A boom in seniors? An influx of millennials? Here’s what candidates say city needs.

Linda Gorton and Ronnie Bastin agree that the city’s growth boundary should remain.

Both candidates for Lexington mayor also think the city needs to fund incentives to spur infill development.

And both pledged during a forum Tuesday night at the Lexington Public Library to tout and grow Fayette County’s agriculture sector and agritourism.

The Tuesday forum, sponsored by the Fayette Alliance, Kentucky Farm Bureau, AARP, Lexington Neighborhood Council and WKYT-TV, focused on land use and planning issues that included questions about historic preservation, planning for growth in the number of people over the age of 65 to affordable housing.

During the forum, Gorton often referred to her 16 years on the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council and four years as vice mayor and her long history on the council of promoting and protecting farmland, agriculture-related industries and green space.

Bastin, a former Lexington police chief and public safety commissioner, said he grew up on a farm and majored in agriculture management at the University of Kentucky. He stressed he understands how important the industry is to Central Kentucky. Bastin said he was recently told during a tour of Keeneland that “he was the first mayoral candidate who had ever taken an interest in the business.”

The forum also verged into topics the candidates had not yet discussed in prior forums such as planning for a growth in the senior population and millennial in the coming years.

The city needs to do more to address its growing senior population, Gorton said. Gorton said she supported a proposal to allow accessory dwelling units that would let aging parents live on the same property as their children or family. Newly-retired seniors also sometimes want part-time jobs to augment retirement income. “Our workforce development also needs to address that population,” Gorton said. “We have to look at alternative transportation such as independent transportation network or... improved bus routes.”

“An aging population is going to have different requirements and different needs when it comes to housing,” Bastin said. The number of 20-year-olds in Lexington is also predicted to grow in coming years. They do not want to live in the suburbs, he said.

“They want walkability,” Bastin said. “It’s very important that we have affordable housing for millennial and young entrepreneurs.”

Gorton said she would also look at creating satellite senior citizens centers. The new Lexington Senior Citizens center in Idle Hour Park has seen explosive growth since it opened in 2016. Bastin said he would like to see programming expanded for senior citizens, including adding more classes on computers and technology.

Bastin said he would support increasing the amount of money spent on affordable housing. “We have to make it a priority,” Bastin said. The affordable housing fund currently receives about $2 million a year. Gorton said the city needed to make sure “it’s funded well because there has been great success in using that fund toward affordable housing.”

Some neighborhoods have expressed frustration during council meetings that they don’t know about proposed developments or zone changes until it’s too late. Gorton said she would support a currently-stalled proposal that would require builders and developers to meet with adjacent neighborhoods early in the zone-change process.

If elected, Bastin said he would like to hold regular meetings in each of the city’s 12 council districts to discuss issues affecting that area. “There is no substitute for having eyes on the ground,” Bastin said.

The only dig of the night came after Bastin said as public safety commissioner, he was responsible for half the city’s budget and could start as mayor on the first day “without a learning curve.”

Gorton, who served as vice mayor from 2010 to 2014, said “I am a proven leader. I did not just have part of government. I had oversight over all of government.”