On many occasions, when residents in Frankfort/Franklin County are asked about what they like about our community, they cite things like the beautiful rolling hills, our rich history going back to when Frankfort was established as the capital, and the quaintness of our downtown just to name a few. As people talk about the positives, it is also common for people to start a conversation about the potential of Frankfort. They list the things that they wish Frankfort would offer to make it a better town to live in such as developing more public access to the KY River, more restaurants, a more energetic downtown, a community performance arts center, a community pool, an event center, better maintained parks that offered more organized activities, and more activities for kids and young adults to do.
Many of these amenities and other services that contribute to quality-of-life are costly for the city and county to provide. At a time when Frankfort/Franklin County has many costly initiatives to tackle to improve our town, revenues have been negatively impacted largely due to the pandemic. On the flip side, companies coming out of the pandemic are ready to invest again.
Instead of welcoming companies that want to develop, expand, and invest in our community, which would help to swell our budgetary coffers, our local leaders continue to reject their proposals.
While it is clear our community could not reach a consensus on whether our local government leaders and planning committees have made the right decisions in denying the rezoning of Duncan Rd from Agricultural to Industrial and denying a text amendment for Buffalo Trace to build warehouses in Peaks Mill, one thing is certain. These denials have cost our city and county a significant amount of “opportunity” funds with very little chance of ever being able to recover these losses. The taxes that would have been generated for these two large projects have been estimated to be more than $25 million on an annual basis.
Debating the pros and cons of the Duncan Rd rezoning or building bourbon warehouses in Peaks Mill again at this point won’t change minds as witnessed by the discourse that has already taken place. The decisions have been made to prohibit growth and consequently, annual tax revenue growth on a large scale has been denied. Frankfort/ Franklin County have no plans to recoup the incremental taxes that could have been generated. Regardless of which side of the argument one takes, with the denial of these two investments, everyone loses financially.
Until our local governmental leaders share in the vision and mission to make Frankfort/Franklin County a vibrant, welcoming, business-friendly community, and make decisions that foster growth, Frankfort’s potential will never be reached. The potential to build a community that appeals to all age groups, the potential for a community to offer sustainable, quality-of-life assets, and the potential to become a competitive, thriving place to live, work and play have to be put on hold - yet again.
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