LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington’s city planning commission settled Thursday on what could be the final boundaries for the city’s expanded urban services area, sending a revised map to a master planner.
The master planner will now be tasked with figuring out how the expanded area should be developed, sending the master plan back to the planning commission/council for final approval in November 2024.
The commission considered a recommendation from an advisory committee, which spent weeks deciding which would be the best places in Lexington for the expansion to occur,
They largely followed the recommendation but made changes that appear to show more currently undeveloped land remaining protected than the advisory committee had decided on.
The advisory committee was tasked with finding a minimum of 2,700 acres of land to be included in the Urban Service Area, as mandated by the council. In their proposal, they didn’t have land outside the urban service area that was either city-owned, a floodplain, or already developed, like the Blue Sky Rural Activity area.
The map that the planning commission is sending to the master planner includes the Blue Sky Rural Activity Center and other areas that have already been developed but were not included in the Urban Service area.
Taken out of the expanded area is farmland at the southwest corner of Winchester and Cleveland Road and farmland on the north side of Parkers Mill Road, bordered by New Circle and Man ‘O War Boulevard.
One commission member explained that these changes were needed to protect as much farmland as possible.
Other members sought to regain some land from the expansion, but that vote failed.
The Urban Service Area protects horse farms that surround downtown from being developed into homes and businesses.
