The Independence City Council issued final approvals for an annexation request and zoning change Monday that will allow for the expansion of Park 536, a cluster of industrial buildings along KY-536.
The votes to approve the two changes were unanimous and represent the final legislative step before the developers can begin expanding in earnest.
The city approved a development agreement for the expansion last month. The 96-acre annexation request got approval from the Kenton County Planning Commission in March. Park 536 currently consists of two occupied buildings and spaces for two more buildings. The expansion would enable the construction of three more, bringing the total number of buildings in the complex to seven.
Van Trust Real Estate out of Columbus, Ohio, is developing both the existing park and the expansion. The two existing buildings are occupied by Thermo Fisher, a private clinical research firm, and logistics firm DB Schenker, which was recently purchased by Danish transport conglomerate DSV. Van Trust hopes to break ground on a third building sometime later this year.
Annexation refers to the process by which a property in an unincorporated area is absorbed into the boundaries of a city, thereby giving it access to city services and making it subject to city taxation. Annexations, including this one, are often consensual. The Kenton County Planning Commission had recommended rezoning the land from its current residential zone to a general industrial, or GI, zone.
The owners of the land, the Enid Mair Mason Revocable Trust, had sought an annexation agreement with the city on Feb. 11, according to documents submitted to the county.
The land itself is located on the south side of Mount Zion Road between Robert Spegal Road and Sigmon Lane. It’s mostly vacant, but the surrounding areas have both industrial and residential development. There are two ponds on the land, the larger of which the developers plan to keep and incorporate into the site’s water detention infrastructure.
Access to the site, according to Van Trust’s development plan, would be from Robert Spegal Road to the east, which already serves as the primary access point for the existing Park 536 buildings. The largest building on the expansion site (labeled “Building 5” in the development plan) would span about 500,000 square feet. The other two buildings would span 306,000 square feet.
The complex would contain 1,004 normal parking spaces, 24 handicap spaces and 277 spaces for semi trucks.
The plan presented to the county was in its early stages of development, and the developers will need to obtain permits for various aspects of the work before they can begin building.
