The Boone County Fiscal Court is leaning toward the denial of a zone change that could make way for a sprawling 55-and-older community on the ‘Jake’s Farm’ property near the Richwood Country Estates subdivision in southern Boone County.
The potential development is not without controversy as dozens of residents packed the county’s fiscal court chambers on Tuesday evening to voice their displeasure. Three residents and an attorney representing nearby landowners shared their reservations during the meeting’s public comment section.
The land in question, titled Cornerstone Farms, was previously home to landowner Leslie “Jake” Jacobs, who lived there for nearly 25 years. Jacobs primarily used the farm to raise saddle-bred and race horses.
The property is a 34.87-acre plot located at the southeast corner of Richwood Road and Schmidt Lane. The property is owned by Jake’s Farm Real Estate Development Company – a limited liability company with ties to the Jacobs family, according to Boone County property records. Mark Jacobs, Leslie’s son who’s also real estate developer based out of Florida, represented the family at previous planning commission meetings.
Jacobs is looking to change the property’s zoning designation from Agricultural Estate to Suburban Residential One/Planned Development.
“I’m going to do something with the farm, and it’s going to happen, and it’s going to be first class,” Jacobs said. “Whatever goes there is going to be different than anybody’s ever seen anywhere in this country. But I would love to still stay with the 55-plus.”
Boone County policy states that the fiscal court must hear and vote on all zone changes. Originally, the Boone County Planning Commission approved the zone change in a 6-4 vote, although they did attach 16 development conditions.
An approval from the fiscal court would give Jacobs the green light to develop a gated community for people 55 and older. Boone County Zoning Administrator Michael Schwartz shared two plans during the fiscal court meeting.
The first option featured 147 units spread across 24 buildings, including four detached single-family residential dwellings, 56 attached single-family residential dwellings within 14 buildings and 87 multi-family residential dwellings within six buildings.
Additionally, the farm’s historic milk barn would be converted into a Home Owners Association activity center, along with the installation of a gatehouse along the development’s primary entrance.
Jacobs’ attorney, Thomas Breidenstein, emphasized the developer preferred the dwellings be described as “luxury condos” instead of “apartments” in response to criticism on social media.
“These are not apartments in the way most people consider the traditional sense. These are luxury high-end condominiums individually planned, individually owned, separate pieces of property, not rental apartments as you see elsewhere in the community,” Breidenstein said.
The second option was significantly smaller in terms of scope. It featured more than 60 detached single-family residential dwellings, and the development of a potential free-range pig farm — a detail that was met with pushback from residents.
The front page of the jakes-farm.com website states the developer will either move forward with an approved residential development project or begin a free-range pig farming operation in 2024. Breidenstein reiterated Jacobs’ intention during the meeting.
“There’s no secret that we’ve developed plans for a free-range pig farm for this property,” Breidenstein said.
In contrast, Diana Sipple, a neighbor of the property, was one of the three community members to speak out against the development, said he wasn’t a fan of Jacobs’ conduct throughout the deliberation process.
“Number one, the applicant doesn’t live in Boone County — never has,” Sipple said. “Number two, he has never, one time, came around and talked to any of these residents about what’s going on. He just wants to send out a thing kind of threatening us, which they’ve been doing since the very beginning.”
Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore shut down talk of people’s personalities during the public comment section, instead wanting the conversation to stay within the parameters of land usage.
Jacobs first presented his plan to the Boone County Planning Commission on May 1. At that meeting, he teased his plan to develop a free-range pig farm on the property if the zone change wasn’t approved.
Several residents of the neighboring Richwood Estates subdivision spoke out against the prospective development, citing concerns over traffic, impaired views, and environmental preservation.
Jacobs presented a different iteration of the project to the planning commission in 2022, pending a zone change. In the end, the planning commission recommended denial of the zone change. Jacobs withdrew the zone change application before the fiscal court took action.
Moore, along with commissioners Cathy Flaig, Chet Hand and Jesse Brewer, alluded to the fact they were in favor of overriding the planning commission’s zone change approval.
“But the direction that I’m feeling from the court, and I want to go back and ask them again, is that we really don’t have an appetite to do the first reading to move forward with approving this development,” Moore said.
Moore explained that the fiscal court plans to ask the Boone County staff to create a “findings of fact” document to justify overturning the planning commission’s ruling. The document would be read at the county’s next fiscal court meeting, slated for Tuesday, July 23.
At that point, the fiscal court could move to read an ordinance that would overturn the planning commission’s recommendation for approval, effectively killing the current zone change.
