Schilling Properties has agreed to four concessions in response to our concerns over the proposed rezoning of 706 Aurora Avenue and the expansion of Blue Door Smokehouse.
We still need to see these conditions in writing, and negotiations are ongoing.
But the MNA board is encouraged that these discussions could produce a solution that the neighborhood would want to support.
This compromise would need strong neighborhood support – in emails and person – to win approval because it conflicts with the traffic planner’s recommendation that all Blue Door traffic exit onto Aurora. We would be asking the Planning Commission to override the staff recommendation and allow Blue Door traffic to continue to exit onto Walton but in an organized, engineer-designed way.
While many of us would prefer no rezoning of 706 Aurora from residential to business, we also recognize that we could lose before the Planning Commission and Urban County Council, and then gain nothing to protect the neighborhood.
As you may recall, the Schilling plan called for all the Blue Door traffic to exit onto Aurora, via two driveways, one in front of the restaurant and one behind.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, in the Council chambers of the government building, second floor, 200 East Main. We expect that the compromise plan will be offered then in place of what was originally proposed.
These are the conditions offered Friday night by attorney Dick Murphy to MNA President Ann Olliges:
* Deed restriction against rezoning 708 Aurora to business for 20 years, void if 710 Aurora is rezoned for business before then. (Schilling owns 708 Aurora.)
* No exits for restaurant customers onto Aurora Avenue. Entrances and exits will be off Walton Avenue. Garbage trucks will be able to access the dumpster via 706 Aurora but the space for garbage trucks will not connect to the new customer parking lot/s.
* Expansion should be compatible with neighborhood. Vinyl restrictions on the expansion. (No vinyl on the walls but OK on soffits and windows.)
* Blue Door’s off-street parking remains.
The city’s planning staff has offered these conditions, which the MNA board supports:
* No drive-through window.
* No outdoor audio amplification.
* Height limit on outdoor lighting.
We’ll provide more info as we get it.
Meanwhile, if you like this compromise and are working on a letter, here are a few things you could urge the Planning Commission to consider:
Allow Blue Door traffic to exit onto Walton. It already exits onto Walton but in a disorganized free-for-all way. Schilling owns three contiguous lots – 222, 224, 226 Walton – all zoned B-1. So there is plenty of space to organize traffic flow and standardize the weird corner at Walton and Aurora without funneling the traffic onto a narrow street where families with young children live.
Allowing the Blue Door traffic to continue to exit onto Walton will not appreciably increase the traffic on Walton because Blue Door traffic already exits onto Walton.
The Planning Commission should protect our neighborhood because it has all the qualities that the city is seeking in Lexington’s core.
We want a walkable neighborhood that’s safe for pedestrians and bicycles. The traffic planner approved a plan that would have restaurant traffic crossing the sidewalk on Aurora in two places.
The neighborhood has worked with the developer and the business to find a solution.
Blue Door might move but B-1 zoning is forever. Once the rezoning is granted, a high-traffic restaurant that’s open all hours could become the tenant. Therefore, it’s important to exclude the possibility of a customer driveway at 706 Aurora.
We need these conditions to protect the livability of a core neighborhood.
Email your comments to Hal Baillie in the city’s planning department, hbaillie@lexingtonky.gov and copy me if you would jamiedlucke@gmail.com.