Lexington City Council rejects controversial zone change

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – After more than four hours of deliberation, the Lexington Urban County Council has decided not to approve a controversial zone change. The vote means the council will not rezone a residential area as a mobile home park zone.

The rezoning would allow the park to expand into Lexington’s first African-American subdivision.

“St. Martins Village, as we call it ‘The Village’, is a safe place to live and raise a family. My neighbors are my extended family. This is my community,” said Michelle Davis, president of the St. Martins Village Neighborhood Association.

Built in 1955, “The Village” is Lexington’s first neighborhood for African-American homebuyers. Michelle Davis has lived there for 67 years, others in this urban county council meeting have lived there since it was developed.

“We want to continue to grow our families and our investments,” says Artie Green.

Residents fear their history, and now their future will be disrupted by the expansion of the neighboring mobile home park, Suburban Pointe, on Price Road. Developers want 16 acres of land rezoned from single-family homes to a mobile home park. That would bring 52 additional manufactured homes closer to the village.

“There are many misconceptions about this type of use. And also this building. I think a lot of it is due to the former owner of this facility, as well as the perception many of us have of what a mobile home park looks like. Unlike what manufactured homes look like today,” said Suburban Pointe Park attorney Nick Nicholson.

Attorney Nick Nicholson said this would create affordable housing, build a buffer around the property and allow them to add amenities such as a playground and basketball court to create a community for lower-income families.

The village’s attorney, Bruce Simpson, argues that these types of zoning changes are not beneficial to the city’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan and would lower property values. The dozens who spoke before the council Tuesday evening agreed.

“African American neighborhoods are at risk in our community. These people are the living history of what happened in 1955 and what continues to this day. They stayed together because it was safe, they protected each other, they cared for each other and they chose not to leave even though they could,” Simpson said.

District 8 Councilman Fred Brown was the lone dissenting voice.