Church plan approved

Planners recommend zone change behind hospital

Bill Robinson

The Richmond Planning Commission voted Monday night to recommend rezoning a 31-acre tract off Cycle Drive behind the Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center.

If approved by the city commission, nearly 26 acres of the property would be zoned R-3 (apartments), with almost 5 acres zoned B-1 (neighborhood business).

The planners’ recommendation would require the developer to fulfill his pledge to build, within five years, a street about three-quarters of a mile long from Cycle Drive through his property and across land owned by Eastern Kentucky University to South Kit Carson Drive.

The developer, former National Football League player Stephen F. Kenney of Raleigh, N.C., had asked that he be allowed to construct a sidewalk on only one side of the street rather than both sides, as city code requires, but the request was denied.

Attorney Michael Eaves, who represented Kenney’s firm, Colonel’s Ridge LLC before the commission, said Kenney would accept the condition. EKU already has agreed to grant right of way across its property for the street, Eaves said.

Kenney also would be agreeable to allowing Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center to construct an exit from its property, about 800 feet away, to the new street, Eaves said.

Gail McGillis, chief executive of Hospice Care Plus, which operates a care center to the south of the property, asked the planners to consider limiting noise and lights from any development of the property.

Rather than making the zone change contingent upon those conditions, Eaves said such concerns could more appropriately be addressed when development plans for the property were considered.

To ensure an appropriate buffer, Commissioner Michael Fore said it should be made part of the zone change as a conditional use, and submitted a motion to that effect.

An earlier motion by Commissioner Richard Thomas to approve the recommendation without the buffer requirement died for lack of a second.

Fore’s motion was approved, 4-1, with commissioners J.D. Chaney, David Rush, Neen Wiggins and Fore in favor, Thomas opposed, and Mary Lillian Abney and Eugene Estelle absent.

Thomas said he favored the zone changes but voted against the motion because he believed the buffer requirement was unnecessary.

A development plan for First United Methodist Church of Richmond to build an 18,000 square foot ministry center behind its current buildings on Main Street was approved 3-1, with Thomas in opposition after Chaney left the meeting.

The plan includes a waiver of the city’s requirement that buildings be at least 10 feet from property lines. The proposed structure’s distance from boundaries would be 8.84 to 7.55 feet on one side, 5.0 feet on another and 4.38 on a third.

Thomas said, “That building is too big for that lot.”

When asked if the commission could approve a motion with fewer than four votes, Planning Director Mike Roberts phoned City Attorney Garrett Fowles. According to KRS 100.171, if a quorum is present, development plans could be approved with a simple majority, he told Roberts.

The question was urgent, Pastor Eugene Strange said, because financing for the project was approved for a limited time.

City Codes Enforcement Director Joe Lillis said even with its development plan accepted, the church could not obtain a building permit until he had approved its building plan. Lillis said he had returned the church’s building plans for revisions, but they had not been resubmitted.

A development plan from Alfredo Gomez for a Mexican restaurant at 240 Eastern Bypass, to be known as Casa Fiesta 2, was tabled until the commission’s Dec. 15 meeting.

The commissioners voted for the delay to allow Gomez an opportunity to negotiate with an adjacent property owner for additional access to the restaurant from South Porter Drive.

“Mr. Gomez already has a problem with access at his current location (on Wayne Drive), so you’d think he’d be interested in getting better access at his new location,” Thomas said.

If the negotiations are unsuccessful, the commissioners present said they still would approve the plan.

A site plan for Ron Rose to erect a 6,725 square-foot office building next to RT’s restaurant at 1025 Center Drive between Berea Road and Southern Hills was approved with the condition that 6-foot-tall shrubbery be planted on two sides of the property to buffer it from an adjacent residential development.

Development plans were approved for:

• Dr. Gaurang Shah to build a 6,360 square-foot medical office at 2025 Corporate Drive between Berea Road and Southern Hills.

• Bluegrass Hearing Clinic to add 3,000 square-foot to its current 5,500 square-foot building at 1036 Amberly Way

• Heritage Place LLC to construct two 6,000 square-foot commercial buildings in its Barnes Mill Road development across from Richmond Centre

• Arcadian Cove senior living complex off Duncannon Lane to build 42 condominiums around its current assisted-living building.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.

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