Fayette County Community Bands Together Against Soccer Complex Development

In response to the approval for a soccer complex in an agricultural-rural zone, once home to Ashwood Training Center on Russell Cave Road just outside of Lexington, Ky., members of the equine and agriculture communities in Fayette County came together for a meeting, hosted by the Fayette Alliance at Greg Goodman's Mt. Brilliant Farm, the evening of Wednesday, July 13, to discuss the implications and potential next steps.

Fayette Alliance, a non-profit of citizens dedicated to achieving equitable, sustainable growth in Lexington-Fayette County through land-use advocacy, education, and research, addressed the issues the soccer complex poses to the land, surrounding equine and agricultural operations, and existing zoning ordinances that protect rural areas in a letter published to the public Monday.

The proposed plan for the soccer complex was presented to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Board of Adjustment June 28 by Anderson Communities, on behalf of Lexington Sporting Club, who applied to change the zoning of the land so the 12-field soccer complex and 750 parking spaces could be built.

The application was submitted for conditional use of the land in the agricultural-rural zone. Under current policy, outdoor recreational facilities are permitted as a conditional use, which guarantees that under certain circumstances and in certain locations, those can be approved.

The City of Lexington's professional planning staff recommended approving the plan for conditional use, though it was subject to 19 conditions that were outlined in order to support that recommendation for approval.

Despite dozens of community members voicing their opposition to the development at the initial hearing, the Board approved the complex on a 60-acre portion of a larger 150-acre agricultural parcel, located between Russell Cave Road, Newtown Pike, and Interstates I-75 and I-64. The site plan has the soccer fields located near the southeast border of Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's sales grounds, with the fields adjacent to trainer Ken McPeek's Magdalena Farm.

The Board also chose to remove the “most critical and protective” conditions that were recommended by the planning staff, including those that dictated that Lexington Sporting Club would be required to work with Fasig-Tipton in terms of what times/dates soccer tournaments would be held, and those that were intended to preserve the integrity of the agricultural-rural zone.

“As a result of that, the next two pieces of the soccer proposal will continue to move forward. They will be zoning text ordinance amendments, which means the policy proposed is changing the language of our ordinance that guides how we develop in a rural area, and the first is to permit lights, concessions and retail sales associated with the 12-field soccer complex,” said Brittany Roethemeier, Executive Director of the Fayette Alliance, at Wednesday's meeting.

“This means that anywhere in the agricultural-rural zone, that is adjacent to the economic development zone, would be permitted to have these uses. The second is going to be to permit soccer stadiums in an economic development zone. By permitting a soccer stadium, we're also changing the intent of what is supposed to be achieved within the economic development zone.”

Along with amending existing zoning ordinances, the Lexington Sporting Club plans to build a 10,000-person stadium and thousands of more surface parking spaces in the nearby economic development zone, which is designated specifically as a zoning category to promote jobs and job creation.

Vince Gabbert, who recently departed Keeneland, is the Sporting Club's president. Dixiana Farm's Bill Shively is the majority owner of the new club.

The Fayette Alliance, and supporting industry members and stakeholders, fear that approval of the complex, along with the zoning policy changes, would not only destroy the protection granted to them by Lexington's Urban Service Boundary, allowing extensive development to begin across the bluegrass, but also directly impact the equine and agriculture industries that make a $2.3 billion economic impact annually.

Roethemeier emphasized the detrimental precedent this would set for how uses in the agricultural-rural zone will be evaluated going forward.

“This land is finite. Once it's developed, there is no do-over, there is no decision that can be reversed. The land in our agricultural-rural zone is protected to preserve the rural character of our service area by promoting agricultural uses. It is meant to discourage all forms of urban development, except for a limited amount of conditional uses,” she said. “If we allow these types of commercial, urban uses in our agriculture area, what's next? This isn't about soccer. It may be a soccer complex this time, it's going to be something else next time, and as urban sprawl continues to move out, that threatens the finite resource that is the farmland that all of us care so much about.

“This fight and this opposition are not about soccer. It's about land use, because land use impacts generations to come. Your kids, your grandkids, our future, that's what's impacted by these types of policy decisions.”

Fayette Alliance is in the process of filing an appeal of the Board of Adjustment's decision to the Circuit Court, which must be filed within 30 days from the date the decision was made. They are also filing an Open Records Request to understand how the decision was made, at what point the decision was made, and how the decision was made to remove so many of the conditions presented by the planning staff.

“While it's not our job to help Lexington Sporting Club to find another location, we're absolutely willing to keep the lines of communication open to identify a solution. We believe there are countless other parcels of land and existing facilities throughout the community that can be used for soccer, but our farms are irreplaceable,” said Roethemeier.

Nearly 100 community members attended Wednesday's meeting to show their support, including Thoroughbred industry stakeholders such as Ned Toffey, General Manager of Spendthrift Farm; Everett Dobson, Owner of Cheyenne Stables and Candy Meadow Farm; Bret Jones, Vice President of Airdrie Stud; John Phillips, Owner of Darby Dan Farm; Tony Lacy, Vice President of Keeneland Sales; Boyd Browning Jr., Fasig-Tipton CEO and President; Chauncey Morris, Executive Director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association (KTA) and Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB); Gary Biszants, Owner of Cobra Farm; Lee Carter, Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park; Helen Alexander, Owner of Middlebrook Farm.

Bruce Simpson, an attorney specializing in land use law that is representing Fayette Alliance in their appeal, spoke on the process of overturning a Board of Adjustment decision and why filing the appeal is so important.

“Make no mistake about it, this is not just soccer fields and a soccer stadium, this is an entertainment complex. They want to have concerts, political rallies, all sorts of things that stadiums do to generate money,” said Simpson. “As a land use lawyer, this case that the Board of Adjustment approved is a serious threat. I'm not overstating this case. Anytime you can get a precedent like this, like what happened with the soccer fields, it's going to be seized upon somewhere else.”

Goodman also shared that Lexington's Mayor Linda Gorton, though she was unable to attend the meeting, was in full support of opposing the development of the soccer complex, which she has made clear in letters to the planning staff, Planning Commission, and in an upcoming Op/Ed in The Herald-Leader.

“For the last 10 years, along with other local organizations, we've been able to deal with the land use issues and they haven't been that public. This could not be worked out, so we need to fight for this,” said Goodman.

Samantha Will-Bacarri, whose farm neighbors Goodman's, raised the question of what would come next if the soccer complex, along with the proposed zoning text ordinance amendments, were approved.

“If under some wild circumstance we are unsuccessful in the fight against these two zoning text ordinance amendments that are upcoming, our next step is to propose zoning text ordinance amendments to close the loopholes in our zoning ordinance. That's what our next step is, to do similar work in proposing language that will prevent this from happening again. Frankly, it's probably something we're going to do regardless,” said Roethemeier. “After this fight, there will be another, and there will be another one, and the policies matter. This is why. Moving forward, we have to be really cognizant of those policies.”

Along with the farm owners and industry members in attendance, Cathy Ploman, serving her third term as Lexington's 12th District Councilmember, was there to show her support.

“We are the horse capital of the world. That is our brand. We are known worldwide, and yet here we are violating the integrity of that wonderful thing that we are, that we have and that we're lucky to have. To put those soccer fields, plus parking spaces, next to Fasig-Tipton is just a total violation and it's reckless. We've got to do better than that,” said Ploman.

Support for opposing the soccer complex was strong, and Roethemeier and Simpson emphasized the importance of maintaining and growing that moving forward, particularly when it comes to the upcoming Planning Commission meeting, which will be held Thursday, July 28 at 1:30 p.m. in City Hall.

“It is absolutely critical, in my almost 30 years of doing these cases, that you all show up [to the Planning Commission meeting July 28] en masse,” said Simpson.

For more information on the upcoming Planning Commission meeting, the Fayette Alliance and how you can get involved, visit fayettealliance.com/soccercomplex.