LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Lexington city advisory committee is moving closer to making a recommendation about how the city’s urban service boundary should expand.
They’ve zeroed in on three areas. The largest is between Winchester Road and I-64. Two smaller areas are between Athens-Boonesboro Road and I-75, as well as an area to the west of Lexington’s Palomar neighborhood.
The committee only has a few short weeks to refine the map before presenting it to the planning commission for approval.
Some of the committee members didn’t support the expansion of the boundary, but felt it was important to help minimize potential impacts.
One reason the boundary was expanded was with the hopes it could help create much-needed affordable housing in Lexington. Some committee members shared doubts it would actually happen.
“To me, it just looks like a big map of gentrification where we are trying to find areas far away from the city center for people to live, and I'm having a hard time with that,” said Alison Davis, an economic developer and agriculture economist.
The committee included affordable housing developer Zach Worsham.
“I support the expansion because I think just the addition of the supply of land will drive down the cost of homes inside the Urban Service Area that will make our projects more feasible,” Worsham said.
Another committee member brought up the idea of requiring land inside the expanded boundary to have affordable housing. Jim Duncan, the city’s planning developer, said current city rules don’t allow that, but those rules can be changed. Worsham cautioned against the idea.
He did admit there are big obstacles to getting the affordable housing built. One reason is opposition from neighbors, which he sees the potential for in the area east of Palomar.
“I think you would find a significant amount of nimbyism and fight back,” he said.
Davis said a big concern for her overall is how quickly the process to make a recommendation is moving, saying she’d like to see more data before making a decision that impacts so many thousands of people, as well as the farmland that makes Lexington unique. The concern was shared by other committee members.
Councilwoman Plomin asked if they couldn’t add a couple more meetings.
City planning director Jim said it would present a problem for consultants who only have a year to put together the city’s new master plan.
“We need every minute of a year to do that, and to do anything less would be a disservice to the master plan,” Duncan said
The urban county council made the decision to expand the boundary between 2,700 and 5,000 acres in June. They tasked the city’s planning commission with deciding where and exactly how much to expand.
The committee will meet again next Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Phoenix Building to continue to refine the map before the public has the chance to weigh in at a meeting currently scheduled for September 12 at 6 p.m. at the government center.
After that meeting, the committee can make more changes to the map before it goes to the full planning commission.
It’s possible a meeting is still added.
The full plan wouldn't be finalized by the planning commission for another year, after the master plan is drawn up.
