A Lexington neighborhood that has pushed for more than a year to become a historic district won final approval Tuesday night despite strong opposition from some on the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council.
The Board of Architectural Review and the Urban County Planning Commission previously approved the creation of the historic district, commonly called an H-1 overlay, for the Pensacola Park neighborhood that borders Nicholasville Road.
The planning commission voted to remove four properties from the proposed overlay, including 1733, 1737, 1739 Nicholasville Road. Those properties are rooming houses at the far northern edge of the proposed district. It also removed 1915 Nicholasville Road, which is a commercial building on the far south end of the proposed district.
During a Tuesday council meeting, six council members voted against the creation of the historic district and seven voted in favor. Chuck Ellinger Jr., whose home is in the historic district, recused.
Technically, the motion to approve failed under the council rules, since eight votes are needed for approval. However, it also takes eight votes to reverse a planning commission decision. That means the historic district, as approved by the planning commission, moves forward, said Keith Horn, a lawyer for the city.
Councilman Jake Gibbs, whose district includes Pensacola Park, blasted council members who voted against the creation of the historic district. It will be the city’s 16th historic district.
“You nearly torpedoed (the creation of the historic district),” Gibbs said after the vote. “It was approved unanimously by the Board of Architectural Review and the planning commission.”
After the planning commission removed the Nicholasville Road properties at its Oct. 24 meeting, there were no objectors to the creation of the historic district, Gibbs said. That’s why the council’s vote didn’t make any sense, he said.
Some council members had expressed reservations about the creation of the Pensacola Park neighborhood historic district earlier this year.
It’s fate has been up in the air for more than a year.
In February, the council voted at first to exclude some of the Nicholasville Road properties from a moratorium on any demolitions in the proposed Pensacola Park historic district while the neighborhood’s application for an H-1 overlay was pending. But after an outcry from the neighborhood, the council ultimately reversed and voted to include the Nicholasville Road properties in the moratorium.
Neighbors pushed for the historic designation after the planning commission approved a zone change in December 2018 for eight townhouses on the corner of Nicholasville Road and Penmoken Park. The developer now plans to build four single-family houses instead of townhouses.
Properties within historic districts have design and other guidelines that properties outside historic districts do not. It is more difficult, but not impossible, to get a demolition permit inside a historic district. Other neighborhoods that have an H-1 overlay include Bell Court, Ashland Park and Gratz Park.
The Pensacola historic district includes homes and some properties on Nicholasville Road, Goodrich Avenue, Lackawanna Road, Norfolk, Penmoken Park, Pensacola Drive, Rosemont Garden, Suburban Court and Wabash Drive.
Those who voted against the measure include: Jennifer Mossotti, Preston Worley, Fred Brown, Angela Evans, Josh McCurn and Bill Farmer Jr. Those who voted for the proposal include Gibbs, Jennifer Reynolds, Susan Lamb, Angela Bledsoe, James Brown, Vice Mayor Steve Kay, Richard Moloney.
This story was originally published December 04, 2019 10:35 AM.
