TIMELINE

● For several years, the owners of Mill Ridge Farm, Headley and Price Bell, have
been lobbying city council members and other elected officials for approval to
develop their farm, which is located outside of the Urban Service Boundary.

● The Council has a public process to consider expanding the Urban Service
Boundary to add farmland to the city limits for development. The last time the
council engaged in the process was in 2023. The Council voted to expand the
boundary. However, despite intense lobbying, and after careful analysis, Mill
Ridge was not included.

● Council recently adopted a new ordinance to consider expansion going forward,
which is supposed to provide greater transparency and objectivity to the public.
Pursuant to their own ordinance, expansion should not be considered again until
2030.

● However, the Bells have continued their lobbying efforts and are trying to
leverage the Mint Lane pump station remediation project to accomplish their goal
of developing Mill Ridge.

● The Mint Lane pump station is located behind Dunbar and has significant issues
that require remediation and expansion. At a council meeting in August 2025,
city staff presented a proposal to the council to remediate the pump station at its
current location. The Bells attended the meeting. Several councilmembers
stated they had met with the Bells, who represented they would donate land to
relocate the sewer facility to Bowman Mill.

● Ultimately, the council voted to conduct a study comparing the costs associated
with remediating the pump station at its current location, relocating the facility to
Bowman Mill, or relocating it to the airport. The cited rationale behind the council
vote was to determine if it would be less expensive to relocate the facility to
Bowman Mill.

● The study was going to be presented to the full council at a work session on
March 10 th . The draft of the council presentation indicates that it would cost
approximately $10-12 million more to relocate the pump station to Bowman Mill
than to expand it at its current location. The final cost estimates are being re-
calculated, but it is likely that expanding at the current location is the most fiscally
efficient solution.

● The presentation was pulled from the March 10th agenda because it lacked
information and estimated costs associated with geotechnical information. It is
being re-drafted and has been rescheduled to Tuesday, April 14th at 3:00 PM.

 

CONCERNS

● The sewer facility can be remediated and expanded at its current location for
significantly less expense to taxpayers.

● The city’s policy since establishment of the Urban Service Boundary in 1958 has
been to locate urban infrastructure (like sewers) inside the Boundary, which is
more efficient and cost effective. Since 1958, there are very few examples of the
council approving location of a sewer facility outside the city limits. When these
projects have been approved, it has been to serve a public purpose (such as
providing city sewer at the Horse Park), not to benefit a private property owner. If
approved, this would be the first time a sewer facility would be located outside
city limits at greater cost to taxpayers and with no discernable public purpose
(since the sewer problems can be remediated at the current location).

● Price Bell declined to say if Mill Ridge would condition donation of land for
permission to develop when asked by Herald-Leader reporter Beth Musgrave.
Article: https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-
county/article311686521.html

● Relocating this pump station to Bowman Mill assumes and enables development
of Mill. As such, it would serve as a de facto expansion.

● The proposed development of Mill Ridge that would be serviced by the location
of sewer infrastructure on the farm property is not just hypothetical. The Bell
family have publicly invited elected officials and community members to view
development plans and meet with out-of-state development consultants that have
drafted plans of their proposed project, even though their property is outside of
the Urban Service Boundary.

● Enacting a de facto expansion in this way circumvents the very process the
council recently adopted, a process the council assured the public would provide
more transparency and objectivity in deciding where, when, and how to expand
the Urban Service Boundary in the future. Permitting private interests to guide
public infrastructure investment outside of this process sets a dangerous
precedent and also undermines the newly adopted process.

● The facility is not just a pump station. It would include a large wet weather
storage tank approximately 150 feet in diameter and several stories high, which
would negatively impact surrounding property owners—none of whom are served
by city sewer. It is unclear if the new facility would require expansion or
construction improvements on Bowman Mill Road itself.

● Bowman Mill Road is a National Register Historic District. It includes Helm
Place, which has a conservation easement on the property. It also includes the

Bowman House, Woolfolk House, Bowman Cabin, the William Lytle Todd House,
and Cave Hill, which served as Kentucky’s temporary governor’s mansion when
John Y. Brown, Jr. was in office.

● The Bells have every right to follow the same process as anyone else who wants
to develop their farms or land outside the Urban Service Boundary in the future.
It was clear from the 2023 discussion that there are other people who would like
their land to be included. Permitting the Bells to be the exception to our public
policies does not serve the public and undermines the intent of the council to
create a more transparent process.