Westgate hearing delayed, engineers hope to work out differences

Attorneys on behalf of R.J. Corman filed an injunction last Tuesday in the Jessamine County Circuit Clerk's Office to stop further construction of the controversial Westgate Subdivision.

In the motion, R.J. Corman Real Estate, LLC asks the court for a restraining order or a stay of further development by RCCB, LLC on the basis that "construction and development will cause irreparable harm to Jessamine Creek" and "harm to adjacent and downstream property owners and residents."

The hotly contested development is across from R.J. Corman's property and runs along Jessamine Creek, near West Jessamine Middle School and south of Rosenwald-Dunbar Elementary School on Wilmore Road.
R.J. Corman's lawyers stipulate that Clay Corman's development is not planned out well enough to avoid polluting the creek and damaging his property.

Since 1994, the property has been the center of debate. But it's only been in contention between R.J. Corman and developer RCCB, LLC, run by Clay Corman, in the past years when it was purchased.

R.J. Corman's lawyers also filed a document of support of the motion to stay the development. ¿In that motion, R.J. Corman Real Estate alleges that developer RCCB, LLC has tried "unsuccessfully to develop the Westgate property by not complying with federal, state and local regulations."

Each member of the Nicholasville Planning Commission is also named as a defendant in the motion for the commission's decision May 29 that approved the Westgate Subdivision Unit 1-A plat in a 7-1 vote.
Immediately following that meeting, RCCB, LLC began constructing Westgate Unit 1-A, which is a "minor plat" on the 100-year flood plains consisting of only 24 lots and is just the first of three plats that would horseshoe around the middle school and conecting with Heritage Estates.

The filed motion states RCCB, LLC purposely broke up the subdivision into smaller plats in order to avoid having a public hearing and skirt regulations.

The property has been contested for years by the public "citing safety, flooding, water-quality and traffic concerns," the motion states.

In the May planning-and-zoning meeting, attorney Elizabeth Darby, representing R.J. Corman Real Estate, LLC, stated her client was not against development of the property but against the proposed development for its negative environmental impact.

Homeowners from the Heritage Estates, Hawthorne Estates and Lu Cartlon were also in attendance and represented by attorney Hank Graddy at that meeting.

Both Darby and Graddy listed environmental reasons, negative traffic impact and lowering of property value as reasons the Westgate development should be stopped.

They also alleged that three of the planning and zoning commissioners should not vote at all due to "blatant conflicts of interest" in their relationship with developer Clay Corman.

Even had those three commissioners recused themselves from voting during that meeting, the Westgate subdivision would still have passed 4-1.

Overseeing the dispute, Jessamine County Judge Hunter Daughtery has already put a stay on all building on the flood plains while the lawsuits with the preliminary plat and construction plans are pending.
However, RCCB, LLC has been granted permission to dig and construct a bore under the creek that will link the sewer system to the adjacent middle school.

There was a hearing on the motion to stay development Thursday, however both parties remained in chambers with the judge in an effort to settle their differences. After two hours, the parties emerged without resolution and another hearing was rescheduled for next Thursday at 1 p.m.

Representing the planning commissioners is Wilmore City Attorney Bobby Gullette and for RCCB, LLC it is attorney David Marshall, who made the case in May to the planning commission on the developer's behalf.

Gullette said after the meeting in chambers that the city hope both parties settle to avoid being caught up in lawsuits which may take years to resolve.

Engineers from both parties will have meetings beginning 11 a.m. Friday, to try and come to a resolution.

Attorney Hank Graddy has joined as co-council for R.J. Corman to better represent his clients at Heritage Estates who are also opposed to the Westgate development because they feel it will lower their property value