LEXINGTON, KY - After eight years of going it alone, Lexington Downtown Development Authority president Harold Tate is finally getting the beginnings of an expanded professional staff to support his efforts in overseeing the revitalization of Lexington's central core. UK architecture professor David Mohney is stepping down from his role as chair of the DDA board four months ahead of the expiration of his term to assume a part-time staff position with the authority. On loan from the university, Mohney will continue to teach while devoting 20-hours of his week to DDA matters. DDA Board Vice Chair P.G. Peeples will step into Mohney's leadership role in the interim.
In addition to Mohney's position, the DDA Board on Monday approved an $8416 budget line to create a research internship to assist Tate and Mohney. Brandi Berryman, a former student of Mohney and Tate's UK design studios will work with the DDA as her graduate project while pursuing a Masters Degree at UK.
Tate said the staffing is an important incremental step in evolving Lexington from a city that has been long on plans while short on implementation of those ideas. " We've had study, after study, after study. I think what you're seeing now with this administration and this council: they want implementation, as well. And that's started with the streetscape plan. It was designed and now it's being implemented," he said, referring to a major downtown spruce-up project that recently began with the makeover of South Limestone between Avenue of the Champions and Vine.
"We should always welcome and encourage new talent and ideas," said Vice Mayor Jim Gray who has been a vocal advocate in favor of expanding the DDA's resources.
Mohney brings to Tate's office the perspective of one who has served as both DDA board member and chair. "It was frustrating to me to see so many good ideas and Harold not have enough of a professional staff to give them the attention that they deserved. I hope this will help him address that and be a precursor to a full-time professional staff because I'm, at this point, only part-time," he said.
Researcher Berryman is already compiling a comparative study of how other cities similar to Lexington have approached downtown development, "what kinds of professional staffs they have; where the funding comes from to support that." The goal, she noted, is to enlighten the Urban County Council on how the DDA should perform and what sort of budget would be needed to transform ideas into realities.
Downtown development efforts have so far concentrated on returning residents to the district - half of a "mixed-use" vision that has taken form in such structures as the Main & Rose and 500s on Main condo/retail developments. The effort will now address the other half of that formula, according to Mohney. "We need a real effort on retail downtown. We think we've been successful in terms of housing downtown, but we need a real focus on retail in the next four to five years. And the marketing of downtown is understated. There is so much more going on than people recognize. We need to tell that story."
The staff expansion at the DDA is welcome news to downtown developers. "Increasing the staff size of the DDA is a very positive development, one which we've spent several years advocating for," said Phil Holoubek, developer of Main & Rose and the Nunn Building Lofts. "This increased staffing will allow the DDA to act in a more proactive, rather than reactive role. This will also allow the DDA to focus more on strategic planning than has been possible in the past. To date, staff has often had to react to tactical 'urgent, but unimportant' requests, basically 'putting out fires', simply due to the lack of adequate staffing and funding levels they've been provided with."
Of course, and especially in these economic times, there is the proverbial $64 million question attached to any additional staff expansion: "How do you fund it?" wondered Tate. "With funding being as tight as it is, it's really important now that we create some good public/private relationships. So, we're going to have to rethink what we do in terms of moving the process forward. We had the TIFS and we had the New Market Tax Credits. But what else is out there that we need to start looking at to make these projects become reality? The city, by itself, cannot afford to do all of this."
And stepping up the DDA's effectiveness is a matter that goes beyond funding, observed Mohney. "I'm a downtown resident and have been for 13-years. When you deal with changes at the level of a city you're talking about a generation, to affect meaningful change. We're right in the middle of that. DDA is 8-years old. We're halfway through a generation of reacquainting Lexingtonians with an urban sensibility. For the last half-century Lexington really grew as a suburban city. It overlooked the urban areas in the center of town, even though it had a great history of that in the early part of the 20th century. It forgot that for awhile."
And then there's the challenge of harnessing psychology and perceptions to acts of implementation. "I'm optimistic," Mohney offered. "But you have to be persistent with these efforts because they take so long. It's not a question of just doing one project and thinking you're done. It is project, after project, after project, after project. It's the trajectory that things are getting better. And when people see that enough of those things are going on, they'll start to believe it. I think that Lexington is just coming to that realization of believing that its downtown is going to get better. We need to get over that last little hump and then things are really going to take off."