Oh, when nothing's missing How do I know when it's long? I can't tell you about the last forever Oh, how does it feel when it's long? It's just something you feel together Hey, how do I know when it's love? I can't tell you why the last moment ever When it's love Ooh, when it's love Hey! It'll last forever When it's long Can I Bring my steel and stay together When it's long Oh, it's lovely You're the feeling, yeah We'll make it last forever I want you to be alone Thank you. Thank you. A week without driving. Discover the benefits. Imagine taking a break from driving for just one week. It's a great opportunity to improve your health by walking and biking, and this also reduces your carbon footprint and allows you to enjoy cleaner air and quieter streets. LexTran offers a stress-free alternative, especially when you plan your route ahead of time, whether at LexTran.com or on their app. And by letting someone else do the driving, you'll save on gas and parking and connect with your community in new ways. Give it a try. Your body, wallet, and the environment will thank you. Be sure to hop on LexTran Route 8 on October the 19th and make your way to the Lexington Transportation Expo. Hi, I'm Chuck Ellinger, and we're going to be talking today on my council comment about three or four topics. We're going to be talking about Kentucky Bicycle Law. We're going to be talking about Cycle September, Week Without Driving, and the last one will be our Transportation Expo. First of all, I just want to talk about basic Kentucky Bicycle Law. It's important to know your legal rights when bicycling in Kentucky. Bicycles are considered vehicles and bicycles shall operate a bicycle in the same manner as a motor vehicle. Where to ride? Bicycles are required to ride upon the right side of the highway whenever possible. Bicycles may veer from the right of the road when traveling at the same speed of traffic, when necessary to continue their route, preparing for a turn, overtaking and passing, avoiding hazards, traveling a lane too narrow to share, avoiding a mandatory turn lane, and when on a one-way street. Bicycles are required to use the bike lanes unless the bicycle is traveling at the legal speed, preparing for a left turn, passing a slower vehicle, avoiding hazards, avoiding the door zone of a parking vehicle, avoiding a driveway or intersection where vehicles can turn right. One of the issues that people ask me all the time about is about sidewalks and where cyclists can ride on a sidewalk. Generally, they're permitted, but bicyclists must slow down to walking speed when pedestrians are present or expected, and they should yield to pedestrians on sidewalks and crosswalks and one of the issues is when they're downtown in the business district and bicycles are allowed to ride on sidewalk outside of the business district. How to ride? Bicycles may not ride more than two abreast but they are allowed to ride two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for exclusive use of bicycles and may not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic. Bicycles are required to slow down or come to a complete stop at stop signs and traffic devices when signaling read. As I said earlier, bicycles are considered vehicles and have to abide by the traffic laws. Bicycles on roadways must actually do care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same directions. Cars overtaking bicyclists, And this is important, and this is something that passed the last couple years. Drivers must change lanes to pass bicyclists when there's more than one lane available. When only one lane is available, drivers must provide a minimum of three feet when passing bicyclists and when safe and may cross over the WL line to do so. Equipment. This is important for cyclists. At night, a bicycle must be equipped with a front light visible from 500 feet away and capable of revealing objects at least 50 feet in front of the bicycle. A rear red reflector or a red light visible for at least 100 feet and one light or flashing red light visible from at least 500 feet are required on the bicycle or bicyclist at night. Every bicycle must have brakes, which enable the cyclist to make brake wheels skid within 15 feet at 10 miles an hour. and they must be, they may be, but not required, may be equipped with a bell or horn. But when you do pass somebody, either do a little beep beep or let them know I'm on your left. Things that you can't do. Bicelus may not ride other than on or astride a permanent or regular seat attached to you. You must have a seat. Bicelus may not carry more than the number of persons which they're designed to. Bicelus may not carry a package that requires that they have to take one hand, they have to have one hand on the handlebar. You cannot or you're not permitted to hold on to another motor vehicle and they may not be equipped with a siren or whistles. And alcohol is just like in a vehicle, Kentucky DUI statute does apply to bicyclists. So those are kind of the general rules. Let's walk around and just talk to some cyclists and get a feel for what as cyclists, what they go through and what we need to know about them. Well, we're fortunate today to have 10-time national champion, Benna Halecki. Benna's been a staple in this community riding for tens of thousands of miles. In fact, she has the most amount of miles ridden in the club, over 60,000 miles, and that doesn't include miles that she's done. How many miles do you think you've ridden in your life? I don't know. Probably half a million, but I've never added them up, probably. So with that, you've experienced a lot on the road. Could you kind of just talk about things that we should be aware of so we can share the road? Yeah, it's becoming much more scary to ride. At this point in time, I know you're all aware that we had a recent death on Ironworks Pike. A 39-year-old man was hit from the back. A couple days later in the state of New Jersey, an NHL star and his brother were hit from the rear, and they were also killed. um so we're starting to see more and more serious accidents when i first started riding 30 years ago it was more of watching the other cyclists and making certain that they didn't hit you sometimes chuck rode a little scary and you had to be very careful with chuck but seriously she's like my sister yeah we are we tease each other but um right now distracted driving is becoming a major issue and many people I was just with a couple yesterday last night and they both told me they're not going to ride on the road they were going to only ride on trails because they're too afraid and their children tell them please don't go because they also had a death in an extended family member so distracted driving is becoming a major issue that we need to worry about I'm the rides coordinator for the club. We've done over 275,000 miles this year. We love the central Kentucky. We love the Bluegrass State. But the challenge is we have to be able to share the roads with cars. And so I'm begging the drivers. I'm begging as you sit down behind the wheel, an extra 10 or 15 seconds is not going to be a problem. And that's all we're talking about. And we will get over. The challenge with some of our local roads is we love riding on them. There's no shoulder. And it's difficult to get over for us because if we get in the grass or on the dirt, sometimes we can go over. So we look for a safe place to pull over. So I implore everyone that we're all drivers. We're all citizens. We're all neighbors. And a lot of us are all friends. Please take an extra 30 seconds or 10 seconds and care about your neighbor and care about your family because in reality, we're all a family. All right, so we're back. Now, today we're doing a ride out at Davis Fork. This ride's been going on with Tom Walters for 23 years. Tom has been leading this ride. And let me just talk about the Bluegrass Cycling Club. I've got my Bluegrass Cycling Club jersey on. And what I always try to tell people is make sure you're visible. You can see some of the jerseys we have are very visible. So when we're out riding, people will be able to see us. But Tom and the club, we've been doing this club for many, many years, and Tom's been doing this ride out here. Tom, why don't you just talk about things that you go over about the ride. This ride has grown from, at that time, probably five or six people, and the only ride during the day, the morning hours, that the club had. And now there's actually more rides in the mornings through the week than there is on the weekends. But like I say, we've been out here for 23 years. We've got a great time. And if so, I'll entertain a motion. I don't have a motion. You don't have a? Oh, did you not touch the Honda? Madam Chair, I move to approve meeting minutes from the, what did we say, July 2024 minutes. We do have a motion on the floor. Second. Second by Ms. Tucker. And can someone in tech help us? We're missing a mouse up here. A mouse. So we are voting to approve the minutes currently. All right, looks like that motion has passed. the next item on the agenda is actually the swearing of the the witnesses so if anyone plans to speak today you do have to be sworn in so if I can have you stand at this time please thank you and please raise your right hand do you affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth today okay thank you The next thing I will do is sound the agenda. I do want to at this point, you guys can tell it is a full house, so we will move as quickly as possible, but I am asking for your assistance in this. We are so excited to have as much public input as we can, but we do also want to be very conscientious of everyone's time. So I will run through the items on the agenda. Anything that does not have any opposition and has been recommended for approval, those items will be heard first we will have a separate str docket for the short-term rentals and anything that has been recommended for disapproval or does have someone here to make public comment those items will be fully heard if you are coming to the mic to speak today you if you have been sworn in if you guys see someone that has not been sworn in I can do so at the podium here but public will be limited to three minutes of comments so I will ask that we are very firm and adhere to that and we're also going to ask that we not be repetitive in our comments we want to make sure that we get our points heard but then we do need to continue to move quickly so with that being said the first item on the agenda is PLN BOA 24-118 that's Van Meter Pettit is the applicant present okay is there anyone here to speak in opposition of this particular item today okay and it is recommended for approval so that looks like you'll be up first the next item is PLN BOA 24-137 Suneer livery LLC is the applicant present Thank you. This one has been recommended for disapproval, so it will be heard. The next item listed on the agenda is PLN BOA 24-36, that's Dustin and Lauren Gage, but this has been postponed to November 4th. The next item on the agenda is PLN 2439 Lexington Islamic Center. Are the applicants present? Okay, good. This one has been continued from last meeting, so we will hear this one as well. The next item is PLN BOA 24-95, Serenia Molina, is the applicant present? Okay. And this one has been updated to be recommended for approval, but it will be heard with the STR docket. Okay. Is there anyone here to speak in opposition of that particular item? Okay. There should be one on the STR docket. PLN BOA 24-113, Catherine Day is the applicant present. Thank you. Is there anyone here to speak on this particular item? Do we have one? Okay. This has been recommended for approval. then we have pln boa 24-119 the church in lexington is the applicant present okay i do have a note here are we asking for a continuance or we want to be heard today would like to be continued if we can come forward please state your name for the record uh charlie hall okay I have a note they were asking for continuous we don't have the engineering report back from the bridge is that correct or that's it's correct all right I'll entertain a motion the board is okay with allowing this okay Bob is motion to continue to the November what's the date the November 4th meeting and we have a second miss Tucker has already second and we will open for vote Thank you. See you back in November. Thank you. Okay, then we have PLN BOA 24-125, Dontela Zeriel-Pruneau. Is the applicant present? Thank you. Is there anyone here to speak in opposition to this particular item? Oh, I'm sorry, sir. No, I'm sorry, sir. We're not taking comment now. I'm just taking a tally of who is. Okay. Okay, so that item will be heard. I'm sorry you also want to speak on this case I'm sorry okay okay you'll have an opportunity okay we have item number let's see PLN BOA 24-130 Emily Herring applicant present okay is there anyone here to speak in opposition of this particular item okay believe that's number three on the STR docket counting correctly we'll get everybody even if I get the numbering incorrect so then we have PLN BOA 24-131 Kukady properties LLC is the applicant present okay do we have anyone here to speak in opposition of this item we do have a few okay our next item is PLNBOA 24-133 is Desi Perez is the applicant present okay do we have anyone here to speak in opposition of this item I'm sorry did someone raise okay then we have PLN BOA 24-134 Centenary Church is the applicant present yes madam chair okay my name is Carmen Icarino representing Centenary Church joined here today with Rhonda Strauss and David Carter we'd respectfully ask the board roll this matter to the november 4 meeting so that we can continue to work with the staff and on behalf of the church we thank the staff for their time and we'll continue to work through some revisions to the site plan so for that reason we'd respect we would just request that this be continued a postponement we are requesting a postponement there's no objection i'll entertain a moment a motion okay harry has made a motion do we have a second Mr. Walker has offered a second. Vote. So is there anyone here to speak regarding the centenary church item? No? Okay. All right. Oh, I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself. It looks like the motion has passed. Thank you to the members of the board. Thank you. We'll see you next month. Thank you. November 4th. I'm sorry. Oh, Harry, I'm sorry. And so I'll say that again. If anyone here is on behalf of the Centenary Church item that has been postponed, I don't want you guys to sit unnecessarily. Okay. Thank you. All right. Our next item is PLNBOA 24-135, Kenneth Howard, is the applicant present. Thank you. Is there anyone here to speak in opposition of this item? Okay. PLNBOA 24-136, Prominent Property, is the applicant present. Okay. Is there anyone here to speak in opposition to this particular item? Okay. Thank you. We have PLNBOA 24-138 Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington. Is the applicant present? Yeah. Okay. Do we have anyone to speak in opposition of this particular item? I think that would make you number one. Maybe number two? I should have just looked up. They were giving me the signal. All right. Then we have PLNBOA 24-139, Stephen Dennis. Is the applicant present? And do we have anyone here to speak in opposition of this item? Okay. I had to pull out the highlighter, Chad. I think I have a system. I don't know what it means until we get to the end. Item number 15, PLNBOA24-141Z Enterprises LLC. Is the applicant present? There we go. Do we have anyone to speak in opposition of this item? No? I don't see any hands. okay we have PLN BOA 24-146 Suzanne Onquist is the applicant present oh I sure did I flipped over I was just testing you guys let me change my system here so PLN VOA 24-142 Emily Nigam very good that has been recommended for approval do we have anyone in opposition we do have to speak okay And we'll be heard. Okay. Now we have PLN BOA 24-143, John Shornick. This one has been recommended for approval, but is there anyone here in opposition of this particular item? Okay. oh you do okay please come forward he's coming please state your name for the record uh john shornick okay i'm asking for a continuance so i can actually meet with the homeowners association that the house is in the neighborhood with i'm talking with the board and trying to get something set up wonderful idea thank you if the board is okay with that i'll entertain a motion for postponement so moved okay mr clark has moved oh for the november 4th meeting all right and mr walker has offered a second i'm going to take a vote wonderful that motion has passed you are postponed to the November 4th meeting so anyone here you can return on November the fourth thank you thank you our next item is PLN BOA 24-146 Suzanne onquist do we have anyone here to speak in opposition of this item all right our next item is PLNBOA 24-147 T.J.H. Westwood LLC is the applicant present this has been recommended for approval but is there anyone here to speak in opposition of this item so I think you have another item on the docket as well that's PLN BOA 24-152 Tyler Hughes that useful okay that also has been recommended for approval is there anyone here to speak on behalf of that particular item We'll hear both of yours at the same time. Okay, we have PLNBOA 149 Julep Properties. Is the applicant present? Thank you. that has been recommended for approval. Do we have anyone speaking in opposition today? I do have. No? Okay. I also have PLN VOA 24-153 for Julep Properties. She is well. That's 2909 Trailside. Is there anyone to speak on that particular item today? That's the one? Okay. We will hear those together. I have PLN BOA 24-151 Michael Norris is the applicant present. that has been recommended for approval. Do I have anyone to speak in opposition of that item today? Okay. All righty, give me just a moment. Thank you. moment here. All righty the first item is PLN VOA 24-118 Van Meter Pettit. Thank you sir this has been recommended for approval and there are two conditions that have been listed had you had the opportunity to review those conditions no ma'am i have not okay do you guys have them there let's see what they are okay okay i agree with those conditions okay thank you that's for the property of 472 north broadway the board has had the opportunity to review those items ahead of time we do have one citizen comment i had a question are you planning on moving it like will it be right next to the sidewalk yes very close um okay i'm concerned about mobility accessibility issues for people That's a highly pedestrian and people with mobility issues to travel along that route. Well, actually, the wall on the ground floor will be one foot set back from the sidewalk, so it'll be less impinged than it is currently with overgrown shrubs. Okay. Set back farther from the cross. Correct. So we're going to step back one foot from the sidewalk because we have to put a footing in and we don't want to crumble the sidewalk to do so. So we'll be back one foot from the property line, which is the sidewalk. Okay. Does this plan reflect that? Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Okay. Do you have any additional questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Madam Chair, I recommend approval of PLNBOA 24-118 by Van Meter Pettit. Request for variances to number one, reduce the required front yard from 8 feet to 6 feet, number two, to reduce the required side street side yard setback from 3 feet to 0 feet, And number three, to increase the maximum allowable height from 24 feet to 34 feet within the defined infill and redevelopment area and a historic district overlay H1 zone in a planned neighborhood residential zone on property located at 472 North Broadway. So move. Thank you. Mr. Sturdivant has offered a second. No further discussion. We'll take a vote. Wonderful, good luck with your project. Thank you. The next item on the expedited docket is PLNBOA 24-138, Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington. Number 13. Good afternoon, please state your name for the record. yes madam chair members of commission my name is scott southall i'm with earth cycle design and here representing the applicant thank you this item has been recommended for approval but there are five uh six conditions that have been listed has your applicant or client had opportunity to review those we have your uh your madam chair and we are in uh concurrence with items one through four and item six the one item that we have concerns with is the addition item number five of a sidewalk from the right-of-way which is clay's mill road to the front of the property or the front door of the church which is over 600 feet in length and this is a project that is funded in great part through a water quality incentive grant project and as such we are reducing the impervious area on the property and this sidewalk would take and basically do the opposite and increase the impervious area as well as then have additional requirements for water quality and water quantity requirements as well as the impact to the tree this site is heavily wooded through the efforts of the church to take in and restore the the force that the property or that the church sits within and it would have a significant increase cost to the project from anywhere from 12 to 20 percent so with that I wish we are requesting the removal of that item I think what we'll do then maybe it's give staff an opportunity to review that concern so if you could sit for just a moment and I I guess we're here we just might as well just a moment I think that's the only other item I have on there James Mills planning staff so this request is to amend a conditional use permit in order to expand the parking area for the Universalist Church. Here we see the vicinity map of the location which is located right here. You have Manor War over here and then Clay's Mill going up this way. Could you raise the microphone up just a bit? Yeah, no, of course. Sorry, my bad. um here's a here's a look at the subject property we have in the area where they are mainly proposing to expand their parking is back here and the back portion so the grant that they're talking about the city pays about 80% of it in order for them to be able to put permeable pavers in this location the request that staff had for condition number five is mainly focused on a sidewalk going from here to the subject property to the structure so we recommended approval and basically in the past when we have seen these types of projects to expand parking areas for churches we have consistently said that we want to make those pedestrian connections for accessibility for all for the entirety of the public instead of just the portions of the public that drive so the condition they're mainly focusing on is condition number five which is a sidewalk that requires a minimum of five feet in width from the clay's mills frontage to the building entrance again the applicant pays for about a 20 portion of this through the grant and the city pays for 80 so we thought it especially with precedent of what we've done in previous cases pertinent for us to propose adding that condition to improve accessibility throughout our city any questions questions of staff if you could put the site map back up for me just a moment I couldn't tell from the map are there sidewalks on Clay's Mill there there are sidewalks along Clay's Mill and this would be a proposal to connect to those sidewalks unlike in previous cases where they might have not had sidewalks along their road frontage this does have sidewalks. When I looked at this application I made a note on my form here that that seemed a bit a bit more than was necessary here. This is a very very long sidewalk because it has to go all the way down the driveway then turn the corner and go all the way down to the church. That seemed excessive to me. As a former member of the Water Quality and the Fees Board, I understand their concerns, and I would think it would be inappropriate to request that particular thing. I understand exactly your point, but I think that's more than what we ought to insist on in this particular application. I have an additional comment. Is your mic on, Bob? is your mic on yes it on when you drive by the the church property on clay's mill it's extremely wooded extremely wooded you can't even see the church so so to me having a sidewalk coming down from the church to clay's mill is a little bit too much to ask because the pedestrian traffic through there I've I've never seen, I go by there almost every day, I've never seen pedestrian traffic, people walking up to the church. They always drive. So it's a completely wooded area, and honestly, taking trees down to put a sidewalk in is a bit excessive. Any other questions from staff? No? Okay, we'll give the applicant an opportunity to respond. Thank you, James. so as as it's been stated it is over 600 feet in length that we would if we just drew a straight line but with the requirements to make it accessible meaning ada we also are addressing you know probably 20 to 30 feet of grade change between uh clades mill road which means that it would actually lengthen that um to over uh over the 600 feet in length so it would be not only from a design standpoint but also from a financial standpoint a significant burden to get this accomplished for this particular site we have any further questions from the applicant entertain a motion as is or with amended conditions whatever the pleasure madam chair I recommend approval PLNBOA 24-138 Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington's request to amend an existing conditional use permit for a place of religious assembly in order to expand the parking area in a single-family residential zone on properly located at 3564 Clay's Mill Road based on the uh based on the the staff's recommendations and omitting condition number five so moved and we have a second from mr sturdivant no further discussion we will take a vote the motion has passed thank you all right the next item to be heard is actually PLN BOA 24-137 that's on Sonier livery but it has been recommended for disapproval so we'll allow staff to present first in this case we'll allow staff to present first and then looks like that will be james again James Mills planning staff. So this is a request by Saunier livery LSC to increase the allowable height of a rear fence from 8 feet to 12 feet within the defined infill and redevelopment area in a Lexington Center business zone on property located at 171 Saunier Street. Here's the vicinity map over the location. is located relatively close to where we are it is located about right here in between just off of South Broadway getting close to look at the subject property is a I recall correctly a one and one-half story residence that was repurposed into a residential use so article 15-4 B states that a side or rear your rear wall or fence shall not be higher than eight feet in any B2 B2A or B2B zone the main thing reason why this came to our attention so this is what the rear of the property looks on Google Maps before they started doing their improvements but and the site plan that they sent to us which this portion right here on the left side is where the fence issue has arised so they the case history is that they were issued a fence permit on 228 204 to build a eight foot tall masonry stone fence with an ornamental metal garden door with construction beginning in April of this year. The applicant stated that the purpose of this wall was to buffer from the subject property's rear yard which is adjacent to St. Peter and Paul Catholic School. During construction the owner and the contractor decided to add a stone arch over the gate opening without realizing that it would exceed the eight-foot height limitation and this came to building inspections realization on the 15th of July and they stated in their report that the two sections two sections of the wall are still at that eight foot but one portion over the door is almost 12 foot tall so staff recommends disapproval because they did not provide sufficient justification to meet the requirements under article 7 of the zoning ordinance and the applicant did not provide sufficient information to determine that strict enforcement of the zoning ordinance would result in an unnecessary hardship or deprive the applicant of reasonable use of their land. The applicant did submit to building inspection an eight-foot-tall fence proposal that was approved previously. So, with that, any questions? I think just for clarity, so it was approved, so it's just the arc portion. So it was previously approved by building inspection to meet that eight-foot tall requirement, and then the applicant during construction and the contractor built a 12-foot portion over the door. And this is the, I'm sorry, go ahead. Do you have a photo of that arc? We previously saw a photo, but whenever I went back to get the information off a building inspection when they took the picture, I couldn't find it. The applicant may have it. So this is the gate to the property? Yes, this is the front, the ornamental door, metal door to the property, rear yard. It's in the packet? There we go. Mr. Surdivant, the photo was in your packet that you received. It should be in your packet. It's attached to the application. I just didn't know if you had a better photo of that. That's a little bit dark. Okay. All right. If nothing from staff, we'll give the applicant an opportunity and then follow up with any questions. Thank you, James. Thank you. Madam Chair, members of the board, my name is Mike Moiser, and I represent John and Angie Secura, who are the owners of the subject property. I did bring with me today a good photograph of the arch, which I can share. The focus of this request for variance is very narrow. This wall is an 80-foot wall. This arch only occupies 12 feet. Most of it is almost just a few inches above 8 feet, but of course where it arches over the center, it is several feet beyond the 8-foot limit. The entire border of this property on this side is a parking lot for St. Peter's and Paul School. So they're the ones that see the gate, and no one else does, because their property completely surrounds the gate on this side. When we filed our application, I walked the neighborhood and found very nearby on Jefferson Street a similar masonry arch that exceeded the eight-foot limit at the apiary. You may know that property. So this is not out of character even with what's already in the neighborhood. And we've had a good relationship with the school, we've had a good relationship with the church behind us throughout the project. I did bring John Howard with me today. He supervised the construction to explain to you how this occurred and what would be involved in having to take that arch down. So I'd like Mr. Howard to come forward. He needs to be sworn. has not been sworn. Raise your right hand please. Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth today? Yes ma'am. Please state your name for the record. John Howard. So the arch itself was constructed, was requested by the owner to do so. And as Mike said, we had gone through the permit process to do the wall. We had done, we did all the permitting throughout the whole thing, and it was not our intentions to go outside of a permit. Just to be quite honest with you, I didn't think that I needed to get a permit for it. It just never entered my mind. But the arch itself was constructed in a very typical way with arch supports to get the stone up over the arch until the last stones are keyed in. and to remove that arch will take considerable effort and a considerable amount of money to do so. We have to go in a reverse process. The gates have to come out. New arch support has to go in. And once you take that one rock out, the thing is pre-falling, so you have to hold it until you get it all disassembled. Then the gates will have to be reworked. And then obviously we'll have to finish the wall in an order of columns versus an arch. So again, it was not the intent to do this without getting a permit. It just kind of went over my head. And I take full responsibility of that. Thank you. Thank you. Are there further questions? Have you all had any complaints from anyone about the arch? Is it what? Have you had any complaints from the school or the church or anyone about the arch? No. As I said, we've had a great relationship all through the construction with them. I know several people that go to St. Peter, and they say it's beautiful. So you said you have a good picture of the arch. Is this just an example of one? No, I submitted with my application another example. But this is it. This is the actual arch, right? This is the gate. So the other example that Mr. Moiser gave is in a different zone. So the fence. Is this the actual arch or is this one? Yeah, that's theirs. This is the actual arch. That's the actual arch, okay. That's theirs. The picture I've got is nowhere near this one. This one has wooden doors on it, and I can't tell an arch because of the foliage around it. But I don't know. That was an example of another one of equal height. This was an example. Yes. Okay. So the other fence and arch mentioned at the AP area is in a different zone. right and a zone that doesn't regulate fence height so unfortunately they're in a residential or business zone that does regulate the fence height and it limits it to eight feet so I don't want us to make a decision based on Some information that you know that particular zone doesn't have a height limit So they were not limited in terms of what they could build Yes, perhaps that's the apiary that you're seeing the example Is the existing fence, it looks like that's below 8 feet, but I mean on the flat part, is that 8 feet to the top of that? To the top of the wall? No, it's higher than 8 feet where the arch starts. Correct, but I mean I'm talking about after the radius dies down and you have the flat run, is that 8 feet? Yes. Okay, okay. Looks shorter, so. Alright, thanks. I think Mr. Secura would like to speak to the board. Hi, my name is John Secura and I'm the property owner. I don't know really what I could maybe add to the process other than to say that we first bought the building. It was a historic magnificent building ready to be condemned. We spent considerable time, effort, and money to bring it back to its original state. You saw originally had tipped over a snow fence that's now replaced with a stone wall. I can say that all of the neighbors love the arch and the effect and the privacy that it provides. We have access through that gate for deliveries. one of the reasons that I had asked that we build an arch because you couldn't back a truck or get get into there with a six or eight foot wall the permitting process etc is not part of sort of my purvey we have a contractor that did all of that but I would like to say that you know I'm proud of the project we had a building that was really blighted one of the unique buildings in Lexington and we could have done a lot easier than we did. We used oak floors, old beams, we restored the unique front parapet that was ready to fall down. We remordered everything. We just, you know, we really wanted to make it look like no one had ever been there and had just been built. I'm in the thoroughbred business so I respect the legacy of things that housed animals, particularly horses. We restored a lot of farm in Paris and been you know great stewards of the land and preservation respecting timeless buildings that are hand-done and have a history so the purpose of this was to have a great project the arch is lower than the building right behind it the technicality of the arch that it exceeds the limit I couldn't argue that but I would respectfully say that the effect the look of that arch is in no way a detriment to the community nor has there been any complaint for everybody anybody doesn't impede anybody's view it's in the backyard and it's in a parking lot so respectfully those are my comments thank you very much I will say years ago that I was hidden by this location and the doors were open and I got a chance to stick my head in and And you've definitely taken on a task there. I remember there was dirt floors, and I'm glad to see that there's a use being inside that space. It's been vacant for a whole lot of years. I personally don't have a huge issue with this. We're not typically in the business of granting forgiveness after the fact. If it was just a stone wall all the way up to 12 feet, I would say absolutely not. This doesn't fit. but just because there is a transparent factor and that you've gone to your neighbors and things like that, I think speaks volumes, and it is a really nice architectural feature. So I personally wouldn't have any problem moving ahead and approving this. I would agree with those comments. I like the idea of the arch in terms of architectural ingenuity, ingenuity and I think that's it's it's really truly too bad that we can't follow the rules but at the same time the the the idea of doing something a little different and the fact that it's on a you know a parking lot that's not it's not on the street makes it a little a little bit different I think in terms of where if it's of its placement no we have no further questions i'll entertain a motion let me find a brief break okay we'll take a little five minute recess Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to make a little bit more of a little bit more. Thank you. I'm sorry. Okay, if everyone could please take their seats. We'll be ready to begin. You're not ready. Okay. We might take them that long. you guys are good just one more minute I thought we were ready it's fine Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. yep okay we have officially called back to order and I will entertain a motion at this time okay madam chair with respect to PLM BOA 137 Sonia living LLC I move for approval for requests for a variance to increase the liable height of a rear fence from 8 to 12 feet on the southwest side of the property located at 171 Sonier Street based on the following findings of fact. Number one, allowing the 12-foot tall section of the fence to remain will not adversely affect the essential character of the neighborhood because the 12-foot section is a small portion of the 80-foot wall and is immediately adjacent to a parking lot. Thus, there are no residences immediately adjacent to the 12-foot portion of the fence. Number two, allowing the 12 foot tall section fence to remain will not negatively impact public health safety or welfare or create a nuisance for the residents because the adjoining property is a school parking lot with no residential uses on the southwest side of the property and finally number three the 12 foot tall fence in the front yard is also justified by special circumstances of the land will not unnecessarily circumvent the zoning requirements in article 15 because only the portion of the wall above the gate is 12 feet in height and remaining portions of the wall are to remain eight feet in height. So moved. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Oh, there's more. This approval is subject to the following condition. The applicant shall submit an amended site plan and obtain approval by the Division of Building Inspection. Now so moved. Thank you, Mr. Walker. It looks like Mr. Sturdivant has offered a second. We will open for vote. And I'm sorry, the applicant, I should have had you come back up here. We are in agreement with the condition. Thank you. Okay, looks like the motion has passed. The project has been approved. Thank you. okay the next item is the continued case PLN BOA 24-39 I believe a revised site plan has been presented does the staff want to speak first on it or should we allow the applicant the staff okay okay I'm sorry for the Lexington Islamic Center is that the next one oh I'm sorry yes lexington i don't think we've ever started a hearing on this oh it's just so we need no it was only postponed yeah so we'll need to um we will have staff presentation first still do we have items or yeah i'm sorry we do have seats up here if you gentlemen would like to come up here it was the bridge that was continued i thought we heard something James Mills, planning staff. So today I'm going to present to you guys, to you all, the BOA 2439 Lexington Islamic Center. This has been a case that's been postponed since about since February, March of this year. So here's the vicinity map of the location located along Armstrong Mill Road. Here we have Redding Road as it goes into and turns into armstrong mill road and right here we have the subject property getting closer aerial view of the subject property we have the current structure and this uh this proposal has gone through three different revised site plan changes since this process started in february and it has a extensive case history going back to 2015. so here's the first original site plan that was given to us back in February of this year that showed a proposed parking area in the rear with a pros addition and shelter area this is the second application applicant site plan that we received as about a month ago and there has been a provision that was given to us on Friday of this last week that showed a reduction in parking going from about 382 to 304 spaces but we do recommend approval I'm going to go back to the picture so those what you see here is a 500 a 555 thousand square foot mosque that will include prayer gathering a gym sport court and classroom facilities and I do want to go back and focus on some of the pictures along here so one thing that we are recommending is no parking in the area for condition number three and that's due to the character of armstrong mill road there is a long armstrong mill not many structures with large swathes of parking in front of the principal structure on the property and they are proposing a significant parking lot in front of the islamic center proposed Islamic Center another issues that in the past they have had previously approved CUP's conditional use permits that had parking to the rear of the structure and locating the structure closer to the road will enhance the walkability and streetscape while also maintaining that consistency of character throughout armstrong mill which kind of has more green space in front of principal structures the few that do not have smaller parking lots usually 10 or less parking spots compared to this which has a significant number of parking spots around probably 100 and additionally they are over parking for their daily needs which you will usually be around 50 spaces but are proposing a significant increase for holidays and other special events in order to have that parking available then so we do recommend approval their public facilities are adequate for the proposed use it's large enough to accommodate the expansion of the religious assembly the existing tree line is a perimeter a buffer that can be used to buffer it from the adjoining residential uses but the main point of discussion was point number three where the site plan should be modified to show no parking areas located within the front yard approval these are the conditions including the no parking okay all right no staff questions will allow the applicant to present and then we'll follow up with some questions if that's okay thank you James that's good forward thank you for the record my name is Jihad Halani was vision engineering we are in agreement with the staff except for item number three related to no parking located in front of the building and the reason we are is just as the staff mentioned that this property has been bought in 2015 and has been used for religious purpose since then due to the growing communities i need to expand the facility to a larger larger place and the orientation of the building has multiple of reason number one for religious reason has to be oriented at a certain angle and number one number two is that there's some topographic change on the property like it's kind of relatively flat all the way to a core drive and after that it cannot drop significantly So it was an opportunity basically to have some kind of the gym area to be located in the lower elevation and then have the mosque being located on the second floor. So it kind of get it located that way. It will fit better on the site plan. And the third reason is that we're proposing 100 feet of landscape buffer and berm and vegetative buffer along Armstrong Mill to totally buffer the property. And so within this 100 feet, there's plenty of things we can do from having three feet tall berm, five feet tall berm, and then evergreen trees and some kind of vegetation to kind of totally buffer the area. And so basically those are the three main reasons why I believe that building needs to locate it where it is located. and also from usability point of view having the building kind of bring it to the front it's going to put all the parking along the back of the facility so it's not the park is not going to be totally distributed along the building itself and then there's significant number of attendees there will be a senior people were the closer parking tour next to the building will be much more usable so these are the four reasons why I believe the building need to stay where it is and need to have parking all around it for the oldest reasons a question is you on pertaining to item 3 the site plan shall be modified to show no parking area is located in the front yard area, assuming that's along Armstrong Mill Road. It looks like there is plenty of room in that area to facilitate vegetation to totally make that parking area in the front not visible from the road. Is that a correct assumption? Yes, sir. We are proposing to kind of basically having 100 feet where we say within 100 feet from Armstrong Mill, no parking will be allowed. Yes, sir. Good point. Yes, sir. Good point. Yes, sir. Where is the entrance to the mosque? The entrance of the mosque, sir, is going to be… I'm sorry, can we put the site plan back up? Oh. That would be basically that's the main entrance of the mosque. And then there's an entrance from Armstrong Mill and from Accord? Oh, oh, the facility here, yes ma'am. The main entrance is going to be along Armstrong Mill. That will be here and then kind of drop off in this location to the entrance and kind parking around the building. So we kind of try to put as much parking in the back of the facility as much as in the front. And that's the 100 feet setback I was talking about that we can say there's no parking is permitted within 100 feet. And also for the construction, we're planning to phase the project to kind of first phase is going to be building the facility and the back parking while maintaining the existing facility, the mosque in operation and then when that building is complete we'll come back in the future and expand the parking and transfer everything to the facility. Is the is the entrance on the eastern side it looks like there might be a drive-through is there a breezeway there over to the mosque? No sir this is only need kind of drop off somebody for drop off. Okay. May I ask this question? Why do you need so many parking places? You estimate that the peak attendance would be 200. So the event, it's not like normal events. You have like daily events. We expect close to plus or minus 50 people during daily event, except on Fridays, it will be around noon time. It will be a group prayer. We expect close to 200, maybe 250, 300 people maximum. But the main reason is going to be during Ramadan month. It's 30 days where in the evenings there will be a lot of prayer. And then this is where there will be the peak time for this facility. and then we don't want to overburden the neighbor or the adjacent street. We like to kind of keep everything on site, and that's why we are showing in the future if there's any need for more growth that it's going to be all the way in the back of the facility for any future growth of parking. But we believe based on how much growth has been seen since I bought the facility in 2015, we believe we need close to 300 parking spaces. we spoke to staff on friday and i know the staff did not get too much time to kind of review the site plan it used to be 384 parking spaces and we understand the staff concern then we have discussed it with with personnel and we reduced it to 300 parking spaces after speaking I'm sorry, can you tell me again the total of the parking spaces? The way it is, it was before 380 something, 381 I believe. Reduced it from 381 to 304. Yes ma'am. And also based on the call with the staff on Friday, we push the buffer along the residential to be no less than 25 feet. And then also the front parking, we request to modify condition number three to 100 feet. No less than 100 feet can be parked along Armstrong Mill. and this condition number two is that the item I'm trying to find where we have the hundred feet we are okay with condition number two condition number two directs them to screen it but in accordance with article 18 so it's a hundred foot distance but the screening that the staffs recommending would not would not cover that a hundred foot distance it would only really cover ten feet so we'd have to add a condition right so you'd have to kind of add something to condition number two if you wanted more additional screening along Armstrong mill and then we have a suggestion for condition number three to address the hundred foot setback so that the site plan would be modified to show no parking area is located within the first 100 feet of the front yard area along Armstrong Mill Road so it would allow that first hundred feet to be the buffer and then the parking would be behind that okay yeah we are fine with that what what is the distance now from the right away on the road to you your first parking area as existing condition yeah I don't have the measurement but if my memory is correct it's closer it's close to it's a close to the existing facility so if my memory is correct sir the existing parking is roughly speaking lining up with a dashed line which is that's the existing building itself right now. I have one additional question with the addition of the impervious area in your site plan for your increased parking, there is adequate room on the property for your detention basin? Yes sir, so this is where we envision the stormwater management and water quality to be located in that area so it's we we can have left significant amount of land for stormwater management any other questions of the applicant i'll entertain a motion does anyone need a modification to the condition as legal has written I think there was public comment oh I'm sorry okay please mm-hmm I had to keep me on track today appreciate it my name is caution Miller I am a resident of the neighborhood actually I'm right next door and I have a presentation that I'm waiting for and I had not seen the revised site plan obviously so that will impact some of what I had to say and no one told me about the three minutes all right we've already seen this this was the original site use plan that was mentioned this was a c215-2 where there was the property and the parking this was approved way back in 2015 then replaced in 2016 with the existing site plan the original site plan for 2015 included a pedestrian walkway into merman drive as well as protection of the 300 year old bur oak tree the current plan does not include that you've already seen this so key points i would like to bring up non-compliance and violations of an approved existing site plan by the current owners of the 10 conditions six have been violated yet you keep adding conditions if they're not going to be enforced what's the point additionally we have the normal impacts you can expect with a large construction project non-compliance property shall be developed in accordance and submitted with the approved site plan mr walker already mentioned we don't normally approve after the fact yet we clearly see that they have not gotten approval prior to grading leveling and graveling section b there the original site plan said they were going to keep all the mature trees they did not furthermore they did not get a permit before executing said leveling grading graveling merman drive that exit where there it's going to be an entrance from the original site plan so over nine years ago there was supposed to be a pedestrian access to merman drive installed it has not been touched in nine years yet we still have all the neighborhood adults children because this property is between two neighborhoods so they all cut across and we sit here and watch them struggle as they dig through the brush and the thrush and the thorns to access the merman drive stephen foster neighborhood non-compliance with the storm water management again it's in all the plans it has been nothing's been done yet however this is minor because this is much more important when parking lots have been installed and they really haven't been so i'm just pointing this out perimeter trees this is where my heart is because i am that property where the bur oak tree is the perimeter trees are extremely important here's a video or a pictures a sequence of pictures of what's happened with those trees the first one was in 2023 you can see they've already started grading the area under that tree there was supposed to be a significant undisturbed area in order to protect this tree and i ask for continuance If we can wrap up this, Bob, and then we just have so many people. I know. I'm aware. Then you can see the grated and graveled, and that is definitely not an undisturbed area under that tree. Furthermore, they went even further and turned it into a recreational area. There is no boundary between their property and mine with this recreational area. We've had to call the cops because they use chainsaws to work on the tree. We've had to call the cops because of noise disturbance. It has not been pleasant. I'm not too terribly concerned about most of this. I'll finish it up. We've already talked about the stormwater drainage, the ecosystem, the entrance and exit off of Armstrong Mill. That has its own issues. That is a peak traffic area on Armstrong Mill, mill and you're adding an additional right and left lane turn lane onto Armstrong mill and an additional right turn lane onto the property you're talking significant construction disturbance noise disturbance long term issues now this can't be avoided with any large construction project I understand that honestly all I really really really really really want how do get the original revised plan and how do you poke at the very bottom top no I'm trying to highlight I am requesting that this board does not approve this opposed proposal until that area protects the bur oak tree which has at least a 70-foot diameter canopy and root structure it covers almost all of my backyard I would like to see the parking right next to my residence to be pushed back if we could remove that one strip of parking so that more natural landscape area could be put there that would be fantastic the rest of this i'm okay with those are the biggies and hopefully something is taken in consideration of the location of those driveways thank you thank you appreciate it oh this stays here any questions my good thank you very much let me ask you a quick question Okay, good. Okay. Do you understand that the new project, as it's recommended by the staff, eliminates the parking in front of the structure? Yes, but it doesn't eliminate the parking next to my house. I am the closest residence and property line to their property. All the other houses have an extended buffer zone. I do not. not I am asking for an extended buffer zone both to protect my property my noise and my tree which is their tree but my canopy thank you thank you very much thank you we like the applicant to come back or staff do we have questions Thank you. Thank you. In relate to traffic, the timing of the operation of the facility is totally different than peak hours. So usually regular, as I mentioned earlier, it's just regular prayer will be during day no more than 50 people. On Friday it will be usually around noon time, so it's not during the peak hours. During Ramadan, which is the high peak, usually it happens in the evening, at night, so it's off-peak hours. In relation to the other big issue, it sounds like the bare oak trees. And we want to protect the bare oak trees for sure. It's not our intent to remove the bare oak trees. of trees if it takes to remove few parking spaces along the entrance to to kind of serve two purposes is basically protect the tree as well as give the adjacent property owner more screening I mean we are all for that I mean we want to be a good neighbor and we want to move forward this project where everybody feel like their opinion matter here so if we need to remove the first five six parking spaces to create more green space and try to protect the bare oak tree we are we are 100% in agreement with that thank you do we need to make that a condition because I would like to see the broke tree protected as well I would absolutely make that a condition you know we could just take two minutes or two or three minutes really quickly spearhead that thank you we're in a brief recess don't go far Thank you. I'm going to go to the next video. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, if everyone can come back to their seats, please. Okay. If everyone can please make to their seats, we'll call to order. And at this moment we'll entertain a motion with graphics. Yeah, this kind of shows what we're talking about. So I'd like to make a motion to approve PLM VOA 2439, Lexington Islamic Center, request to amend an existing conditional use permit for a place of religious assembly in order to construct a new principal structure for religious assembly and vehicular use of the and areas in agricultural urban zone on the property located at 1240 Armstrong Mill Road with the following conditions remaining the same 12456789 and 10. Number three would be changed to the site plan shall be modified to show no parking areas located within the first 100 feet along Armstrong Mill Road. in the front yard area and then number 11 remove nine parking spaces along the eastern property line and any gravel to protect the bur oak tree yes i'm sorry the applicant are comfortable with those the conditions that stated yes ma'am okay thank you so we have a first are we okay okay and mr sturdivant has offered a second if there's no further discussion we will vote wonderful the motion is passed good luck with the project our next item is PLN BOA 24-125 Dontela Zerio Pernod this has been recommended for approval if the applicant can come forward please state your name for the record my name is Donatalla Zerial Promo and I'm here to discuss the application for conditional use to conduct a few yoga classes in the basement of my house within a residential neighborhood I hope you can understand my Italian accent I'm fairly new to Lexington I don't think I'll become a Lexingtonian by accent but I love it here and first I want to thank the board the board staff for recommending approval of my application and also want to address some of the parking concern that were raised by a few neighbors so I want to start by reassuring that I am committed to maintaining the harmony and tranquility of our community and my yoga class are intentionally kept intimate. I haven't started by the way, I haven't started yet. And it's limited to a maximum of eight to ten students per session, which would be the maximum probably comfortably allowed for a 300 square foot size. So this small size ensure the minimal traffic and noise impact. And additionally, I anticipate many participants will be local residents who can easily walk to classes so further reducing the need for the vehicle use. And regarding parking availability, specifically for a potential overflow into nearby areas like the somebody mentioned Kakegee Court which is behind the property so not really in front of the house. So I have assessed parking options. So our driveway accommodates up to five cars in tandem with an additional four parking spaces available in front of a house which is accessible for public use. And there is also additional parking on Bacorn Drive and my two neighbors to the side have exactly the same amount of parking spaces so if you really want it you can have a 10 to 12 cars just next in front of a house. But across across the street from the corner of 3272 Bacorn Drive so not in front of that house but to the cool water drive which is the the cool-de-sac the edge of the street there are fortified parking spaces available in front of a fence which will not inconvenience any neighbor so this ensures plenty of parking options minimizing inconvenience to my neighbors and then I will provide guidance to clients on parking in designated areas to ensure minimal disruption and avoiding blocking driveways or using the cul-de-sac so that this approach can you know prevent disturbances and still utilizing legal parking spaces and while students may occasionally park in front of neighbors properties any disruption will be brief just over an hour because the plan is like an hour class so and being a public street the parking remains accessible to wall. Then I want to address concerns regarding back home drive safety and it to me seems a little speculative. As a new resident I have yet to encounter traffic issues but nonetheless I'm dedicated to stay vigilant and adopting adopting plans as needed to support our community well-being. And while tandem parking may not be the ideal solution it is available but in practice it is expected that maybe one or two cars will use tandem parking minimizing the impact on the neighborhood appearance and I would encourage participants to use the parking spaces thoughtfully you know and you know to minimize the impact but also it's important to note that my business the primary focus is an online business is to film classes and which means that the physical space will accommodate only limited in-person session and so this strategy is ensure minimal disruption with only three in-person classes weekly with an occasional or monthly workshop so we're talking three or four classes per week and and the schedule is actually still tentative because will be adjusted depending on the availability I'm gonna start with a Saturday class and the plan was to get to know the neighbors you know to have something available for the navel and then somebody addressed some bathroom issues so it is equipped with a bathroom inside the studio and there's a shower as well but I'm hoping that you know you're not gonna need to shower but that is a shower and there is a convenient access through the garage so it's making this accessible to individual with limited mobility so you don't have to do any stairs you can come in from the side classes and classes such as like I want to do stretch and restore and so they offer not only physical benefits but also mental well-being and they can improve relaxation and sleep so there shouldn't be there's guiding relaxation and things that are very gentle yoga practice which is in all level for everybody there's not going to be an extensive physical, or at least unless it is desired by the people attending, but that will be the main focus. So I just want to close and say that I'm dedicating to contributing positively to the neighborhood and want to foster a harmonious relationship with my neighbors. And so thank you for considering my application, and I'm here to answer any questions. Thank you. I was going to ask, had you had an opportunity to review the conditions? There are five conditions that have been listed. Yes, yes, I agree to the conditions. Would you be comfortable with those conditions? Yeah, to use the space, yeah. Yeah, it is going to be inside, so we're not going to make noises outside. It's going to be indoors, and it's just a few hours per week. I don't even know. Maybe I don't want to. I wish I could have a problem. I have so many people that I might need to rent another space. That would be good, too. But initially, you know, the business plan of a yoga studio doing so many classes, it's not profitable. So I want to do just for my personal, because I like people and I like thinking person. I would like to have maybe there are a lot of people walking and running in the neighborhood. so I thought maybe you come and do some stretching or even the guided relaxation because we are a society of sleep-deprived people but we don't need so much more physical exercise than actually learn to relax. So that was the plan to do a few for my personal satisfaction. I didn't know that I had to go through all of this procedure, but I want to do things right, so I applied to do things the right way. so thank you we'll give the public an opportunity to come in all right sit right here we did have someone I'm Bob Kennedy 3296 Buckhorn Drive and she touched on several things that we we have been concerned about we we are concerned about the parking situation just because we think that's kind of setting a new precedent in the neighborhood other businesses that have been that have applied for for a permit have been required not to have well in one case I had a small business several years ago that they required that we didn't have anybody come to the house now I understand that that's not the way a yoga yoga practice would work but and I'm not opposed to yoga but we are concerned about the parking and I think she may reference to the to some traffic issues there and it the traffic has increased on Buckhorn Drive it's her property and as well as ours, we're kind of downstream from hers. There have been, we've had numerous situations, we've been there about 18 years, so we've had numerous situations where people come tearing, roaring down that hill, and some of them ended up in our mailbox or the neighbor's yard. But, so it's not an ideal area for extra parking, but it is public parking and anybody can park there. And I'm assuming that there will be no business signs or anything like that also out there. So anyway, that kind of sums it up. We're just concerned about the parking and the precedent that it will set in the neighborhood. Thank you, sir. Okay, thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Beverly Hoskins. I apologize I don't have any visuals for you, but if you could try to picture this as being Buckhorn Drive. There's a court that comes off of Buckhorn Drive that's kind of pretty much in front of the applicant's house, and then there's one, she lives like right here, there's a house on the corner, and then there's court on the other side of the street that's that's where I live so it's very close to where she would be having the business back when Drive is a very busy street cars kind of race up and down that's true sometimes as far as she mentioned parking in tandem I'm not sure how many people want to do that because it's a little difficult to get out you know what I'm saying as far as the cars there's quite a bit of cars I submitted an email and you I think you didn't get that so I'll present that in just a minute after I speak with this is some of my notes and then also I have a neighbor right next to me her name is Mary Barber and she submitted an email in opposition and you should have a copy of that email I'm sorry yeah okay she voiced pretty much the same concerns that I did not knowing exactly how many classes she was having ahead of time and how many applicants and all that you know I couldn't take that into consideration but you can't tell people where to park either and some people might feel like their vehicle's safer around the corner on the court than it is on the main street of Buckhorn Drive Of course, even though it's listed as a townhouse residential, the homes on Buckhorn Drive and the adjacent courts that I'm speaking about are single-family homes. A lot of people do not park in their garage because they choose to have other things in their garage and don't have room for the car, so they park on the street. I also have one vehicle on the street on Kakege Court. I just feel like I said these homes were not designed for or categorized for the operation of an in-house business in this case a yoga studio the available parking at the applicant's residence is limited you know what I'm saying without coming around the corner or whatever since she does live so close to the courts I just I'm saying that I think participants would be seeking parking in front of nearby homes of course other than their number homes on Buckhorn Drive but they would be in front of people's houses too and the adjacent courts the overflow of parking would put a burden on homeowners who live there limiting their access to park in front of their own houses and also you know in case they had visitors or commercial workers that have to do repairs or whatever in their homes or deliveries that's another thing you know they would need space to to pull over a park thank you ma'am we gotta get everybody rolling the three minutes is up sorry okay okay well that's that's pretty much it I just I feel like that they and also some people tend to park in front of mailboxes and that kind of limits the availability of the mail delivery. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? The applicant will please. Well, you know, just a few classes, and I really was hoping that maybe people would walk to the house, but I can, you know, to have a harmonious relationship, I can just say not to park. it's not really that close to parking there called the sock so but I can you know in the spirit of cooperation I can say do not park in the back a cul-de-sac and and see but I don't anticipate having that many cars in there so thank you and I'm sorry stay here just a moment do we have any questions of the applicant if not i will entertain a motion i don't know if this is the appropriate time or not but i would like to add a condition that the conditional use permit be null and void if the property changes hands if the motion is approved if the if the applicant's okay with that as well i didn't understand i'm sorry I'm talking about adding a condition that the conditional use permit would be null and void if the property changes hands. Oh, sure. I think our normal language is if it's sold or transferred. Yeah. Okay. Sold or transferred. So, okay. Yeah, that's fine. So if the next person cannot use it, yeah, that's fine. Yes. Yeah. No problem. Add the rest of the motion and we'll vote on it. I've got a house. Just real quick out of curiosity, maybe my math is off, but it looks like on your drawing you've got a 416 square foot area that you're going to practice, which only allowed 300 square feet. Yeah, I understand. I'm just going to use a part, and then there are going to be, there's blankets, there's structure for blankets and props, and we're going to use just this section. I haven't figured out how to make it happen but we'll do that. Yeah, the whole area needs to be limited to 300, including your storage for equipment. We'll figure out how to do that. I make a motion to accept plan PLNBOA 24125 Dontela Zeriel-Cronaut. request a conditional use permit to order to operate a home-based business for yoga instruction in a townhouse residential zone on the property located at 3277 Buckhorn Drive with the following five conditions plus the added six condition that the conditional use permit would become null and void if the property is sold or transferred thank you and mr. Sturdivant has offered a second no further discussion we'll take a vote you've been approved the motion is thank you all right so as we move into our short-term rentals what we will do first is allow we'll have one presentation by the staff to give us context for the ordinance and what's allowable and how we're making our decisions for approval or not and then we will bring the cases on one by one James Mills planning staff I'm going to be presenting to you a quick review of the short-term regular rental regulations in Lexington I'm going to be trying I'm going to try to be very efficient with this and because we have a lot of cases today so the short-term rental regulations in lexington were adopted on july 11th 2023 strs that were legally operating before the state were allowed to be grandfathered in and did not require a conditional use permit they only needed to get a zcp from the division of planning but they only had a six-month grace period to be grandfathered in strs with an occupancy greater than 12 also required a conditional use permit and as of october 7th of this year there have been about 855 zoning compliance permits issued for strs in the city of lexington so the zoning ordinance um in article 1-11 defines short-term rentals as the commercial use of a dwelling unit rented in whole or in part for temporary occupancy by transient guess for the tenancy of less than 30 days it also distinguished between unhosted short-term rentals in which a primary resident does not occupy the property during the short-term rental period and hosted which the primary resident does occupy the short-term room during the rental period in article 3-13 it established a maximum occupancy of two individuals per bedroom plus an additional four or a total of 12 individuals whichever was less So here are the zones in which Short-term rentals are allowed as a conditional use accessory use or principal uses So some of the factors that we take into account with conditional uses include noise traffic parking the compatibility with a given area and The compliance with other zoning ordinance requirements Article 3-13 also states that short-term rentals regulated as conditional uses shall take in consideration the number of STRs in an area which we have known as the concentration, the demonstrated record of compliance as they operate with other STRs either by the applicant or if they've had a compliance history before applying. occupancy rate of the STRs in general vicinity which we have not been able to determine and has been taken less into account and whether other STRs in the general vicinity have been cited as nuisances including those operated by the applicant another consideration has been the task force of on neighborhoods in transition report from 2018 none of the STRs that we will see today are within these areas so it's a long list and it's cut off at the bottom here but we have 17 short-term rentals today and we have our concentration percentages right here if they would all stay on the screen but these are kind of the 17 short-term rentals that we have have before us today and I think that is all questions thank you I'd like to make a comment I'm loving the circles thank you no no no problem you know we're gonna be able to highlight what you're looking at so I'm in on the sheet oh on the sheets that that every that as well thank you very much thank you and as we roll through these again everyone it's a loud opportunity for public comment we will keep it three minutes and as we've seen before you guys if we please just not be repetitive if traffic is a concern that's been brought up we would like to hear and understand that but we do not want to hear and understand it three or four times we would if we didn't have 30 50 how many people in here a lot of people so I'm just make sure that we could and always be specific to the particular case at hand and not just STRs in general because the ordinance is in place and they are allowable so we are not here to debate that in particular or have any authority on this board to change such an ordinance so the first one that we have is PLNBOA 24-95, that's Serenia Molina. Please state your name for the record. My name is David Jarman, and I'm representing the applicant, Ms. Serenia Molina, this afternoon. And it looks like this has been recommended for approval, and there are a couple of conditions, or four conditions, that have been listed. have you had an opportunity to take a look at those conditions yes we have and we're comfortable with the conditions yes okay yeah and what I'd like to ask you to do is just tell us a little bit about the occupancy the parking and how you plan to monitor it screening of the applicants those seem to be the important parts for everyone okay with reference to the staff report the parking at this facility at this residence, excuse me is More than adequate for the use there is parking in the side yard as well as in the rear yard Which would of course alleviate the need for on-street parking Okay Ms. Molina has applied for this with a cap of a maximum of 10 residents at any given time in this residence and for a short-term rental and she also wishes to express her desire that her goals for this is to be a good neighbor to have applicants and visitors who respect her property as well as respect the neighborhood surrounding the property okay we have any questions of the applicant I didn't have anyone noted for public comment on this particular item 10 individuals seems to be a lot for the 1296 square feet I'm sorry the 10 individuals that you have listed that you're asking for seems to be a lot for the twelve hundred and ninety six square foot yes ma'am it is a two-story residence and that would be a maximum of ten but still is it still the twelve hundred ninety six square feet yes ma'am I believe I don't recall the PVA information but I believe that's per level is that the two levels basement and the first floor okay for seven persons okay I'm sorry she's telling me her maximum would be seven persons at this address not 10 and it does look like it's an additional 493 square feet in the basement Linda that's 1296 are there any other questions not I'll entertain a motion and if we have a condition we she did modify hers to seven persons and not ten. Condition number two. Madam Chair, I recommend approval of PLN VOA 24-95 by Serena Molina's request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental in a single-family residential zone on property located at 259 Malibu Drive based on the staff's report and the four conditions as listed with the understanding that the application applicant has changed the up to 10 to 7 instead. Thank you. Mr. Walker has offered a second. No further discussion. We'll take a vote. Motion approved. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next one without opposition looks to be PLNBOA 24-133. That's Desi Perez. hello this is Dominic Lewis I'm Daisy Perez's fiance we get married here in November so excited about that our property downtown has been utilized by the neighbors as well as some of the family in the local area for when their family comes into town so we're pretty thankful that we've had the opportunity to allow them to utilize it for those sort of needs and whereas we're also looking to give discounts to everyone in that area so as far as our property it looks like it was recommended to be approved based on the five conditions and we're fully accepting of those five four sorry thank you okay and you've had an opportunity to review those conditions and are comfortable with them okay do we have any questions of this applicant this one once again it's 1229 square foot with a 580 square foot basement for 10 individuals that seems like a little small also are your bathrooms full or are they half or you have two bathrooms oh we have two uh two full bathrooms and a half bath on the ground level and this is just a comment for the board there's like four inside the 500 square foot inside the red circle for our property I don't think we've ever had anyone more than six so if we need to amend that down to five or not five to eight then we're okay with that we try to keep the numbers down just for really families so yeah and you probably wouldn't know this but there's also like several that are kind of close to you there's four short-term rentals that are kind of near your property mm-hmm yeah I think ours is a little bit more affordable so we've had more of our neighbors using utilizing our property for those sort of measures but yeah that's all I can say about that but you said a modification of up to eight individuals yes that helps out the questions I'll entertain a motion madam chair move to approve PLM VOA 24-133 Desi Perez request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental within the defined infill and redevelopment area in a planned neighborhood residential zone on property located at 433 Elm Tree Lane based on the staff report and subject to the four conditions with the alteration of condition 2 amending the total amount of individuals down from 10 of it 10 individuals to 8 individuals mr. Walker looks like mr. Clark his second Okay, the motion is passed. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, our next item without opposition is PLNBOA 24-136. That's prominent property. if you could state your name please Matt Whitman if you could just tell us a little bit about the property the occupancy and how you plan to manage it so the property I'm very nervous this means a lot to me I love Lexington been in Lexington my pretty much my whole life grew up here the property is going to be a four-bedroom house it's a historic property it was nearly falling down when I purchased it I've spent two years trying to bring this house back to life I manage eight other properties in Lexington that are short-term rentals I went through the process when they were grandfathered in took care of those I always try to be proactive when I bought this house these restrictions weren't in place so had they been in place at that time speak into the microphone sorry please when I bought this property if these rules have been in place I would have seeked approval before the major renovations that I went through on this property because that's kind of the the use has always been intended from the day that I bought this property to be a short-term property its proximity to town branch distillery rep arena that general area of lexington close proximity to downtown makes it very appealing for people that are going to come and visit the city and experience the city that i love so i have a good amount of experience running short-term rentals i maintain them to the highest standards um what were the other questions no um management and parking comes up pretty oh yeah parking um there is the we we have a gravel driveway that's been existing since the house was built i guess it can fit up to three cars should be sufficient for the amount of occupancy that i'm going to have in the place i think i said up to nine i like to keep my numbers lower just because i think of comfort and what i personally would like to travel in the type of house and how many people i would want to be in that house with me if i was staying there myself we have other questions for the applicant I just had a comment noticed in the project description here that the staff has identified 41 short-term rentals operating within a thousand feet of the subject property that have been issued a zoning compliance permit that that is in my opinion in excessive for this area I mean it's a fairly dense area of Lexington I could understand why there would be that many in that area I don't think that my property necessarily has impact on the neighborhood as far as maintaining its characteristic like I said when I purchased this property two years ago had the house already not had the house not be nearly falling down i would have put it into service immediately but with it being a historic property it takes a lot of work to fix these properties back to stay within the requirements of the h1 overlay so a combination of those factors led into i wasn't already one of those 41 properties that would have been grandfathered in considering the purchase date of when i purchased the property in this whole process so i i do understand that that is probably that is some consideration um the location of the house um it's two doors from the intersection um where the fire station and a coffee shop are it's immediately adjacent from there to the corner of the rep arena parking lot so as far as like traffic concerns it's you know it's it's very much right there I don't see any issue with traffic increasing because of this property because of this property's use as that yeah I tend to agree with mr. Sturdivant there's 15 properties located in that block and if we include this one that'll put five short-term rentals in that block it just along that section right there I just want to add one other thing the property next door is a fourplex so I think some of these numbers get may not be I know that within that it's just such a dense part of Lexington that there are plenty of other places that people are living there's four plexus all up and down the street or more there's within the block I don't I don't know how many condos that are in that one little section but it seems more than 20 or 30 condos so I can understand how the numbers could be higher in this particular area due to the proximity just to the sure volume of properties that are in this area so a number basis just on a proximity kind of doesn't uh doesn't take into account the total density of housing in that area in general um i hope that kind of answers why i think that it's okay for there to be another short-term rental in the area because there's already a lot of housing available and along those lines i know in our conversations with staff too they have two different barometers that are using these high attraction high tourist areas or maybe tourist is the right word you know those we were keeping under 20 percent and then in the more residential areas we were making sure to stay below five percent so there was a different standard that staff is applying to the areas that are in the high attraction areas as well which is why they have recommended it for approval even with the higher percentage than we would allow in a residential area or more residential area I still think we need to be careful that we don't lose our neighborhoods I understand and agree with you this house it was in very rough shape and the only way that I saw to I mean the only reason why I took on this project was because of the potential to recoup the cost to bring life back to this house this house was nearly falling down I've put a lot of money in a lot of time my two years into this project and to bring it to this point I wish I'd gotten it done a lot quicker obviously and I think that this project has brought a lot more life to the area it's made the house it's made the house more beautiful made the area more beautiful and I think my neighbors even though none of them showed up in opposition I think that the neighbors down there appreciate what's been put into this property and would be supportive of the use of this property being used this way because of how much it's improved the neighborhood just by it's by me taking the time and really honestly the love of this house to make it what it is both my kids love it and they constantly argue about whose house it is and they're they always claim that it's theirs and that they love this room that room and that's kind of been a big part of why i love this project so much and how much i enjoy having this piece of lexington and continue to take care of it and nurture it for the future so that it does remain this beautiful property downtown lexington have you thought about a long-term rental uh yes the the problem with long-term rental would be that i don't think that the price point at which I would have to get is supported by the market rents like I mean I've put I bought the house for 230,000 I know we see that I put another 450 into it and then some in bringing this house back between everything that had to be done to bring this house back to life and I know we don't see those numbers but it's a two it's been two years I promise you I would have gotten it done a lot quicker if it didn't need as much work there's a ton of points where I went around the house and I could put my hand through the wall just by lightly pressing on it because the siding had been deteriorated and not cared for for many years all the windows were falling off for this the sashes were falling out the glasses were broken had to replace almost every window in the house re-roof we had many we actually in the process of cleaning up the house there were several dead animals were found in walls where they had gotten in through the soffits and the gutters into the house and we had to do so much work just bringing this house back to life with all that consideration and that amount of money put into the house a monthly rent though the only way can get to a place that it will be it would be worth the investment was to be a short-term rental and I kind of knew that going into the project like I said when I purchased this house two years ago prior to these restrictions being in place so it was always my intent and to use it this way so I tried because because I didn't have any short-term rental history with it prior to July whatever the day that is um because i didn't have any there i couldn't apply for it to be grandfathered in i would have at that point if i had thank you any other other questions discussion any motions Madam Chair, I agree with concern about the density of the area. On the other hand, I'm going to support the staff's recommendation by recommending approval of PLNBOA 24-136, Prominent Properties Request for a Conditional Use Permit for an unhosted short-term rental within the defined infill and redevelopment area in a history district overlay zone in a mixed low density residential zone on property located at 712 West Maxwell Street based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed. Thank you. We have a second. Mr. Walker has second. We will open for vote. has passed. Good luck with the project. Thank you. The next STR item without any positions, it's PLN BOA 24-139, Steven Dennis. Price is right. Hello. Hello. State your name for the record officially. My name is Steve Dennis. Thank you. all right it looks like the staff has recommended approval and there are four conditions that are listed including the occupancy up to eight individuals had you had an opportunity to review those and i've read all those and i can i can agree to all of them okay and would you like to tell us anything else about the property or the accommodations well the property is i believe it's 1800 square feet there's three bedrooms uh two full baths and a half bath um i would expect that the visitors would be coming and visiting the horse park okay the parking is uh there's a covered two-car garage and a driveway that leads up to it it's that typical house you find in masterson station thank you we have any other questions of this applicant so do you live on the property I don't live there no it's a house because I've noticed that you listed your address is the one that's the property no that was it's unhosted did I did I make a mistake there okay I just know I have I have a we don't live there. Do you live in Lexington? Yes. Any other questions? Looks like you'll be the first in the area. I've got a question uh when did when did you purchase this property oh that's a good question i'm going to say december 2020 2021 has this been a long-term rental no it hasn't been no it hasn't been What's the use of the property been? It has been an Airbnb until we found out that the rules changed, then we stopped it. Okay. I think it's the first time we saw a 0% one. I thought I saw your math wrong. That's it. Okay. Thought you forgot to round up the decimal. Any other questions of the applicant? If not, I'll entertain a motion. I'm sure I recommend approval of PLNBOA 24-139, Stephen Dennis' request for conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental in a single-family residential zone on property located at 845 Whitewood Flat, based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed. And it's a pleasure to see one that has zero density. Okay. And Mr. Walker has seconded. No further discussion. We'll take a vote. It's been approved. Thank you. Okay. Okay, the next item, that opposition, I think it's PLNBOA 24-141, Z Enterprises, the applicant. I do believe we have a citizen letter, though we do have a comment. Okay. Thank you. All right, good afternoon. My name is Alexander Gross. I'm the owner of Z Enterprises. I appreciate the opportunity. I'm accompanied today by my good friend Arvin Temple, who's actually a resident of the same street. I have prepared packets for your review. They include three signed letters from residents in the neighborhood who support the conditional use permit for the short term rental at 2238 Circle Drive. Also included are printouts from Airbnb that highlight my super host status and guest reviews showcasing my strong communication and active management of my properties. I would like to point out that this particular home is situated on the very edge of the neighborhood, surrounded by a vacant commercial lot, a Speedway gas station, and a parking lot for Whitaker Bank. The nearest residential neighbors, the Franklin family, have expressed their support for permit and we are in regular communication they have my contact information and know they can reach me at any time with all that in mind i kindly ask for your approval today thank you we have four conditions listed including the rental no more than six individuals is that correct yes ma'am Do we have any questions of the applicant? And I'll entertain a motion. Madam Chair, I move to approve PLNBOA 24-141Z Enterprises LLC request for a conditional use permit or unhosted short-term rental in a single-family residential zone on properly located at 2238 Circle Drive based on SAS recommendations and subject to the four conditions. Thank you. Mr. Walker, do we have a second? Mr. Clark has offered a second. No further discussion. We'll take a vote. Okay. Motion is passed. Thank you. I believe our next item without opposition is PLNBOA 24-146, Suzanne Onquist on Arcadia Park. Is that correct or do we have people speaking? Okay. Thank you. Hi, my name is Suzanne Onquist. The property is located on Arcadia Park, which is by Central Baptist Hospital. football stadium and uk med center i've owned it for 41 years and i usually rent to residents and interns several times to college students which i fully regret and i have decided that i want to do a short-term rental because my children don't want to inherit my antiques so i've furnished it with that and renovated the home it's got four bedrooms and two full baths and I believe that it said that I had requested up to six individuals and I think on my application I went six to eight and I would respectfully like to request that it be up to eight as a maximum I don't want any more than that my son lives in Lexington he will be inheriting the house so he's watching it I do have a management company that will be taking care of it with cleaning and maintenance, whatever my son can't do. The end. Did you touch on parking just a little? Oh, I have a driveway that will park four cars. Plus a carport. this is probably just a personal comment but I've heard there's a great demand near the hospitals now for that type of thing so okay do we have any questions and I will entertain a motion Madam Chair, I recommend approval of PLN BOA 24-146, Suzanne Enquest, request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental within the defined infill and redevelopment area in a historic district overlay zone in a single-family residential zone, a property located at 214 Arcadia Park, based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed with with the even the adjustment in in condition number two from six to eight individuals thank you mr walker is offered a second i just like to make a comment there are like eight neighbors though who have written in and um opposed this request so i just wanted that to make that comment Thank you. Can you vote? Thank you. Motion is passed. Next, we will call to PLN BOA 24-147. That's 105 Westwood Drive. and peel in BOA 24-152. That's on 429 Hollywood. Madam Chair, thank you. My name is Jason Taylor. I'm representing Tyler Hughes, which is TJH Westwood, as well as Tyler Hughes, but I think it's actually in the name of Glock, Nicholasville, LLC for the secondary property. I made it note that it needs to be TJH Westwood, LLC. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. yes um so this property is um 105 westwood we also i'm sorry the apple you're fine okay the applicant also owns 103 westwood so this was a campus rental that he's converted uh would like to make an airbnb we are we agree with staff's approval and the conditions that are listed and happy to answer any questions Again, this one, you want to tell us a little bit about the parking situation? Yeah, our contractor got a little too parky. He overpaved. So we have four spots in the back, and he's overpaved, so that pavement will be removed. We have a plan that was drawn by Tony Barrett Partners. They can show it, but we'll have parking on each side for each unit. So there will be four parks. Okay, so that condition number five, the paving in accordance, you guys are willing and understand you have to remove? Correct, yes. So Chair Carter, there was also an additional condition requested by the Division of Building Inspection related to the paving. And I think you have, did they have that in their packet? It should be in your packet as an email from, I believe, Michael Barton with his, opposed to the condition. Is it on the right? I'm sorry, I'm missing it. it's an email from who from Michael Barton he's a building inspector I think he's been working with mr. Hughes and they have asked that a condition be added as follows that article 16-3 be followed to ensure permanent stormwater management in compliance with the stormwater manuals and accepted by the division of engineering shall be provided for all off-street parking spaces containing five or more spaces and this is because the two parking lots together now constitute eight spaces and they're joined by a shared drive okay so the division of building inspection is asking that you ensure that the storm water is met the storm water practices are met for that park share now shared parking line of eight spaces tony we'll have tony bear draw it and then if we need to put in retention or under under anything underneath we can hold it but yes we will meet that condition and i don't know that we have that as part of the record submitted on friday that was um the board doesn't have that though and they haven't seen it so can you add it to the overhead yep but tracy we're in we can make that conditional work that's not a problem i just wasn't aware something was submitted on friday for from anyone so so the hexed area at the top of it shows you that was over paved that'll be removed grass will be put back and if we need to put in retention we can retain there so the building on the right is already completed the building in question will be in the building on the left both of those properties are yours is this a one family unit or are there more than one unit in there it was a campus rental how many beds it was six beds six beds as campus room before so it's just being remodeled okay so it'd just be one unit one unit yeah because it almost it sounds like a hotel with six beds and six baths I mean we are are in close proximity to UK football so we are in close proximity to the UK is right across from the stadium right on Nicholsville Road so you have a lot of hospital traffic there as well and the university Any other questions? We move to the next property. I'll entertain a motion on this item. Westwood with the addition of the condition set it yeah we hope you memorized her I can help Brittany's writing it down right now I'm sorry, were you guys here to speak on 105 Westwood? Oh, okay. Are they? No. Oh, okay. you get it let's go okay madam chair move to approve plm boa 24-147 tgh westwood's request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental and a variance to increase the maximum number of parking spaces from two to four in order to add additional parking within the divine infill redevelopment area in a single family residential zone on property located at 105 Westwood Drive based on staff report subject to the three seven conditions and the seventh condition that's added will be this conditions added by division building inspection permanent stormwater management shall be in compliance the stormwater manuals and accepted by the division of engineering per article 16.3 of the zoning ordinance thank you we have a motion do we have a second thank you mr. Clark further discussion no further discussion we will vote motion has passed for 105 Westwood 429 Hollywood so the applicant is back at the name needs to change to Glock Nicholasville LLC it's not in mr. Hughes his personal name and again we we agree with staffs approval and their recommendations 429 Westwood was a duplex mr. Hughes will remodel there is a garage for two parking spaces and then a driveway for three so there will be five parking spaces on the site this proposal is again six beds and six baths it was operating as five beds and three three baths so it will be remodeled have to answer any questions We have additional questions on this one in particular. Is this a duplex or is it this one? It was operated as a duplex. It was operating as a duplex, but then the city also has it down as a single family home. So what is it now? it would be occupied operating as a single-family home it looks like you have a very narrow small driveway and there's no on-street parking no there is a garage in the back that two cars can park and then you do have a driveway where we could put three cars yes Is this another one? No. Is that another 0% one? Yes, but there's someone who joined us that wishes to speak. Okay, are you here to speak on this item? Okay. Were you sworn in earlier? I was not. Okay, okay. And have you signed in? Did you sign in? I did sign in. Okay. Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth today? Absolutely. Thank you. Please state your names for the record. My name is Chuck Mallory. I live at 431 Hollywood Drive immediately adjacent to this property. I've owned my property since 1990. So I've been there over 30 years. This directly impacts me. The owner has gone in and gutted the entire property has not bothered to share information with any of the neighbors about what he wants to do. Our main concern is the number of people he's trying to put in this unit and parking is a critical issue on the street. Years back when I was still working, I was home one day and heard all this horn blowing, looked out the garbage truck literally could not get down the street because it is so narrow with parking on both sides. they couldn't get through. So we eliminated parking on my side of the street. Now there's only parking on the opposite side of the street and about eight spots for the entire street. It's a very short street with 10 houses that face on Hollywood Drive. The parking on the property, they've got a two-car garage, but then there's a single-width driveway that goes beside the house back to that garage. If somebody's in that garage and they're lining all these cars up in the driveway, they claim they can get five on the property, they're going to all have to back out to let somebody out of the garage, which is unreasonable. So our concerns, again, are parking and the density that they're requesting. It's just unreal. It's been a duplex ever since before I moved in. Never had any problem with that. That's not my concern. but I don't think it's suitable for 12 people to be in that property yes we have several neighbors if you want to stand also supporting this the we have a great concern for the parking there's not even enough for one car per household to park on the street we're concerned with traffic we already are inundated with college traffic and the in the yearly increase in student population impacts our little ten house street we have pets and children and we're concerned about you know people speeding down all the cars it it wasn't intended for a high traffic high density especially 12 occupancy in one small home so we respectfully ask that you deny this request or limit the number from to about four to six for the residents which the neighborhood may be able to support there typically for over 20 years and I have also been there for over 30 my husband and I but for over 10 years there have been four people living in that home so to triple the population population would greatly impact our little spot in lexington thank you thank you one other thing i forgot to mention the on-street parking is permit parking only and you're limited to two permits per household, and the street is filled most of the time. So street parking is not an option for this. I don't know where they're going to put all the cars if they have 12 people there, but it's a problem. So historically, when you have this many rooms, you have three to five cars, families travel. So that's the data. We don't write the data. we just have to go by it we feel like we can park five cars two in the garage and three in the driveway coordination between somebody coming as a family or a group is pretty simple they do that all the time that's how these operate we could turn this into a campus rental we think it would be worse than if it was a STR so there are predominantly a lot of campus rentals in the area next door to us right here on the right is a campus rental it's been operated as campus rental so we would be within regulations to operate as campus rental but we feel that if it's an STR we can improve it make it nicer operate it neater I understand the concerns on traffic this is not something that's used every day it doesn't there's no such thing as booking an STR daily it will come predominantly on weekends it meets within your regulations are the less than 1% within the area so it is a diversification so I think we've met a lot of the parameters at which staff got it behind as well and that's what we're here with approval and we would see that happy to answer any additional questions can I make one of the comment based upon the previous the other SDRs I have they typically have less parking than if I did rent this as a student rental where there would be typically six cars for six bedrooms mr. Hughes operates 12 campus rentals now with 70 beds so he's very familiar on how the business works so the highest and best use we feel for this property is an STO and then the street parking we instructing residents as an STR we would not be applying for that as an STR we obviously we would not be applying for the street parking the application says you have room for four vehicles we have two car garage and three and three stacks so it just needs to be changed we can park five vehicles it's five in total two in the garage and three on the driveway correct so the neighbors are concerned about the number of individuals that you have in there i'm assuming that the three bathrooms are full bathrooms well this would be remodeled into six and six so it would be six full bathrooms six beds okay because it okay it was operated before as five beds and three baths okay well the neighbors are concerned about how many individuals that you have in there would you be willing to maybe reduce the number unfortunately financially it would not make sense for us to operate that it would be more beneficial to operate as a campus as a campus rental at six and six and it would be to operate it can't have a single-family home with six it would be operating as a duplex so is it a duplex or a single family it's setup is a duplex to set up as a duplex today but then when I went to apply for my permit they said that it's shows us either one well camp it's one or the other you can't be either one tracy what's a duplex we'll register as a duplex today it's a duplex today okay so but you want it to be a single-family home we would like to make an STR yes right and only the only way you get an an SDR is if you're a dwelling unit first okay okay and then our regulations in terms of renting to households you can have four unrelated people living together yes that's correct that would be four on the right side duplex and two on the left side if you want to be a single unit so you're limited okay yes okay so I'm I think the staff would be a little concerned about the six if it's six bedrooms and six bathrooms are you saying if it's single family will only be five yes correct okay but single family it's only five and then if it happens to convert back to student housing you would have four people living together and a den you could be limited before yep you're still you'd be limited to four right yeah they don't want to convert back to student housing so they may not always own the property so if it's transferred to someone else and they choose to do the long-term housing you know that the physical structures already constructed so that becomes it it's alluring to people to rent to five right because you can gain more rent but our ordinance does not allow for in terms of four unrelated people living together that's the that's the maximum that constitutes a family so when you have five bedrooms it kind of leads to enforcement issues i think they're saying they don't want to do that they want to do the str correct but once the infrastructure once the structure is constructed it sets up a potential issue in the in the future but this hour does the str the compliance they have to reapply every time right with the yes they would they would str doesn't transfer right right an str does not transfer so once if they sold the property and someone purchased it and decided to do student housing that's where the the catch might be so okay just i'm worried about those future people okay all right thank you do we have additional questions or i'll just i'm sorry i'm sorry yeah if i can have you guys sit down they've already spoken so um you guys if you could sit down and then we have new public comment getting confused on who's speaking so we'll take the last public comment and then okay have I been sworn in no okay you can raise your right hand please you swear to tell the truth and the whole truth this afternoon I do thank you state your name for the record Charles Melvin I live at 432 Hollywood Drive across the street from Chuck have a couple concerns here I know that there have been complaints with other registered properties with TJH and one of them they just I guess we just approved for a six bedroom six bath like you said sounds more like a boarding house than a rental it currently has been deconstructed it's no longer in compliance as a duplex because there are or firewalls that would separate it. So that's why it wants to be a single-family home. To go back to duplex, they're going to have to put all that money and time and labor to restore it because now it was grandfathered in as a non-compliant duplex. It is now non-compliant to the grandfathered status it had, wanting to change it into a single-family. I feel like they're trying to do both, have a single-family or a duplex to have their options open. I think at this point they may be underwater on the property as far as profit margins on this and a rental property so we're now trying to be able to do a short-term rental as we've said the parking structure on the property it's two we've also made the point about four unrelated individuals being on the property we're non-compliant or have complaints on existing properties which which I mentioned, which they've done exactly this, six bedrooms, six baths. What do we do when it's time to convert it back? It's not going to convert back to a single-family home because who's going to buy a six-bedroom, six-bath house in a 2,600-square-foot footprint? Once it's converted, it's going to remain a duplex. Let's see what else. We have a very elegant letter that was submitted, I believe, from Amy. I suggest she's at 628 Castle Road. I do suggest read that. it's thorough it's extremely thorough so like you said a number of guests should be limited to four the number of bedrooms and any remodeling permit shall be limited to four so we're going from five bedrooms to six from three baths to six this sounds like a plan as you said not a single-family home that's not necessarily even a duplex at 2,600 square feet. Like we said the permits. So right now there's one kitchen. Could you speak into the microphone please? Sorry. well I've I've said as much as I can if Amy's going to speak let her go over the details of the letter and that's my three okay all right thank you hi I live about two blocks away I'm even in the thousand foot circle my name is Amy Clark I live at 628 Castle Road oh I'm sorry hold Oh, you have to be sworn in. Oh, I sure do. Yes. Do you swear to tell the truth and the whole truth this afternoon? Yes, I do, and thank you for putting me under oath. That's the way it should be. Hollywood here is a very dense neighborhood. It's got small lots. It's R1E. It tends to be small houses as well. So you can see on the front of the letter I handed out, the other one on Westwood that you just dealt with it has 178 residential properties within that thousand square feet this has 346 about double okay so it's real intimate it matters who your neighbors are and how they behave because you're right next to them it's an open porch bungalow kind of actually the very structure in question has a great open porch. If people get enthusiastic and noisy and ungoverned, it goes everywhere. What I want to do in the interest of time is go directly to the end of the letter and then maybe we can back up with things that matter a good deal. Look at the paragraph in closing at the end of my letter. A short-term rental use that can triple the occupancy of a long-term dwelling unit, four to 12, is ill-suited in the already high density of dwellings and high occupancy of the units because much of it is student housing. So there are a great many occupants in each house and quite a number of cars because independent people will have independent cars. It's ill-suited to this density and occupancy already characteristic of the immediate r1e area the applicant and his properties have building complaints currently unresolved i i think i saw that you were resolving one with the um over paving in the um two on westwood so um in the acela record when i last checked they were unresolved and a history of non-compliance in parking facilities. Before that, there was illicit gravel, and that was part of the record of last year's Westwood approval, application and approval. Public facilities, the narrow street, are not adequate to provide convenient parking and safe turnaround for the transient guests and, of course, all the other neighbors. The high-intensity hospitality use offers nuisance, disturbance, and degradation for this small neighborhood. It removes an affordable house, formerly two dwelling units, from residential use. This will be commercial hospitality use. It has an adverse influence on the existing and future development of a neighborhood that epitomizes community spirit and variety of housing choice. and you can see in the body of the letter young and old rental student homeowners families lexington's finest community for senior ladies ambulatory and living independently is right over the back fence from the other side of this street and they do walk around take the air around the block they actually come up to castle road too The home is heavily invested here. They're pursuing gradual, long-term growth. They own a number of the properties across the street facing the subject property. Thank you, Ms. Clark. And you can see in the body of the letter the rest of what I need to say, so I would appreciate it if you can read that before you consider your vote. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else that wants to speak on this particular item? sorry that's okay so in rebuttal i would say that less than one percent str is in one in the mile radius right or the thousand feet yeah we can't hear you can you hear me now yeah is that better all right we're measuring less than one percent somebody nobody's been able to put an str here so we don't really have a variety of housing in the area this is chevy chase it's a very desirable area people don't normally move he's making a significant investment in a home he's willing to contain it he'll monitor it he builds he builds well so I disagree with Ms. Clark that there's going to be taking away from the fabric of the neighborhood there won't be UK is less than two miles away it's actually probably six blocks away this this measures well so I think that you can We can have a variety of housing on a street. Next door to us is campus rentals. They're immediately to the right. If we have an aerial, we can look at the over parking. They don't have a yard. They're not compliant in today's standards. But that's okay. UK continues to expand. It continues to attract. Remind us that we're in Fayette County where we're trying to bring everything in because we have an urban service boundary and we want to stay that way. So in order to not grow out, but grow in, we need to use the properties that we have, and that's what we're doing. That's what we're proposing to do. We're not going to be a nuisance. We're not going to be a bad neighbor. We're not running anybody off. We bought an investment. We're just going to make the investment. We don't have violations on record. TJH does not have a storied history of anything other than being a good steward in Lexington. He owns multiple other properties in town. staff would not approve this if we've been a nuisance so we appreciate your consideration we have other questions I would just encourage you maybe to since you do have so many strs and stuff that you would talk to the neighbors and try to befriend them a little bit and let them in on what you're doing and kind of have maybe a little give and take I think that that would go a long way I am concerned again about the six bedroom six bathroom I think we're kind of getting hotel II if you will but yeah thank you nothing further I'll entertain a motion this motion sorry I can't oh no no from public comment thank you I was a public comment is closed thank you These are always tough and it's fundamentally we still have to go by what council has laid out, what has been approved. So with that, Madam Chair, I move to approve PLMBOA 24-152 Tyler Hughes request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental within the defined infill and redevelopment area single-family residential zone on property located at 429 hollywood drive based on staff's recommendations and subject to the four conditions thank you do i have a second Thank you, Mr. Clark. And we will open for vote. Motion is passed. Thank you. Let's see. You guys okay? Okay. We're going to take a quick five-minute recess, and I think we have, what, six left? Want to come back? Not too many. I'd love you to run through. Thank you. ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you. all righty if everybody's ready we'll call back to order there we go bam bam all right we still got a little bit to go a little bit to go but you guys are doing great so we'll pull uh call plnboa 24-149 that's julep properties you can come forward we actually have two items we also have PLNBOA 24-153 you can state your name for the record please Carly Moore and the first item is 3112 Sandersville it has been recommended for approval and there are four conditions including the limitation of no more than 12 individuals chair we had these on the docket need to be heard is that not yeah i think michael norris is our next one for no oh i'm highlighting this stuff make sure that we have opposition on these i didn't think we had on the second of the two so we'll do the first one and then we'll hear okay okay okay so we're doing 3112 sandersville julep properties 149 okay we bought this property in 2022 it's been running as an airbnb since then it's 3,000 square feet, five bedrooms, two and a half baths, and we have four available parking spaces on the property, as well as street parking. What else? Okay. So this is a result. Was it a violation or a letter of notice? We did not receive a letter of violation. What happened was, So we've been running as an Airbnb. We were not, we never heard of the new rules and regulations. As soon as we found out, we filed our paperwork. And so we have yet to receive a violation notice for Sandersville. We did receive one for Trailside, the other property. but we never we just weren't aware of the new regulations so we could have been grandfathered in but obviously our time slot passed and if it's not on PAW patrol I don't hear it so yeah thank you and you said it's 3,000 square feet how many bedrooms and parking? There's five bedrooms and two and a half baths. And then there's two garage spaces and two driveway spaces and then street parking available. So did you say this had been an existing STR? Yes. And how many years has it been? We bought the property in 2022 and have been operating since then. Have you had any complaints? No. Neighbors? We had one complaint from the neighbor right after we bought the property. Someone staying there had used her trash cans instead of ours, and so ever since then we made it, we put in our listing where the trash cans were and everything. And since then we've kept in contact with that neighbor, and we're in good standings, and she actually has reached out to she had family in visiting and wanted to rent the property and so we have good standing relationships with our neighbors any other questions not i'll entertain a motion there's no public comment on this one in particular yes sir Madam Chair I recommend approval of PLNBOA 24-149 Julep Properties LLC request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short term rental in the single family residential zone and property located at 3112 Sandersville Road based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed Thank you. And a second, please. That's not me. It looks like I did it. Mr. Walker, a second. We will take a vote. Okay. the motion has passed on this one in particular we'll have to have you take a seat we'll have to hear okay the second one thank you All right, so back to the top. PLN BOA 24-113, Catherine Day. Sorry, no, Michael Norris. That case didn't have any opposition. unless someone arrived Michael Norris okay good afternoon afternoon how are you guys good good let's see so you have been recommended for approval there are four conditions that have been listed have you had an opportunity to review those conditions yes ma'am okay and did you want to tell us a little about the property or it's quiet street friends with all the neighbors neighbors know it's a larger home the people that come there are not you know they're looking more for privacy it's not a it's not a big party area or anything like that a lot of the lot of the people that stay there are out-of-towners from like the people that won the derby stayed there they our average guest count is like 6.7 so we don't we don't want any trouble we want to keep it you know small and inclusive and you know not not like i said i'm personal friends with the neighbors stuff like that you know so we don't we don't want any trouble we haven't had any trouble as far as parking four cars two in the garage two in the driveway there is street parking in the neighborhood we do not allow street parking at all the neighbor or the the tenants are informed of that you know prior to even booking and then they also do a short-term rental agreement we're pretty meticulous with with everything that we're doing are you actually the owner of this property so I'm it's a kind of a long story I'm I'm buying the property I have been buying the property for a couple years there was a divorce and that's kind of where that happened i i turned it into the airbnb because covid started crippling some of my personal businesses and stuff like that and that's that's kind of how it transpired you know but yeah i'm the idea is to have it paid for in the next few years so so do you have a deed on the property right correct So this is owned by you then? Atkins Homes, which is Samuel Ryan Atkins is the deed holder on the property. Okay. And you have a letter in there from him in the initial packet that was submitted to Mr. Mills, I believe. I assume this is not a deed restricted neighborhood. No, sir. it's just a single dead end street if samuel i'm sorry chair if um samuel atkins is the owner of the property then the cup would be issued in the name of samuel atkins because it has to be the owner of the property so i don't know if any clarification on that because it looks like the statement i see is michael norris not mr. Adkins do you have a lease to own contract yes ma'am which was also submitted so are you saying you have an agreement to purchase the property I'm trying to clarify what's so I have a lease to purchase agreement which has been in standing for a couple years and that is that is what I'm doing is purchasing the property I pay a mortgage to Atkins homes because I think that the issue that we're running into is that the ordinance provides that the CEP has to be to the current owner and so if you're not the current owner then that's going to be a problem issuing a short-term rental conditional use permit to someone who is not the present owner out the property. My question was who are we issuing the conditional use permit to? To legal? if i made the initially when like i was told that you know we just need a letter from the actual deeded owner because they pulled the deed yes okay so if we have the agreement which i don't i don't see it right here but if we have the agreement on file oh is that it permission so atkins home gave permission to mr norris to apply they are the owner and then if he's issued the zoning compliance permit and the board of adjustments conditional use permit in his name then that makes it a more seamless well that's what's necessary in order for him to go get a license and he these two documents the zoning compliance permit and the build are the conditional use permit should be in his name right should be in the app the applicant for the conditional use is the one that's going to get the license it needs to be the same name which is what they told me at the beginning yeah so ultimately when he closes on the property is between him and Mr. Adkins, the current property owner. So Tracy, bottom line, if we wanted to approve this, we're clear to do that. We're clear to approve it as far as the legal issues are concerned. Okay, thank you. Sorry for the confusion. Any other questions of the applicant? None, I'll entertain a motion. Madam Chair, I recommend approval of PLNBOA 24-151, Michael Norris' request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental in a planned neighborhood residential zone on property located at 2141 Palomar Trace Drive based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed. Thank you. And Mrs. Sturdervant has seconded. We'll take a vote. All right. Yeah, been approved. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Good? Okay. now i believe we're at plnboa 24-113 katherine day hello hello please state your name for the record and anything you could tell us about the project and then we'll allow public comment and then give you an opportunity katherine day i've owned the house for about five years and I work in the horse industry so I live in Woodford County on a horse farm and I bought the house as an investment and as a place for me to retire I had a tenant for one year who is a friend of mine but she was an out-of-state tenant and not there on a consistent basis to help pay for the cost of the house and the yard was not taken care of to my specifications so my kids wanted to come to town but my children live out of state so I thought well I'll make it an Airbnb which it has been for two and a half years or a VRBO and then when I want to block it and where I want it or my kids want it I'll have it so that's basically and I have no I have good relationships with the neighbors I have some letters from some of my neighbors about the care of the property and that they have no opposition to this let's see I screen everyone vigorously because this is the only property I own so this property is very important to me personally because it's where I want to eventually live and I want my neighbors to be happy because I want to eventually live there let's see I maintain it well I'm there three or four times a week i'm at the end of the 400 block of queensway as far as are there any other airbnbs or vrbo's near me i don't know so that would you all would know that um appears it may be oh there have been no complaints okay i think it appears that maybe one in the 500 yard vicinity and then and you might pick up another one when they go out 1,000. And it looks like there's four conditions, including no more than five individuals. Is that correct? And are you comfortable with those conditions? Yes. And we'll give, if nothing further, we'll give the public opportunity to comment. Okay. Anyone like to speak on Queensway? i'm gwen potter i live on holiday and i am the head of the fairway neighborhood association board and we um i've got a density map of i don't know if all these are registered but there's seven within or six within a thousand feet and over 36 within 3 500 feet so we're just worried about airbnb's coming to the neighborhood in general we're a very tight-knit group everyone knows each other we've got a hearing and speech center in our neighborhood and we're worried about just transient individuals in general not knowing our neighbors. I do have a petition that we've had online, we only got 128 signatures, and then 36 personal signatures from members of that 400 block of Queens where this Airbnb is supposed to be going. We're worried about just simply having people that we don't know in our neighborhood. We do annual neighborhood events, three or four times a year, we all know each other, and it just worries them to have such, so many young families and people in the neighborhood not knowing who's coming and going, is our general concern. We want neighbors, not strangers, so. Just real quick, what was the source of this particular item? Jennifer Wise just did a map of, she went on Airbnb and VRBO and found all the ones that were rentals. Because it's considerably different from the one we have. Is it? So I know that there's two on Henry Clay right where her house is. And there's two, I mean, on Carolyn Drive, I'm sorry, and then two on Henry Clay. And then the rest of those are on Kenwick and Mantell. Okay, so that's just farther out of the perimeter. Yep, our neighborhood ends at Henry Clay Boulevard. So are you listing rentals plus SDRs? I beg your pardon? Are you, on this chart, are you listing both rentals and STRs? All those are STRs. All the marks are, I don't know if they're, she found those going on Airbnb and VRBO, so they're listed as STRs currently. Some have permits, some do not. I know that the two on Henry Clay and the two on Carolyn have permits, have been granted conditional permits. And she's been operating hers without a permit, which is why we're here today. but those are so actually none of those would be permitted are permitted so do you want to mean this copy of this petition or does it oh yeah we'll take it okay so that's over 160 signatures and 36 on on the 400 block alone so it just really these neighbors want neighbors not not strangers in our neighborhood. It's a historic neighborhood. It's been around since the 1700s. I would really like to just keep it as close as possible. Thank you. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you. It is a beautiful neighborhood, and I appreciate that. What I need to say in response to that is that almost every complaint that we hear about STRs, people don't want this in their neighborhood, and I don't blame them. I wouldn't either. We try to go with the ordinance and look at the essentials. Thank you. Hi, my name is Mary Reed, and I'm also on the Fairway Neighborhood Board. I live on Henry Clay, and I want to just back up what Gwen has said. We see an encroachment of STRs coming into our neighborhood. we see strs that you all don't even know about we pointed it out on our map we have more in our neighborhood than you realize because you probably they're not all permitted now the one that we're talking about today is an unpermitted str that's been operated operating as an unpermitted str So we wonder where does it stop? And I know you're looking at density. We're looking at density too. And we can go just beyond my street, Henry Clay, and see a whole rash of STRs on the street behind me. I have an STR three houses down that you all approved this last summer. where does it stop how do we keep our neighborhood a neighborhood and when does it become a neighborhood for STRs so that people can go to the horse races and see the football games we we love our neighbors we love visitors I'm new to town and i i mean i this is a great way to invest your money but it's not a great way to invest your money in in fairway a single mostly single family density i'm wondering if we're going to be doing the same to groups like the woods to the homes on the other side of shinoe on heart street i mean I mean, why us and why are you allowing it? Thank you. While I understand their concerns, my house is approximately two to three houses down from many multiplexes, which is mixed use, which is right at the end of Queensway where it tees in. And I feel like that I can't speak for other STRs, and I can't speak for other people who own the STRs. I just know that I'm very particular, and I'm very meticulous, and it is a long-term investment for me, as is the community. I used to live on Fontaine. My kids grew up. I had to move out to the horse farm. And I love the area, and I've always wanted to be back in that area, which is where I plan to retire. So does anyone have any questions for me? Have you had any complaints or issues? No complaints or issues, no. And I have letters from my neighbors right there on either side of me across the street. I've had, you know, they're in support of me. The mention was made that your particular situation was an STR, not a full rental. Is that correct? It was a rental for a year, but she was never there. She only came one week a year, and the house was not being occupied or cared for because she had rented it, so the yard was under her jurisdiction, but they weren't taking care of the yard. So I take care of the yard myself. I take care of the house myself. So I'm particular, and I want the yard to look very nice, and I think it does. When did it become an SDR? About two and a half years ago, but I didn't know about this because I don't live in, I live in Woodford County now and I don't get the Herald-Eater and I didn't know about the grandfathering and so forth and so on. So did you get notice of violation? Mm-hm, yeah. What were the penalties that were laid out for you? To stop the rental of it or be fined $500 a day and so I did. And then to come here and do this process. Okay. This is for staff. How long has this property been in violation? I think what's happening is that the Division of Finance purchased software in order to monitor and keep up with their licensing. And with that, they identified kind of in batches quite a few property owners that were out of compliance. they didn't have a license in their records and so they will send out large batches of letters notifying all of the owners that they've been identified on one of the rental websites and that they need to come in and do the conditional use process so they get a notice of violation and then a certain period of time to come and file if they don't they get another notice of violation again a little bit more time to come in and file and then the third at the third tick mark it becomes a citation so at this point miss day followed the guidance of the letter which is file your application so you can come into compliance with our regulations which is what we want so so the the actual actual fines or anything don't come into effect until after they've been notified and given a particular period of time to come in for conditional use and if they don't then the fines are activated it's sort of the third kind of your third so warning so nobody's two warnings and then the third time you're actually issued a fine so nobody's getting a buy on this nobody's getting by okay and we do have a few that have been issued citations I was wondering if I could see the petition that was turned in please Thank you. Any other questions of the applicant? I will entertain a motion. Madam Chair, I recommend approval of PLN BOA 24-113, Catherine Day's request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental in a single-family residential zone on property located at 434 Queensway Drive, based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed. Thank you. And Mr. Walker has seconded the motion. we will take a vote I lost her motion is passed I think it's up thank you thank you our next item is PLN BOA 24-130 Emily Herring Hi, my name is Joel Herring. Thank you. And it looks like this has been recommended for approval. There are four conditions that have been listed, including the maximum of eight individuals. Had you had opportunity to review this? Yes, ma'am. And do you want to tell us a little bit about the house? It's a three-bedroom home with two full bathrooms. I'm not sure how long my wife has owned it. been married for 11 years and she's owned it before we got married so and how's it operating currently it was my niece was in UK for the last two years so she was living there and now it's vacant parking and manage oh we have a we can fit four cars into the driveway is a double wide driveway so so four cars can fit there and then we have a local lady that was going to manage the property for us. Where does the owner live? We live in Charleston, South Carolina. My wife went to the University of Kentucky. She's from Manchester, Kentucky. So who's going to be the local contact on this? Angela Hopper. That's my wife's first cousin she lives in Lexington any other questions before we have public comment on Providence Road Hi, I'm Mary Lena White. I'm at 692 Providence Road. Obviously, no neighborhoods want these things in them. We all know that. But one of my concerns about this one is I have a picture, which I didn't submit, but on September 7th during the football game, this particular property did have a car parked in the front yard. The city of Lexington has an ordinance that you are not allowed to do that. I'm assuming based on what he said it was his niece, but nobody monitored it. And with them living out of state, I have a real problem with this property not being monitored. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Maureen Carmen. I live a couple of streets over from the property. I walk by there every day when I go on my walks. My big concern is, again, the proliferation of applications for rest of the properties. And I want to thank staff for putting together the information, piece that you had at the beginning that was very helpful and for you all as you concentrate and you're looking at the concentration of these properties in neighborhoods this is a close neighborhood uh three streets and we have small families we have a lot of elderly people i'm very concerned about um again it being keeping the character of the neighborhood uh this does not seem to fit the character of the neighborhood just looking at the material that staff put together it appeared that there are six properties for 2.36 percent in in this area and that's getting toward your your goals I guess of I think it was five percent for residential areas and 20 percent maybe four areas nearer to venues for people to come to visit Lexington again I don't have any huge objection except that I think that the creep is I can feel the creep let me put it that way that neighborhoods are not going to stay the same if we just keep allowing all of these now I know that the urban County Council is it is I think looking at changes to the ordinance I'm hoping that they will limit put limits that really help maintain the character and the nature of neighborhoods this is one of those situations and i really don't want to see it thank you and thank you for the board for looking at concentrations i really appreciate that thank you hi my name is roger leaser i live across the street from the property in question and have for 36 years. The people on the left of me have lived there longer than I have. People on the right of me have lived there about three years short. We have grandparents, we have parents, we have young families, we have children. We've had some student rentals, and while that's not ideal, it hasn't been bad. In fact, I think Emily was for a while. the student rentals, at least they have a one or two or three or four year investment in our neighborhood. And right now it is a neighborhood. We have neighbors who have been there and who are invested. Now I think I'm delivering this message to the wrong room. It sounds like the room that I should be talking to is the city council because they've laid these rules out as Mr. Clark said so eloquently but also it was pointed out that we need to preserve our neighborhoods and this is one worth preserving there are no STRs in our neighborhood we have neighbors what we don't have are customers and that's what we're about to have if this is approved thank you Thank you. Was there anyone else to speak? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Anything in rebuttal? No. Do we have any questions of this particular applicant? I just have a comment. We've had several today that were supposed to be kind of a special case, especially the one down on Maxwell Street was one that's in a very high concentration of STRs, which is of concern to me, based on a kind of a loosely termed area called a tourist-oriented area. And, of course, this one we're considering now on Providence is very near the University of Kentucky's football stadium, baseball stadium. And my concern is that if we approve several of these in this area, that it may be at one point considered to be a tourist-oriented area, which would allow a higher concentration, which to me doesn't make a lot of sense to transform these residential neighborhoods. But to me, it looks like that we're moving in that direction, and that causes me a lot of concern. There are also seven letters of opposition online that we received, so you might want to talk to the neighbors to be a good neighbor talk to your neighbors see what they want see what they don't want and then there's five this would put five in the 500 red circles on nothing further I'll entertain a motion Madam Chair, I move to approve PLM VOA 24-130. Emily Heery, request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental on a single-family residential zone on property at 689 Province Road based on staff's recommendation and subject to the four conditions. Thank you, Mr. Walker. I have a second. Thank you, Mr. Clark. We'll take a vote. The motion is passed. Thank you, sir. I have the next item, SPLN BOA 24-131. Is that in line with staff? Kati properties. Kati. Good afternoon. I'm Julie Tennyson. I'm an attorney, but I'm also co-owner of Kati properties with my husband, Scott Markham. Scott Markham has grew up in the neighborhood. his parents live on fincastle his sister lives three doors down with her second husband dr. Brian Rohn and dr. Miriam markham her first husband lives next door lives next door to the property his name is dr. Jeff Tuttle and he the history of the property with this family is is Miriam dr. Markham dr. Miriam Markham and dr. Tuttle lived there for about two years they sold the property to my husband Scott Markham and then Scott Markham lived there for about two years and then he has rented it for 20 years long-term rented it for 20 years so his parents in their 80s they are in good health they are currently on vacation in Canada I'm sorry is there a problem okay okay so they're currently on vacation in Canada but they're in their 80s my husband's parents are in their 80s they're in good health my father-in-law takes care of the property and as I said my in-laws live in the neighborhood we're very invested in staying there ourselves we that's why we stopped renting it long term in April 2023 and started the process of making it a short-term rental we signed up with Airbnb in June of 2023 and so it's a fourplex and it's we want to stay there and so that's why we want it to be a short-term rental so we can stay there our goal is for it I so let back up just a second we want to stay there so to visit the parents we also want to stay there because I am on the board of two statewide organ nonprofits Kentucky Science Tech and Technology Corporation and the Pritchard Committee I am a board member on both of those both of those are headquartered in Lexington I live in Paducah but my father-in-law takes care of it now living in Paducah there are lots of people who live in Paducah who have to come here for sports activities for their children for board meetings like I did my kids high school principal we're going to let him stay there because he wants to come up to a football game he's on the board of or he's associated with KHSAA the Kentucky sports and he he gets discount tickets through that he wants to come to a concert and and we're gonna let him come and stay there and so There is a significant number of people in the Paducah area that need to come, and in western Kentucky, that need to come to this area in order to be able to go to things here. because we, you know, it's hard to explain it if you haven't lived outside of a big city about how that so much is located in Lexington that I have to come to Lexington for because I live in a small town. We're about four years away from our kids potentially going to college here in Lexington. I have a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old. There just is not enough room in my in-laws houses, the two in-laws houses for all of us to stay there. And so we want to be able to come and stay there and visit my husband's 80 some year old parents. And so that's why we are doing this. It also, one of the other, the good things about STRing through Airbnb and long-term renting through Airbnb versus what we've been doing for the past 20 years. We had primarily found people to stay there the last 20 years by word of mouth. and we did almost no screening on the people we found them by word of mouth and and we let them stay there long term the building has three other long-term tenants but it's four separate owners in this fourplex and so the other three apartments in there have long-term printers and I have heard some complaints from some people who are in the neighborhood but that really maybe applies to the long-term renters and not necessarily the short-term renters or the the people that we've had stay there so anyway back to said the short-term renters that we want short-term renters because they're more professional and especially medical professionals with my father-in-law being a pharmacist my in-laws being medical school professors at UK it's very close to the hospitals we primarily want to rent it to medical traveling professionals when we're not there currently we are renting it to a medical traveling professional and we have been for over 30 days through Airbnb because it's it's permissible if it's over 30 days to rent it on Airbnb so we have we are renting it and that's what we want to do we want if we're not staying there but the holidays are coming We want to stay there Thanksgiving and Christmas and in between I'll have to come to a Pritchard committee board meeting and In if there I don't want to leave it empty I want to be able to short-term rent it in the in that period if possible And I don't want to I don't want to rent I'm never gonna want to rent to someone less than two days but the benefit of short-term renting is that I can screen them much better they they are they are generally people who ran are generally professionals and families that would rent in this area prior in the last 20 years I have only rented long-term to white people because those are people that we knew but since I have written it on Airbnb I have been able to rent it to Asians African Americans and others around the world have been able to come and visit here and so I think that Airbnb is a you know it gets a bad rap but it is race blind and when I pick who I'm gonna rent to it's based on their ratings it's based on them being verified I cannot see a picture of them I cannot see their last name and I am able to then be able to rent it to a diverse base of people which I was not able to rent to before and there is a screening process I screen every person and ask them questions about why they want to stay I have rules that they have to abide by and I am really happy with being able to rent to a diverse clientele I'm happy to be able to rent to people who live in Western Kentucky and I am happy that there's a way to screen them that I did not have when I long-term rented it. I just long-term rented it to who came by and said they wanted to rent it that we sort of knew. And so since then, since I'm renting on Airbnb, it's opened up a new world for people all over the world to potentially come and stay there. So they may come for, and I ask everybody why they're coming. So some of the reasons are summer camps, traveling nurses, sports. And I'm happy. I last week stayed in an Airbnb in Quincy, Missouri. I mean, Quincy, not Missouri, Quincy, Massachusetts. And I was really happy to be able to stay there in a two-bedroom apartment like my own and be able to stay in the neighborhood and be able to live in the neighborhood. And I would really appreciate you being able to let me have the time that I'm not going to spend there to be able to short-term rent it. I have a question. Yes. I have a question for you. You're having a fourplex. Are the other three units long-term rentals? Yes. Okay. Are they aware of the potential of having a short-term rental? Yes. And I have had some correspondence back and forth with them. The concerns that they raised with me were, you know, that I didn't personally live in town, Which my father-in-law has taken care of it and he lives in town and then the other concern was Is going to be part of the conditional use that while I bet I would only be able to Rent it that once it transferred from me that it wouldn't be able to be used as a short-term rental So those were the only concerns that have been raised with me Not by email I've emailed back and forth with them and so those have been addressed and quite frankly It's much better for them To be able to have the tenants to be screened through the Airbnb verification process and the ratings Then what I was doing when I was long-term renting it we did long-term rent it to someone who? told us that they were an EKU professor and We later suspected that they were selling drugs there. And once we got to really digging in and researching the person, they had had several published articles in High Times Magazine, and we had taken it at face value that they were an EKU professor and really hadn't checked into it. But Airbnb has an identity verification process, and then the people have ratings when we pick them. And we are currently hosting for 30 days or more a traveling nurse, and she is an African-American lady, and we hope that we are able to continue to rent to people like that, so that need to live in, that need to come and stay in Lexington. and it has been able to give us a little extra money to work on the place. It's a historic place two blocks from Ashland, and people want to come and stay in a place on the historic registry and have that connection to the fact that it was part of Henry Clay's farm. Thank you. You're welcome. Let's give an opportunity for public comment, and then i'll give you opportunity to rebut yeah mr kaufman okay you want me to let the other folks go first or take okay we'll wait i can bring you a microphone i can bring you a microphone you want to stay there I'm Ben C. Kaufman and live on Sycamore Road for the past 50 years. I work with investments and money in 1950 and I began purchasing residential houses and own over 100 rental units. So I've had experience. Several of these units are in the Ashland Park neighborhood. All my properties comply with the laws of Fayette County, Kentucky, etc. I require security deposits. I limit the amount of pets and children in each unit, as the law states. I want the tenants to be part of the community, to have an interest in where they're living, and take pride. To accomplish the above, I require a year's lease, and in some cases, with students, only six months. But these people have an interest. Short-term leases have none of these characteristics. Studies have shown this type of stay is the same as a motel or a hotel. How would you like to have someone or a property such as Holiday Inn next door to you? Anyhow, the buck stops here with you guys. How many of you want to live next door to a party house? a house that you are not sure of the safety of children, pets, or yourselves? Will your residents be safe from damage, possible fires, and so on? Whereas a long-term student, or excuse me, whereas a long-term tenant would not typically cause these concerns. I'm sitting here in the basement of how these short-term rentals have been allowed, particularly in neighborhoods where I've lived, Arcadia Park, Westwood, and I'm astounded, as Roger Leeser mentioned, that the neighborhood is not a neighborhood with migrant or tenants moving in and out. And so I ask you to consider a no. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jeffrey Tuttle. I live next door to the property at 232 Sycamore, but I'm here tonight as the president of the Ashland Neighborhood Association. The ANA board met on September 30th to discuss this particular conditional use permit and voted unanimously to request that the Board of Adjustment deny this petition. The ANA board is concerned about the negative impact of unhosted short-term rentals in the neighborhood, especially when the owners and operators do not live in Fayette County. The residential neighborhoods on the Richmond Road corridor and downtown are already overwhelmed with STRs. Based on the most recent city data, there are already 26 STRs across the street in the adjoining Kennewick neighborhood. The ANA surveyed our members on October 1st about their opinions on STRs in the neighborhood. We received 105 responses, which is about four times the number of any survey we've submitted. I think a testament to how important this issue is and how opinionated people are about these in their backyard. In the survey, 54% of our respondents do not support any types of STRs in the neighborhood. only 4% of respondents supported all types of the remaining they supported some types of STRs but only 15% of those supported unhosted ones the most common reason for objection is probably not to your surprise it's concerned about the negative impact and the quality of life of full-time residents and as you're probably also aware the City Council is in the process of updating the STR regulations and if that does go into effect later this year this particular unit would not be allowed to operate because it's within 500 feet of an existing STR that is located at 220 Sycamore but specific to this property there are a couple of concerns that we had the biggest one is that neither a property owner owner nor a full-time resident is going to occupy this particular unit there are four other units in this quadruplex that are all long-term rentals and not owned by this particular property owner it's also a two-bedroom unit with a request for up to four individuals and there's only one parking space the petitioner is asking that if there's more than one vehicle that other car be parked on the street if you've ever tried to drive a national park you know that our streets are extremely narrow they're almost always full and there's actually not enough street parking for long-term current residents thank you hi I'm Terry Boyard I live on catalpa Road which is the road over from where excuse me this SDR is going in when I ask you guys a question could you pull the microphone down please sorry what does Lexington have probably a city within 500 miles doesn't. We have a top 25 neighborhood in the United States, according to I think it was the Times. Why? And I bet you all these other short term stuff isn't going on in those other 25 neighborhoods in big places like New York and California. Here we are in Lexington, Kentucky. There's no one within 500 miles that meets that. If we start letting these short term rentals keep coming in here, Lexington is going to lose that. And I think I'm pretty proud of that. I don't know about you. I mean, Lexington is a small town, and we're on this big list. Why? Because of the character of the neighborhood. And these fourplexes that are there, and they're plenty, plentiful, make it a very diverse neighborhood. You have young people. You have older people. You have professional people that are there, and that's what makes it so unique. You know, there was, you heard the gentleman from the prominent properties earlier today. He said that he can't do a long-term rental price because it doesn't meet his return on investment. So guess what? Everybody knows that too. So what's going to happen when you've got all these fourplexes here, and a lot of them are owned by the same people, and they're going to have some big government, I mean, corporate entity come in here and buy them up and turn them all into short-term rentals. I mean, that's what's going to happen. You talk about the old law school, they taught me the old slippery slope. Well, there's the beginning of the slippery slope. We just can't have that in this neighborhood. And to piggyback on what Jeff said, the parking on that road. I mean, there's only parking on one side. And there's not enough for people that live there to park. And I guess to close is that, and I also said Catherine Dagman, she said she lived on Fontaine. She's the lady that owned the place over in Queensway. And then moved to the horse farm. And she wants to move back because why she loved the area. Why does she love the area? There's not a bunch of short-term rentals in there That's just erupting that culture and disrupting the peace and disrupting the community that we have And you know and also I just kind of look at it, you know, it's so not zone commercial and this is a commercial enterprise You know, I can't operate a taco stand off my front porch But they can operate a commercial entity and their house Why what's the difference? and that thank you that's all i have to say but i really do think we need to take into account that you know we have a we have that top 25 property area in this city let's not give it up because of short-term rentals hello my name is colleen dolan um i own the property directly across i own 221 223 sycamore it's a duplex and i live in it i object to unhosted airbnbs i have a pretty good example of why i own property in newport rhode island and they went through the same kind of process as a lot of towns and cities are the problem with unhosted is they can be screened on airbnb that's fine but if there isn't an owner to check these people in and to check to make sure that these are the people that are in you end up with what we had called third-party renters so what happened on may 30th of 2021 down the block from my home in newport wood island was that it was rented by a nice couple an airbnb they're always a nice couple and what really took place was a big party the nice couple was nowhere to be seen so i don't know how it worked but they must have put someone up to it to put on their credit cards so they could get this house. So these young people that came from some areas in Rhode Island that aren't so great in Massachusetts, and they had this party. And they brought a knife, and there was a murder. And it was really crazy to see blood on the sidewalk down the street from my house. So it sounds like it would be a great thing, but it isn't necessarily, because this is a problem with these. There isn't oversight. if you don't live there, you don't know what's going on. And I do appreciate that she says she has a father-in-law, but it's not the same. You need to own the property to be there to care, to check in these people, to check on them, or the nice couple that you're rented to is not that nice couple. And you can look this up. Again, the man was indicted. The young man was indicted for murder. And there's a life that's gone, and I know that's an extreme case, but it highlights that these are tough things to regulate. really I'm all for hosted I'm just not for unhosted and certainly not across from my home thank you very much thank you any more public comment okay I'm Laura Boyce and I represent the homeowners association of auto bin condo I am the other three owners in that property and I want to stress that that we own this as a group we were not contacted by the markums we found out when the sign was put in our yard we have tried to make communication with them we sent an email I talked to her husband she has not responded to my phone or email so I want to make sure that that's well known it is an intimate property we share common area we share common walls we could own a share a common basement where these people would be while we're going down there to do laundry. We also, as you know, it's a historical building. Our bylaws, we believe, prohibit this. I understand you have the right, you have an ordinance, but I also believe that you have the responsibility to interpret that. You're like the Supreme Court, you interpret what you've been given. We do have bylaws. I do have the three other owners proxy to change the bylaws to prohibit this and we are glad to do this and we have contacted to understand how we would we go about that but our bylaws say that we do have the right to define the use of the property it also says that there shall be no nuisance and there should be no anything that interferes with peaceful possession and it also says it's only for resident private residential use we do not consider short-term rentals private residential use we strongly believe that this flies in the face of our bylaws and as mentioned I do have the proxies of the other owners so we do own the 51% right to change our bylaws we will go against this if you choose to enact this over our bylaws and oh this is a common building the other ones are individual properties that differs so greatly this would be like someone coming into your home and saying your bedroom I'm gonna put somebody in there that you don't know she's already self-admitted several times that they didn't screen who goes in there. They were out of compliance for a full year on their condo dues. We have had issues. We are very concerned about their ability from Paducah to manage this type of property. They have moved, you put in your qualifications, if this would flip away if they transfer the ownership coincidentally in june of last year in october of this year they formed an llc transferred the property to the llc so the vessel the vessel that owns this property is the llc so they can sell they can do a full transfer of the llc and the property moves with it you sell the llc which owns title to the property so they can move this if you make this if you do this it isn't an llc full transfer and it moves with that llc that's the other thing so they say they'll do x but they could sell it the next day we have no idea who how that person's going to manage it we have already had complaints regarding the parking it is limited parking in the back and we've already had complaints from our tenants that are the long-term tenants that are in there you do have the right to interpret I stress I so heavily stress this is a common building this is totally different than a standalone the other three owners I have I have the bylaws I have their proxies we will go against we will take them we will stop this thank you is there any more public comment if the applicant wants what we'll do another three minutes for rebuttal if necessary so first I was talking about my long-term rental renters weren't screened the short-term renters are much better screened than what my long-term renters ever were we will we will we don't believe that if the bylaws prevent prevent it and we will fight it out in court if we need to if they change the bylaws because we were not given a you know their their requirements of giving notice we have never received anything from the the neighborhood association we had when we started it we told dr. Tuttle we were gonna start it he knows my we came over to in him we came over to his house and talked to him about it he is you know former mother-in-law and father-in-law are the ones that are helping us with it he knows them we have we only had one complaint and the whole time and that was for a musical instrument and if we had actually stayed there it could have been our kid playing the musical instrument we meticulously screen all of the people who come there and we want to use it and we can't afford to use it it sat empty for a period of time in between renters and we sent I sent I personally sent her the check for the dues and she claims she never got it and that and then I it was like six months later I've sent her two checks this year for the HOA fees and we are better able to pay the HOA fees when we have a short-term renter and we are better able to screen and if there's a problem with a short-term renter we can tell them to go. Under Airbnb terms and services, if there's a problem, we can immediately ask them to leave. We could not do that when we had a long-term tenant. We had to give them 30 days notice. We can't ask them to leave immediately. So it's much better for the neighborhood for us to have a short-term renter that we can ask to leave if they violate our rules. And if they're, you know they can look online as to what our rules are and and I'm more than willing to work with them about putting in place other additional rules or other additional screenings if that's what they would like but definitely it's in a much better place having a long term we we think having a short-term renter is a much better place for the neighborhood because we can use it our our friends can use it, and we will be there more. And so that's why we want to be there so we can visit my husband's parents more who live literally four to five blocks away. They live on the corner of Ashland. And so we want to be able to visit them more. And if we have it, we can. And I have stayed there a number of times in the last year. I've probably stayed there six or eight times in the last year and plan on staying there more. And so the stranger is me because they don't know me because I live in Paducah, I guess. But my husband grew up in Lexington, and he has lived in Lexington and visited his parents have lived there on Finn Castle since he was under 10. Okay thank you so much. I was gonna say does the board have other questions? I'm sorry applicant if you could ma'am ma'am please stay. I don't know if this is for her or but aren't short-term rentals for under 30 days so my question for you would be are you planning on renting it out for more than 30 days to people yes definitely so in the periods of time when I am not stay you know when I'm not staying there in a month I would hope to rent it out for 30 days or more to medical professionals that are like traveling nurses and currently I am renting it for I've rented it for two and a half months on Airbnb to a traveling nurse who is you know and who's who is staying there and and I think she's she's done well and if she hasn't done well then they need to you know somebody needs to call me and tell me but I am renting it a ma'am if you're renting over 30 days all the time then that you don't need a short term rental permit well so what I want to do is rent it over 30 days when I'm not staying there so like for instance here's here's the situation I want to stay there on Thanksgiving and I want to stay there Christmas yeah there are not 30 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and so I want to rent it short-term in that in those time periods so where I would have to where I might want to stay there in between those periods I want a short-term rent it like January February and March I want a long-term rent it got it what we're saying is that the ordinance says it can only be 30 days or less that's the ordinance no no no no she only needs approval for 30 days I only need approval here for 30 days or less so I can rent it 30 at 30 days at a time and all of the parade of horribles that they talk about would still be there I can rent it every 30 days okay I could read it to 12 different people in a year and still not have to be under this conditional use and there's nothing that they can do that there's nothing that any of the complainers can do about that because it would not require a conditional use permit it only requires it if I want to rent it under 30 days and so my goal is to rent it over 30 days when I'm not there because I don't want I how I how I turn it over is I use turno that's the Airbnb service and I have a cleaner that comes and professionally cleans it after every person and for me it's easier to manage that if I'm if I'm managing that person unless a shorter you know shorter number of times part of my concern too is the fact that you're sharing a wall and then a ceiling and a floor with somebody that really concerns me especially in a fourplex I was over there the other day there was a car with a license plate from out of town it was parked in the middle of the driveway which meant to that nobody could go back in the back and park that is a street with very limited parking so that's just another concern that I have with this but that that person is a medical I get that and professional that's long that's outside of this so so regardless of whether you give me a conditional use or not that is a permissible person to live there but they're blocking the driveway to the other three residents was was my was what I was and I don't know if it was the person you know I don't know if it was that person or not but if there's a problem and in this situation if there's a problem and it's somebody who's renting from me then I'm more than happy to give my phone number and they can call me now I did not I have sent at least two emails to Laura Boyson and I she called me yesterday and I was traveling back from Boston and wasn't able to to get back in touch with her before this meeting but you know if it were emergency situation we have had a back and forth but if it were an emergency situation I certainly would be able to get back in touch with her I was just traveling and and really exhausted yesterday we have other questions of the applicant I think I'd probably have the same concerns as well it's it's since it's under the same roof it seems like it needs a lot more management and it appears that your main attempt is to be able to utilize it yourself which I totally get and then secondary is to lease it long term to nurses and medical professionals and things like that long term or at least 30 days or more so you can accomplish both of those without doing all this and so the lack of local management being in close proximity is what I would have concern as well so we have it's the same difference whether we long we long term rented it and nobody was checking in on it for 20 years basically and when we there was a tenant there that nobody was checking on for 20 years there were various tenants over that period of time it's true but you're not asking for permission for those you're asking for permission saying here's my case here's what I'm looking at and your your your argument is well this could happen anyway it's like no we're really looking for I'm gonna handle it I'm gonna take care of it and and here's how not absenteeism no i mean i am so what i can do now that i couldn't do then is i can ask that person to leave and under their contract with airbnb they have to leave i'm sorry public comments so yes okay so i can i can ask them to leave and if they don't leave then I can call the police and ask them to be escorted out for trespassing, which I could not do on a long-term rental situation. Okay. Thank you. Do we have any other questions of the applicant? I have a concern. As we look at these cases, we have to go about what the ordinance says, and we really try to do that. But there are exceptions, and I understand that too. And when I read this application, and I know that area fairly well, I was very concerned about the fact that this is a four-plex unit, and putting an STR in a four-plex unit really does bother me. And I think Laura mentioned that when she spoke. I have a concern with that. And I think that presents a completely different situation than what the ordinance says. And of course, the ordinance can't say everything about everything, obviously. But in this particular case, I am very concerned about that and what that does to that particular property. Well, again, if they have a problem, they can contact me and I can have the person removed, which I could not do except on 30 days notice on a long-term rental. And so I can have the person removed on a shorter term basis if there's an issue with that person which I couldn't do before and It's my my father-in-law lives right around the block we have meticulously screened the people Who stay there because we want to stay there when we long-term rented it? it stayed vacant. We did not check on the property for, at some points, years. And if we are going and staying there on a regular basis, it's getting checked on a lot more than it was by long-term renting it for a year or more. We've had long-term tenants there for three or four years and never checked on it. Okay. well thank you do we have any other questions do you want to take a brief recess are you ready for emotion all righty thank you thank you ma'am you're welcome with respect to PLM BOA 24131 Cove Katie properties LLC I move for disapproval of the request for a short-term rental at 220 Sycamore Road unit 3 based on the findings of fact the property is a fourplex and the short-term rental would have an adverse influence on the adjoining properties in the four-plex due to the sharing of common areas and limited privacy between the units there is a shared parking number two is there's a shared parking for the four-plex that is insufficient for the four occupants in the short-term rental unit so any excess vehicles would spill over onto the street evidence at the hearing showed that the streets in the neighborhood are narrow and the area has limited on street parking overflow parking from the short-term rental would likely create an adverse influence on the surrounding neighborhood by increasing the volume of traffic and decreasing available on street parkings thank you and it looks like mr walker has offered a second no further comment will vote and that's a vote to disapprove we'll get a water okay and we'll take a quick five minute recess again give us just a quick minute chicken parmesan they're having a big meal Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. . ¶¶ Thank you. As expediently as possible. We have PLNVOA 24-135, Mr. Kenneth Howard. Hello, I'm Kenneth Howard. I have the property at 2604 Oakmont. It's a three-bedroom, two-full bath. It can accommodate five spots off street. I have an online management company that screens. They've done a real good job at doing the screening. I was impacted by job loss is the reason I had to leave Fayette County and and now doing this as a short-term rental so that we can come back to visit friends and family we have a I think a few correspondences in opposition and a few in support yeah I know the Tices who live like if you walk out my back door their back door is 60 feet that way they have emailed me that they miss seeing the people come because I think they interact with them they get to see new people they actually have their kids come and stay in my house so that they're right next door and I do have security cameras outside that I monitor each stay just make sure that it's the right number of people and I've had no issues and I've had no no complaints I did I don't know Carl's here he's my one neighbor that I just found out that he probably has some things to say but no one is contacting me directly my immediate neighbors have my phone number and I encourage them to call me if if there's any concern or issues we have any questions with the applicant before allow for some public comment are you have you contacted your neighborhood association concerning this request there were letters that went out to them that was the part of the this process but you haven't talked to them i have not talked to them i have not are your bathrooms full or half baths or do you have two full bathrooms or two full baths okay thank you thank you hello my name is Carl stirs sir and I'm going to start out to say we've been neighbors forever no issues kind of friends he takes care great care of his property and the only really concerns I have of course I agree with everyone else's comments about short-term rentals about the perif relation of those throughout our neighborhoods but that's not something you guys can address that's something sounds like the council's going to have to take up and work on the ordinance maybe tighten it up or whatever primarily my concern is uh the court is pretty tight court there's only four houses in that court and sometimes the cars are kind of wedged in even as they are today for parking purposes the other issue you probably heard it already fabric of the community tranquility the community we're primarily elderly residents around the property my backyard is adjacent to Kenneth's and only one thing that no one ever has brought up and this is probably be a Council issue is a shortage of housing in Lexington if we keep doing these STRs we're taking more houses off the market making them rentals and not accessible to buyers and we already have that issue going on in Lexington that's a big issue in my in my opinion let me look at my notes before I forget anything and oh one other thing I would like to mention is our I know you mentioned a few letters in opposition and i know our neighborhood association is opposing this and uh also our council person for council 10. and oh and one other thing i know we still have sun seeker court to address tonight that is right around the corner i know we talked about concentration in neighborhoods and that would give two short-term rentals pretty close proximity to each other i'd say I mean literally a third of a mile close to each other but I don't mean this to be personal you guys do a great job I don't know what you get paid but it's not enough and and I was going to start at my conversation saying I represent the poor man's Chevy Chase open gates at Southland area so that's all I like to say and I don't want him to take this personally it's it's just some of my concerns primarily all one other thing it is a one car driveway it's not a double driveway and I know it's mentions five car parking spaces so there might be cars backing in and all the time for one person to get out which would might might be a detriment to the other neighbors but that's all I have to say I appreciate everybody's time sorry it's been a long day for you guys and I appreciate it appreciate you coming up and commenting it's been a long day for you too and I agree with exactly what you said about council talking a lot about affordable housing and then out of the other side of their mouth they pass an ordinance on short-term rentals that diametrically opposed to what they're supposed to be taken care of that's always been a ambiguous to me so i agree any further comment or no i don't i don't really have anything else i was just looking i just wanted to reflect we do not have anything from the council person here i just want to make sure other than that's it okay but we do have the neighborhood association all right and um what what's the property being used for currently it is short-term rental um yeah i live in when i lost my job i moved we moved to north carolina and i didn't hear about it i mean i initially filed and i was following under the old process i mean i filed with my occupational license i've been filing my taxes um and and then i got the letter that things had changed so and how long have you been operating uh since 2021 i believe and no complaints no complaints no i i think the company that you use they do a real good job screening i've i've had no complaints did you have something miss tucker we ask a question all right Now I will entertain a motion. Madam Chair, I recommend approval of PLNBOA 24-135, Kenneth Howard's request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental in a single-family residential zone on property located at 2604 Oakmont Court, based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed. Thank you. And do we have a second? We're down to just a couple people. Okay. Without a second, I believe the motion will fail, and we have to have a new motion. a new motion would more likely be for disapproval which will need findings so I'm concerned about the parking the five vehicles and too many parking people parking on the street and I don't know this would be a good to me affordable house at 1,363 square feet this one I mean it's not a housing unit when we get down to this part it's especially it's been operating since 2021 in a positive manner it doesn't really fall in the affordable housing space that area is not necessary well I just um it's it's the only one within that immediate area we only have three in that entire area it's less than one percentage of a point we can make a sign of course you can make a motion for disapproval but it's not because of parking because they have plenty of parking so just with findings I'd be very conscientious about really what we're finding here because this does kind of fall within all of our spaces I was really comfortable with the within the the fourplex was a tough one I agree with everyone they're sharing walls there's something different there but this is not a parking where they have already have space for five parking spots it could be a different issue to not find to have not findings I'm concerned of all the appeals that we're gonna have but I guess legal will be busy I won't we need a brief recess if we're looking for disapproval one of you guys go you need findings if you want to do disapproval then I'll need a few minutes to do findings Thank you. I would just mention to the applicant the other option may be for continuance you know I feel bad we've been here all day and we've gone down to a barely quorum so that would totally be an option because we do have a failed motion and I don't know we'll have a we could have consensus but that would be up to you for sure so you're asking if you want to continue it you would have you could request such a continuance and a board member makes the motion we could allow that I just feel bad we've gone down to such a yeah If the applicant wants to continue, we would need a motion. I'm upset I have to make this motion. Frankly, I'm trying to figure out what the reasons that we can't even have a second. But I'll move, Madam Chair, that we continue this application until the November date, which is 14th? Fourth. Fourth. Fourth. Okay. November the 4th. Oh, okay. Okay. Do I have a second? Mr. Sturder Van has second. We'll take a vote. It will be continued until November the 4th. our next item is PLN BOA 24-142 Emily hi good evening good afternoon this is Emily Nigam I just wanted to thank you all for recommending approval for this rental and opportunity to speak on our short-term rental we do try your microphone down just oh yeah can you hear me better we agree with the terms that you have listed in this document. My husband and I purchased this home with the intention of supporting both our family and community as a parent of an 11-month-old there. We initially bought this home as as a grandparent home. I have family that lives out of town, so they would want to see their grandchild. And then the more we realize that there's a broader need in our neighborhood, and in talking with our neighbors and friends, many of them who are UK medical students and residents, they also had a similar issue of needing extra space when visiting grandparents. So our goal with this whole rental is to have something that's specifically tailored to families and that provide a safe and family-friendly environment. I live in this neighborhood. I actually live right next door, so we're right there. We would ensure that the safety and stability of the neighborhood is very much intact. In terms of the home, it is a three-bedroom, two-bath, fully furnished home. We have done some updates on the house to ensure, again, the safety of the neighborhood. We are about a seven-minute drive from UK, which is about 2.3 miles. And again, close to the professional programs and the medical schools and the dental schools that are there as well. Additionally, we do think that this STR will positively impact the neighborhood by providing local accommodations and options for our neighborhood guests and friends. We are definitely ensuring minimal disturbance, and we will implement the following measures. strict no party policy, a six-person maximum occupancy, noise sensors to monitor sound levels, exterior security cameras for safety and to avoid disturbances, entry and exit lock security through thorough guest screening process, and open communications with our neighbors to address any concerns promptly. We also have an enclosed backyard that's fenced to ensure, again, neighborhood privacy. My husband is a surgical resident, and like I said, we have an eight-month-old, so sleep is very important. We are not here to party. We're just here to accommodate families, especially ones who are in similar situations as ours. So we just want to thank you for your time. Oh, and I know we talked about parking a lot, so I wanted to address that. We have a two-car garage, and then we also have a driveway that's available for our guests, too. And then we were limiting it to no more than six individuals? Yes, yes, six individuals. Do we have any questions for the applicant? So you live next door to the proposed property? Yep, I live right next door. Thank you. I think we had public comment. someone here are they still here anyone else want to speak on this particular item thank you all right thank you nothing further i'll entertain a motion Madam Chair, I recommend approval of PLNBOA 24-142 Emily Nygens' request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted in a single-family residential zone on a property located at 2553 Sunseeker Court based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed thank you mr. Sturdivant has second we will open for vote motion is passed I think it's Julep again. Is that you? We're good. Thank you. Appealing BOA 24-153 Julep Properties. This is the trail side property. Hi. I'm Carly Moore. and this is we bought this property on trail side in 2022. It's been operating as an Airbnb since then. But like I said before, we missed the new rules and regulations. This is a 2,300 square foot house. It has four bedrooms and two and a half baths. We have two garage spaces for parking and two driveway spaces, and then there is room for two on the street also. like I said we've been operating for almost three years now and we have a 4.98 star reviews and we host generally mainly horse park people a lot of people come for like two we have a lot of two week stays and they bring you know their kids or helpers with the horses and so they all stay in our two houses which is close to the horse park we also have hosted many family Thanksgivings people coming in for graduations and through this past summer we hosted a celebrity while she was here filming a movie in Kentucky so other than that we've never had any complaints we have good standing relationships with both of our neighbors on either side and one of whom has asked to also use this house for his family for a funeral so that's parking and management do what the parking situation in the management so the parking we have four spots available on our property and then there's two spots in front of our street or in front of the house on the street and then we live 15 minutes away and actually we've had we've been contacted one time at 4 30 a.m. from someone and staying in the house who couldn't get in and I was two minutes on the phone with her explaining how to get in and so I'm always available just moment we have some public comment i believe hello i'm tom goodell and i live directly well not directly but one house over from directly across the street from this property and i want to make sure that you've all received the comments from our other neighbors from laura wolfram and pat lake there were letters that went out either this morning or over the weekend and there was also a letter from the chair of the masterson station uh deed of restrictions committee addressing some concerns about how this proposal would impact or be impacted by the deed of restrictions so has everyone seen those yes very good what i'd like to do is just take a moment to talk about our community. We're a close-knit, single-family, deed-restricted neighborhood, a residential neighborhood. We know each other by name and we take care of each other. We share pet-sitting duties. We band together at least once a year to clean up our creek. We provide food and we shovel snow for our neighbors who are ill. We party together and we talk over fences or along the trail. We even feed feral cats that hang out in the neighborhood and we chat about their whereabouts those cats via text we're friends short-term rental guests do none of these things they disrupt the unity of the neighborhood with their loud parties they block the street with their cars sometimes as many as five cars at a time has happened this past weekend they don't use the garage they've even disturbed us by knocking on our door unexpectedly because their phone GPS took them to our house. The owner of the property has been inaccessible. None of us have ever met them. I'm surprised to learn that the neighbors on either side know them because no one has talked to us about them. We don't know how to reach them. There's no accountability for their actions or inactions. They don't attend neighborhood meetings. They do not contact the neighborhood association about this proposal and they're in violation of the DOR rules which state that no lot shall be used except for residential purposes that's not the kind of neighbors that we need therefore we're opposed to this request and we appreciate your time your very long day and your consideration both members of the committee and the staff thank you all hello my name is Sheldah Hale I live directly across the street from this property at 2902 trail side I have been a master of station masters and station neighborhood association member since 2002 and I have been a resident of Lexington and a constituent voting since 1984. I'd like to emphasize that today's issue about short-term rentals is directly related to Lexington stated initiative to increase affordable housing for families and build communities especially young families not to decrease affordable housing and divide communities. This community that we live in is very multicultural, multilingual, and multifaceted in terms of professions and children. We have children, we have elderly, we have all kinds of walks of life and since many of the homeowners in Masterson Station could not be here today I'm going to keep this brief because you've been given some information already. I was going to read part of a letter but we don't have time and unfortunately that's too bad. There are many other STRs in the neighborhood that you are unaware of and that also operating without licenses without board adjustment approval our HOA will continue to take this issue forward as long as it's necessary because we know that the City Council is considering revising it and looking at it again we will be watching it and we will be involved every step of the way I would like to emphasize again that this And one thing I wanted to say before my time is up, I didn't realize how disproportionate the time would be that the proponents of this action would have so much time and they were not required to have a limit on the time they speak. That was a surprise to me, so this has been an important civic lesson for me today. And I would also like to say that we were told not to repeat ourselves, but there was a great deal of repetition on the part of those who stood up here to propose that they were able to have STRs. There are many more STRs in this neighborhood that you're not aware of, which I've said, and that we will now work on finding out more about because we found out today that two of them have been operating since 2022. And we don't know. We didn't know it. We weren't notified. And so we're going to make ourselves more available about information. And if you have any questions for me, I'll be happy to answer them. As I said, I've been a resident of Lexington since 1984, and we will continue to oppose this kind of action to increase these short-term rentals in the neighborhood, which is deed restricted and which is another reason I bought my property in 2002, because it was deed restricted. Thank you. Well, I have been aware of the neighborhood, the neighborly attitudes because we've had the neighbors next door pick up our trash a couple times. When I did not ask, I pulled over there to retrieve the trash. It had already been put away. I told them, thank you. So I was not aware of any of, you know, neighborly, them being upset with, you know, having an Airbnb because, like I said, we've been running since 2022. And I haven't had a single complaint at all. I would love to exchange numbers so we could work with the neighbors because that's obviously a big deal to us. And as soon as the HOA dues are sent out, we pay them. We keep our yards mowed. We employ our house cleaner has now been able to purchase a house because of what we've been paying her. she exclusively cleans our houses and so I think that that's a big deal that we're helping other people buy houses so yeah I would just ask for approval since we have followed all of the things listed here and this was another one with zero percent? 0.0 I think. So with that being said I've heard several times today where public comment has alluded to other Airbnbs but we in my opinion this is just a statement we don't want to punish the people that are going through the process for the people that haven't because when we bring these numbers up those are the people that have applied and that have been permitted so people that come after the ones that have applied are the ones that should suffer as opposed to the ones that are I mean if someone has to suffer as opposed to the ones that are actually going through the process so I just personally discount the the ones that are have not been verified and that we don't know about and if they are noticed and they come before us after others have been applied then they're the ones that are out of luck because we've already issued the permits that we're going to in that particular area let me add to that madam chair that if if you know of some some residents that are using their residents for an SDR without being licensed I'm sure the staff would really like to know about that they can see if somebody has applied and and make make that make that step but if they haven't then obviously we need to know about that because that that's they're operating illegally we would recommend that if anyone knows of any to contact the division of revenue so that they can send out notices of violation to those illegally operating STRs there are several letters in opposition that have been sent in to us that we have online as far as like the neighborhood association and what they allow we really don't have any jurisdiction with that so you all would have to take that up yourselves but we don't and then the down well let me also say those few people who who have spoken today I I can't speak for my fellow board members but I agree with your comments absolutely because every neighborhood feels pretty much the same way it's a special place I live in a special place and I wouldn't want an SDR next door to me either Well, let me finish, and we'll ask the chair if you can. But we are bound by the ordinance that has been passed, and I try, at least very hard, to stay with that, because if we disapproved every single application where the neighbors don't particularly like the idea, we probably wouldn't approve any, and I understand that. So you all have to understand that we have to go by the letter of the law so to speak and but we I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your your time to come down here. It's been all this time with us I should mention to somebody somebody recommended that Maybe we should get a pay raise and we've we've recommended that and we we said we'd like to double our pay And they tell me well, it's still zero so But thank you so much and just to piggyback on that I agree that it's difficult my main issue is the characterization of the Airbnbs just as a person with the family and kids and when we go on spring break with the other couple with kids we are the people that stay in Airbnbs so I always see both sides of it so if you said would you want your neighbor to be I'm I don't know that I mind you know because if you're air being being a house a four-bedroom house with three and a half baths next door to me you probably got some little kids and and you need that that type of thing so I'm just not as opposed I've seen positive sides of it we've seen negative stories as well and I know council worked really hard to put some structure on it that doesn't allow parties and putting limitations on the particular number of people that can be in there so now I think it's just late in the day which is we're talking too much which is the opposite that we should be doing so I think Miss Tucker has something to say and I'm definitely gonna let the audience member speak again because she stayed here so long I just I just wanted to say that I appreciate what mr. Clark said but I also think that we've been given the task to take this as a case-by-case basis and I I appreciate what you said as well, but there is a housing shortage in Lexington. And I also know that people have the right to be entrepreneurs and make money. But I also think that we need to be wise in our planning and thinking about the STRs. And I will respond to that by saying it's not the Board of Adjustments' responsibility to deal with the lack of housing in Lexington. But it's a serious problem. There's no question about it. It's not our role. I agree, but there's also nothing that's going to happen by us making this decision that would force a homeowner to sell. So every time we go down that line, we're not going to be in the business of forcing people then to put their houses available on the market. I think that's also a slippery slope in telling people people that way but in any case um we're done it's long we're going to entertain a motion or not i will make the motion madam chair recommend approval of plnboa 24-153 jello properties llc request for a conditional use permit for an unhosted short-term rental and a single family residential zone on properly located at 2909 trailside drive based on the staff's recommendation and the four conditions as listed we have the first and a second we will open for vote all right the motion has passed thank you are we done staff okay we are done um our next meeting date is november 4th and we'll see some of you back here at least hopefully not quite as many have you guys seen it already are they coming in but also yeah talk to your council as we go through the process as well thank you we are adjourned Thank you. Thank you. Now, Kitty, you know when we talk, we have a lot of fun, don't we, girl? Dishing out the dirt on everybody And giving each other the 4-1-1 on Who Drop Kicked 2 this week You know what we're talking about When the baby calls, shout-a-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee Yeah. I really skip and I jump, jump, jump to it. Jump, jump, jump to it. And I jump, jump, jump to it. Jump, jump, jump to it. I really skip and I jump, jump, jump to it. Jump, jump, jump to it. And I jump, jump, jump to it. Thank you.