Developer Pulls Plans for Downtown Apartments

It looked as though Tuesday's Lexington Town Council meet was shaping up to be a fight.

A developer's plan to purchase two pieces of town-owned downtown property on Church Street and rezone for apartments was on the agenda.

And members of St. Stephens Lutheran Church were on the agenda to make a presentation and let their disapproval be heard.

In the end, no fight was needed.

withdrew their request before the specially called afternoon meeting. So the official presentation from St. Stephens was not needed.

But several church members, including David Brown, attended nonetheless.

Brown said he believed the project was "ill-conceived" because it would have included "too many people on a small piece of land." He said he was worried about resident safety. The town's planning commission voted against the project in January.

Brown said he wasn't against good development, and hadn't made up his mind about this plan. Instead, he was coming to the meeting to hear more about it.

Town spokeswoman Jennifer Dowden said the process would have to start from scratch now, and that town officials didn't believe downtown was conducive to new residential space. She said downtown business development remained a priority.