Lexington Downtown Redevelopment Lexington, KY

Completion: 2006
Size: 1256 acres

Ayers/Saint/Gross was commissioned by the Lexington Downtown Development Authority to provide urban design infill and redevelopment plans for just over 1,200 acres in downtown Lexington. The city is not autonomous, but part of the Lexington Fayette UrbanCounty.

Our team studied vacant and under-utilized parcels to determine potential capacity of infill development for the downtown area. We coordinated the development capacity with commercial market predictions, demand studies for housing, and traffic forecast models. Our team also worked with the Downtown Development Authority, the Authority's legal council, and three representatives from the Planning Department manage the process of implementation. To avoid the need to rezone each of the over 4000 parcels, we examined the current zoning in detail to determine possible modifications. We determined zones that occurred in the town center could be modified by minor adjustments to existing language controlling land use, lot coverage, and parking requirements. For zones that occurred in both downtown and suburban locations we collaborated to develop an incentivized opt-in overlay zone. Our teamed engaged the public in a variety of facilitated workshops to present alternatives and benefits and gain public support.

This successful initiative has brought an increase in mixed-use development projects to the downtown in the form of new condominium homes that have supporting retail and commercial services on the ground floor. As momentum builds there is interest by larger, national retailers. An example of this includes a major grocery store chain which is now seeking to develop a site in the neighborhood to serve the growing resident population.