LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — After a lot of discussion and public comments by advocates asking city leaders not to expand the city's urban service boundary this past Tuesday, the council voted 13 to 2 to move forward with its expansion.
Council member Dave Sevigny says, "I want you to know that we had really good conversations, you saw most of the conversations here. We had some one-on-one conversations and I think everybody was super respectful of each other’s opinions. We don't always agree."
The resolution is a part of the city's goals and objectives for the 2023 Comprehensive Plan — Imagine Lexington 2045. This is the first time in 27 years the city's boundaries will expand. One resident, Kip Cornett, expressed concern over the smart growth asking the council to consider how lifestyles and workspaces have changed.
He says, "I've owned a business here for 40 some years and interestingly enough we had 50 employees that were over three floors — pre covid, pre just all the different changes we had. We now have one floor and 52 employees. So, there's a lot of things we're gonna have to take into consideration here when we're looking at those 5,000 acres."
According to the Imagine Lexington comprehensive plan, more than 5,600 acres of land were identified that the plan says can be used to house 80,000 more people expected in the next 20 years. Many residents wonder what will be considered "affordable."
Another resident, Dole Warren, says, "A lot of people have come up here, real estate agents and horse farmers they too have not given an answer as to what affordable housing is."
The Fayette Alliance's executive director Brittany Roethemeier says the alliance hopes that these goals and objectives will be able to be implemented.
She says, "So much work has been done but not implemented. We hope in 27 years we aren't back in this same place after a vote for expansion, talking about affordable housing that hasn't been built, about housing prices that never went down, about the AG businesses that fuel our economy and anchor our identity but were driven away from the horse capitol of the world because of urban sprawl, or ultimately that it's cost the community far more than any benefits we've received."
Vice Mayor Dan Wu says, "Going forward I don't want to keep looking back on this particular fight or this particular vote. I want to look forward to making sure that we continue to create and maintain accountability and guardrails for this expansion."
The boundary is opening between 2,700 to 5,000 acres for development.
