Planning commission approves rezoning for six townhouses at 940 Higbee Mill Road amid neighborhood opposition

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Planning Commission on Jan. 30 approved a rezoning request to allow six townhouse units at 940 Higbee Mill Road, a previously vacant lot at the end of Higbee Mill Road, after staff recommended approval following revisions to the applicant's plan.

Planning staff said the request, filed by Realty Unlimited Bluegrass LLC, sought to change the property’s zoning from single-family residential (R-1C) to townhouse residential (R-1T) to permit construction of attached townhome units. Daniel Crum, planning staff, told the commission the applicant reduced the proposal from seven units to six and reconfigured the site to meet subdivision and cul-de-sac standards; staff’s recommendation changed from disapproval to approval after the revisions.

The revised plan, staff said, replaced seven individual curb cuts with three paired driveways, reduced pavement in front yards, and created a cul-de-sac that meets the land subdivision regulation radius. Tracy Wade, planning staff, said the six townhomes are about 1,300 square feet each and now have shared driveways that generally accommodate a single vehicle, a change that reduced the total on-site parking from 14 spaces in an earlier iteration to six under the current proposal. Wade told the commission that certain driveway dimensions must be pushed back slightly to meet a new Article 16 requirement that parking spaces be 18 feet deep and wholly outside the front yard.

The application drew sustained public comment from neighbors and the Higbee Mill Neighborhood Association, who said outreach was insufficient and raised concerns about parking, traffic and neighborhood fit. Lexi Holland, the attorney for neighbors Claire and Clovis Collins, said the property’s western abandoned right-of-way had already been deeded to another neighbor and stressed that adjacent property owners had a legal process to acquire remnant right-of-way. Holland said she and her clients found the applicant’s public engagement difficult and cited prior confrontations: "This is right in my client's backyard. Very literally." Michelle Harr, president of the Higbee Mill Neighborhood Association, said she canvassed nearby residents and found broad opposition: "They feel like they're they're being this townhomes are being crammed down their throats."

The applicant, owner-developer Matt Vineyard, defended the redesign and framed the project as resolving a long-standing safety and maintenance problem at the end of Higbee Mill Road. Vineyard said building a regulation-sized cul-de-sac will allow emergency vehicles and trash trucks to turn safely and will replace an overgrown, frequently dumped-on abandoned right-of-way with a cleaned, usable street end. He said the cul-de-sac construction would cost about $125,000 and argued the change addresses a neighborhood safety issue arising from an incomplete street built decades earlier.

Commission discussion focused on technical compliance with the comprehensive plan and subdivision regulations, driveway and parking dimensions, and the public-safety tradeoffs of on‑street parking on narrower portions of Higbee Mill Road. Staff emphasized that the rezoning is conditional on approval of a corresponding development plan and on the Urban County Council rezoning the property to R-1T; those conditions remain part of the approval.

Commissioner Wilson moved to approve PLN MAR22-16 Realty Unlimited Bluegrass LLC with the conditions provided by staff; Commissioner Jonathan Davis seconded. The motion passed and was recorded via Granicus; the transcript does not include a numerical roll-call tally in the meeting text.

Discussion vs. decision: the record shows extensive discussion and public comment, and a formal, documented approval of the rezoning subject to staff conditions (development-plan certification and Urban County Council rezoning). The commission’s vote completed the planning commission stage; final zoning change remains contingent on the Urban County Council action and on the certified development plan.

The approved plan reduces the project’s scope relative to earlier iterations, drops one townhouse unit (7 to 6), reduces on-site parking from 14 to 6, and adds a cul-de-sac and sidewalk improvements. Key technical issues flagged for follow-up include ensuring 18-foot-deep parking spaces are located outside the front yard line and confirming curbed cul-de-sac dimensions remain compliant with subdivision regulations.

The commission returned several times to procedural clarifications (where driveways are measured, whether on-street parking is currently restricted) but did not reverse staff’s finding that the revised plan is consistent with the 2018 and 2045 comprehensive-plan policies cited in staff reports.

The commission’s approval does not itself authorize construction; it clears the application to the development-plan certification stage and to the Urban County Council for final rezoning. Further review and technical sign-offs (engineering, traffic engineering, urban forestry, green-space planner, environmental quality) were listed among the conditions staff attached to the recommendation.

Neighbors and the applicant signaled continuing disagreement over outreach, property-rights history and parking impacts. The commission’s action moves the file forward; final outcomes on construction, curb-cut dimensions, and any waivers (for example, utility-strip or driveway-staggering waivers) will be resolved in subsequent staff sign-offs and during the Urban County Council review.