Lexington council must act now on land use policies to improve housing, jobs, equity | Opinion

Imagine you are a firefighter and can’t afford to live in the same community where you save lives. Or a teacher who can’t afford a home near the school where she transforms lives. Or a single parent raising a family in substandard housing because there are no affordable alternatives.

Imagine the company where you work might be forced to move out of the county because it has outgrown its facility and can’t find suitable space here.

Imagine that your community will be facing a budget shortfall of tens of millions of dollars, which means taxes will be raised or services will be cut — or both — if we can’t increase the number of jobs that are contributing more than 60 percent of the city’s revenues.

Lexingtonians don’t have to imagine. Every day, they face the reality that a lack of supply of housing across all incomes has caused home prices to skyrocket 80 percent in 10 years and made Lexington No. 7 in highest rent increases in the country by one measure and No. 1 by another calculation.

This is Lexington in 2023. But it doesn’t have to be Lexington 2028 or 2045. Right now, the council members are revising the Goals & Objectives for the next Comprehensive Plan, called Imagine Lexington, which will guide the city’s development for the future.

It’s time for a common sense, balanced approach to land use policies that work for every segment of our community. Here’s how we balance the needs of all of our neighbors with the desire to protect our signature horse farms and iconic rural landscape:

Housing

The city is one of the largest owners of vacant/underutilized land in the county. By providing land for affordable housing, the city would reduce costs.

Our community also must emphasize housing opportunities for all because our essential workers and young professionals are being squeezed out of the market as well.

Other recommendations include exploring opportunities for public-private partnerships and evaluating the cost/benefit of current and future zoning ordinances and processes.

Jobs

In recent years, Lexington has lost 1,500 jobs to surrounding counties with another 1,000+ in jeopardy of leaving due to a lack of available land for business expansion. We should encourage land development that attracts, expands and retains jobs in employment sectors that provide upward mobility and prosperity for all and prioritize identifying land opportunities for job creation and workforce housing needs.

Land Availability

Making more land available is the one solution that will have a tremendous positive impact on housing, jobs and equity.

The original intent of the Urban Service Boundary was to allow incremental growth as needed to keep the land compact and contiguous. It was not created to constrain growth but rather to manage it.

Our population grew 145 percent, but our acreage only grew 27 percent from 1960 to 2020.

Around the time of the 1996 expansion, Lexington still had enough land within the old boundary that it was able to build around 1,800 homes per year. Today we are building around 600 homes per year.

That’s why we strongly urge the Council to include more land within the Urban Service Boundary based on the recommendations of the Goal 4 Work Group, which represented a wide variety of interests and achieved consensus on areas for inclusion:

▪ Authorize property owners to file zone map amendments for limited properties, not to exceed 5,000 acres, in areas along the I-75 corridor near Richmond and Winchester roads. This land includes willing sellers/developers, is near critical infrastructure and has no impact on horse farms.

▪ Utilize the existing planning process, which is informed by robust public engagement and is built upon a thorough research-based foundation.

▪ Finalize a Growth Management Plan as described in the Goal 4 Work Group Report for all other areas identified on its map to inform future growth and long-range planning.

As the only governmental body that is directly accountable to the people and the only one that represents every neighborhood in Lexington, we urge council members to strengthen the goals and objectives, include more land within the boundary, and ensure strong accountability so we don’t find ourselves with the status quo in another 5 years.

Ray Daniels is chairman of the board of Lexington for Everyone. Visit https://lexingtonforeveryone.com/ for more information.