The Kenton County Planning Commission unanimously approved a facilities review that would allow the county to begin re-configuring the parking for the Kenton County Government Center away from its current layout and toward a dedicated, underground parking garage–a move that would make way for construction related to the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project.
“We thought it was important that we try to find a way to make sure that the corner of the county’s government center property was on a parking structure,” said Jeff Kuhnhenn, director of architectural design with Gresham Smith, the design firm responsible for crafting the structure’s design.
“We used the slope of the site to depress the garage down so that we could create a place that would then allow it to be occupied by a facility that was about people and not about cars,” Kuhnhenn said.
The county approved a design proposal from Gresham Smith in August. Then in September, the state announced that it would contribute about $15 million to the project. Representatives from Gresham Smith said at Thursday’s meeting that they wanted to get started on the garage and its associated demolitions as soon as possible, before the rest of the work on the corridor began.
The county government center currently has 409 parking spots scattered throughout multiple lots around the building, including 161 spots under the adjacent I-71/I-75 bridge.
Kenton County Planning and Development Services Senior Planner Patrick Denbow walked the commission and meeting attendees through the plans of what would happen to the site to make way for the parking garage.
The new parking plan will see the complete elimination of the parking under the bridge as part of the work planned for the corridor project. In the meantime, the county will remove all parking spaces from Lot D and 31 spaces from Lot A. The parking structure itself will go in the rear of the property, where Lot D is currently located, and will contain 248 parking spaces, most of which will be underground. When all is said and done, the total number of parking spaces will have increased by only one, bringing the total to 410. Although not much in terms of numbers, the new garage will allow the parking to become more centrally located.
Denbow also described some of the landscaping that will go into the project, which featured trees along the driveways and walking paths. The roof of the structure will serve as the bottom floor for the apartment complex slated to be constructed above.
“The project is a collaborative approach as part of a major infrastructure project that will have a significant impact on the region,” Denbow said, “and will provide updated street-scape elements and a shared parking facility within the urban sub area.”
The demolition and constructive elements of the parking garage will not affect Simon Kenton Way itself, Kuhnhenn said. That work will part of the corridor project, which will take place at a later time.
Al. Neyer, the developer of the apartment complex, did not have a representative at the meeting. Kuhnhenn said that the developer, Gresham Smith, and the county were in the process of determining the parking arrangements for the future occupants of the apartments.
The next meeting of the Kenton County Planning Commission will take place on Thursday, March 7 at 6:15 p.m. at Kenton County Government Center on Simon Kenton Way.