Does Lexington need to expand to grow? No

It can be hard to follow the entire process for updating the comprehensive plan that guides land use in Lexington and Fayette County.

But, if you haven’t been paying attention or thought it was over when the Planning Commission voted on the proposal in September, it’s time to sit up and take note.

This week the Urban County Council began discussing the goals and objectives that provide the overriding vision for how we see our county developing and will take them up again at its work session Tuesday at 1 p.m., and will soon vote to adopt or change them.

The goals and objectives deal with a lot of things — planning is complex — but the issue that generates the most passion every five years during the update is whether to expand the Urban Services Boundary. That line separates our intensely developed urban area from the farmland and rural settlements surrounding it.

The planning staff, after months of research and study, recommended not expanding the urban services boundary. The Planning Commission, after intense study and discussion, adopted the staff’s recommendation.

Some council members seem to be wavering on that recommendation, pressured by developers and others who argue that without adding acreage to the development area housing prices will climb and Lexington will suffer from lack of jobs and the tax revenue they generate.

The council should reject that flawed and potentially costly reasoning.

Let’s review the reality. We have jobs. Unemployment in Fayette County in September was the second-lowest among Kentucky’s 120 counties at 3.2 percent, compared to 4.3 percent statewide and 4.1 percent throughout the country.

This is not to say that we have enough good jobs to keep families here out of poverty — we don’t. But council members and economic-development professionals should be asking exactly what it will take to create jobs that provide living wages rather than accepting the oft-repeated contention that “shovel-ready” development land will automatically improve life for Fayette County residents.

It is also not clear how expanding would make housing more affordable in Fayette County. That was not the experience after the 1996 expansion when 5,400 acres were added to the Urban Services Area. Again, a lack of affordable housing is a huge issue in the county — one city government has begun to address — but anyone advocating for solving that problem through expanding the boundary must explain exactly how that will happen.

What is clear is that expansion would be expensive. As Councilwoman Susan Lamb pointed out last week, adding residential acreage means providing streets, sewer and storm-water infrastructures, public safety, trash pickup and all the other services that require tax dollars.

The staff has identified 5,616 acres within the current boundary — where those services are already in place — that are either vacant or underdeveloped. Most developers say it’s harder and more costly to build where there are neighbors and existing infrastructure to accommodate.

But if building within the boundary is better and more cost-effective for the entire county and preserves our valuable, signature landscape, then that’s the direction the council must choose.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Does Lexington need to expand to grow? No."