Some residents are concerned that a state road project in Union could – maybe literally – upend their homes.
Dozens of people came out Wednesday night to an open house at the Scheben branch of the Boone County Library to learn about the project and leave feedback.
The project focuses on KY-3060, or Frogtown Road, between US-42 and US-25, which spans just under three miles. Much of the work on the road, according to an email statement from the cabinet, aims at “improving safety and relieving traffic congestion.”
“What we did a couple of years ago was we brought some suggestions out to the public,” Chief Engineer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 6 Bob Yeager said. “We saw that a lot of the residents along the corridor really didn’t want a wide footprint. They didn’t want a five-lane road; they didn’t want anything like that. So, we came back tonight with two options.”
Yeager emphasized the project is in a very early phase, and Wednesday’s open house served as a way for the cabinet to collect feedback on two proposed designs, which will see the augmentation of the current two-lane road (which also lacks sidewalks).
Residents who spoke with LINK nky attested to a high degree of truck traffic on the road and the stress it incurs, even if they were critical of the cabinet’s proposals.
The first design proposal calls for a new three-lane road with a multi-use path on one side and a sidewalk on the opposite side. The other design would keep the two-lane road, but add the multi-use path and the sidewalk.
Once a final design is chosen, the cabinet will begin the right-of-way acquisition phase of the project, which would include the possible buying up of residential property by the state to make room for the new road additions.
There is currently no funding for right-of-way acquisition in the state’s Highway Plan, which is due to be updated in 2026. Yeager said there’s no guarantee the project could have funding appropriated to it next year. If the cabinet does manage to secure funding, the right-of-way phase could begin as soon as 2027, according to the project’s website.
Some of the road’s residents have expressed concern that the state may try to expropriate their land and houses to make room for the construction. Yeager admitted that properties would be affected in various ways: “Just because the house is in the way doesn’t mean they necessarily have to give the house up. We have no interest in the house, only the property that sits on it… Of those places that we have to take houses generally, we’ve come to some reasonable negotiation.”
One resident, Ken DeMaria, has lived on the road for 50 years. He and others who spoke with LINK nky remember when the road used to be gravel and tar. He said he first heard about the project about two years ago. Although he admits that the road isn’t in the best condition – he witnessed various repairs and changes over the years – he wonders if perhaps there’s an alternative: one that wouldn’t jeopardize people’s homes.
“Frogtown Road, it’s got bend in it,” DeMaria said in a phone call before the meeting. “Straighten out that bend down in front of Triple Crown, and run it behind our houses, and not take any of our property.”
He suspects there may be pressure from developers to expand the road, but he doesn’t have any proof of this.
“It’s not just me who’s concerned,” DeMaria said. “It’s all my neighbors.”
Jean Paul, who has lived on Frogtown Road for two years, is one of those neighbors.
“I don’t think they’re gonna be gentle about it,” Paul said. “I think they’re going to demolish our home.”
Paul’s home sits in the path of either plan. Documentation available on the project’s website puts the number of affected residential properties for the 3-lane proposal at 20 and the number for the 2-lane proposal at five.
Yeager predicted “12 to 14 homes, somewhere in that range” would be affected, depending on how the whole process worked out.
Much of the concern centers around the use of eminent domain, which refers to the act of a government appropriating private property to make room for public infrastructure. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from taking private property “for public use, without just compensation.” DeMaria characterized eminent domain as a form of theft.
The cabinet, in its email statement, emphasized it was “committed to a fair process” when it came to possibly acquiring private property during the right-of-way process.
“In most cases, an agreement is reached,” the statement reads. “However, if a property owner feels the Cabinet’s offer is not acceptable, it can be refused. Since the Cabinet would have to acquire needed property to move towards construction of a proposed highway, Kentucky law provides that the Transportation Cabinet can place the matter before the courts.”
Yeager himself, as well, said that eminent domain was a “last resort.”
Various elected representatives from the city, county and state levels all attended the meeting. Three Kentucky legislators, Rep. TJ Roberts, a Republican from Burlington, Rep. Marianne Proctor, a Republican from Union, and Sen. Steve Rawlings, also a Republican from Burlington, led a small protest outside of the library where the meeting took place.
A lawyer by trade, Roberts pointed to a landmark Supreme Court case from 2005, Kelo v. the City of New London, in which the City of New London, Connecticut, used eminent domain to facilitate the transfer of a resident, Susette Kelo’s, house to a private developer as part of an economic development initiative.
The Supreme Court eventually ruled against Kelo in a 5-4 decision, arguing that the use of eminent domain to hand off one person’s property to another private entity didn’t violate the Fifth Amendment.
Although it’s too early in the process to know if something like this is on the table, Roberts pointed out that “it’s their [the residents’] homes that are at risk.”
Procotor believed other roads might serve as better commercial corridors than Frogtown.
“Frogtown is not a major east-west corridor,” Proctor said. “I have been advocating to do that in Richwood [Road], where we already have semi trucks slowing down for the Publix, right? We have commercial development there.”
Others at the meeting viewed the project as an extension of the county’s burgeoning development and expressed a desire to see such development curtailed.
“It just seems like they’re trying to over develop, areas that were, at one time, farmland,” said Chad Sims, who doesn’t live on Frogtown but lives nearby. Such tension has played out in other parts of the region, as well.
Kim Tuyn, a Union City Commissioner who chairs the city’s Economic Development Committee, granted that people were concerned about their homes but also believed the project could improve safety on the road.
“Even though this street is not a city-owned street, it’s a corridor to our city,” Tuyn said. “So, it’s important for me that they have an adequate and safe roadway for people to access.”
You can learn more about the project at transportation.ky.gov.