Understanding the Opportunities
In the initial phase of the five-month process, the Gresham Smith team set a strong foundation by investigating the site’s existing conditions, challenges and opportunities. Given the site’s location within the Cane Run Watershed and Royal Spring Aquifier, the project team explored ways to protect and enhance the natural ecosystem on the site while also leveraging the natural features into funding and placemaking opportunities. Additionally, the team spent time considering the impacts on the overall roadway system due the access provided by I-75 and I-64 by way of Newtown Pike and Georgetown Road, as well as how a connection to the Legacy Trail could provide unprecedented multimodal access to jobs at the site while also serving as a placemaking element.
Putting Pen to Paper
The project team then put pen to paper, developing early infrastructure concepts before gathering feedback from community stakeholders and residents from the adjacent Coventry and Kearney neighborhoods. Using an online portal, community meetings, interactive surveys, and direct text lines, Gresham Smith gathered input on the project elements that are most pertinent to the community, such as traffic and roadway safety, access and circulation, visual impacts and land uses. Once feedback was integrated into the development strategy, the project team created an implementation plan that outlined strategic financing options, zoning timelines, phasing plans and permitting steps to move the infrastructure project forward to provide economic development opportunities for the Lexington community.
Finalized in Five Months
Five months is an aggressive schedule and required the project team, which also includes Commonwealth Economics, Third Rock Consultants, LLC, Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc., Stoll Keenon Ogden, PLLC, to stay on the same page, develop a detailed schedule of both meetings and deliverables, and set expectations for community engagement early. Combined with the challenges of the COVID-19, that seemed like a tall order, but a myriad of virtual tools and programs helped us connect with our team, our client and the surrounding community.