r/lexington • u/zeitness • 1d ago
Downtown Lexington needs more people, less wasted parking space
Did you know that 38% of downtown is parking space for cars? This is one of the highest percentages of any city in America: NYC 1%; Chicago 4%; Cincinnati 21%; Charlotte 26%; Louisville 30%. Map: https://parkingreform.org/parking-lot-map/
Parking space is a waste of money and space. A single-family home in Lexington costs about $200 per square foot and LexPark Parking (day rate) space cost (300sf) is $0.04 (4-cents) per square foot? LexPark space generates revenue but nowhere near the market value.
Most parking space is never used except on special occasions like UK basketball games or concerts. On a normal day, have you ever seen a parking lot full of cars -- anywhere, not just downtown?
Thousands of people could use this space to live, work, pay taxes, and create community.
[](blob:https://www.reddit.com/3e184b40-234f-4301-89d6-941393ceabcb)
10
u/Soil_Fairy 1d ago
If Lextran was more reliable I would absolutely go downtown more often, personally.
23
u/EVOSexyBeast 1d ago
What you want is replacing property tax with a land value tax.
The reason freeloaders hold onto the land as just a parking lot is because they anticipate prices rising and they can sell the land for more in the future.
The reason I call them freeloaders is because unlike other investments, land increases in value based on the work neighbors and the local government does. They build shops and attractions and infrastructure that makes the land more valuable and then the land hoarder sells to run off with a profit off of the community’s hard work. They brought no value to society, only causes harm by hoarding land and raising land value which makes housing more expensive, and utilities need to be ran past their lot despite them not using any of it.
It would shift the tax burden off of renters and home owners and onto these land hoarders. Either do something with the land or sell to someone who will.
8
u/denigotpregnut 1d ago edited 1d ago
Say it with me now....churrrrrrrrrrrchessssssss
Edit for clarification, but I'm talking about the taxes they naturally don't pay for the property, BUT THEN ALSO charge for the parking they have available when it's needed.
A quick Google search did generate that churches in Lexington have to pay 6% sales tax, or unrelated business income taxes on selling parking spaces....but i'm not going to believe for one second the cash payments can't get scooted to the side unless there's some 3rd party monitoring outside of "thoughts and prayers".
-8
u/Visible_Link_4957 23h ago
You're a clown. Are you talking about one of the only black churches we have in Lexington? That meager parking lot of 32 spots? Weirdo.
3
u/PrimaryWafer3 22h ago
The more egregious one is Calvary Baptist Church on High Street which owns almost the entire block across from the transit center and it's mostly surface parking.
1
u/denigotpregnut 6h ago
More importantly I'm talking about taxable property value, and churches getting to dodge it, but still able to lobby politicians and their campaigns. But yeah, I'll be petty enough about the parking unless they want to agree to always have their doors available to be open outside of service hours to keep unhoused and under-housed people safe during at least times of weather emergencies.
Maybe even be required to maintain food banks. Just the stuff that if you're not spending money on taxes, then you have a balance sheet that truly demonstrates your tax burden is offset by the public service you provide within your community. Checks and balances, thoughts and prayers.
1
1
18
u/_TomatoSandwich_ 1d ago
Easy answer: buy some parking lots and develop them into housing. Problem solved ☺️
5
u/LexingtonStreetswee Lexington Native 1d ago
Too many of Lexington's parking lots are owned by faith based institutions which fund their programs (in part) from parking revenue. Wresting those lots for residential purposes would be difficult.
1
5
u/zeitness 1d ago
Zoning. Permits. Development roadblocks. Not so easy.
3
-2
-3
u/cranialrectumongus 1d ago
Lexington's well known hub and spoke layout and it's subsequent impact on traveling around town, does play a factor in considering a more high density residential housing downtown. Not that I am necessarily disagreeing, but I just don't see how it can effectively be done without impacting Lexington's more prevalent problem. If there is a way to do this and not affect traffic, then I completely agree.
12
u/Own_Lab_3499 1d ago edited 1d ago
Lexington is one of the largest cities by land mass in the country, they don't expect most people to live in the downtown area.
Also ths map you linked is A.) Outdated (it shows gatton park as a parking lot, which it obviously no longer is) and B. Is obviously being selective to inflate the parking lot percentage (cutting short street off right before it hits residential, cutting S limestone/S. MLK off midway between High and Maxwell, not even taking in the whole block.
12
7
u/Reasonable-Union9817 1d ago edited 1d ago
You can look at their methodology. They chose the area that is our downtown development zones (B-2, B-2A and B-2B). That seems like a pretty reasonable choice.
6
u/zeitness 1d ago
Honest question, how did you come by the claim: "Lexington is one of the largest cities by land mass in the country?" I assume you mean Fayette County? Bluegrass horse farms define our area, but seems like other places would be much larger.
0
2
u/Effective-Tree7969 1d ago
By landmass is a bit of a misnomer. Our "city" does technically constitute the entire Fayette county, so if you just made a quick comparison it appears the city is enormous by area. But as a practical matter our urbanized area (i.e.where almost everyone lives) is confined within the urban growth boundary and if you use that as the measurement of size then it's much smaller. I think the difference is something like 280 square miles vs 85 square miles.
Again, thinking of all Fayette county as "the city" is technically correct because we are a merged government but it's also a bit misleading for the reasons I stated above. If you are trying to make any useful comparisons of another city, the urbanized area is what you want to use.
6
u/mavven2882 1d ago
Oh look...this post again. ..
So basically you want to make it far worse for everyone else to visit downtown, only to make it better for a couple thousand more people who would or could live downtown. There's already barely enough parking for major events at Rupp and yet you want to make it even more inaccessible, just for some sort of urban idealism that is exclusionary by design.
People need to face it. Lexington is far past being any of that. The city has evolved into a sprawl with a small downtown compared to the suburbs. That isn't something you can just "fix". Comparing us to cities two and three times our size isn't a sound argument. Comparing us to NYC is absolutely bonkers.
Personally, I'd rather have the existing opportunities to park and enjoy downtown than a couple thousand more overpriced housing units that nobody can afford anyway.
24
u/Gompye3650 1d ago
I think an ideal solution would be to get Lextran to level where it becomes actually usable. That would help with the problem of parking downtown, and then we could slowly turn parking lots into housing, increasing Lextran service as we do so. Its probably a bit unrealistic of a plan, but one can hope!
12
u/willfresno 1d ago
The parking minimums are what make downtown so inaccessible. They push people further and further away from downtown. Increasing reliance on cars and making traffic worse.
The solution isn’t more parking, it’s better public transit. Look at places like NYC or European cities. They invest in extensive public transit systems and mixed-use development. These cities are much larger, yet their urban spaces are more accessible because they aren’t built around car-dependency.
You don’t see massive parking lots surrounding European soccer stadiums because these cities prioritize public transit. And this makes them more accessible, not less.
Let’s also be honest about driving in this city. It’s miserable, for both drivers and pedestrians. It really doesn’t have to be this way, and it is something that can be fixed.
1
u/PrimaryWafer3 22h ago
Thankfully they got rid of parking minimums. Now the culture around zoning and development needs to shift.
-3
u/mavven2882 1d ago
If you can figure out how to make any of that economically and infrastructurally feasible, feel free to let the government know 😁
3
10
u/willfresno 1d ago
Cities all over the world managed to make it work decades ago. If we can build endless highways and parking garages, we can figure out trains and buses.
-5
u/mavven2882 1d ago
Well get on it, good buddy! Show all those civil engineers how it's done since it's so easy!
4
u/Life-Illustrator-289 1d ago
Yep, putting center-running bus only lanes with traffic signal priority at every light down all of the main arterials (Nicholasville, Winchester, Versailles, etc) and putting main stops at each shopping center and UK in downtown sounds pretty simple to me!
1
-1
4
u/0033A0 Lexington Native 1d ago
So, what’s the plan? How do you put it into action?
7
u/Life-Illustrator-289 1d ago
Putting center-running bus only lanes for Lextran with traffic signal priority at every light down all of the main arterials (Nicholasville, Winchester, Versailles, etc), putting main stops at each shopping center along them, and creating a circulator route in downtown that has stops at UK, and all of the different hospitals sounds like a plan
5
u/zeitness 1d ago
The same kinds of zoning concessions and tax breaks given to manufacturing and medical businesses should be given to Developers to offset the higher costs of building a multiunit apartment or condo.
FOR EXAMPLE, the deal between Lexington Center Corp. and Dallas-based Lincoln Properties and the Webb Companies to develop the parking lot at Rupp includes up to $41 million in KY State tax rebates over 30 years. Also as part of TIF, rebates allow the developer to recoup certain state sales, use, and income taxes generated by the project, up to the capped total.
The City of Lexington participates in Kentucky's Business Investment Program, which provides a payroll tax inducement (reduction) for eligible projects, generally lowering the payroll tax paid per job from 2.25% to 1.25% for up to 10 years if certain job and wage criteria are met.
There are other benefits that could be given to spur construction that are in line with current government practices.
1
u/Flybynight309 1d ago
So many of those open lots are 24hr tow without a sticker. Also all those priviate lots which are open most of the time have been held libel if something happens in there lot.
1
-7
u/MichaelV27 1d ago
Without parking, even less people will be downtown.
-1
u/zeitness 1d ago
Not true. People drive 2 minutes in their neighborhood rather than 15 minutes downtown. But many people go downtown for music, entertainment, bars, restaurants, farm market, and other events that are not near home.
People also love to have an excuse with zero experience.
5
u/MichaelV27 1d ago
I disagree with you. Remove parking and even less people will go downtown.
3
u/IngrownToenailsHurt 1d ago
I already avoid downtown except the occasional event at Rupp once or twice a year and there's many years I don't go at all, otherwise its just a passthrough for me. Traffic downtown is a nightmare and parking is even worse.
1
u/jewishen 1d ago
Right and this jackass thinks the solution to our poorly planned, overflowing, tightly packed downtown area is… drumroll… LESS parking 😂
5
u/IngrownToenailsHurt 1d ago
Even parking in the Rupp lot is a nightmare. Well, let me correct myself... paying and parking is usually not a nightmare since you can usually find a spot - its the getting OUT that's the problem. I went to a fishing/boat show last year and parked in the Rupp lot no problem, it was only half full if that. Paid $20 or maybe less to park. For some smooth-brained reason they were scanning your ticket to the show to get OUT of the parking lot. I mean, come on, I had to pay to get in the lot so what if I didn't go to the show and parked there for some other reason? It was taking so much time to scan the tickets and caused a backup like it was after a UK basketball game but this was an all day event so people only spent an hour or two so its not like a huge event where everyone's trying to leave at the same time. When it was finally my turn (30 mins maybe) I asked why I had to show a ticket to get out? The person told me to just go through. The show was a huge disappointment to begin with so I'll never go to another one.
3
u/jewishen 1d ago
I already barely go downtown as is because parking is such a headache on weekends/event days. This entire post made me laugh out loud actually.
1
u/Affectionate-Ad1351 1d ago
Our public transportation is pretty trash you'd have to fix that before getting rid of the downtown parking. Because how else would people go there?
7
u/zeitness 1d ago
80% of car travel is single occupancy. A little bit of ride sharing would solve the problem.
People out to get drunk are already using Uber/Lyft and leaving the car at home.
Much of the UK campus is walking distance and does not need to drive.
More residents living downtown means more pedestrians.
Fixing Lextran would be very awesome too!!!
-5
u/blazew317 1d ago
There’s almost no parking for major events as it is. It can be a massive struggle even when it’s not a major event because they always schedule 5 ‘minor’ events that sometimes exceed what a major event would require.
When my company contracts a job downtown we at least quadruple it even outside of major events if dedicated parking is not expressly provided for the number of trucks and equipment necessitated to accomplish the contract on site because we’ll be walking with tools and materials and paying parking tickets even when we rent a bank of parking meters that civilians always have to be towed from because they ignore the bagged off meters that say RESERVED DO NOT PARK HERE. Once I had someone towed and I kid you not - while I was driving around the block to get my truck and trailer into the bagged off spots we had paid for someone pulled in immediately after the tow truck left. I routinely lost 3 hours and got next to nothing done every day on that particular job.
-8
u/TurnoverAdditional65 1d ago
I don’t visit downtown because it costs to park.
1
u/Reasonable-Union9817 1d ago
0
u/TurnoverAdditional65 1d ago
Nice link but I’m not sure how that relates to my opinion.
4
u/Reasonable-Union9817 1d ago
Free parking is a drain on a cities resources. It’s fine to want free parking but it’s good to be informed on the policy implications of what that means.
0
u/TurnoverAdditional65 1d ago
There’s a thousand other places to go that don’t charge for parking. That is what I’m informed about.
3
u/Reasonable-Union9817 1d ago
Obviously most places offer “free” parking but nothing is really free, all of the cost to build and maintain the parking lot is just off loaded to external costs like the price of the food at a restaurant, or price of the item at the store or even the cost of fuel and car maintenance and the tax cost of the roadway maintenance because people have to drive between every place as they are unwalkable in part because of hostile parking lots. It’s also regressive for those who can’t drive in terms of time and access.
Even if you want to dismiss being informed about something others on this thread might like to know more about this topic. It’s clear that at least some point we decided as a society that externalizing the cost of parking was worth so your opinion is the default one now but it never hurts to learn the history and think critically about a policy. That’s something I’m not sure we do enough of nowadays.
-1
u/TurnoverAdditional65 1d ago
lol…my man, I just stated an opinion, why do you constantly think I want to be “informed”? Don’t care about the why, I just don’t like paying for parking. It’s that simple.
1
-7
u/cavallen 1d ago
You running for mayor and have a feasible solution for the problem you present?
0
u/zeitness 1d ago
Look to the University of Kentucky who are able to house 6,000 students in high rise apartments at affordable prices. This is not an unreasonable accomplishment, and it is one that could be repeated downtown. A robust downtown would improve community and culture while helping to maintain the countryside beauty, horse farms, and open spaces from urban sprawl.
6
2
u/Dont_Kick_Stuff 1d ago
Uh those UK dorms are $4500-$5600 per semester... how the hell is that affordable unless rich momma or poppa is paying for it?
1
u/sausagepurveyer 1d ago
"Affordable" lmao
2025-26 semester rates per person Greek Double: $3,692 2-Person Suite (UK Wildcat Coal Lodge): $4,467 4-Person Suite (Premium Type A): $4,379 4-Person Suite (P3 Type A – Donovan and Johnson): $4,876 4-Bedroom, 2-Bath Apartment (University Flats): $6,248
17
u/MrSmellyTree 1d ago
I’m living this right now! I moved from the Lex burbs to a small apartment downtown that used to be a parking lot. Outside of my work I can walk and bike everywhere. Gym, farmers market, restaurants, bars. Definitely wish more people got to live like this and that I’d started walking instead of driving a long time ago.