Court Opinion

ID: 9771101
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:32:00.248407+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:25.234156
License: Public Domain

GARDNER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
The Fritzes own property on the corner of Wilson-Downing Road and Nicholasville in Lexington, Kentucky, which is currently zoned for single family homes on lots of at least 8,000 square feet. Their home is directly across the street from the largest shopping center in Kentucky, Fayette Mall, in an area that is now the premier retail sector for central Kentucky. Recent studies have shown that over 40,000 vehicles pass within a few yards of the Fritzes front porch each day.
The Planning Commission and the council of the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government will not allow the Fritzes to develop their land for a department store because they claim it violates the government’s Comprehensive Plan (Plan). The majority affirms this decision because they hold that the council properly relied on the Plan to reach their decision. I disagree on the basis that the Plan does not have the substance upon which a sound decision can be made in this case. Thus, the council’s finding against the Fritzes was arbitrary and should be reversed. The Plan, and the council’s defense of the Plan, is faulty in three ways.
First, changes in the area consistently have overridden the Plan. For example, the west side of Nicholasville Road, just below the Fritzes property and to the south, was designated as an “employment center” which • should employ a high number of workers in industrial-type settings. The east side of Nicholasville, where the Fritzes property is located, was planned as high density residential space in order to house those workers. Today, the west side of Nicholasville contains only retail establishments such as auto dealerships, restaurants and a health club. Though there are relatively few employees in these businesses, the Plan continues to encourage the Fritzes to develop their property *461as high density apartment space or else have it remain at its current zoning classification.
Secondly, the Fritzes property is no longer suited for residential purposes. This relatively small area of Nicholasville Road is fed by two primary traffic arterials (New Circle Road and Man O’War Boulevard) and busy secondary arterials such as Wilson-Downing Road and Reynolds Road. Time and again the council has been forced to concede that traffic patterns and the demand for retail space make this area of Nicholasville Road better suited for retail development than for residential use. Of the twenty zoning changes granted along Nicholasville Road since the 1968 Plan, nineteen have changed from residential to retail classifications. In fact, the new 250,000 square foot expansion of Fayette Mall and the South Park and Crossroads shopping centers occupy land that, like the Fritzes property was once restricted to residential use by the Plan.
Finally, the Plan itself is based on old data and assumptions that no longer jibe with the reality of the Nicholasville Road area. The Plan relies on studies which predicted total retail sales in the county of $875 million in 1994 (excluding auto sales) when the actual figure was $2.3 billion. Also, the Planning Commission states that allowing the development of apartment housing on the Fritzes property is preferable to retail development, in part, because of traffic concerns. Yet the council was not able to contradict expert testimony that showed traffic congestion would be worse, not better, if apartments were constructed here. Furthermore, the council asserts that existing shopping centers already meet the retail needs of this part of the community, when in reality, this area has only a 1% vacancy rate for retail space compared to a 5% rate for the Lexington market as a whole.
Establishing artificial boundaries for land use planning is sometimes difficult, but often vital for the rational growth of a community. Because of this difficulty, it is imperative that such decisions are made with superior information, foresight, and consistency. I find these traits lacking in the councils rejection of the Fritzes request for a zoning change. I would reverse.