Versailles development sought
February 24th, 2008 Posted in Pet GamesPreliminary plans filed with the local planning and zoning commission show those businesses going up on two tracts that total 36 acres on U.S. 60 and the U.S. 60 bypass east of downtown Versailles.A Lowe’s home-improvement store is the only lot specified in the plans filed on behalf of Rubloff Versailles LLC and Rubloff Group Holdings LLP, the owners of the two tracts. The 111,000-square-foot store and accompanying 27,720-square-foot garden center would occupy vacant land just east of Versailles Center.The preliminary site plan shows a “four-story” hotel going up on the site now occupied by Versailles Flea Mall and Antique Center. That would be significant because there are no motels or hotels in Woodford County now, only bed-and-breakfasts.The gas station, restaurants, pharmacy, bank and retail stores would go on lots fronting U.S. 60 and the bypass, according to the preliminary plan.The McDonald’s restaurant and United Bank %26 Trust Co. off Crossfield Drive would remain where they are.Aside from the flea market, Versailles Center is home to only a few storefronts, including Rite Aid, a pet store, a florist and a branch of Greater Kentucky Credit Union.The tract with Versailles Center and the flea market is zoned B-3, while the neighboring unused land is zoned B-3/planned unit development, which allows a mix of residential and commercial uses. That zoning classification prohibits any retail space larger than 60,000 square feet.Rubloff wants both tracts rezoned for B-4, which would allow for the much larger retail space proposed for Lowe’s.No date has been scheduled for the public hearing on a rezoning, but it might come as early as next month.Rubloff, which owns the Fayette Mall, has owned the Versailles property since 2001 and had hoped to turn it into a shopping center with a grocery, movie theater, offices and apartments.That plan never came to fruition. And as the property languished, the Versailles City Council stepped in to attempt to improve the property’s neglected appearance.Last year the council began an effort to “downzone” the property from commercial uses to agricultural. The council went so far as to give first reading to an ordinance to enact the zone change to agricultural.Rubloff and its mortgage lender, Whitaker Bank, filed a suit in October that alleged a procedural mistake on the part of the city. The suit was dismissed in November after the city withdrew its plans to downzone the property.
Tags: hotels, loc, lori, mortgage, Pet, pet store