A new development that will include senior apartments, town homes and more than 130 homes on Spurr Road got the green light on Thursday from a Lexington planning body.
The Urban County Planning Commission unanimously approved a series of zone changes for the Dennis Anderson and Anderson Communities Development for more than 40 acres at 2811 Spurr Road in the growing Masterson Station area on the city’s west side.
Richard Murphy, a lawyer for Anderson Communities, told the commission during Thursday’s meeting that the senior living apartments will meet a growing demand in Lexington. The plans call for 210 units in three, five-story senior apartment living complexes. The 25 town houses will be toward the front of the development, fronting Spurr Road. Behind the town homes there will be 131 single-family homes. Most will be three bedrooms with two-and-a-half baths.
“It will be similar to Townley Park,” Murphy said of another Anderson Development on Leestown Road. However, there will be no commercial development at the front of the party like Townley Park. The houses will have the garages in the rear with residents accessing their homes from an alley that will run behind the houses, which is similar to how the homes were built in Townley, Murphy said.
“It’s safer for pedestrians,” Murphy said. There will not be drive ways with cars backing out into the street.
The city’s planning staff had recommended approval of the zone changes.
Some residents in the Spurr Road area said they were concerned about traffic on the narrow road. The entrance to the development is on Spurr.
Karen Winn who lives on Spurr Road and owns land adjacent to the new development said research shows there is a very old cemetery on the site, possibly one of the oldest in Fayette County that could have slave graves in it. Winn said Anderson Communities should be required to either move those remains or fence off the area where the graveyard is.
Murphy said Anderson would do just that if a cemetery is found on the site.
“This is the first we have heard of it,” Murphy told the commission.
Winn said Spurr Road is old and narrow and can’t accommodate more traffic.
“My mailbox is knocked down four times a year,” Winn said. Winn said city ordinances also require a fence be constructed between agriculture land and neighborhood development. Her land is agriculture and she has horses on her property and would like a fence to be constructed.
Murphy said they would address the fence issue.
Others said they were concerned that such a large development would add more kids to already over-crowded elementary schools in that area.
But Murphy said with so much senior housing on the site, it’s unlikely the development would have too many school-aged children.
The zone changes must be approved by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council The council will likely not take a final vote on the zone changes until sometime after the first of the year.
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