LEXINGTON, KY - Fayette Circuit Judge Thomas Clark denied a lawsuit by South Limestone business owners to temporarily stop work on the street until plans could be put in place to mitigate dust concerns, access for deliveries and possible public access to the street and its associated businesses.
After a two-and-a-half hour hearing, Judge Clark ruled requiring "a delivery truck drive nine-tenths of a mile out of their way and to walk 75 feet" to bring supplies into a store did not reach a high enough standard to issue a restraining order or issue a temporary injunction to stop work. While both Judge Clark and LFUCG outside counsel David T. Royse expressed their sympathy with the businesses who testified to seeing their business drop up to 50 percent in the days since construction began on Wednesday, Royse argued and Clark agreed that the plaintiff's claims did not constitute irreparable harm under Kentucky law.
David Jones, co-owner of Soundbar at 208 S. Limestone, testified that on Wednesday one of his delivery trucks and an electrician were denied access to drive down Limestone to access his business, which he said LFUCG officials had assured him they would be able to. Eventually, however, the delivery was able to be made after the truck drove through an adjacent property owner's lot, which Jones said was against a previous agreement, though a new temporary agreement has been reached, and the electrician parked about a block away and walked in.
Judge Clark said that he was not inclined to stop work on Limestone "at this time" because the complaints brought forth by Jones, McDonald's franchise owner Joe Graviss, and Indian restaurant Bombay Brazier owner Rip Sidhu all seemed to have "easy remedies" in regards to access and construction cleanliness.
After the hearing, LUFCG's Commissioner of Public Works Mike Webb, head of the division that is overseeing the project, referred all questions to Mayor Jim Newberry's office.
"This is a difficult project and there will continue to be headaches and inconveniences, especially for the people who live or work on the corridor," Newberry said in a statement from his office. "We will continue to work with all of the South Limestone businesses every day to do whatever we can reasonably do to support them. We have a person on the street whose full-time job it is to work with the businesses and the contractor. We understand the businesses' concerns and, although it's unfortunate that we had to go to court over this issue, we hope that in the long-run these improvements will help these businesses prosper and grow."
That sentiment was echoed by the business owners who testified they are looking forward to the street after the construction is finished, but want to make sure they will still be in business next summer when all of the work being done to the street is through. Jones said in his testimony the long-term plans for the street, which are being achieved with this work, were some of the main reasons he decided to buy his building and locate his business on South Limestone.
In addition to streetscape matters that will beautify the area with rain gardens, wider sidewalks and bike lanes, the work being done is more than just aesthetics as infrastructure under the roadway is being addressed. That is the work that LFUCG says will require the initial four month shutdown to eventually bury overhead utilities as well as repairing or replacing sewer lines in accordance with a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency due to decades of violations of the Clean Water Act. The first stage of work to take care of the underground issues should be complete around November 15, while work to take care of the overhead utilities will come later.
The project as a whole should be done in around 12 months, in time for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games coming to town in September of 2010.