Updated: Local group wants judge to stop work on Lexington boundary expansion
Lawyers for a group challenging a recent decision to expand the city’s growth boundary have asked a Fayette Circuit judge to immediately halt the work of a committee tasked with identifying rural land for future development.
The Fayette Alliance, a land use group, and several private citizens sued the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council in July, alleging the council did not have the authority to vote to add 2,700 to 5,000 acres to the city’s current growth boundary. In a motion filed Monday, the group asked Fayette Circuit Court Judge Lucy VanMeter to stop the work of the Urban Growth Management Advisory Committee, which is in the process of identifying 2,700 to 5,000 acres for future development.
The Fayette Alliance has argued in court documents that state statue says only the planning commission can make a recommendation to expand the city’s growth boundary. The planning commission voted to keep the current boundary. The council later changed that recommendation and voted to expand the boundary in a contentious meeting in June.
The group also argues that because the urban service boundary is part of a comprehensive plan, it is subject to a state statute that requires analysis, planning and projections. The council did no such analysis, the group argued.
Meanwhile, the city has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, alleging Fayette Alliance and the citizens who filed it do not have legal standing to bring the legal action.
The advisory committee was formed to help carry out the council’s directive. It started meeting in early August. It will forward its recommendations to the planning commission.
Lawyers for the Fayette Alliance argue Larry Forester, the chairperson of the planning commission, appointed the group. The group argues the 15 member committee, which includes four council members, needed to be approved by the entire planning commission. It wasn’t, according to the lawsuit.
The advisory committee is moving forward with identifying possible areas to be added to the city’s current growth boundary. During a Tuesday meeting, the group looked at multiple areas including areas near Athens Boonesboro Road and Interstate 75 and Winchester Road and Interstate 64.
The group has not made any final decisions. It will meet again Sept. 5.
It has tentatively identified 4,511 gross acres that could be added to the urban service boundary. A public hearing, where people can give feedback, is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 12.
Fayette Alliance thinks committee is causing irreparable harm
In court documents, lawyers for the Fayette Alliance and other landowners argued identifying areas for possible expansion could cause irreparable harm including but not limited to land speculation. Farm owners who may be considering joining the city’s farmland protection program may not do so if they think their land can be sold to developers.
Farmland can’t be replaced, the motion for immediate injunctive relief argued.
“The process is wrong and it’s illegal,” said Tom Miller, a lawyer for the Fayette Alliance. “It is necessary to stop the completion of the process prior to the committee’s designation of areas that should be added to the urban service area until the court has an opportunity to determine if they are acting legally.”
City asks lawsuit to be dismissed
Meanwhile, the city has asked VanMeter to dismiss the lawsuit, alleging the Fayette Alliance and several citizens who filed the original lawsuit do not have legal standing to challenge the city’s expansion plans.
The advisory committee tasked with identifying that land is still in its early stages. Therefore, the individuals and the Fayette Alliance can’t argue they will be harmed because no land has officially been identified as an expansion area, the city argues in court documents.
Hypothetical harm from an expansion of the urban service boundary does not give a person standing to sue, the city argues.
Moreover, the city asks that its 15 council members, who were also sued, be dismissed from the lawsuit.
During a Friday hearing, VanMeter set a 9 a.m. Oct. 5 hearing in the case. If it is determined the Fayette Alliance and others who have sued to stop the expansion have legal standing to do so, a hearing on the motion for a temporary injunction will also be heard on that date.
This story was originally published August 29, 2023 at 2:18 PM.
