UK’s poor housing, enrollment policies have killed nearby middle class neighborhoods | Opinion

I purchased my house in 1990. It was one of 15 houses in a block of modest dwellings all built around the 1930’s, in stone or brick. Sturdy constructions, with high ceilings, wooden floors, and wide doorways, with trees, landscaping and back yards. Each one was different. Only three of the 15 houses at that time were rental. Located on the campus side of Tates Creek Rd, we enjoyed all the conveniences of Chevy Chase, just as the houses on the other side did, but ours were slightly cheaper, which, in my case as a single parent, bore weight.

Fast forward to today — my neighbor and I are the last two remaining owner occupants living in a sea of student rentals. Every year around this time, we watch last year’s young tenants move out and a new crop of fresh-faced students wash in. All the while holding our breath wondering what’s in store for us.

The University of Kentucky’s consistent and arrogant disregard for providing student housing, coupled with their aggressive enrollment practice, created the perfect storm for predatory developers and opportunistic corporate landlords to exploit the neighborhoods that fall in the long shadow of the University. It happened slowly in the beginning… a vinyl box addition, an inexplicable demolition replaced by a hideous structure resembling a rabbit hutch, the loss of back yards to paved parking, trees and shrubs removed for ease of maintenance, more noise, more herbies that stayed out all week, more late-night parties, more reckless operators of cars, skateboards, rollerblades, bikes and scooters all oblivious to the highway code and with a king-of-the-road attitude, more beer cans, and more off-campus frat houses offering open-season for drinking and smoking whatever.

In the early days we had a semblance of a Neighborhood Association and fought back. A warrior group of homeowners putting in serious hours before Council for public hearings, attending Planning Commission meetings and speaking up. We passed the hat and paid for attorneys to represent us, and once, with desperate abandonment, tried to get H-I overlay protection as a way to stave off the corruption of our neighborhood. We tried to get a Party Plan passed that would hold landlords responsible for repeatedly rowdy tenants. We mugged up on the differences between Conditional Use Permits, Variances, Ordinances, and Zoning regulations. We knew what a ZOTA meant. We were articulate and organized. Regardless, we rarely prevailed.

Very soon 13 perfectly good houses along Maxwell Street that have been woefully owner neglected will be demolished to make way for a six-story, 700-bed apartment block for students with underground parking for 200 cars.

Three houses and the iconic ramshackle Wildcat Market on Columbia Avenue, recently were demolished.

On Sept. 9 the Board of Adjustment will meet to consider a request for a variance to reduce the required front yard setback from five to zero feet for the properties at 512 and 514 Oldham Court. This no doubt in advance of a demolition permit to then rebuild - probably a characterless vinyl duplex for students — increasing occupancy from 4 to 8 (essentially from 8 to 16 between the two properties, each with a car a-piece) with no setback, no trees and a paved backyard in a neighborhood beset with run off and sewer issues. This is not progress. This is not thoughtful planning. This is not sensitive development.

Today I no longer consider where I live as a neighborhood. Everyone except my neighbor and myself is transitory. What were once ideal starter homes, the “missing middle,” precious affordable houses built to last, with access to schools and walking distance from shops, banks, restaurants and a grocery store, have been cannibalized for student housing by voracious capitalist developers exploiting the failures of UK. There’s never been an iota of consideration given to those who used to live here and those of us who still do. Just like the houses, we’ve been bulldozed over.

Kate Savage is an arts advocate in Lexington.