Commission rezones Patch and Wilkes land for Kroger, approves development plan and removes some earlier neighborhood conditions

The Lexington Planning Commission approved two related actions July 10 that clear the way for a Kroger Marketplace and associated development on a 32-acre portion of the Patch and Wilkes Farm:

- A rezoning of the northern portion of the property to B6P (PLN MAR 25-008), approved unanimously. - Approval of the development plan for Patch and Wilkes Unit 2 (PLN MJDP 25-27), depicting a roughly 127,000-square-foot grocery store, six outlots and a proposed multifamily area, with staff-recommended conditions; the development plan carried unanimously.

Commissioners also considered whether to remove long-standing conditional zoning restrictions on the B1 portion of the site that date to earlier master-planning for a neighborhood-oriented center. After extended debate, the commission voted 6–2 to remove three of six prior restrictions: the minimum requirement for 125 residential dwelling units on the B1 portion; a 60% commercial-square-footage requirement that mandated multistory buildings with residential mix; and a requirement to preserve existing trees within 30 feet of the Winchester Road right-of-way. The vote left other prior restrictions in place, including limits on certain late-night or high-intensity uses.

Planning staff said the rezoning and plan align more closely with Imagine Lexington and the city’s urban growth management expectations by enabling a regional-center-style development that combines a large grocer with housing and outlot commercial services. Daniel Crum, planning staff, told commissioners the change “would provide greater flexibility…to provide greater housing density” and would extend stub streets to better connect surrounding future residential areas.

Applicant representatives said they had engaged the community before and during the review. Brandon Gross, representing RD Property Group, said the applicants hosted a public meeting at Frederick Douglass High School attended by more than 100 people and have met with neighborhood groups. He said the Kroger is the anchor tenant and that the apartments and outlots are conceptual until tenants are signed. Gross said the team will return with final development plans for each outlot and for multifamily buildings; those later plans will be subject to technical review and any new conditional-use processes required by ordinance.

Key project figures cited in the meeting: the grocery store is shown at about 127,000 square feet; the applicant’s conceptual multifamily component totals roughly 150 units; the current site plan shows approximately 889 parking spaces for the entire development, which staff said complies with ordinance parking limits for the selected zones.

Commission members pressing for stronger neighborhood orientation said the city should not use zoning choices to engineer project layouts that avoid floor-area-ratio and density standards. Others said the B6P zoning enables needed housing and brings an anchor grocery store to a currently underused parcel inside the urban services boundary.

The commission approved the rezoning, the modified conditional zoning outcome, and the development plan. Staff will continue engineering, traffic and stormwater reviews and receive future final-development submittals for the outlots and multifamily buildings.