Lexington’s Comprehensive Plan affects how the city expands. Here’s what you should know
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council is set to approve goals and objectives of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan in coming weeks.
On Tuesday, the council heard feedback from the public on what they want to see in the document that guides where and how development can occur.
On May 23, the council is poised to start making changes to the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. It has held several meetings to discuss the proposed goals and objectives of the plan over the past several weeks.
For newer residents (or even those who have been around Lexington for decades), the comprehensive plan — sometimes referred to as the “comp plan” — can be difficult to understand. Read on to learn more about how it works, what the purpose of the plan is and what happens next.
What is the Comprehensive Plan?
The comprehensive plan is a document that has goals and objectives that helps the Urban County Planning Commission make recommendations on where development should occur and what standards are used to guide that development.
How often is it updated?
The plan is updated every five years. The city is currently operating under the 2018 Comprehensive Plan. The 2018 Comprehensive Plan made some major changes to how developers apply for zone changes. That process includes Place Builder, which helps determine what type of development can go where. For example, the 2018 Comprehensive Plan encourages more density along major corridors such as Nicholasville, Richmond and Versailles roads. Developments along those major corridors should be more dense — think mixed-used developments such as multi-story buildings with ground-floor retail and upper story apartments or condominiums.
What is the process?
The Urban County Planning Commission makes initial recommendations on updates and changes to the comprehensive plan. The Planning Commission approved the 2045 Comprehensive Plan in February 2023. It is currently before the council, which can also make changes to the goals and objectives.
What’s different in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan versus the 2018 Comprehensive Plan?
The proposed 2045 Comprehensive Plan is similar to the 2018 Comprehensive Plan. Some key changes to the plan include:
- More specific language to tackle reduction in greenhouse gases and reducing Lexington and Fayette County’s carbon footprint.
- A goal to develop more equitable land use policies to rectify past racist land use policies — such as redlining and deed restrictions that kept Black people and other minorities out of certain areas and neighborhoods.
- In multiple places throughout the document, the 2045 Comprehensive Plan also puts more emphasis on affordable housing and diversity in housing types.
How is the fight over expanding the urban service boundary connected to the plan?
Typically, a key part of the comprehensive plan is whether to expand Lexington’s urban service boundary, or its growth boundary.
The last time the city expanded the boundary was in 1996, when more than 5,400 acres were added. Roughly half of those acres have still not been developed. The urban service boundary was first introduced in Lexington in 1958.
How did the 2018 Comprehensive Plan change the fight over the boundary?
In 2018, the city decided to use a data-based approach to determine when and if the boundary should be expanded.
To do that, a group called the Sustainable Growth Task Force, with the help of Lexington engineering firm Stantec, developed a matrix that looked at land types based on uses and growth, or how much land the city was using for residential, industrial, retail and professional office space.
The other key part of the 2018 Comprehensive Plan is found under what is known as Goal 4, which stated the city needed to determine where expansion could occur and what areas should be protected.
That study, called the Goal 4 report, was completed in late 2022.
Both the Sustainable Growth study and Goal 4 report were supposed to have been completed by July 1, 2020, under the 2018 Comprehensive Plan. Both studies were delayed by several years.
What is the Goal 4 report and why is it controversial?
A group, consisting of elected officials, developers and those in the agricultural industry, developed the Goal 4 report late last year. That report recommended 97,309 acres to be preserved for agricultural uses. It identified 27,491 acres as not protected, or land that could be developed if and when the city decides to open the boundary.
Some areas the group recommended as possible development include sections along Winchester Road and near Athens Boonesboro Road and Interstate 75.
Much of the area earmarked for potential development if and when the boundary is expanded already has sewer and water access or is slated to have it soon. Questions arose about the data used to determine sewerability of an area. The city is now conducting a new sewer study to determine what areas have sewer access or could potentially have sewer access in the future.
What do the goals and recommendations currently say about Goal 4 and when and how to expand?
The current draft of the comprehensive plan does not adopt the recommendations of the Sustainable Growth Task Force of the Goal 4 report.
Instead the report says: “Protect Lexington’s invaluable rural resources and inform long-range planning by building on the work of the Sustainable Growth Task Force and the Goal 4 Work group to create a data-driven process for determining long-term land use decisions involving the Urban Service Boundary and Rural Activity Centers.”
Some have asked the council to add a specific date, such as by 2024, to have the data-driven approach to expand the boundary completed. The original Goal 4 report outlined a process for determining when the boundary should be expanded. Under that version, discussions over the urban service boundary could not begin until 2026.
During a Tuesday public hearing on the 2045 Comprehensive Plan, a group of business leaders asked the city to allow up to 5,000 acres of land along Winchester and Athens Boonesboro roads to be added to the urban service, or growth, boundary.
What is the next step?
After Tuesday’s public comment, the council will begin making changes to the proposed 2045 Comprehensive Plan goals and objectives at a May 23 meeting. Some changes the council has floated include adding specific dates for the city to become carbon neutral. Other changes include more emphasis on affordable housing, and more inclusive language about all forms of traffic including pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
Some council members have said they would like to adopt the Sustainable Growth Study and Goal 4 report in recent meetings. Others have said they would like to add a specific date for when work on those studies should be completed.
To learn more about the 2045 Comprehensive Plan go to www.imaginelexington.com/2045. To find out how to contact council members about the 2045 Comprehensive Plan go to www.lexingtonky.gov.
