Council will decide how to approach a zone change for development in Pralltown

A rendering on the proposed development on South Limestone, near UK’s campus and on the edge of the Pralltown neighborhood.

This week, Council will decide whether or not grant a public hearing for a zone change that would allow a 210-unit student apartment complex to be built on South Limestone near UK’s campus and at the edge of the Pralltown neighborhood.

The zone change being requested would turn a number of properties on South Limestone into a Corridor-Node (CN) zone.

• The CN zone is a brand new zone which was created as part of the Urban Growth Management ZOTA passed by Council earlier this year.

• It is one of Lexington’s densest zones outside of downtown, and this development plan is the first plan to request the zone.

The Planning Commission voted 5-4 against the zone change. Residents from Pralltown advocated against the development, worrying that it would further change the character of the  historically Black neighborhood, erase more of the neighborhood’s history, and increase property costs, leading to displacement of historically Black residents.

• Pralltown is one of Lexington’s oldest Black neighborhoods. It was founded in 1865 as a neighborhood open for recently freed slaves to purchase homes in. You can learn more about Pralltown here.

• Pralltown has seen significant changes over the past several decades. Due to its proximity to UK’s campus, homes in the neighborhood have been bought and redeveloped by private student housing companies, replacing longer-term residents with students.

• The neighborhood is now predominantly student housing with very few owner-occupied units.

  • According to Planning Staff, Pralltown is now 76% white with a median resident age of 26 years.

• None of the properties related to this zone change are currently owner-occupied.

In the Council Work Session on November 19th, Council debated whether or not to add the zone change to the November 21st Council Meeting docket for First Reading without a public hearing or whether to schedule a public hearing where the developer and neighbors could speak for and against the project.

After a failed motion by At-Large Councilmember James Brown to place it on the November 21st docket without a public hearing, Council instead decided not to place it on the docket and not to schedule a public hearing.

In essence, the zone change is currently in limbo and waiting for some kind of decision from Council.

• Council must vote for or against the zone change by January 22nd. If they fail to vote on it before then, the Planning Commission’s vote of disapproval will become the official vote and the development cannot move forward.

• This is Council’s last week of meetings, so they must decide whether to place the item on the December 5th docket for First Reading, or they can decide to schedule a public hearing for early January.

The developer, Subtext, is seeking a public hearing to persuade Council to approve the zone change, despite the Planning Commission’s vote of disapproval. Subtext’s attorney, Nick Nicholson, has said that Subtext is willing to scale down the development by not building as far back into the neighborhood.

• The original plan called for demolishing the commercial buildings on Limestone between Prall and Montmullin Streets and 13 student rental buildings along Prall and Montmullin Streets in order to build the apartment building.

• According to Nicholson, Subtext is willing to reduce the development’s impact on Montmullin Street by leaving six buildings intact that were originally proposed for demolition, reducing the overall size of the building and removing 7 existing student rental houses instead of 13.

  • This would also reduce the number of units in the development from 251 units to 210.

• Subtext has also offered to donate $1.5 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, or reserve 15 units in the project to be rented to residents who make 80% or below Area Median Income.

A graphic showing the proposed changes to reduce the size of the apartment complex.

Nicholson says these proposed changes were made after the Planning Commission’s vote of disapproval. One of the major reasons Council decided to leave the zone change in limbo was to give Subtext time to discuss the proposed changes with neighbors in Pralltown.

That’s a lot of information, so we’ll quickly sum up what could happen in Council’s Work Session on Tuesday:

• Council could place the zone change on the December 5th Council Meeting docket, where it will receive First Reading just like any other piece of legislation. It would then receive Second Reading on January 16th, the first formal Council Meeting of 2025.

• Council could schedule a public hearing for the zone change and hear arguments from both the developer and from neighbors about whether Council should approve or disapprove the project. A public hearing would have to take place sometime in January, before the 22nd.

• Council could choose to not vote on the zone change at all and run out the clock to January 22nd, where the Planning Commission’s vote would become final.

Council Work Session will be held on Tuesday, December 3rd at 3pm in Council Chambers. You can attend in-person or watch live on LexTV.