A ‘blunder.’ Lexington’s boundary expansion will not solve housing affordability | Opinion

This week, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council adopted the Goals and Objectives of the 2023 Comprehensive Plan, and in so doing, broke with 62 years of land use precedent — it approved up to a 5,000 acre expansion of the Urban Services Boundary (USB) to areas not adjacent or contiguous to our current city limits.

Any property can qualify to come inside the USB for development, so long as it is on a major or collector roadway. Let that sink in for a moment.

As a lifelong Lexingtonian, builder, and farmer — I am shocked and deeply disturbed by this decision.

Caving to political pressure from developers, in one fell swoop this Council has thrown away the Urban Services Boundary concept and and all that goes with it — from strong and stable real estate values for property owners and investors, to efficient government services, and beautiful Bluegrass view scapes for all to enjoy.

Why does this matter?

Because to date, our part of the world has been truly special — made of the stuff that cities dream about having as a calling card. Our Bluegrass farmland is Lexington’s most powerful attraction, not only acting as the factory floor of our $3 billion agriculture and ag-tourism industries, but anchoring the quality of life that is the foundation of our professional-services economy and cultural currency.

In today’s computer age, where people can live and work anywhere, this is a very big deal.

From weathering the EPA Consent Decree and great economic recessions to attracting the World Equestrian Games, researchers to UK Healthcare, and high-tech entrepreneurs to our city ... these accomplishments are no accident. It is from the land we garner our strength, our resilience, and our identity.

And yet, this Council has jeopardized the very thing that safeguards it all — the Urban Services Boundary — by opening the door for sprawling leap-frog development throughout Fayette County’s acclaimed rural landscape. Such a decision is akin to New York developing Central Park, Hilton Head paving its beach, or Boulder destroying its mountains. The multiplier effects of such a blunder are incalculable.

So why was this done? Expansion proponents argue that without more land — Lexington cannot address its very real affordable housing crisis. This is misleading at best for several reasons.

Experts agree that affordability cannot be solved by simple supply-and demand market economics. Land across the United States — not only in Lexington — is just too expensive. To offset these rising costs, government must partner with the private sector through local, state, and federal programs in the form of tax incentives, subsidies, and credits to realize affordable housing.

The proven answer is a programmatic one, because land will never get cheaper. Anywhere. As such, the only difference between a “market-rate house” and an “affordable house” is how they are financed — not simply how much land is available.

Moreover, let’s not forget the role infrastructure costs and living expenses play in the housing affordability challenge—from daily transportation, to worker wages and food security. It all adds up.

And speaking of land inventory, Lexington has documented thousands of acres of underutilized and vacant properties inside our current city limits to accommodate growth — and ostensibly affordable housing.

So the real question remains … is expanding the boundary about the community’s need for more land? Or is it about increasing more land options for developers?

Either way, the die is cast and now the Planning Commission will decide what properties, and how much acreage comes inside the Urban Services Area in the weeks and months to come.

Understanding the short and long term costs associated with sewerability, housing trends, job markets, and environmental implications will be critical. And whatever is decided, there will be no going back.

Once our farms are developed, they are gone forever — akin to Lexington spending-down the principal of a very special endowment, never to be replenished again and racing ourselves to the bottom with ever diminishing returns for our city. Whether we expand the Urban Services Boundary in every direction to the county line, or hold fast, Lexington-Fayette County alone cannot accommodate all things, for all people, for all time. We will simply run out of land. Expansion cannot be the answer to all of our problems.

It is my sincerest hope that the Commission will do what the Council did not: look at the facts, take a data driven and measured approach, and identify only those compact and contiguous areas adjacent to the current USB appropriate for expansion.

The world is watching.

Knox van Nagell Pfister is co-owner of Terra Firma Construction and Brookfield Farm in Lexington.

This story was originally published June 16, 2023 at 8:26 AM.