Commission approves 20‑lot townhome project at Todd's Road after staff revisions

The Lexington City Planning Commission on March 26 unanimously approved a zoning map amendment and preliminary development plan for a small infill project at Todd's Road (4184 Todd's LLC / MJDP 26‑7). Planning staff recommended approval after the applicant submitted revised plans on March 16 that addressed lot‑size and open‑space concerns.

Jeremy Young of planning staff described a split‑zone 2.33‑acre parcel proposed for a mix of ERA2 and R4 zoning to allow 20 single‑family townhome lots. Staff originally flagged a handful of lots that exceeded maximum R4 lot sizes; the applicant revised the plan to ensure all lots complied with the regulations and supplied supplemental justifications addressing the 1996 expansion area master plan criteria.

Cheryl Gault (staff) reviewed the revised conditions and outstanding items: updated street cross sections for the proposed access easement, an exhibit showing open space and the adjusted site statistics, sanitary sewer tap coordination and proposed stormwater management for the Garden Gate Estate pump station. Gault also noted that shared access is planned with an adjacent apartment complex and that certain internal access easement arrangements typically place long‑term maintenance obligations on property owners.

Applicant counsel Wes Harnett and developer Rory Cayley of VA Partners explained why common open space was not required: because the design uses individual fee‑simple townhouse lots and contains fewer than 25 lots, the open‑space requirement for group residential did not apply. "If you're doing single‑family lots and you have fewer than 25 of them, then you're not required to provide the common open space," Cayley said.

Commissioners questioned orientation toward Todd's Road and whether the townhouses should front a public street; staff and the applicant said roughly half of the townhouses front Todd's Road and the rest would use a shared access easement, an approach the commission has accepted previously. Commissioners also asked staff to consider how repeated use of internal‑facing lots along rural corridors might affect long‑term place‑making as the expansion area builds out.

The commission moved, discussed and voted to approve the zone map amendment and then the development plan with the staff conditions noted in the revised supplemental report; both votes carried unanimously.

What happens next: the developer must satisfy the remaining engineering and agency conditions (street cross sections, sewer sign‑off, stormwater plans) and complete any addressing/street naming required for permits.