Annexed land zoned industrial; dissenter says it has to stop at some point; Stephens St. traffic concerns voiced

The tract annexed in March, effectively two tracts joined by a small strip, is now zoned industrial. Click on map to enlarge.

Issues of a growing town dominated the discussion at Monday's Midway City Council meeting.

The council approved rezoning from agricultural to industrial a 138-acre tract next to the Midway Station industrial park, part of which will be used for Lakeshore Learning Materials' expansion. Council Member Logan Nance dissented, saying "At some point we have to stop our industrial development."

Logan Nance

Nance said he supports Midway Station and the work of the Woodford County Economic Development Authority, but said he made clear in his campaign for a council seat last year that he didn't support development beyond Midway Station. He said the rezoning could make it more like that a future council could extend industrial zoning across Georgetown Road. A farm is for sale there.

"I never talked to anybody who said they moved here because of industrial land," Nance said. He said earlier that he had voted against annexing the property and wanted to be consistent.

Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said Nance's points were "very well made," but earlier, the mayor said "Midway is a preservationist town" and always will be, but the best way to preserve it is with "wise development."

Stacy Thurman, another first-year council member, said she agreed with Vandegrift, but wants the city and EDA to fulfill the promise of public access to South Elkhorn Creek by way of the rezoned tract or adjacent property.

EDA Chair John Soper gestured to the Imperial Asphalt lot at
the east end of Midway Station, a possible creek access point.

Vandegrift said, "It's going to happen," because landowner Homer Freeny Jr., who is selling the property to EDA, has kept other promises he has made -- and there is an alternative access, through the four-acre Midway Station lot bought recently by Imperial Asphalt, which says it plans to store equipment there. EDA Chair John Soper said likewise, and showed the council possible access points on the Midway Station map on the wall of City Hall.

The rezoning creates an industrial area from Interstate 64 to the Brown-Forman whiskey warehouses along the creek, the county line. (The concrete warehouses are being built under a conditional-use permit in an agricultural zone, on the presumption that whiskey is an agricultural product.) The rezoned tract is in Midway's urban-services area in the county's comprehensive plan.

Vandegrift said when the land was annexed in March, “If we don’t do this, it’s gonna get developed and we’re gonna lose all that revenue,” which EDA needs to pay off Midway Station and pay the city the $600,000 it owes on natural-gas and water lines built on the property. “There’s not gonna be enough in Midway Station to pay us back,” he said then.

The City Council approved two other ordinances, giving MetroNet a non-exclusive franchise to provide television and internet service in the city, and giving Lakeshore Learning an incentive for location of a planned warehouse. The additional net-profits tax generated by the warehouse will be reduced by one-fourth for five years after it employs 100 people.

The council also heard from Todd Graddy of Mill Road Place, who said the recent growth of Midway University has created dangerous traffic on East Stephens Street and its county extension, Weisenberger Mill Road, which will get worse when the new bridge at the mill opens in May.

"Midway's changed 180 degrees," she said, saying that walking on the thoroughfare is "taking your life in your hands."

Vandegrift said, "I do think we're going to need to construct a sidewalk, at least on the Mill Road side," and it would probably be funded in the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2020. He said double yellow lines will soon be painted on newly paved Stephens Street, but white edge lines that could help slow traffic or help bicycles might have to wait, because the street width varies.

"I think we are getting there," the mayor told Graddy. "It may not be at the pace you would like." Later, he said, "The city, for 40 or 50 years, didn't invest in anything." The money for recent improvements has come from the growth in occupational-tax revenue, mainly from Midway Station.

Vandegrift said he would schedule a special council meeting to discuss late fees and cut-off policies for water customers. When Nance said Sept. 2 that the city shouldn't cut off water users who don't pay, the mayor asked the Public Works and Services Committee to discuss the issue. Council Member Bruce Southworth, the committee chair, said the panel met Friday and decided that it was "probably better" for the issue to be aired at a council meeting.

In other business, the council set trick or treat for 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 31, extended the contract for snow removal, and approved event permits for the Christmas-season schedule of the Midway Business Association:

• A kickoff event Saturday, Nov. 9, with Ms. Claus and five to 20 booths.
• A chili cook-off on Nov. 16 , co-sponsored by Midway Renaissance, with five to 30 booths.
• "Sip 'n' Shop" Nov. 23, designed to take advantage of the new "open carry" ordinance that allows customers to take alcoholic drinks off the sales premises. MBA hopes local restaurants will have drink specials and people will "come shop and get tipsy," President Cortney Neikirk said.
• Arrival of Santa Claus via train Nov. 30, with placement of Christy Reaves's "Joy Land" model-train layout in the old bank building, perhaps with Santa there too.
• Candy Cane Stroll, similar to the Chocolate Stroll in February, on Dec. 14.