Lexington boundary expansion now a total fiasco. Can it be fixed? | Opinion
What a debacle.
After years of meetings, task force reports, discussions, bickering, dueling editorials and so much hot air, Lexington is right back where we were in 1996: poised to develop once-protected farmland without anything that guarantees desperately needed housing that is both accessible and affordable. (There’s a better word to describe the situation that starts with a “c” and ends with a “k” but it can’t be used in a family paper.)
Farmland is finite, important and protects Lexington’s unique brand and economic engine of horses and agriculture. That’s not to say it should never be developed; it should only be developed when it meets our most pressing need: housing. And right now, thanks to a recent vote, the council has allowed the Urban Service Boundary to open between 2,700 and 5000 acres without anything in place that would ensure those housing needs are met. Despite this being an urgent issue for years, Lexington still has no rules that require developers to set aside some portion of their projects for affordable housing.
This is an insanely complicated topic, full of ordinances, reports and planning rules, but it comes down to this: This is the first time the city has agreed to open the 1958 Urban Service Boundary since 1996, when 5,330 acres were added, much of which turned into the Hamburg shopping paradise. On June 1, the current council voted 10-3 to add somewhere between 2,700 and 5,000 acres. The Planning Commission has until Dec. 1, 2024, to identify where that would be, most likely along I-64 and I-75 along Richmond and Winchester roads.
The June 1 council vote was the first time the city has agreed to open its growth boundary in 27 years. The last time land was added to the boundary was in 1996 when about 5,330 acres were added. Under the framework approved by the council at its June 1 meeting, the Urban County Planning Commission has until Dec. 1, 2024, to identify between 2,700 and 5,000 acres along the city’s major corridors to add to the city’s growth boundary where development can occur.
As planning director Jim Duncan explained to reporter Beth Musgrave, it’s hard to write a plan to govern long-term growth in our comprehensive plan, while also writing rules for this new expansion area. Because it’s been very clear over the years that the 1996 expansion was too willy-nilly, without rules on what should go where, many advocates had pushed for a data-based process that would allow expansion only where and when it was needed for crucial needs like housing and jobs.
Instead, we’re back to the willy-nilly. That’s how the developers like it, of course. The deal was apparently brokered by Councilman Preston Worley, who’s also a real estate and development attorney, and supported by Lexington for Everyone, which includes developers and housing advocates (although exactly who we don’t know because they won’t release their backers’ names).
But the farmland groups, such as Fayette Alliance, should not be surprised. They worked toward issues like better infill and development in Lexington’s inner core, but never as passionately as they held the line against any development whatsoever. As was proven in 1996, USB expansion doesn’t automatically mean more housing, much less affordable housing. Prices keep going up because supply is so low, and more and more people are moving here, but many can’t afford to live here or stay.
Watching long-time residents leave town for surrounding counties is why Rev. L. Clark Williams, a pastor at Shiloh Baptist, chair of the Black Faith Leaders, and an ardent social justice advocate, joined Lexington for Everyone. As he pointed out, Lexington created and funded the Purchase of Development Rights program to make sure that farm owners were rewarded for protecting their land. Roughly $78 million has been spent on PDR — $37 million in local funds and $41 in state and federal matching funds. (Some council members have calculated the number closer to $61 million if you count bond interest, but city officials say this is not a reliable number because bond interest is refinanced and consolidated.) Nothing commensurate has ever happened with housing, except for the last dollar in the Affording Housing Fund, which was only created in 2014. The city has appropriated $36.5 million since then; that money has leveraged $371 million to build or renovate 3,082 units of affordable housing.
Lexington for Everyone is not opposed to PDR, Williams said, but if the city has found that much money for farm owners, “we ought to be able to find more than that to make the city affordable for everyone. To alleviate that pressure, there’s no other way but some expansion.”
It’s understandable why 10 council members voted for the expansion, and I think it brings an interesting new power dynamic to town, one where horse interests don’t always rule the day. (As the racing industry slowly self-immolates, that was maybe going to happen anyway.) But I’m afraid that Lexington for Everyone is a Trojan horse for developers to build more strip malls and million dollar homes.
A final vote will be held on June 15 and on Friday, Mayor Linda Gorton said she would be pushing the council to make affordable housing mandatory in the expansion area. Perhaps the Urban County Council can also fix this mess by continuing to create a data-based process that identifies development needs so that precious farmland is only used when it is most needed. Perhaps the city’s already overworked planning staff can do all this without being driven slowly insane. As our elected leaders, the council certainly needs to do better than this.
This story was originally published June 9, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
