Lexington, Ky. -Southland Christian Church has recently submitted an amended redevelopment plan to the staff of the Planning Commission for the church's new Richmond Road campus, in the former location of the Lexington Mall.
Designs in the amended plan call for two outparcels in the area between the Applebee's restaurant and the BP gas station along Richmond Road, as well as a smaller and reconfigured pond in that area, according to Chris Hahn, lead executive pastor for Southland Christian.
An outparcel, typically associated with large shopping centers, is a small lot along an edge of a property that an owner can lease; the original development plans for the Richmond Road campus included one outparcel and a transformation of the pond.
Hahn said the construction costs for the church's new development has come in between $4 million - $5 million more than the projected costs, and a second outparcel available for lease would create more revenue. Cleaning the pond alone, Hahn said, is going to cost about a half a million dollars.
"In the original plan, the pond was going to be reconfigured anyway. And now with two outparcels, it will really be reconfigured," Hahn said. "There will still be some water feature out there, but we'll spend a lot more time and effort and resources in cleaning up the entrance there."
Residents in the surrounding area have expressed concern over a shrinking pond area on the new Southland campus, as the pond serves as a retention for stormwater runoff. Hahn said the landscape designers and engineers will make sure whatever alterations are done to the pond won't aversely affect the surrounding areas.
"They will actually construct the necessary retention basins and all those kind of things for it, so it won't affect that at all," Hahn said. "In fact, it will be better. It won't catch everything like that pond catches now. We will take care of that to make sure the runoff and everything is properly distributed."
The Planning Commission will vote on the amended plan at their March 8 meeting. The plan will be reviewed at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 22 and March 1 by the Planning Commission's Technical Committee; these two subcommittee meetings are public meetings where citizens can make brief comments about the plan proposal.