Subarea IV

Subarea IV covers 113 acres of land and contains four of the five religious institutions within the south Nicholasville Road study area. It includes two commercial uses at the intersection of East Tiverton Way and Nicholasville Road: Qdoba Mexican Grill and a Minit Mart convenience store and gas station as well as Devondale Baptist Church on East Tiverton Way and Southern Acres Christian Church on Harvard Drive. Approximately 122 single family detached homes are within this subarea.

The largest parcel within this subarea is 4100 Nicholasville Road, known as the Fritz property. Being located at the intersection of Nicholasville Road and Man o’ War Boulevard, where high traffic counts exist, makes this site attractive to potential commercial development. Single family detached homes abut the farmland and garden center on the Fritz property. Reports of flooding problems in the homes, street, and lots of the single family homes on Walhampton Drive and Tangley Way were collected at several public input meetings. The Fritz property slopes to lower elevations where a storm pipe is located for collecting and transmitting storm water runoff that has been reported to back up to homes on Walhampton Drive, the location of the worst flooding reports described through public input. Two stub streets from the Blueberry Hills neighborhood currently meet the Fritz property and are potential future vehicular and bike and pedestrian connections.

South of Man o’ War Boulevard are the Pax Christi Catholic Church and a farm of about 11 acres (also owned by the Fritz family) which is currently a berry farm. A row of single family detached homes along Toronto Drive separates the two properties from the Porter Memorial Baptist Church. At the intersection of Toronto Drive and Nicholasville Road stands a “Pickway Korner” neighborhood entrance sign. A number of other Pickway Korner single family detached homes surround the Porter Memorial Baptist Church. About half of the homes between Porter Memorial Church and the farm at 4210 Nicholasville Road, on Toronto Drive, have an owner’s address different from that of the home according to the PVA records.

Porter Memorial Church has purchased property in Jessamine County for their future church home, but church representatives report no immediate plans to relocate. Porter Memorial conveyed a need for LexTran bus service in the south Nicholasville Road area. Pax Christi Catholic Church has a Board of Adjustment approved site plan showing additional buildings to be constructed on their property including a school, a fellowship hall, and a rectory. There is a 50-foot wide access easement through the Pax Christi Church parking lot from Victoria Way to the farm at 4210 Nicholasville Road.

Pax Christi Church expressed a concern about an accumulation of water at the intersection of Victoria Way and Man o’ War Boulevard that causes ice to form in the winter. This intersection of Victoria Way/Habersham Drive and Man o’ War Boulevard may need improvements such as turn lanes as further development occurs. Several comments were received through the public input process concerning vehicle collisions and safety at this intersection. Between 2003 and 2007, there were not enough collisions to place this intersection on the top-ten list. In 2007, however, there was one bicycle collision.

Southern Acres Christian Church representatives would like to increase the size of their church and campus. Their current location on a local neighborhood street has little visibility. They would like more parking and way-finding signage on Nicholasville Road to their current campus. They also expressed a concern about the safety of pedestrians crossing Harvard Drive from their parking lot to their church entrance and within their parking lot drive aisles. Another concern they had was a need for additional lighting for their parking lot. They were referred to Traffic Engineering for pedestrian crossing signs on Harvard Drive and to see if any additional street lights in the right of way could be added.

Subarea IV Recommendations:

 Continue the existing uses that are compatible to the area, including single-family detached residential housing, Qdoba Restaurant, Minit Mart, the four churches, and the agricultural uses (the farms and the Country Place Garden Center). The agricultural uses could continue without adverse effects until agriculture is no longer paramount to the property owners.

 Conduct a storm water study for 4100 Nicholasville Road and the properties surrounding it, including directly across the right of ways prior to any new development.

 Construct residential only structures as a buffer to existing residential uses throughout Subarea IV.

 Place non-residential structures at the intersection of Nicholasville Road and Man o’ War Boulevard and along Nicholasville Road to buffer noise.

 Consider consolidating 4210 and 4280 Nicholasville Road to enhance access options for future Mixed-Use land use and development.

 Retain the Semi-Public land use for the church properties.