending approval for this, and I would be happy to entertain any questions you have of staff at this time. Thank you, Mr. Crumb. Were the hours of operations suggested by the applicant? Those were derived by staff. I believe the last time that we had spoken with staff, I believe the applicant may be seeking to modify that particular condition, but that was based on the staff's recommendation is based on general daylight hours and when this use would be appropriate without lighting. Okay. I have some other questions, but I'll let the members of the board ask you questions if they have any. Mr. Chair. Sure. Have you had discussions with the applicant regarding these conditions and possible modifications? thereof that you guys may or may not be comfortable with? And the reason I'm asking is that there's a good chance we may have to go through as a board each one of these because we're going to have different positions on different. So I just wanted to see if those conversations had occurred. The applicants have reached out to staff, and in my understanding is that they are fine with the majority of the conditions. One point of contention, to my understanding, and Mr. Murphy can speak to this, is I believe that they wanted to modify the condition about not using this particular site for off-site parking in relation to potential stadium use. That's my understanding. And have you by chance had discussions also with counsel for the opponents? Mr. Simpson or Mr. Engel? No. Okay. Not to our knowledge. That's fine. All right. That's all I have for now. I have a quick question. You mentioned a couple of times about the parking and that particular issue. Which condition are we saying that falls under? So this would be, let's see here. So it's actually condition 14, so this would limit off-site parking. Oh, I see it. Okay. Other questions from the board? Just to clarify, too, on the food service part of it, are we including catering, food trucks, the like of that? Is that 100% across the board, no food on site? That wording is taken directly from the conditions in the zoning ordinance associated with this particular conditional use. Thanks. Other questions? I just have one question about access number six to Russell Cave Road. Who came up with that? So that was derived from the applicant's proposal, so they are not showing any direct connectivity there. And then staff agreed upon that as being an appropriate condition, and we generated that on our end. Okay, thank you. Mr. Needham, I think that was from the postponement where there was concern about having two ways in case of emergencies. As far, I have several other questions, at least two. The condition number 16 that limits it to two tournaments per month, where did that come from? That was generated by staff in conversations with the supplemental justification letter. So the applicant indicated that this is around the amount of capacity and the number of events they expected to hold. So we took that from the supplemental justification and incorporated it into the conditions. And there are specific months listed there. what's the justification for limiting the tournaments to April, May, June, September, and October? Once again, that was also taken from the applicant's supplemental letter, so those were the months specifically called out as when this would be taking place. Okay. As far as the coordination with Fasig-Tipton, number 17, I understand the desire of Fasig-Tipton to want to coordinate with the applicant and the applicant's desire to coordinate for traffic purposes, but traffic is covered in condition 18. So is there some other reason that the applicant should confer with Fasig-Tipton? So this is, so in addition to traffic, just any operational impacts with those two uses being so close together, it's my understanding that there are certain days later in the year when FASIC-Tipton does the bulk of their sales, or a large portion of that, that is just to provide the two to see if they can work out an agreement to stagger. That way there isn't any conflicting, you know, if there is any land use impacts from that, to ensure that that doesn't impact those on their most significant days. As you noted, the traffic management is also covered in the other section as well. Also in 17, part of this says no tournament shall occur during horse sale events, which I think is reasonable, or three or four days prior to the first sale date. Is that because of expected traffic going in and out of Fasig-Tipton? I can let Fasig-Tipton probably speak to that a little bit better than I can. And it's staff's understanding that there is a buildup to those events where horses are being brought on site. So we wanted to just protect against any impact on that adjacent property owner during those significant periods. Okay. Thank you very much. Any other questions from the board to Mr. Crumb for now? Stand by. We may get back to you with other questions as the need arises. We'll next hear from the applicant, Mr. Murphy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a couple of handouts to give to you. Okay. And let's bring up the lights. Oh, you've anticipated my thoughts. I did that telepathically. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm Dick Murphy, and I'm pleased today to be representing Anderson Communities. And as you all know, we are working in conjunction with Lexington Sporting Club for approval of this outdoor recreational facility. Dennis Anderson is with me today of Anderson Communities on the second row. From Lexington Sporting Club, Vince Gabbert, who was here two weeks ago, couldn't be here today, but we have Stephen Dawhair and Carter Carnegie, who are co-owners as well, along with Mr. Shively. They're over on the side over there. Al Gross and Rory Cayley are here from EA Partners, our designers. And, Mr. Chairman, we do have a number of participants in the soccer program here with us today. They're not all planning on speaking by any means, But I would ask your permission to let them stand here today to show you their support and the great need for this soccer facility here in Lexington. Sure, that'd be fine. You all would stand up if you're soccer participants, and I think we have more in the – I did see some more that I chased out of the room. They're probably in the overflow area. And I will point out something about the overflow area. There is a delay of approximately 20 seconds or so, is that right, from our conversations here and the time that it appears on the television screen in the overflow area. So if there is someone in the overflow area that plans to speak, we're not going to consider them tardy just because we have to fetch them from the outside. but we'll try to make allowances for that time delay in the time that we talk in here and the time that it gets broadcast in the overflow area. Sorry, go right ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to update you on what's happened since your hearing two weeks ago. I'm going to try not to repeat what I presented to you two weeks ago, but I do need to update you. The staff asked us to submit additional information and make some minor revisions to our development plan, which we submitted to them, and I think they've submitted to you. This is our site plan for the property. And as you know, the staff asked us to improve the pedestrian connectivity between our parking area and the area to the south. We do want to have a stadium down here. which is not before you today. So I want to say on Providence Place Parkway, of course here's Interstate 75 combined with Interstate 64. Here's Newtown Pike, short distance, turn right on Providence Place Parkway, which is already built up to Destiny Way and will construct Destiny Way up to the parking facility. This stretch of Providence Place Parkway is designed with an 8-foot multimodal trail on the north side. And it has a 5-foot sidewalk on the south side. The standard width of sidewalks is now 5 feet. It used to be 4 feet. 8 feet on the north, a multimodal trail, 5 feet on the south. And we have extended that up Destiny Way at the request of the staff. So on the east side of Destiny Way, we have the 8-foot multimodal trail proceeding up into our parking area. On the west side, we will still have a five-foot sidewalk on the west side going up from Destiny Way. This multimodal trail will continue on the right side of the parking lot, bringing you around the parking area up to the area inside the playing field area. And on the left side, we will continue our five-foot sidewalk up to this point inside the playing facility. We will have a 16-foot roadway, which is a pedestrian roadway along the west side and the north side. It's 16 feet wide so we can connect with a farm road to provide emergency access into this property. In case, for instance, this area is ever blocked, emergency vehicles can come in through a locked gate, which is available to be opened by the fire department, police department, through the farm roads into this 16-foot wide area, pedestrian walkway and emergency access to access the facility. That will not be open for the public or people parking here. It's only the emergency access is gated, locked, only available for emergency responders. So as we heard very early on, I don't think there was anyone in favor of access to Russell Cave Road, and we do not have access into Russell Cave Road, but we have greatly improved the pedestrian bicycle access down to Destiny Way and to this area down here. We have also increased the screening as requested by the staff. Our plan and this plan showed a 35-foot screening buffer consisting of three rows of trees, two rows of evergreen, plus a third row of deciduous trees. what we have added is it's now 50 feet wide and at the request of the staff we will have a six foot tall fence on either side of the buffer area so it's truly a buffer area people aren't going to be able to get in there except maybe to cut the grass but we'll have that extending on the west side and the north side and the staff has asked us to put that on the east side that's actually still owned by Mr. Anderson, but in case he ever sold that area, there'd be screening along here. This is the economic development zone down here, which does not require that extensive of screening, although we will meet the screening requirements, zone-to-zone screening along this area. So we have the buffer area along the three sides, as requested by the staff, with two six-foot-tall fences on either side. the staff has asked in their conditions that we move this building this is the restroom facility building and the shelter in case of bad weather that they've asked us to move this down to the parking area we will do that as suggested on the or not suggested as required by the staff conditions the excuse me I'm pleased to say also we've obtained, since you have met, our first approval through the process, and that is from the Royal Spring Aquifer Committee. As you know, this area is in the Royal Spring Aquifer, and we took that before them a week ago today, and they reviewed this and sent it forward with no further recommendations to the city. So we have gone through our first level of review. I want to put this in context. You are our second level of review, but we have many other levels of review to go before we can put a spade in the earth and turn a spade of earth to start the construction of this. As you know, and we have two text amendments pending before the Planning Commission. One relates to allowing the stadiums and the economic development zones. The other does relate to lighting on this property. The ordinance does not allow lighting or concessions at this point. We understand that. We're not asking you to approve that today. We do have a text amendment in front of the Planning Commission relating to those. So that's our third and fourth level of appeal. Our fifth and sixth level of appeal will be taking those two text amendments through the Urban County Council. assuming we get through the urban county council we have three more levels of review to go through and that is first the grading permit for our facility here which will require review by many different agencies in this government including environmental quality water quality division of planning division of building inspection and a number of other agencies We'll have to approve that before we are allowed to proceed. We will need to get paving permits for our parking area. We'll need to get building permits for our building on this. So we have at least nine levels of review to go through. You are the first part of our review process, and we will have many more before. I wanted to tell you what this hearing is not about. as you all know it's not about the stadium we do propose a professional soccer stadium on this property that's not before you that's a text amendment before the Planning Commission it's not about so I want to correct the size of this this is 60 acres are 12 fields on 60 acres some of the media reports have said it is a hundred forty seven acres that is not correct it's 60 acres they got the 147 acre figure because adding the rest of the property to it, which we are not using for this, adds up to 147. But we have requested 60 acres for you. As I said, this is not about whether these fields can have lighting or concessions, because currently the ordinance doesn't allow that. We're in the AR zone, agricultural rural zone. Under our ordinance, as you all know, the Sarah School has a multi-use recreational facility off of Athens Boonesboro Road near Blue Sky, which has, as I recall, soccer, softball, baseball, maybe football out there, too, that does have lights. And that's because there's a specific ordinance that says that recreational facilities, Sarah's recreational facility, can have lights. We can't. So this is not before you today. We have to go through a text amendment process to allow us to have lights. Even though we're in the AR zone, just like the Sarah School facility is, there's an ordinance that says that Sarah School can have lights in their facility. We can't. So we're not bringing the issue of lighting to you today. If we get a text amendment approved for lighting, we may bring that back to you sometime in the future on that. It does not, same with concessions. It does not, we are not asking your approval, and we do not want to have fireworks on this site. I want to emphasize that, or loudspeakers on this site. We have not asked for that as well. And it's, of course, not about whether the Ashwood Training Center is closing or not. As we discussed two weeks ago, due to a lease dispute between Dennis Anderson and the person who operates Ashwood Training Center, the training center is shutting down and closing regardless of what happens in this case today. I did want to mention to you that we have reached out and there are some alternatives for trainers there. I have a letter at page 10 on my handout from Michelle Dalton who has pointed out she started a training facility nearby. with 200 acres and is available. She also mentioned there's one available at High Point Training Center in LaGrange, Kentucky. So there are alternatives available, but that is not before you today as well. There is a great need for this. I've pointed out in my handouts that this has been called for in Lexington's comprehensive plan. The 2018 comprehensive plan specifically calls for a recreational facility such as this, to serve the recreational needs of this community, and also to be an economic development facility here. And the comprehensive plan says that unquestionably there is a need in the community and the economic impacts could be significant. I won't go into more than that. I did two weeks ago, but there is a tremendous need, I think, as evidenced by the people we have here today. And I think Kenneth Nussbacher, one of our coaches, will be talking about that in the future as well. The staff had asked us to discuss the rural land management plan, which we did, which they have reviewed and incorporated into the conditions that they have presented to you. We do have a couple issues about the conditions I want to mention to you. First, I want to say we are here because of the excellent transportation facilities that we have. As I mentioned to you, cars bringing players and their families here can get off the interstate highway, come up the newly reconstructed portion of Newtown Pike for a few hundred yards, turn on Providence Place Parkway and then turn on Destiny Way to get here. All the roads they'll be traveling in are located in the Economic Development Zone. We're not going to be putting traffic in the rural roads of this community. And we've moved our parking to be adjacent to the Economic Development Zone, as I mentioned to you. We have three items I need to mention to you about the conditions. If you could put your slide up with the conditions starting with condition 14, that would be great. Appreciate that. The first one is condition 15, which relates to the hours of operation, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. I did not mention hours of operation in our report to you. In talking to the folks from Lexington Sporting Club, we need a little more flexibility on that. Some teams like to practice early, starting at 7.30 a.m., and sometimes tournaments go to 9.30, especially times like now when we have longer, longer days. So we'd request that that be 7.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. The second one is the article number 16, which says there shall be no more than two tournaments per month, and tournaments shall be limited to the months of April, May, June, September, and October. In my report, I said generally tournaments would be within those months. I didn't necessarily say we wanted to limit it to those. The Lexan Sporting Club would like to have a little more flexibility on that to either eliminate the months of usage or at least to add March to that on those months of usage. The tournaments are set up in conjunction with other teams, and they need a little more flexibility on that. The third item is... Mr. Murphy? Yes, sir. So you're saying on 16 just add March or are you saying strike it? I wasn't sure where you... Well, we'd like to strike the mention of the months totally, if possible. If not, if you want to leave the months in there, we'd ask you to add March to the list of months. Gotcha. The third and final one is important to us, and that's the limitation of uses. The staff has proposed no non-athletic commercial events or gatherings, including concerts, festivals, fireworks, off-site parking, and the like. The issue is the off-site parking and the like. Talk to the staff a little bit about that. Two issues I think the staff mentioned to me. One is they're concerned that since this is an economic development zone, that other businesses in the area would park trucks here and use this as a truck parking lot. We don't want that. We're not going to be having trucks parked for other uses on this property. We understand that motivation for this. The other one, however, is the off-site parking. We, as you know, we would like to build a stadium for the professional soccer team nearby. We've agreed to upgrade our multimodal connection between this property and the stadium site so people can walk or ride a bicycle from this area down to the stadium. And we think it's very important that we be allowed to use this site for overflow parking for the stadium parking lot. so that if we have families that are used to coming here to play, they can still park where they normally do and they can walk down to the stadium, or if we need it for overflow parking, it would be available for the stadium. It makes no sense to have us chain off this parking lot when there's a professional game going on at the stadium and have people scramble for parking around that area instead of using this for overflow parking on the property. That's where we stand on that. So those are the three issues we have with the staff conditions. As I said, we're not putting traffic on the Russell Cave Road. Mr. Murphy, I want to interrupt you again. so on deleting the off-site parking I'm not sure if the body's going to have an interest in that or not at this time is there some compromise that your client would be comfortable with well if we could allow off-site parking only for overflow from the a stadium nearby stadium facility we could do that we don't we don't want to park trucks and stuff like that on this property. As I mentioned to you at our early hearing this is a has been cited as a important economic development facility in our comprehensive plan due to the tourism, hotels, restaurants and other and tourism and business that is generated by out of town families coming to these events. I won't go through that again. I went through that with you about two weeks ago. And so I'd like to conclude. I'd like to, if I could, Mr. Chairman, like to ask Kenneth Nussbacher to come up, who's one of our coaches who can tell you about the impact this has on the youth of the community. Sorry, one more question, Mr. Murphy. You're okay with the other conditions? Yes. Okay. Yeah, there are a number of them in there and to be honest about it I wouldn't have proposed all of those to you but we're okay with them. So I show 14, 15, 16. You have an issue with you're okay with 17? We'll always coordinate with Fasic Tipton. We're okay Okay, with 17. Just the three. Yes. All right. Before you bring up your witness, Mr. Murphy, I have some concerns about the restrictive part of 19. It seems to me that if this board grants you the conditional use or your client the conditional use that you're asking for, if some other company wanted to operate the soccer fields or if lexington sporting club goes out of business or something like that wouldn't it be more appropriate to limit that null and void provision to mr anderson or or anderson uh anderson communities inc yes sir i think it would be That is a concern we have because if another organization wants to operate this in a similar manner, it would have the exact same impact as what is being proposed to you today. It would have no change in impact. I have another couple of questions before you bring your witness up. These soccer fields are in the AR zone, are proposed to be in the AR zone. Why would you want to build it in the AR zone? Aren't there other zones that are more appropriate for building soccer fields than in horse country? Yes, sir. The Lexington Sporting Club has looked at a number of locations. Mr. Gabbard was here two weeks ago to tell you he had searched exhaustively around Lexington for a site to do this. And this is the site to do it. And the reason is needing 60 acres of land to have these facilities on. As I mentioned to you, SARE School has a sizable recreational facility off Athens Boonesboro Road. As some of the other witnesses mentioned to you two weeks ago, there's a soccer facility nearby at the corner of Berea Road and Ironworks Road in the AR zone as well. we understand it is in the ar zone the rural land management plan which the staff asked me to review for this does acknowledge that there are non-agricultural recreational facilities in the ar zone and they are allowed in the ar zone as conditional uses there's been a lot of discussion about we're violating the urban service area concept or that sort of thing. That's not the case at all because our zoning ordinance expressly states that recreational facilities such as this, such as SARE schools, are allowed in the AR zone as conditional uses. It's your job to review those and impose any conditions which may be appropriate to make sure there is not an adverse impact on surrounding uses. I think there is nowhere, no location we could lessen those impacts than here since all our every car we have coming here is going to be coming through the economic development zone not the ar zone we have a 50 foot wide buffer around it as i said lexian sporting club desires to coordinate with phasic dipped in and agreed to the condition 17 regarding that. So we do not think there is any negative impact. And bearing in mind, why are we a permitted conditional use in the AR zone? We're an outdoor open green space. And we still are outdoor open green space on this. This is a very lower impact on the area. and it is very much in keeping with what's going on. In the AR zone, we have other recreational facilities, not just soccer ones, there's polo fields, there's the horse park, even the horse park has soccer fields at it, which shows that horses and soccer fields can coexist in this area. So we think this is entirely appropriate. And this is the one site which Lexington Sporting Club has identified in which this can work. Another question about your site plan. The soccer fields that you're proposing are removed somewhat from Providence Place Parkway. Who owns that property between Providence Place Parkway and the proposed soccer fields? Dennis Anderson. Why are the soccer fields not proposed to be moved closer to Providence Place Parkway? Well, we have development plans approved that show economic development buildings on those areas. We're having to amend those to, we've agreed to amend those to show the road going through right now. We're having to reposition some of those buildings to allow that road to go through. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Murphy before he brings his witness on? Okay. Thank you. Hello, thanks everybody. My name is Kenny Nussbacker. I am a soccer player here. I've been a soccer coach for many years. In fact, I see a lot of people here and in the mezzanine. There are a lot of people out there, by the way, who I've coached their children over the years. I've been involved with this for decades here in Lexington. What I wanted to share is that watching this growth over the last 30, 40 years here in Lexington in this sport, it's amazing from where it was at that time. There's certainly a need for something like this. And I think it serves a large, large group of the community in different ways. So, you know, I think that it's not only is there a need for it, but I also wanted to spend, I know I have a finite amount of time. I want to respect everyone's time, but I wanted to share with you a particular group of young people who this would impact positively. There's a group of people who are, they would be here today, they're actually not available and I'll explain why, who are in a group called Box to Box, which is a local organization. This group of young people are in a tutoring program where they learn life skills, they learn academic skills and so forth. They happen to be all African refugees. We have a sizable population of African refugees in Lexington now. The payoff for them in this box-to-box environment, in this program, which is a privately funded program, is that if their behavior is appropriate, if their academics are square, they get a chance to play soccer. And the reason that this comes to fruition at a different level now is because Lexington Sporting has agreed to basically support these young people in playing. This facility literally gives them an opportunity to play where it's been very, very difficult, to say the least, for these young people to have that opportunity. So that's a population, I just wanted to mention that, of people that we don't necessarily hear from directly. The reason they're not here now, they're actually at the Dunbar Center having their tutoring sessions right now during the day, during the summer. So the impact of this goes to maybe some parts of our community, members of our community that we don't necessarily hear from all the time as well. So I want you to be aware of that. It impacts a lot of people like that as well. It's certainly needed, and we're hopeful that everyone understands how this can be integrated in the great things that happen here in Lexington. So thank you for a few minutes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, obviously I want to preserve some rebuttal time for whatever new is said but I just want to sum up by saying that as you all know for 20 years people have been searching for a soccer complex such as this. This is not something that materialized overnight. People have been trying for this for 20 years and if you've been involved in soccer or if you're a parent and had kids involved in soccer you know this is needed and they have looked all over this is the site which will do it and we feel very confident we can do that without causing adverse impacts upon our surrounding neighbors thank you mr murphy thank you very much Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in support of this application? Yes sir, come up to the podium, tell us your name. Hello ladies and gentlemen of the board, my name is Richard Shadwick. I live at 5421 Jack's Creek Pike. Mr. Shadwick, you have three minutes. Thank you. I certainly understand a little bit of inconvenience living on Jack's Creek with Raven Run, but I'm glad to share the Palisades of the Kentucky River with anybody that wants to see it. When I see those 12 soccer fields, it reminds me of my youth. I see an opposing team on each side, 24 teams, 24 coaches, telling those kids they're good enough. They're good enough. I grew up in Wilmore, Kentucky as a back farmer, hay baling, shoveling snow. Had no dreams of going to college. But you know what? I had coaches that would say, you're good enough. All throughout my youth, you're good enough. You're good enough. When the day came, Moorhead State told me I could come and walk on. I walked on. I earned a scholarship. five years later with a red shirt walk on, put on little pounds, I had a degree, a first generation because of sport. I didn't grow up thinking I was going to go to college, but I had to go to college to play my sport. Do you recognize that the kids in this community, regardless of what sport, whether it's soccer, basketball, football, need a complex where they can gather and they can learn from people who have the same interest, other than people that don't have the same interest or interest in them. I see an opportunity here to make a difference in our community on the north side of Lexington, and I felt compelled to just come and speak my voice about it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shadwick. Anyone else? Yes, sir. dear chairman and members of the board of adjustment thank you for your service to our community tell us your name please sir my name is barry saturday it's my request that you consider approving the conditional use application before us today pln boa 22 000 26 this project will bring much needed physical activity, as the previous gentleman alluded to, to the kids in our community, opportunities for them in athletics, and provide an outstanding economic impact to the citizens and the community of Lexington, including both tourism revenue and sustainable job growth, while intentionally having a minimal impact on the agricultural zone. There are opponents to this plan, and they will cite unspecified significant adverse effects to agricultural use and stormwater runoff issues, which you all know to be amenable, already addressed through engineering and stormwater proposals, and potentially addressable through stormwater grants for permeable pavers to address some of the runoff and the like. The primary goal of these opponents is not agricultural stormwater use issues, but maintenance of the current urban services boundary and simply their ability to control access to any and all uses outside the boundary. God forbid we have a parking space. We are better than a one-size-fits-all town. And as there is little available space for these types of projects within the US boundary, the USB, it is a great thing for our kids and our economy that you are considering this application for our community's use. The plan will increase Lexington's status as a regional hub for sports and tourism, as the staffers alluded to. That is part of the comprehensive plan of 2018, as you know. And the resulting tax base increases will fund operations and useful programs for kids and parks within and outside the urban services boundary for generations to come. Thank you. Once again, I'm Barry Saturday, and I hope you, I dearly suggest you approve this plan. Thank you, Mr. Saturday. Anyone else who wishes to speak in support of this application? If not, we'll now hear from the opponents. Mr. Simpson, we'll start with you. I'm sorry. Can we give a little bit of time for those out on the mezzanine who have a time delay with the streaming to enter? I think that's probably a good idea. We probably need a runner to go out and ask if there's anybody out there who wishes to speak in support. I forgot about that time delay myself. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Okay, Mr. Simpson, you're up. You have 20 minutes. Mr. Chair, just a reminder that the council work session starts at 3 o'clock, and we need some time to clear the room. I intended to mention that. This is the council chambers. The council has a work session beginning at 3 o'clock. We will vacate this room approximately at 2.50. We'll come back after they're through. You're welcome to stay for the council work session if you like. I don't know how long that will take, 45 minutes or so. So you're welcome to stay in your seat until the work session is over and then we'll resume this hearing. And what else? Well, as of right now with the current time, Mr. Simpson would not have his full 20 minutes to give his presentation before we need to clear the room. So the question is, Mr. Simpson, do you want to start and be interrupted, or would you prefer to give your presentation in one piece? I would prefer, Mr. Chairman, to do it at one piece. Well, that being said, we can certainly hear from witnesses in opposition to this application before you speak, or Mr. Engel, who suggested that he might take ten minutes, we can hear from him in the interim. Mr. Engel, are you in the room and are you prepared to speak? I know that you said originally that your presentation might be shorter because Mr. Simpson might cover some things, but are you still needing 10 minutes? Because we do have 10 minutes between now and... Yeah, Chairman Glover, I think it would probably be tough to do that without knowing. The 10 minutes was based on the fact that we expected Mr. Simpson to cover a lot of the same stuff in our comments. So if he hasn't gone first, we probably wouldn't need more than 10. So maybe, obviously, the chair's discretion, but maybe a few witnesses might be a better use of the time. Yeah. Okay. Well, I appreciate that, and we don't want to cut you off either. So let's hear from witnesses. Let me suggest this to the witnesses who are in opposition. I know there are plenty. If you're in opposition to this application, hold up your hand. Let me get a sense of how many people propose. If you're in opposition and propose to speak, hold up your hand. Let me do a rough count. I count about 22 people. Let's do this. Let's have five of you line up behind the podium here, and we'll try to see if we can get five in between now and the time. Well, we're not going to get five in. We might have three in the next 10 minutes. So let's have three people line up there, and we'll see if we can hear from the first three people. And then we'll take a break at approximately 2.50. Thank you, ma'am. Please tell us your name. Go right ahead. You have three minutes. Could I hand this to you? Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. My name is Sarah McHarg. I'm here in opposition of this bill. I've lived in Lexington, Kentucky for 15 years. I moved here for the equine industry. I've worked in the equine industry and in the construction industry, and I'm going to really quickly breeze through my issues. Currently, we're being asked to, what I'm going to call the theme of this, is strategically reduce this design for ease of approval. If I, when I was in the industry, proposed this without looking at the bigger picture, I would be fired. My main issues are that we're being asked to evaluate this as a standalone issue when it's very clear that we are a few text amendments away from this not looking at all like what we're talking about. Many of the locations that are 750 parking spaces wide across the U.S. have lighting requirements for safety. We are one text amendment away from safety being the reason that we do need lights in that parking lot, and I agree with that. If we look at when sunset is at some of the best times that we can play soccer, it's well before 9 p.m. If you'd like to continue use of this property after sunset, you're going to need lights. lights being a bridge too far would be really connecting this to a proposal that we haven't heard yet i have a very big problem with this being connected to a piece that we're not really getting a chance to hear about which is the stadium in order to build the lights into the parking lot order of operations for construction would dictate that that should come first you have to trench that all in, concrete it. It's a big deal and we should be hearing about that. I understand we're not here to hear that, but I'm very concerned that it's come shortly after this meeting. I moved here for the equine industry. There are finite resources mostly left on the north side of town. I think that frankly this is the final frontier for some of our farms and that you guys are on the front lines of protecting this for us. I really do. Could you show the next picture? This is pseudo insignificant, but it took 15 years for me to produce this. I moved to Lexington, Kentucky. This is the best foal I'll ever have in my life. I really spent my entire life to come here to produce this. I live across from the proposed development on Russell Cave Road at 2470. I won't be able to have a foal there like this with the proposed intention of this property. Lastly, I'd like to say, I've played soccer my whole life. I'm really excited for soccer to come to Lexington, Kentucky. I could have pursued soccer in college. I bowed out so that I could do equine. I hope that those guys out there get their soccer fields. Thank you, Ms. McCart. Just not on this property. Thank you. No applause. I mentioned this at the beginning of this session, that there'll be no outbursts and there'll be no applause for any speaker or for any issue that comes up, any comments. I want to maintain order in this room to give everybody a chance to speak and to hear all the testimony that we're going to hear. Thank you. Next. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Three minutes. My name is Melba Holt, and I'm actually representing the Griffin Gate Community Association. HOA, who is on Newtown Pike. And our issue is safety on Newtown Pike. And we've heard that all the traffic is going to come in through I-75 and 64. What about the traffic coming from the west side and the south side? The Newtown Pike right now is hazardous. The issues have not been remedied, and we are definitely in opposition to this at this time. Our request is that you postpone a decision until the HOA can meet with the city officials and the state officials, which we have requested, so that we can come up with some remedies to decrease the amount of the amount of accidents, the number of almost hits. I was almost killed the other day by a trailer truck who actually ran the red light. The way that is designed is unsafe, and this city, I believe, has a responsibility to address that. So we request that you postpone the decision until we can get some specific remedies for for the safety to protect everybody who is on Newtown Pike. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Holt. Next. My name is Reva Russell English and I live in the first district on the north side. When it comes to talk of development in Fayette County, there are usually only a handful of concerns addressed by those brokering the deals. What are the economic advantages? Will it bring in tourism dollars? What will it cost? Who will pay for it? While it has made sense in previous years to give weight to these types of questions, our housing crisis and climate change both require that we ask and answer different questions entirely. Let me explain. By now most of us have heard of climate change and many in Lexington are concerned about environmental sustainability. What many of us don't know however is that through excavation and earth moving, i.e. development, the very greenhouse gases responsible for increasingly warming an unstable planet, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are released from soils where they are otherwise safely stored. The proposed Lexington Sporting Club development with its 12 youth soccer fields, numerous facilities, and 750 parking spaces that seeks a conditional use permit from this body will remove 147 acres of undeveloped land. What does 147 acres provide in terms of greenhouse gas storage? Well, it's not possible to know exactly given that every bit of untouched soil is different. A general estimate of carbon sequestering per acre of land is 0.3 metric tons. That means that just turning over the soil on these 147 acres will release somewhere in the ballpark of 44 metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. If you add in the burning of fossil fuels and accompanying emissions that dozens of machines across years will require to build the complex, plus that of the countless fossil fuel powered cars that will be on our roads coming to and from soccer tournaments, and it's not hard to conclude that a giant youth soccer complex might just be an enemy of the environment. We find ourselves in an unfortunate intersection in history. Excessive planetary harm and a chance to reduce it and reverse it, which means we have to have different concerns and ask different questions when we talk about developing our agricultural land. What are the environmental costs of this project? If the conditional use permit is granted, how can the release and burning of greenhouse gases be offset somewhere else? What commitments will the developers make toward this end? What penalties can they face if they do not? Is this really the best use of good soil? That takes decades to build, by the way. And carbon release when we also don't have near enough housing? What about public transportation to and from this development to reduce traffic and fossil fuel emissions from the individual vehicles that will otherwise have to be put to use to reach it? Too often we think of climate change as something that's out there, a global problem, not a local one. But every one of us lives somewhere, and it is in that somewhere that the effects of a warming planet will do us harm. Our partner in tackling climate change is the Earth itself, but with each bit of development, each acre turned up and ruined, are opportunities to keep damaging greenhouse gases in the ground while maintaining healthy soil diminishes. I know the comprehensive plan includes a policy recommendation for the development of a large regional athletic field complex, but that same plan has an entire theme around protecting the environment. To ignore that broad, thematic call of environmental protection in order to preference a specific policy is a dereliction of duty and a willful misuse of the comprehensive plan. Please do not grant this conditional use permit. The harms do not outweigh the benefits, and doing so will not follow the principles of smart growth as outlined in the comprehensive plan. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Let's see if we can get one more in. You'll probably be the last one before we take a break. Tell us your name, please. Thank you very much. My name is Will Glasscock, and I'm speaking today on behalf of the Kentucky Equine Education Project, also known as KEEP. KEEP is Kentucky's equine economic advocate and is the only organization that represents all aspects of Kentucky's horse industry, all breeds and disciplines. And an issue that's important to us is land use. Kentucky's horse industry has an annual economic impact of $6.5 billion on the Commonwealth and provides 80,000 direct and indirect jobs. The heart of this economic engine is right here in Fayette County. The part of the county being considered for this development is particularly critical to the horse industry. Within just a few miles of the proposed site, you have a true cross-section of our industry. This area includes farms, big and small, not limited to just thoroughbreds, but also show and sport horses and others. You will find a world-leading equine medical facility and the country's oldest horse sales company, Faising Tipton. All are part of our massive economic ecosystem. The proposed project would create a number of hindrances to this ongoing economic activity, including a sharp increase in traffic, noise, and light. This would also set a precedent that over time could endanger Lexington's position on the national and global stage when it comes to the horse industry. Finally, keep is not focused only on just keeping farmland as farmland, but also on the need to maintain access to affordable farmland. There's a misconception that all horse farms are wealthy, but there are lots of small and modest horse farms. The more land that is lost rezoning impacts the supply and cost of all farmland across central Kentucky and Fayette County, especially for small farms and family farms. For these reasons and others, keep respectfully requests that you disapprove the application for conditional use for soccer fields on this land. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Glasscock. We will now stand in recess until after the council work session. You can...