LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – After more than four hours of deliberation, the Lexington Urban County Council decided not to approve a controversial zoning change. The vote means the council will not reclassify a residential area to a mobile home park zone.

The rezoning would have allowed the park to expand into Lexington’s first African-American subdivision.

“St. Martins Village, as we call it, ‘The Village,’ has been a safe place to live and raise a family. My neighbors are my extended family. This is my community,” said Michelle Davis, president of the Neighborhood Association of St. Martins Village.

‘The Village’, built in 1955, is Lexington’s first neighborhood for African American homebuyers. Michelle Davis has lived there for 67 years, others at this urban county council meeting have lived there since its development.

“We want to continue to grow our families and our investments,” Artie Green said.

Residents fear its history and now its future will be disrupted by the expansion of the neighboring mobile home park, Suburban Pointe, on Price Road. The developers want to reclassify 16 acres of land from single-family residential to mobile home park. That would bring an additional 52 manufactured homes to the Village.

“There are many misconceptions about this type of use. And also this property. I think a lot of this is due to the former owner of this facility and also the perception that I think many of us have of what a mobile home park is like. Unlike what today’s manufactured homes look like,” said Nick Nicholson, an attorney for Suburban Pointe Park.

Attorney Nick Nicholson said this would create affordable housing units, a buffer zone would be built around the property and amenities, such as a playground and basketball court, could be added to create a community for low-income families.

Village Attorney Bruce Simpson maintains that this type of zoning change does not favor the City’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan and would decrease property values. The dozens of people who spoke before the council Tuesday night agreed.

“Black neighborhoods are in danger in our community. These people are the living history of what happened in 1955 and what continues to this day. They stayed together because it was safe, they protected each other, they took care of each other and they decided not to leave even if they could,” Simpson said.

District 8 Councilman Fred Brown was the only dissenting vote.

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