Midway and Surrounding Area Citizen Action

Imagine moving to the quiet country to raise your children, build your dream home, and grow vegetables and fruit. This dream was threatened last summer when I discovered that just a few miles away from us the KY Bluegrass Experience Resort and RV Park (KBER), a huge development, was on the drawing board. The location for the proposed oversized park is along the narrow two-lane Highway 341 intersecting I-64 and situated alongside the banks of the South Fork of the Elkhorn Creek. With multiple buildings and up to 1000 RV and cottage sites, the proposed development would span the Elkhorn on both the Woodford and Scott County sides. The county road was not built to accommodate large RVs and is already under strain due to semis traveling in and out of the Midway Industrial Park. Neighbors and residents from both counties were upset at the marked increase in traffic, and especially the 200+ vehicle/RV increase just through Midway (as published in the traffic study commissioned by the developers).

After discovering the true size and potential impact to community, roads, land and water, as well as the precedent this project sets to overturn local agricultural land protections, a local citizens group formed as Midway Concerned Citizens. They organized within the community and obtained legal representation from land use Attorney, Joe Childers, who also chairs the Kentucky Resources Council. Sara Day Evans, who grew up in and resides in Midway, brought her planning and environmental protection background to help understand the potential impacts to the region and community.

KBER hosted a public forum in June 2021 to an overflow crowd of 150+ citizens, a large majority speaking in opposition to the project. Midway City Council later held a public meeting in October, also with over 100 citizens in attendance. All but a couple of attendees spoke in opposition to the RV park. Hank Graddy of Midway, attorney for the developers (surprising considering Hank’s long history of land protection cases) presented the traffic study and other information. Joe Childers presented on behalf of the Midway Concerned Citizens (MCC). When MCC first learned in May 2021 that the project had received a Woodford County conditional use permit, they insisted that their city council provide a public comment period to consider the request from developers that the city provide water and sewer. The comment period for a conditional use permit is minimal with only nearby neighbors being directly notified. For a project of this magnitude, a 14 day notice posted once in the newspaper simply wasn’t enough. The council concurred and extended the public comment period until after their public meeting was held in October 2021

The majority of folks writing, calling and speaking at public meetings, were opposed to KBER! Those in favor cited the added jobs and tourism that KBER would create for Midway. Many folks expressed concern that this large development would negatively impact the small-town atmosphere of Midway. Also, many feared the inevitable water and air pollution from the RV’s generators and their campfires, contribute to further degradation of the Elkhorn, and impact the vulnerable underground spring system that supplies water to nearby Georgetown. Some were worried that if you pave over good farmland, you could never restore it. Thanks to active citizen participation, citizens educating and speaking to their elected officials, on October 18, 2021, Midway City Council voted 6-0 to deny the developers request to provide water and sewer service to the RV park.

Since over half the proposed development was planned for Scott County, impacted Scott County residents who were opposed joined in the opposition, led by local residents in Ironworks Estates, along with letters of opposition from the Georgetown city water and sewer service and other local officials.

The developers didn’t back down, however, and instead they brought their proposal for building their own private sewage waste system to the Woodford County Board of Adjustments on January 3rd of this year. Many citizens showed up and wrote to BOA in opposition to private sewage treatment, as well as public officials, including a letter from Georgetown Municipal Water and Sewer Service General Manager, on behalf Mayor, City of Georgetown, Judge Executive, Scott County Fiscal Court, Mayor, City of Midway, Mayor, Director, WEDCO District Health Department and Chairman, GMWSS Board of Commissioners