PDR a waste of money

Lexington’s Purchase of Development Rights program has surely gotten its hands on some steroids. After having frittered away $77 million in the last 17 years, the program is seeking to move to a whole new level: $5 million to purchase development rights for a farm on Ironworks Pike.

Fayette County taxpayers should understand that nothing outside the Urban Services Area is in any danger of development. Remember the Quest Community Church proposal to build a new church on property on Man o’ War Boulevard? That proposal was summarily rejected because the land was outside the Urban Services Area.

For $77 million we have bought absolutely nothing. Taxpayers can’t picnic on the land or walk on the land; indeed, taxpayers can’t even see the land unless it is visible from a public space.

PDR can be summed up·simply: Paying landowners to not do what they have no intention of doing and cannot legally do. All this while gunfire echoes downtown and the window of the mayor’s business on Main Street gets shot out.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 7:16 PM with the headline "PDR a waste of money."