Lexington's student housing boom has crept right up to the edge of the Aylesford neighborhood, and the next fight is set for Thursday, Oct. 22. That's when the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Planning Commission is scheduled to hear a rezoning for a 10-story student apartment building at East High Street and Stone Avenue.
The developer is Up Campus Student Living, a Chicago company. According to WKYT, development plans the company submitted call for 251 units, each with a shared living room and kitchen and one bathroom per person, with rent starting at $1,200 a month.
What's proposed
More detail came out at Planning Commission committee meetings on Oct. 1, as reported by The Lexington Times. Up Campus wants to rezone 1.134 net acres at 226, 228 and 230 E. High St., 209-211, 217 and 219 Stone Ave. and 102 Hagerman Court from residential and parking zoning to B-2A, the downtown frame business zone. A member of the company's team said it's "proposing roughly 750 beds, a mix of studios to four bed, ranging from 1,200 to 1,700," with units rented by the bedroom.
City staff said the building would be 10 stories at its tallest and step down toward the houses to the southwest. Brandon Gross, speaking for Up Campus, said terraces would set the building back as it gets closer to the houses, starting at about the 60-foot height the neighboring zone allows. Two parking levels would hold 80 spaces each, one entered from Stone Avenue and one from Hagerman Court, and all the driveways on High Street would be closed. Gross said it would be the company's first Lexington project.
Both the Subdivision Committee and the Zoning Committee recommended postponing the case, and staff said an updated report would come before the Oct. 22 hearing.
Up Campus would share the block with The Maxwell, the Gilbane project on East Maxwell Street at the other end, so this one block could end up with two large apartment projects. No contractor has been named for the Up Campus building.
The pushback
On Oct. 14, neighbors met at the Kentucky Native Cafe to organize against the plan. Renna Harrison, a neighborhood activist, lives across the street from what she described as a debris field where homes once stood.
"I understand that U-K has increased their enrollment and so that they do need housing, but I don't feel like it was necessary in that area," Harrison told WKYT.
The Bluegrass Trust, a historic preservation nonprofit, said the project would mean the loss of eight more historic houses. "I feel it very personally. Every time we have a new project arise, I go to research these buildings - put together informational packets," said Zak Leonard, the trust's historic preservation manager.
The plan would also remove a house at the corner of Hagerman and High that Gross called "the oldest structure on the project." That lot is already zoned for business and isn't part of the rezoning. Gross said the developer looked at moving the house or building over it, couldn't find a workable option, and offered to give it to anyone who would move it. "That didn't go over well last night," he told the committee, referring to a neighborhood meeting he called "not constructive."
Neighbors also said the existing buildings provide affordable housing. District 3 Council Member Tom Eblen said Lexington does need more affordable housing but that evicting tenants and tearing down historic buildings isn't the way to do it, WKYT reported. WKYT said Up Campus hadn't responded to a request for comment.
Why it matters for Contractors
If it's approved, a 10-story building with two parking levels on a tight downtown lot is a big job for foundation, structural, MEP, fire protection, elevator, curtain wall and finish contractors, and the student housing calendar usually means a hard deadline to be ready for move-in. With The Maxwell planned at the other end of the block, crews, deliveries and staging on these narrow streets will be a real puzzle.
There's work before construction, too. Demolition of the existing houses, possible house moving and careful documentation of historic structures could all be part of the scope. Keep an eye on Oct. 22: the commission's recommendation will show how much appetite Lexington has for more high-rise student housing so close to its older neighborhoods.