There is a way forward to ease Lexington’s housing crunch and preserve rural land | Opinion
Back in 1958, Lexington leaders had a visionary plan to ensure that its scenic and economically productive horse farms would be protected from development. They created the nation’s first urban service boundary, which protected the rural land outside the city.
Back then, no one seemed to worry that stifling the supply of available land would create an affordable and accessible housing crisis in subsequent years. Like government bodies throughout our history, successive councils and mayors kicked the can of affordable housing down the road for other people to worry about.
In 1996, under pressure from the business and development community, and against the wishes of the agriculture and equine community, the council agreed to open the boundary to allow 5,330 acres to be developed.
Mistakes were made. There was little to no data-driven planning as to what development made the most sense where, nor were landowners consulted whether they even wanted to open their land up to development. Most of the housing built was single family sprawl. Half of the land is still undeveloped today. But our housing prices keep rising and the housing crunch continues to affect everyone, from the unhoused to people trying to buy their first home.
So we come to today. This year, the city’s comprehensive plan is up for its five-year review. Now called Imagine Lexington, it is supposed to be separate from the issue of the Urban Services Boundary, but as the comp plan directs our future growth, the boundary is inexorably drawn into these conversations.
The comp plan has now been complemented by two more task forces — the Goal 4 Task Force and the Sustainable Growth Task Force, which helped lay out a more detailed process of how Lexington should approach new development. A matrix of information would determine if and when the boundary were to be opened, and whether it should be used for industry, housing, commercial or retail space. The report said that more than 97,000 acres in the rural areas should be preserved but also identified 27,000 acres that could be developed if and when the city decides growth is necessary. Most of that acreage is along the already bustling Winchester Road and Athens-Boonesboro near I-75. Under the proposal, the city will decide, using a sustainable growth matrix, if and when the city needs more land for various needs — industry, housing, commercial or retail space. If that was determined, developers could submit plans to show how they would meet that specific need.
This report did not please everyone, but it sets a new precedent for a data-driven process that should be adopted before any conversations about new land development begin.
A slick public relations campaign by a group called Lexington for Everyone, started and supported by Commerce Lexington, has added urgency to the idea by demanding the addition of 5,000 acres for development immediately. But council members should not be fooled: As the situation stands right now, there is nothing to ensure that more acreage would guarantee subsidized or affordable housing, and in fact, historical precedent would suggest the opposite. In addition, affordable housing requires substantial infrastructure such as groceries, transportation, schools and jobs, so saying the border should be expanded to build it is a straw man argument.
We do need more speed on the housing issue, but that discussion needs to include exactly how we can create more infill and development inside the USB, how zoning problems still hold the city back, and how any new developments fit inside the comprehensive plan’s ideals of a more bikeable, walkable and connected city.
On May 23, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council will begin its adoption of the Goals and Objectives of the comprehensive plan. The goals adopted by the Planning Commission call for keeping the boundary as it is but recent public discussions may have given the impression that it was up for a vote, and it’s possible that council members could make amendments that push us closer to that path.
Instead we urge the council to compromise: Amend the Goals and Objectives to include the process laid out in the Goal 4 report, but include language to begin the process sooner than 2026, as the report currently suggests. This would allow pockets of land to be proposed for specific development that the Planning Commission and the council would have to approve through zoning changes. Rather than just opening up acreage, it would confine new development to one project at a time, subject to requirements about what Lexington needs most, such as housing. It would also create time limits so that if a project is not completed in a certain amount of time, that approval would be removed. If the Goal 4 matrix needs polishing, there’s time to do it. This is hardly a perfect solution — it may lead to even more and more heated zoning fights, but in our view, we have reached a point in our land use that every project deserves individual scrutiny and developers require accountability they haven’t always received.
In many ways, this fundamental struggle is still between horse people who want the boundary to stay exactly as it is forever and developers who want to develop much more with little to no restrictions on how to do so. But one reason for that is that these issues are so intensely complicated that only the most passionate advocates understand the hundreds of dull but crucial intricacies. We should all educate ourselves because we now see first-hand how much they affect us all. The city’s website on the Comp Plan is an excellent place to start, as is CivicLex’s information on the history and how we got to this point. And as always, reporter Beth Musgrave’s reporting on this topic is essential.
We all need to understand and we all need to care. This is one of the most important decisions this council will make. Our housing crunch demands both action and thoughtful process but they can be used together to reach some resolution.
Lexington’s Comprehensive Plan affects how the city expands. Here’s what you should know
