LEXINGTON, Ky. — Downtown Lexington is undergoing an expansion and part of its design includes building a new park.

What You Need To Know

  • Construction of Future Town Branch Park has Main Street Baptist Church fighting for parking for its members

  • The church says a verbal agreement with the city years ago granted members parking behind a building.

  • At one point there was property the church could have purchased, but it no longer exists and they say they are land locked.

  • Mayor Linda Gorton's office says talks are ongoing and hopes of a solution for all parties involved.

 

But a historically Black church said it’s landlocked and faces a parking challenge for members.

“Main Street was founded in 1862 and the first pastor was Frederick Braxton,” said Pastor Victor Sholar at Main Street Baptist Church.

The pastor said Braxton was a former slave who was able to lead efforts in building a church during the 1860s.

“In 1862 so you’re right in that time in the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 and to see a community of African-Americans come together and pull their resources to purchase this property is pretty significant,” Sholar said.

Fast forward 100 years later in the 1960s, Sholar said there was a verbal agreement.

“About 26 years ago, there was an agreement with the mayor at that time of Lexington. That there will be spots secure for Main Street Baptist Church. Why was there a proposal well because there was property our church could have purchased,” Sholar said.

That agreement continued, church members could park their cars behind the facility until about five years ago. Sholar said the previous administration approached Main Street Baptist Church with a plan of building a new park.

“As we thought about it and we saw it in various renderings for the park, that our church was really not acknowledged as a long-standing church has been here going on 159 years,” Sholar said

It’s now called the Future Town Branch Park.

“Once the proposal for the park came in that removed those parking spaces for us. So there's nothing. So if you were just to take what parking we have on our campus what we own, you would have probably no more than 30 parking spaces. So we go down from 200 or so 300 parking spaces down to about, maybe 30 parking spaces,” Sholar said

All this boils down to the church having to compete for parking with not only city events, but also events that will take place at the nearby Lexington Convention Center and Rupp Arena.

“Couple months ago, I mentioned to her (Mayor Linda Gorton), we're in your report of gentrification, all the things that you're doing in the downtown area, you're pushing this African-American church out. You're making it such that is impossible for our church to exist in this spot, in this in this location, with its membership with the park that you're building,” Sholar said.

The report Sholar is referencing is called the Mayor’s Commission For Racial Justice & Equality, an intensive 68-page document released in October 2020.

We reached out to the city and they responded with a statement reading, ”There are ongoing negotiations among the Church, the City, Central Bank Center and Town Branch Park. We are in search of a solution that works for everyone.”

Sholar is also hoping it will be a win-win for the parties involved.

There is a public meeting Thursday, March 18 with Town Branch Park and another private meeting on March 23.