# Planning Commission - Comprehensive Plan Goals & Objectives Public Hearing - September 7, 2017 > Auto-transcribed civic record · September 7, 2017 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4330 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4330?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2017-09-07 - **Last revised**: September 7, 2017 - **Length**: 21,924 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Urban County Planning Commission held a public input hearing on August 31, 2017, at 1:30 PM in the Council Chambers on the 2nd Floor of the Government Center at 200 East Main Street in Lexington, Kentucky, with William Wilson presiding. The meeting focused exclusively on gathering public input for the Imagine Lexington 2018 Comprehensive Plan Update Goals & Objectives, serving as an informational session rather than a decision-making meeting. The commission heard from 36 members of the public who provided comments and feedback on the comprehensive plan update. One motion was made during the proceedings, and no formal votes were taken on substantive planning matters as this was designated as a public input hearing. ## Attendance The following members were present at the September 7, 2017 meeting: • Headley Bell • Will Berkley • Mike Cravens • Larry Forester • Karen Mundy • Mike Owens • Frank Penn • Carolyn Plumlee • Carolyn Richardson • William Wilson **Absent:** • Patrick Brewer No members arrived late to the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The meeting included one formal motion regarding the scheduling of future proceedings. **Motion to Continue Meeting** Carolyn Richardson made a motion for continuance of the meeting to September 7, 2017, at 3:00 PM to discuss the Comprehensive Plan [timestamp: 03:00:00]. The motion was decided by voice vote and passed. No second was recorded for this motion, and specific vote counts for ayes, nays, or abstentions were not documented in the official record. The approved continuance established that the body would reconvene later the same day at 3:00 PM specifically to address matters related to the Comprehensive Plan. ## Public Comment The meeting featured extensive public comment from 36 speakers addressing urban planning and development issues in Lexington. [timestamp: 00:00] **Urban Service Boundary** was the dominant topic, with speakers divided on expansion. Those opposing expansion included Susan Speckert from Fayette Alliance, who cited fiscal responsibility and existing land availability, and Elizabeth Jensen, who advocated for rural land preservation. Lee Acker, Barbara Sutherland, Phyllis Hasbrouck, Amanda Matthews, Brad Connell, Alan Bartley, and Mary Dianna Hanna also opposed boundary expansion. Supporters of expansion included Chas Hite, who argued the current boundary would increase land costs and housing unaffordability, and Stephen Howard, who viewed expansion as an opportunity. Mike Inman and Todd Johnson expressed concerns about housing affordability without expansion. **Economic development** concerns were raised by several business representatives. Taylor Sawyer from Big Ass Fans highlighted difficulty finding large, contiguous parcels for business expansion. Carla Blanton from Commerce Lexington emphasized the need for more land to sustain economic growth. Quincy Cutshaw read a letter urging readily available, properly zoned economic development land. **Housing issues** were addressed by multiple speakers. Ty Brown emphasized the need for diverse and affordable housing options, while Leslie Foster raised concerns about senior housing needs and flooding issues with new development. **Regional planning** was discussed by Anne Gay Donworth and Jon Larsen, with Larsen advocating for deferring decisions until a regional plan is developed. **Agricultural preservation** was supported by Chauncey Morris, who highlighted the thoroughbred industry's economic impact, and Carrie McIntosh, who emphasized protecting agricultural economy and rural character. Several speakers provided technical perspectives, including Nick Nicholson, who presented vacant land figures and expressed skepticism about development land availability, and Buddy Goodwin, who highlighted challenges in finding available housing development land. The comments reflected a clear divide between growth advocates citing economic development and housing affordability needs, and preservation supporters emphasizing fiscal responsibility and rural character protection. ## Contested Items The primary contested item during this meeting centered on the Urban Service Boundary expansion proposal, which generated significant community opposition and divided public opinion. **Urban Service Boundary Expansion** The council faced a contentious decision regarding whether to expand the Urban Service Boundary, with the community sharply divided on the issue. The disagreement focused on two competing priorities: addressing housing affordability concerns versus preserving rural land from development. Supporters of the boundary expansion argued that increasing the developable land area was necessary to help address housing affordability challenges in the community. They contended that restricting available land for development contributed to higher housing costs by limiting supply. Opposition to the expansion came from residents and stakeholders concerned about the preservation of rural land and the potential environmental and community impacts of increased development. These opponents argued that expanding the boundary would lead to unwanted sprawl and the loss of valuable agricultural or natural areas. The public input revealed the depth of the division within the community, with passionate arguments presented on both sides of the issue. The debate highlighted the ongoing tension many communities face between managing growth pressures and maintaining their rural character. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps, participant names, and the final outcome of this contested item were not available in the provided meeting data.* ## Imagine Lexington 2018 Comprehensive Plan Update Goals & Objectives Public Input [timestamp: 00:00] The Planning Commission held a public input hearing on the proposed Goals & Objectives for the Imagine Lexington 2018 Comprehensive Plan update. Multiple stakeholders provided comments on various aspects of the plan's direction for urban growth, land use policies, and housing development. Key speakers during the public comment period included Jim Duncan, Chris Woodall, Traci Wade, Janice Westlund, Chris Taylor, Meghan Jennings, and Stephanie Cunningham. The speakers represented diverse perspectives on how Lexington should approach its comprehensive planning process and future development patterns. The discussion focused on the Goals & Objectives framework that would guide the comprehensive plan update. Participants expressed their views on critical planning topics including urban growth management, land use policies, and housing strategies. The input session allowed community members and stakeholders to share their priorities and concerns about the direction of Lexington's long-term planning efforts. This was an informational hearing designed to gather public feedback rather than make decisions. The Planning Commission received the comments to inform their ongoing work on the comprehensive plan update process. The input collected during this session would be considered as the commission continues developing the Imagine Lexington 2018 plan's goals and objectives. The public hearing provided an opportunity for community engagement in the early stages of the comprehensive plan update, allowing residents and stakeholders to influence the foundational elements that would shape Lexington's planning policies and development approach for years to come. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Continuance of the meeting to September 7, 2017, at 3:00 PM to discuss the Comprehensive Plan --- ## Full transcript Don't just love their children every now and then It's love without end, amen Love without end, amen When I became a father in the spring of 81 There was no doubt that stubborn boy was just like my father's son And when I thought my patience had been tested to the end I took my daddy's secret and I passed it on to him I said let me tell you a secret about a father's love A secret that my daddy said was just between us I said daddies don't just love their children every now and then It's a love without end, amen It's a love without end, amen Last night I dreamed I died and stood outside those pearly gates When suddenly I realize there must be some mistake If they know half the things I've done they'll never let me in Then somewhere from the other side I heard these words again They said let me tell you a secret about a father's love A secret that my daddy said was just between us You see, daddies don't just love their children every now and then It's a love without end, amen It's a love without end, amen I close my eyes Only for a moment and the moment's gone All my dreams Pass before my eyes the curiosity Dust in the wind All they are is dust in the wind Same old song Just a drop of water In and in the sea All we do Crumbles to the ground Though we refuse to see All we are is dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind Oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh You can't help yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Thank you. When did you stop loving me? How long have I been a memory? I've got to know all my own insanity Tell me when did you stop loving me? Was it that night that you stayed out until dawn? You know that night is haunting me for so long. Was your love already cold? Tell me please I gotta know. Oh, darling, when did you stop loving me? There was a time when you worshipped where I stood. If I know I'd bring it back If I could Now I can tell when we make love It ain't me you're thinking home Tell me when did you start loving me Darling, when did you start loving me I've heard people say that too much of anything is not good for you, baby. But I don't know about that. As many times as we love and we shared love and made love, It doesn't seem to me like it's enough. It's just not enough, baby. It's just not enough. Oh, baby. My darling God, can't get enough of your love, baby. Girl, I don't know, I don't know why. I can't get enough to get enough to say Lord, the things I can't get used to No matter how I try It's like the more you give, the more I want And baby, that's no lie Oh, no, babe Tell me, what can I say? What am I gonna do? How should I feel with everything in you What kind of love is this That you give me to me Is it in your kiss Or just because you're sweet Girl, all I know Is every time you're here I feel a change Something moves I scream your name Know what you got to do It's all the kind I can't get enough of your love, baby Girl, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know why I can't get enough of your love, baby Oh, no, baby Girl, if I could only make you see Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and put it in the middle of the room. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to call the Excellent Planning Commission meeting August the 31st, 2017 to order. This is a public meeting, and we're quite anxious to hear from you all. We thank you so very, very much for coming down and for participating. I'd like to thank the staff, and I'd like to thank the commission members. This is the promises to be a very exciting day. We want to hear from each and every one of you. We've got quite an agenda here, and what we're going to do is, first of all, give you a little bit of what you can expect today. We're first of all going to have a brief presentation from the staff on Imagine Lexington to give us an update on the goals and objectives. After that, that will be the staff presentation. Then after that, and immediately after that, we'll do the public comment. Let me indicate, because of the numbers of people that want to speak, and believe me, I am so happy to see that, and I think there may be others who will, we have a sign-up sheet, and we will take you in the order in which you signed up. If you have not signed up but still would like to speak, we can accommodate that. I mean, that's why we're here. I would like to remind you of one thing, however, and that is in order for your words to be immortal, they don't have to be eternal. To that end, we would ask if you would accommodate you and accommodate your fellow colleagues of approximately three minutes, and there will be a clock set up so that you'll be able to see that. Now, if you want to run over about five seconds or so, we're not going to make a big to do about that. We do want to hear from you. That's the reason why we're having this meeting. So to that end, we shall start and we shall begin. Is everybody buckled up? Are you ready? Then let's go. Mr. Chris Rudolph, please. Mr. Chairman, members of the commission, I'm pleased to be here today at the culmination of a very long process over many months of study and reflection and thoughtful deliberation. Together we have covered an immense amount of ground to get us to where we are today and I've enjoyed working with each of you as we've been through this process. So the question before us today is it has been the entire time is how do we want to grow? So through consulting with the public through an unprecedented outreach process allowing us to hear from more citizens than ever before, studying our housing market, green space, demographics and much more we believe we've come to solution that's both ambitious and achievable. Staff believes the proposal before you today is a good one and one that reflects a vision for the community that allows us to continue to grow while enhancing the aspects of Lexington that make it desirable. Now as I mentioned the Commission and staff have been working on the goals and objectives for quite some time, almost a full year at this point. Staff has been laying the groundwork doing general data collection and laying the baseline demographic data, public input where we heard from over 11,000 folks about how they imagine Lexington, some work sessions with the commission covering topics such as housing, green space, commercial land, regionalism, corridor redevelopment, and so on. Once you all pass this on, council will have 90 days for which to act on your recommendation, making it highly likely that we will reach our goal of being able to wrap up the goals and objectives by the end of 2017. From there, we will turn to how we implement the plan and fleshing out the remainder of the elements based upon the approved goals and objectives by council. So from the beginning, staff sort of wanted to raise the profile of the comprehensive plan. We see this as a very important document for our community, and one of the ways we did that was by creating the Imagine Lexington brand and logo. We had a dedicated website, still do, ImagineLexington.com, which was our repository for data, information, and educational materials. The social media presence through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram also helped, as well as three educational videos produced in conjunction with the good folks at LexTV here. Once we had begun laying the baseline data, it was time to turn our eyes to the public input meetings. And we had five public input meetings geographically located throughout the community at a variety of different times. We had a couple hundred folks who participated in that process. They had several ways from which to provide input into the plan, including our public input form, which was available to them both at the meeting as well as online. We received a lot of interesting feedback at these meetings. And speaking of interesting feedback, the On the Table initiative was a wonderful opportunity for us this year to partner with the Bluegrass Community Foundation, Leadership Lexington, and the Fayette County Public Schools to bring a brand new public input opportunity to Lexington that provided us some incredible insights. on the table brought over 11,000 people to the table through informal discussions to discuss the issues that are important to Lexington and our community. This was an unprecedented effort that allowed us to have more impact and inform more folks for the comprehensive plan than we've ever had before. So what did we do with this public input? Well, we generated a rather lengthy public input report that we presented to you all, summarizing the key themes that emerged from our public input efforts. So some of the examples of what we heard were folks saying build up not out an emphasis in redevelopment and infill, accessibility to goods and services, the importance of connected and walkable neighborhoods to our communities. Government transparency and communication was important to make sure that we uphold our end of the bargain and keep the lines of communication open as we continue to serve the public. So overall we've been very pleased with the public's response to our calls to action and I'm encouraged to see a good turnout here as well with citizens eager to voice their opinions on how we can continue to improve Lexington. As part of our study, staff also explored the vacant land acreage that currently exists within the urban service area. After reviewing the data and poring over some aerial photography, we found we have roughly 5,600 acres of vacant developable land in the urban service area and roughly that equates to roughly 10% of our total urban service area. We also found that we have about 2,000 acres in tracts of more than 100 acres and about 1,300 acres in tracts of less than 10 acres, so we've got a wide variety of vacant parcels and opportunities scattered throughout the community. Additionally, part of what we learned leading up to the comprehensive plan discussions came out of our green space survey, which was a funded partnership through the Environmental Services and Purchase of Development Rights Program. The purpose of this was to gauge citizens' opinions on green space, and what they told us was by and large, the ones that participated in the survey said that they support the PDR program. They're not in favor of expansion generally. The green space, they heavily utilize green space as well. Another key input into our goals and objectives was the housing demand study, executed in conjunction with a number of partners including PBA, DDA, BIA, LBAR, Fayette Alliance, along with members of the council and the Planning Commission. Now this study highlighted for us our midterm housing projections and the primary takeaway from that study was that we're projected to have as we continue to grow we need for 23,000 housing units in Lexington over the next 10 years. Of that 23,000 about 15,000 are projected to be in single-family homes Now this can take place in a variety of evolving formats as described by our consultant in the report and will include townhomes, fourplexes for example, in addition to single-family detached housing. Now we also learned from this report that over half the folks employed in Lexington commute in from other other counties, which is lending evidence to the fact that we are a regional housing market. Our adjacent communities, counties continue to grow and in many instances are growing at a faster rate than we are percentage wise but still adding fewer persons than our steady 1.2 percent growth that we see in Fayette County year over year. As we continue to identify for years infill and redevelopment is an important piece of our growth strategy and will continue to be as we move forward. As part of our data exploration we can we conducted an analysis of the utilization of commercially zoned properties throughout the urban service area based on the floor area ratio or the square footage of improvements versus lot size. We conducted this analysis based on a Raleigh methodology and based upon each property's location and geography whether it be downtown, infill urban or suburban and by and large what we found was there was a great opportunity to promote redevelopment within our corridors which were shown to be vastly underutilized. Through doing this we can increase our public transit options and incorporate more residential opportunities throughout the urban service area while supporting our existing commercial enterprises so again to sort of sum up the process that we've undergone through January to August we've had 11 very productive work sessions with the Planning Commission and I'm thankful for that as part of our as part of our process you know we we propose this draft goals and objectives and the proposed draft leaves the majority of the 2013 text in place with strategic alterations that address the needs of the community as we've identified throughout this year-long process. 46 of the goals and objectives remain untouched, and there are 33 edited or new goals and objectives. So, what are the key impacts that come out of this proposed draft? Well, this proposal includes a few that really make up the thrust of the vision of what Imagine Lexington is. Now, first and foremost, the staff believes after studying all the inputs that we do not have a need to expand the urban service boundary at this time. All our data has shown that we have adequate resources to handle development within the boundary and facilitate Lexington's evolving urbanization. Through this urbanization, we believe we are taking steps toward meeting the projected housing demand by providing opportunities for dense and diverse developments that will allow for housing that's affordable at all income levels. Of course, with this more intense development comes the question of how this development can coexist with existing neighborhoods. We believe that this new growth should enhance existing neighborhoods, and we propose creating design guidelines and zone map amendment criteria to ensure that this development is achieved in a context-sensitive manner. simply growth should result in community. Additionally, as I spoke to earlier, we've identified our corridors are vastly underutilized and we are proposing a more concerted effort to study them and identify opportunities to reinvest in our community while providing additional transit options. Now some other important aspects of the proposed plan include developing criteria to guide zone map amendments. One of the critiques of the 2013 plan was that it provided too much flexibility and not enough concrete guidance to the Planning Commission when it came to zone map amendments. The proposed criteria to be developed in the elements phase in 2018 will aid in giving the guidance that the Planning Commission seeks and will help ensure the balance between density and context sensitivity. We are also proposing a way to sort of track our progress, give us, as we proceed between five year updates. The website hosted metrics will allow us internally to keep tabs on how we're doing and also provide the public a measuring stick so they can hold us accountable to making sure we're achieving what it is we're setting out to do. Now one of the primary tasks we'll be tracking is our progress related to a study of the the urban service area evaluation process as proposed in the goals and objectives. The urban service area has been a key piece of our growth management strategy since it was initiated in 1958. It encourages compact and contiguous urban development and in doing so, preserves farmland, which is our economic driver, our global brand, our primary contributor to our quality of life and livability among other benefits. The urban service area will always be a key piece of our growth management strategy. And again, staff does not believe at this point that an expansion of the urban service boundary is warranted. We think the scenarios we provided, the data, the public input, all support this conclusion at this time. However, every five years, we begin a two-year-long process of updating the comprehensive plan, which is largely dominated each time by discussions of whether or not we expand the urban service area. This leaves us with little time to discuss community vision and growth policies. And each time we do not expand, the conversation becomes more and more contentious. Also, it's important to understand we'll not be able to expand forever. And so instead of making short-term decisions, it's important for us to have a long-range plan in place so that we can decide how we want to grow as a community. This is the longest time that we have gone without a major amendment to the urban service area, whether that be an expansion or a contraction, almost 20 years. So we think the opportunity is here and the timing is right to reevaluate the way we make these decisions and how do we make this process better to make it work for our community. By defining our most valuable agricultural resources for long range preservation and working our way in, we can identify the areas where potential future urban growth may occur. And we believe opportunities exist to improve our infill and redevelopment at the same time in this process providing an incentive-based system that rewards quality infill and redevelopment within the current urban service boundary with additional development opportunities. We need to focus on the quality of development we are getting rather than the specific location of expansion while at the same time guaranteeing we preserve what needs to be preserved. This allows us to talk about how we want to grow which is what comprehensive planning is. So the next steps where do we go from here well the planning commission will now consider public input into the proposed draft which we've included on let imagine Lexington calm and then decide at the conclusion of the public comment when to schedule a vote on a recommendation to make the council council will then review them this fall hopefully be approved by the end of 2017 and then the implementation and elements sections of the plan can be written and approved by this body at the end of 2018 but we're not here to talk about the elements in the implementation at this point we're here to talk about the proposed draft of the goals and objectives which is why all these fine folks came here today so at this point we'd like to turn it back over to the chair and recommend that you open the floor for public comment thank you mr. Woodall and we'll have an opportunity to my commission members to have a discussion the procedure will follow is we'll hear from the audience from citizens and if you have a clarifying question we will allow maybe a minute or two for you to ask that question but at the end of that after we've heard from the audience if the time permits we'll have a general discussion among ourselves along those lines also i didn't uh fail to mention that there will be no vote taken today what we're here to do again is to listen and we want to listen as carefully and respectfully as we possibly can with that i have a list a roster here and again i will just go down the roster you come forward again if you would please abide by the three minute rule and then commission members if you have clarifying questions feel free to ask that will not be counted against the presenter first on our list is mr. John Lawson Mr. Chairman there are also some seats up front here if people want to yes we we We do have seats here in the front. And as you come forward as a presenter, even though we know who you are, if you would, give us your name and address before you start. Thank you. I'd hoped to come up with something during the meeting, because I came unprepared, but I just wanted to add my voice to the many others that think that the city's at a stable, good population, and growth only means more people, more development. Widening of roads mean more people. And people, I just want to see us take a step towards sustainability as far as population, not only building against building, but population as well. Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Taylor Sawyer. And if the others, Mr. Chris Height, Ms. Quincy, Cutshaw, Ms. Clara, Carla Martin, Mr. Richard Murphy, if you'll start getting in line, that way we'll be able to save ourselves a little bit. If you come over here and then we'll just pick you up quickly. Yes, sir. Hello, I'm Taylor Sawyer with Big Ass Fans, which was founded here in Lexington in 1999. It has now grown to an annual revenue of $240 million. A constant struggle for our company, though, has been locating contiguous available property within the city. Our staff has spread between five buildings with a 20-minute drive required between them. Now, we have been quite fortunate that our three newest locations are all in the Bluegrass Business Park off Georgetown Road that has had space either available or that could be acquired from other expanding companies. With Lexington boasting the 14th highest rate of startups in 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau it's vital that the city have property available for those companies that ultimately grow and thrive. Thank you. Mr. Hyte. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the Planning Commission, Planning Staff, and fellow citizens. My name is Charles Hyte. I have come before this Planning Commission on many occasions, usually on the behalf of Richard Murphy, excellent planning attorney here in town. But today I come as a private citizen on behalf of no clients, but I am a private citizen with a Master of Science degree in city planning and with over 25 years experience in the field. I'm an eighth generation Fayette Countian. We started in Athens about the time that the Commonwealth became the Commonwealth. Our family occupied one of the first brick homes out in the county for 175 years, Christian Place, Pew Price House. I bring all these things up to give you my bona fides, mostly for the people behind me. Many of you people already know all that. But that is to say that I do care about my hometown very much. I want to compliment the staff and the unpaid, underappreciation, underappreciated and not even given a reserved parking space planning commission. I've attended almost all of your work sessions over the past year as you all have discussed the comprehensive plan and the expansion of the urban services area. I come to speak against keeping the USA boundary as is. This plan is meant to be for 20 years and I don't think we have enough land for even a future five years, much less a future 20. If you do this, it will cause Lexington to become more exclusionary. Just as the common fan is being priced out of Rupp Arena, many good potential citizens are being priced out of Lexington and Fayette County. By not expanding the boundary, an already tight housing market will become even tighter. Land costs will increase even further. Young people will be priced out of the market, and it will make subsidized and low-cost housing nearly impossible. This flies in the face of your plan's goals of providing affordable and varied housing. I, as well as most people, believe that increasing density is a noble goal. However, I also believe that the current plan's dependence on infill along the corridors is optimistic. But even if it were successful, it would further congest already crowded major arterials. The plans hope for expanded transit does not comport with the lifestyle preferences of the majority of those who live and work in Fayette County. I know it's probably too late to introduce a new idea for this comprehensive plan, but one thing I thought of is in the future when you make expansions to the urban services area, make them conditional. Tell the landowner that if they don't develop their land within 15 or 20 years, there's a possibility they could lose their USA benefit. I also thought that you might be able to implement a land exchange program. Obviously, contiguous land, but those that want to develop and can't get in might exchange their privilege of being in the USA with those that are currently in the USA and are choosing not to develop. thank you so much for your time mr. height since you spoke so favorably in the fact of the Commission having parking spaces you get another 10 minutes mr. Quincy cutshaw my name is Quincy cutch on here on behalf of Dental Blythe company our CEO Bill Quinneman has pinned a letter I'd like to read on his behalf right now. Denham Blythe strongly urges the Planning Commission and Urban County Council to adopt policies that provide land that is readily available and properly zoned for the economic development in Lexington. We are a design-built construction group based here in Lexington for over 40 years. Our company offers a full array of construction services to our existing and potential clients. Among those services, we provide guidance on searching for property for clients who wish to build new facilities in Lexington. We, well, abroad, we encourage our clients to build in Lexington whenever possible to reduce costs to aid in our community's growth as well as our company grows. However, the task of finding suitably zoned property in Fayette County has proved to be increasingly difficult in comparison to the neighboring counties and states. Lexington's limitations have caused it to lose potential clients and projects by forcing them to build outside our community due to the insufficient land opportunities for their needs. We believe this trend can be mitigated with proper support from our government and our community leaders. More properly zoned land will allow Lexington the ability to attract businesses that employ residents and high-wage jobs and therefore will aiding growing Lexington's economy. By prioritizing this critical need for land in the comprehensive plan, Lexington will have the opportunity for the growth it deserves. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Carla Blanton. Also, for those of you, again, mr richard murphy miss susan speck if you all like to just line up over here you'd be closer to the mr henry duncan you're being mr don robinson after that and i'll start taking a new series of people after that now miss blanton welcome back as a former member of the lexington planning commission how does it feel being on the opposite side uh really good because i'll be leaving in in about five minutes. I remember having to pack a dinner before, so it's good. Good afternoon. I appreciate your time. You've heard from many segments of the community about important goals that they want included in the comprehensive plan, but none of those goals, not one, can be achieved if we don't have a vibrant economy. Our payroll tax, which makes up the vast majority of the city's revenue, is flat. We can't sustain public safety and infrastructure, much less invest in significant projects such as town branch, PDR, or the old courthouse renovations if we don't create more jobs. But we are quickly approaching the time, and we may already be there, when we are running out of land that is truly available and ready to develop. Commerce Lexington has identified fewer than 15 reasonable sites of at least 10 acres scattered throughout Lexington. Lexington. That means we can't accommodate prospective or even existing employers who need tracks with dozens of acres and site selection consultants know it. Our economic development team travels extensively to promote Lexington but site consultants regularly tell us that they know we don't have the properly zoned business parks for their projects. Many times they don't even contact us because we do not have those large parcels of land. In other words we don't even know what projects we might be missing out on. That should send shivers down the spine of everyone in this room. Everyone who depends on public safety, infrastructure, and quality schools. In other words, the entire community. The losses are real. Consider just three projects that located outside Fayette County in the last several years. More than a bakery, Amazon Kindle, and Lakeshore Learning would have generated an estimated tax revenue of almost 2 point two million annually. Mike Mullis, who's a site selection consultant who brought us Tiffany and Company with its 250 jobs has said, economic developers and cities should have business parks with 200 plus acres of land zoned with infrastructure in place. The natural beauty of Lexington, including its horse farms, is a recruiting tool that we often leverage and we must protect, but we also must begin plans to invest in that new business park. Commerce Lexington's strongly supports policies and initiatives to provide a sufficient supply of land that is readily available for economic opportunities and job creation through either a public or public and private business park aimed at recruiting high-wage jobs. This land ideally should be shovel-ready, properly zoned, have infrastructure and transportation access, include large block tracks, and be competitively priced. Let me close with a quote from another consultant. Available land and a good condition with infrastructure and incentives in place can be a critical factor in deciding whether to build a new facility or not. We also will need to see flexibility for zoning on the part of local government to support further development and job growth. On behalf of the 1,700 job creators that we represent, please ensure that flexibility and job creation are central to the next comprehensive plan. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Murphy. And following Ms. Spector is Mr. Duncan, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Henry. You all get prepared to speak. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've got four clients. I made it in an extra minute, but I'll go here. I want to give you a report from the front here. Last time I had a zone change in Nicholasville in front of the Nicholasville Planning Commission. Before I started, they said to me, Mr. Murphy, we know you're from Lexington. We want you to understand we do not want Lexington starter homes in Nicholasville. I said, fine. I didn't have starter homes. That's great. I talked to a practitioner down there. He said that's still the position they take down there. I could get something similar in Georgetown. I don't think we can count on our surrounding communities wanting to take our single-family detached market. Second, the numbers we have rely a lot upon the density along the corridors. We need to remember that even if we do that, you have to do small area plan studies, text amendments, zone changes, convince banks to loan money. I don't think any of that's going to come online in the next five years. Third thing I want to mention is we need to have a possibility for adjustment of urban service lines, the boundary lines, as it crosses small properties. I've got two clients who have small tracks, which is bisected by the urban service boundary line. The reason the line is where it is has gone away or changed in the last 30 years. Right now, as it is, we have no ability to change that line, even if there's no logical reason for it. I hope we don't get in a situation where we're so eager to say we didn't allow a single extra acre in the urban service boundary, that we can't look at individual small properties and have some degree of flexibility on those properties regarding the location of the urban service area line. Last thing, I do have two property owners who own larger tracks in the Winchester Road, Athens-Brunsboro Road corridor. You all may recall that 20 years ago a study was done after the expansion area master plan was completed to determine where growth should go when it is needed. And at that time, based upon the topography, based on the highway capacity, based on the highway access, based on the sewer ability, based on the fact that it was not in a horse farm area and that it was not in the PDR area, it was determined that that corridor, Winchester Road, Athens-Boonsboro Road, was where growth should go. It has been studied, and you have made that determination. And there's a lot of other reasons about traffic connectivity and that sort of thing. I want to point out to you, too, finally, that we have a system in Lexington where new growth pays for itself. When there's development in the expansion area, the cost of all the infrastructure is borne by those properties through the exaction fee system. And I think sometimes we forget about that. When we have plats in here, every penny of that is paid for privately through the expansionary system. Taxpayers do not subsidize growth. In summary, I feel that we need to expand the urban service area line this time around, and I'm hopeful that we can keep our home building industry active here in Lexington. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Beckett. And with Mr. Henry Delgate. Good. Good afternoon, Chairman Wilson and members of the Planning Commission. Susan Speckard on behalf of the Fayette Alliance. We previously submitted a letter to you in support of the vast majority of the goals and objectives recommended by the planning staff. We appreciate your careful consideration of our letter. The staff base their recommendations on objective data, tested planning principles, and overwhelming public sentiment. The recommendations address the fundamental growth issues facing our community. From housing for our aging population and affordable housing, to redevelopment of our commercial corridors and transportation infrastructure. The key to achieving the innovative vision laid out by the planning staff is not expanding the urban services boundary or rural activity centers. According to the data, and as the staff has made clear consistently, we have plenty of land to accommodate our future growth without expanding. There are over 17,000 acres of vacant, undeveloped, and underutilized land available inside the curb at urban service boundary. We support the recommendations primarily for the following reasons. First, not expanding is fiscally responsible. We must continue to clean up our sewer mess and maintain and repair our other existing infrastructure that the taxpayers do pay for, rather than building out and adding additional construction and maintenance costs. Second, we have plenty of land to grow jobs inside the existing urban services boundary. The issue is not land availability, but activating our existing land. This commission and the council have just taken steps to do just that, by amending the P2 and ED zoning ordinances, and by passing the public infrastructure program. And we need to give those programs and changes an opportunity to work. By not expanding, not only do we create job opportunities inside our city limits, but we also continue to ensure the viability of our strong agricultural industries and our burgeoning tourism and travel industry. And third, as we've talked about quite a lot, housing will not meet our most pressing housing needs. We were very proud to be a co-sponsor of the housing study. The consultant presented the study to the council just a couple weeks ago on August 15th, and when Councilmember Stenet asked the consultant what the biggest takeaway from the study was, the consultant said, and I'm quoting, you need to change significantly to a much more diverse housing product if we're going to meet the housing needs of our aging population, 20-somethings, working families, and low-income citizens. And finally, the majority of citizens do not support expansion, as has been made clear through the unprecedented efforts taken by the staff to gauge public input. We do believe that the recommended goals and objectives set us on the right path, and we thank the staff for their hard work and vision, and we ask this commission to embrace the opportunity presented by the staff. Thank you for your attention and your public service. Thank you. Mr. Duncan. Is this a combination? This is a pair here. You can just sit right there. Mr. Duncan, is that you? Henry Duncan, I live in an adjoining county, have been for going 40 years. Working with Dr. Laura Galkovich as a co-worker at the University of Kentucky, had the opportunity to work in many counties throughout the state, involved with development and those sort of things in counties throughout Kentucky. I say that to say that you indicated that 51% of employees come from outside of this county. I would say also that a much higher percent of the shoppers and the real estate people, not real estate, but realtor people who are purchasing things such as myself in adjoining counties and throughout the state come in to this county. The reason I point this out is two things. The importance of what you are doing here, not only to this Lexington Fayette County government, but this entire region and to the state of Kentucky. I just want to say how important this is and how much that I, for a little bit I know, working with Dr. Lortovich about the planning process, how professional you're going about this and how much we appreciate this. And I personally think other counties, other communities need to be very aware of what you're doing and use this as an example. Thank you very much for what you're doing. Thank you, Mr. Duncan. Mr. Don Robinson. And Mr. Henry, Mr. David Berg. Elizabeth Jensen good afternoon I'm Don Robinson I'm chair of the Fayette Alliance I live at 4153 Military Pike also on the rural land management board I shared seats with you all from 1996 at the expansion area master plan and I just simply want to say how incredibly evolved planning in lexington has become and i applaud the staff for the work that they've done i think we have from 96 till now have just come really grown a very sophisticated town a very vibrant rural area because we recognize the importance of it and i just simply want to thank the staff and ask that you all support their recommendations so thank you very much thank you miss henry my name is jerry henry david berg and i represent ashland park neighborhood association uh we have a david got a short statement to make as far as the easiest way to explain why we are here is to say that we support precisely what you just heard from Susan Specker. Thank you very much. Thank you. By the way, anyone who wants to speak on behalf of the commission having parking spaces, you get a little extra time. I just want to let you know that. Okay. Ms. Jensen? Thank you. I could easily say I support everything Susan Speckert says to and be done with my three minutes. But it's also very personal for me. My name is Elizabeth Jensen. My husband, Mark Guilfoyle, and I own a small farm in the southeast part of Fayette County. We raise cattle, and my husband hunts, and I also serve on the Greenspace Commission. And I'd like to thank the Rural Land Management Board, my fellow members of the Greenspace Commission, and the Planning Commission for all of the time and effort that they've spent pulling this together. Our farm is part of the bluegrass's woodland pasture geographic region. It's something that's unique. It was created by drought and grazing of the American bison hundreds of years before this area was settled. And the American bison are all gone, and the pasture land is disappearing, and our open spaces are disappearing. The woodland pasture is a valuable part of our ecosystem still today. When farmers began moving to the bluegrass, the woodland pastures provided instant grazing for livestock. Cattle and sheep were here first, and then the horse industry developed. Farmers had no need to clear the land because it was already open for grazing and had our huge, magnificent trees that benefit the livestock and still today preserve wildlife habitat for the indigenous species that are still here. Lucy Braun, the renowned botanist who wrote Decisionist Forests of North America, described our woodland pastures of the bluegrass as the most anomalous vegetation area in the Northeast United States. Still today, there exists no habitat like this anywhere else in North America. My husband wanted me to share with everybody that as far as he knows, nobody can create land anymore, and when it's gone, it's gone. We bought our farm, invested in livestock, machinery, significant improvements in infrastructure in Fayette County rather than neighboring counties because we believe Lexington has a history of commitment to balancing the quality of life and economic growth and preserving our green space and our agricultural land. What we have here is very special and I believe this will continue to attract people to our community and retain people who are living here. I request that you adopt the 2017 Rural Land Management Plan and not to expand the urban service area. Thank you. Next series of presenters is Mr. Lee Akers, Mr. Ty Brown, Mr. Alicia Huff, Mr. Michael Inman, if you all would get prepared. First of all, Mr. Lee Akers. And with the others lined up over here, I'll get prepared, ready to move. Hi, my name is Lee Acker and I live at 108 Goodridge Avenue in the Southland neighborhood. Mr. Akers, if you would, would you take the mic, speak right into the microphone? Oh, sure. Is that better? Yeah, now we're better. I'm Lee Acker and I live at 108 Goodridge Avenue and I'm in the Southland neighborhood. I just want to say that I do not want to see the U.S. be expanded and I would like to see all the improvements that are taking place in the repairs and the infrastructure. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Mr. Ty Brown. Hi, I'm Ty Brown. I represent not only myself as a Lexington transplant, but over 3,000 members of Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors. but most importantly I represent two young Kentuckians who hopefully have the opportunity to be educated, employed, and also start and grow their family in Lexington as well. While the facts have been presented to you, the facts have been presented in many ways, many different forms and methods, one thing stays consistent. People want to live here. People want to work here. It's proven by the consistent and continued growth of the population of Fayette County has seen over the last several decades. Lexington is a special place. people of all walks of life, all interests, all races, nationalities, and all with one thing in common. One thing that binds us all, one thing that has remained true since the dawn of mankind. Before any of us, people need a place to live. Shelter is a necessity for life. You're the leaders of our community, and you've charged with making very tough decisions, hopefully supported by facts that give your families, your constituents, and Lexingtonians, and frankly all of Kentucky the opportunity to achieve the American dream right here in Fayette County. To be able to work to support their families, thrive in a good job, and not have to drive into or out of our town creating more traffic and more environmental damage. You see everybody in this room, and not everybody in Lexington owns a horse farm, not everybody gets to see those farms or enjoy their beauty. Some people simply want to get by day by day, live the life the best they can for their families. Not every person in town wants to live on 10 acres. have a 4,000 square foot home. Not everybody wants to live in a neighborhood. Not everybody wants or can live in a downtown condo. Not everybody can afford to do any of these things or pay $1,400 a month rent for the new developments in town. With the current trends of increasing home prices, less homes are on the market, a continued trend of not meeting the minimum increase in demand for new home units that not everyone can afford. I think it's naive and frankly responsible to suggest that that is the only solution in infill and redevelopment strategy. One, environmental and regulatory costs are exacerbating the problem. It's been cited as a solution for our needs, the only solution. Gentrification is defined as a process of renovating and improving a house or district so it conforms to a middle-class taste. What that means in reality is that a home or district becomes more expensive to live in. The current residents cannot afford to live there any longer. This is what should or may occur if we strictly rely on infield and redevelopment. We have to have a balanced, smart plan that allows for new growth and smart expansion of the urban service boundary to allow for new home construction and economic development zones. This current strategy is possible to allow smart growth and expansion in areas that make sense, maximize the infill and redevelopment opportunities for those that wish to pursue them and preserve the beauty for our home. Again, thank you for your time, and please remember that everybody needs a place to live, everybody needs a place to work, and we should be able to do that in an affordable fashion right here in Lexington. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I'd like to defer my time to John Groft. Good afternoon. My name is John Groft. I currently serve as the President-Elect at the Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors, and I'll be the 2018 President as well. I have a statement to provide you as well. The Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors, LVAR, supports planned growth policies in Fayette County that encourage and sustain economic development. A strong employment base, our community's signature quality of life, and a diverse stock of housing types at all price levels to suit a diverse population. Infill and redevelopment within Lexington's urban core will be vital to Fayette County's future. However, the evidence is clear that zero growth land use policies will not meet the community's needs for housing. The empirical data contained in the recent housing market demand study and the latest population and workforce projections from the Kentucky State Data Center clearly demonstrates that Lexington will need to grow prudently and promptly to continue the flourish of the cultural and economic driver of the Bluegrass region. The comprehensive plan, while striving to sustain Fayette County signature agribusiness industries and valuable green space corridors cannot ignore the community's need for additional industrial, commercial, and residential opportunities. It is for these reasons LVAR supports a comprehensive plan that gives Lexington the flexibility to expand our community and meet its dynamic need growing forward. I appreciate all your all's work and look forward for the decision. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Michael Inman. That's it. And then following that, and I hope I get this correct, Ms. Sherry. Is it Wise and Fluck? Wise and Fluff? Fluke? Wise and Fluke? Is Wise and Fluke here? And I apologize if I butchered that name, but that's next on the roster. Okay, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Mike Inman, and I'm the Chair of Government Affairs for the Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors. Thank you for the opportunity to come together today. And I want to thank the staff for the work that you put into preparing this study. But our membership is opposed to the retention of the boundaries of the urban service area. I want to talk to you about just one aspect. I could spend a lot of time, a lot more than three minutes talking about it, but just one aspect, and that is housing affordability. From 2011 to 2016, there were 10,991 sales, 48% of the total, that were sold for less than $170,000, maximum affordability ceiling for low to moderate income households that earn less than 80% of the area medium income. Additionally, there were 6,076 sales of homes, 26.5% of the total, in the workforce housing range, which is between $170,000 and $255,000. Approximately a quarter of owner-purchased homes in Fayette County are priced above the maximum affordability for households or under 120% of the area median income. There are some signs that the pool of homes within reach of the low-to-moderate-income homebuyers may be shrinking. Of the 14,806 homes listed for sale in Fayette County in January 2015 to February 2017, 43.9% was listed for less than 170,000, compared to 48% of the sold homes from 2011 to 2016. Redevelopment and infill without smart growth or expanding the urban service area will result in increased housing costs and reduced housing affordability. You heard staff mention that 51% of Lexington's workforce commutes to Lexington every day. The housing study pointed out that this was a significant increase in recent years. The result of this is an increased demand for highways and increased traffic and increased housing prices. The intent of the urban service area, the impact of it already negatively impacts the working class families. increasingly if you go out as I do very often and sell homes in Versailles or even across the river in Mercer and Anderson County you will see Lexington police cars sitting in the driveways there our police firefighters teachers manufacturing workers and service workers cannot live inside Lexington because of the affordability of housing here our current policy already affects lower income first-time homebuyers and our seniors we all know that home Home ownership matters. It results in stronger families, reduced crime, better communities, better education, a higher income. The current restrictive expansion policy directly and negatively impacts housing affordability. I urge you to consider voting against this proposal and expand the urban service area. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Again, Ms. Sherry Weisenfluk, is she here? okay mr morris mr walburn miss sutherland miss carrie mcintosh miss lacy if you would line up and be prepared the next on the list is miss morris okay miss walbin mr okay just a minute you want to go first which one is which oh yes mr morris okay thank you good Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. I'm Chauncey Morris. I run the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association. I'd encourage the Planning Commission to listen to the staff recommendations. There's a lot of reasons for this. Right now, in 2017, Lexington is a much different place than our industry. My industry that I represent is a much different place than it was five years ago or 10 years ago. The facts are that the ag cluster, which you would have heard, we employ 19,000 people here, and we have an economic impact here in Fayette County only of $2.3 billion. But then beyond that, if you look at some of the Federal Reserve data, the income growth here in Fayette County is actually 2 to 3 percent better than the national average. So we are growing with the community just as we have for 100 years. There's been a lot of discussion about contraction of our industry. We're in a much different place than we are. All our metrics are far more positive than they were in the past. And I thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Mr. Walburn. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the commission. Jacob Walburn. I'm going to do something that I've never done before, and that's to give you my own opinion. I'm not here on anyone's behalf today. I'm not representing any clients. This is what I think. My love affair with Lexington began in the late 80s when my dad and I would come down and go to Kentucky football games together. My parents were met and married in Lexington, but I was born in Ashland. But the second I could get here, 2003, when I graduated high school, I came. And other than a brief exit for law school, I've lived here since. I think I have a unique perspective to offer because I work with developers. I work with neighborhoods. I appear in front of this and I hear virtually every proposal that comes through here. I don't know if that makes my opinion carry any more weight or not, but I do think I have a unique perspective. You're going to hear a lot today and have already heard a lot today about the urban service boundary, but that's not the only issue that's on the table here. I think it's very important that people realize that. The goals and objectives work in concert. It's not just about expansion of the urban service boundary. That may be the hottest ticket issue, but I think people need to look at the goals more goals more holistically and how they work together. I'm here to tell you that I think growth is vital to our community. It's everything. It's how we turn on our streetlights. It's how we pay our firefighters. It's how we pay our city planners. It's how we do everything. Now, whether that growth is out or up or in some other direction is really for you to decide. But I'm going to call on you to do something unique. That's to reject this all or nothing prospect. Thou shall not expand the urban service boundary is not any better of a commandment than thou shall expand the urban service boundary if we're going to truly grow with the needs of our community we need to be flexible things that I've learned through this process are that for the first time in our history more people are commuting to Fayette County than Fayette County and working Fayette County jobs 49% of Fayette County jobs are worked by Fayette County and other people come from outside of the community we're gonna need close to 23,000 new housing units in the next eight years now that's of various types and i think there are things that we can do to better develop within our urban service area to accommodate some of that growth i question whether we'll be able to do all of that growth but frankly i would question anybody who can tell you absolutely one way or another that they know right now whether we do or don't have enough land i would call on you to look at these objectives a little more fluidly give people flexibility give yourselves the flexibility to judge developments on their merit and on the needs of the community i appreciate your time i appreciate your public service and good luck today thank you miss barbara sutherland oh i'm barbara sutherland i'm a private homeowner in lexington i worked for the lexington fayette urban county government for many years as a on the city council staff under the basler administration and the mayor's staff in the miller administration and i observed um several of the um planning um updates um and i am impressed with this particular proposal that you have before you um and i i'm gonna second much of what the gentleman before me said about flexibility but i do think the urban service area needs to be maintained as it is and i think there are many things in the plan that make it possible to do that without causing some of the detrimental effects that some of the other speakers have mentioned and i want to call your attention especially to that this plan and of course several people have mentioned it but in the past there have been vaguer terms like support or encourage higher density and mixture of housing types and this one says to prioritize that it also says to create and implement housing incentives that strengthen the opportunities for higher density and housing affordability it also talks and I think this is very important affordable housing which has been used in so many of the other plans and is mentioned in in so many of the debates over growth versus maintaining the urban service boundary. But that phrase, affordable housing, now becomes affordable at all income levels. And I think too often we have heard arguments in favor of affordable housing, and yet what we see going up is housing that is not necessarily affordable to all income levels, but is only affordable to really middle, upper middle, and higher income levels. And again, another change that seems to me is very beneficial is that instead of saying that under economic development that the plan supports fostering the success and growth of large employment sectors, It now refers to strategically targeted employment sectors. And it lists specific sectors, not all of which require huge campuses. The other thing that I found interesting, and I must confess I don't know exactly what it means, but I think it could have great benefit. And that is to create a new process for determining long-term land use. And including a study which, among other things, specifies triggers, thresholds, and timing for the addition of the identified land. Talks about identifying land for future use and then specifying triggers, thresholds and timing for the addition of that identified land use into the urban services boundary. So, I think that if we continue to develop in the same way we have in the past, maybe it's true that we need to expand. If all we want to do is create more and more and more single family, low density housing. And I too want my grandchildren to have a place to live and to work, hopefully near me, at least as long as I'm alive. But I also want them to be able to experience natural beauty and fresh air and lovely green space right here in their own community. Thank you very much. Thank you. series of presenters. I have Ms. McIntosh, Ms. Lacey, Ms. Donworth. Good afternoon, Commission members. My name is Carrie McIntosh, and I'm here on behalf of the Fayette County Farm Bureau today. I'm here to talk to you a little bit about the comprehensive plan, the draft of the goals and objectives. I would like to say that we are in support of the staff's recommendation to maintain the current boundaries of the urban service area and rural activity centers. Fayette County Farm Bureau Federation is an agricultural organization that supports smart, efficient, sustainable growth that makes sense for all citizens in Fayette County. As you are well aware from the 2017 Ag Cluster Study conducted by the UK Ag Economist, Dr. Allison Davis, it was presented to the Council in June of this year. It showed that 1 in 12 jobs was related to agriculture, contributing $8.5 million annually to the local tax base. This ag cluster generates $2.3 billion annually in economic activity. Ag-related tourism in Fayette County accounted for $2 billion annually. We must be very careful to preserve these agricultural enterprises so that we do not lose our uniqueness and signature industries. Fayette County is an urban city with an agricultural backdrop. The beauty of our rural landscape is our brand and what makes us different from any other larger city across the country. The number one comment we hear from people all over the world who visit our city is how pretty it is, especially as they fly in and cross over the beautiful horse farms. In 2013, the 2013 comp plan heavily focused on infill and redevelopment. While strides were made, efforts and incentives need to continue to ensure the best use of the land. A recent study conducted by Lord Act Sargent surveying the underutilized property in Fayette County showed that over 17,000 acres within the urban service boundary was either vacant, underdeveloped, or underutilized. This number proves that at this time there is still plenty of land within the urban service boundary to be developed or redeveloped. The current consent decree that is in place is estimated to cost taxpayers $600 million by 2026. We need to continue to clean up our sewers and improve our existing infrastructure to improve our city. An expansion would mean just more infrastructure and maintenance costs to our taxpayers. I would like to conclude by saying that Fayette County Farm Bureau supports the staff's recommendation of maintaining the current urban service area and rural activity centers with efforts focused on intense, sustainable development to accommodate the future growth needs. Let's keep Lexington the horse capital of the world. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Ms. Lacey. I think there was supposed to be somebody in front of me. No, you're next. Ms. Lacey and Ms. Ann Donworth. Yes. Okay. So I bring several different unique perspectives to this. Not only am I a lifelong Lexingtonian, my husband moved here from Ireland with literally two hundred dollars in his pocket he has since gone out on his own and started his own horse business which is actually on in scott county because he could not get a farm property here my point being this is still a land of opportunity in kentucky regardless of whether you are from here or if you come here with nothing you can make this work in our community and what i really think is incredible about this plan is that it looks at our community not as lexington it looks at it from that regional approach just like any outside company is going to do just like anybody who's starting their own business is going to do we tend to look at things from a tax base on a county basis looking at it from that regional approach is what makes this plan truly innovative here they have gone they have looked at more data and more information than you can humanly imagine. And I can tell you that. I was part of the On the Table planning group that worked directly with Chris and Chris and Jim's team. They are incredible. And this is a really hard decision to make. There's no easy answer here. The fact that they looked at 11,000 responses, up from a few hundred that they've had in years past, the fact that they can look at all of this data and all of these studies and make these recommendations is something that you should pay very close attention to. These are very talented, very smart people. Lastly, my biggest point here is that density is not just a noble idea. It's something that we would all like to see. We'd like to see better transit systems, better schools, better parks, all of these great density, things that come with good density. That's not something that happens naturally. It's something that takes leadership and incentives, and something we need from this group so i hope that you will vote in favor of the proposed imagine lexington plan excuse me thank you thank you ms donworth good afternoon thank you for the opportunity to talk to you uh i took the liberty of coming early before going to court and leaving you each with a a paper on regional planning i come here as an advocate for regional planning i'd ask that you defer any decision until there's a regional plan in place and has been developed i think that that message should go on to the council I came here, I hitchhiked here when I was 16 to go to the University of Kentucky. And I care very deeply, as you do, for this community and its heritage. I have a master's thesis from George Washington in regional planning. I'm a member of the MPO, Bougarass Added Citizen member. For about six years I've been participating in state and local government activities. and Bougarrest tomorrow, anything I can be involved with with regional planning. And in my opinion, the mayor and the council have been avoiding this. It should and must happen. It's necessary, at least for one reason, as you've heard before, to save farmland or horse farm preservation. There's an unstoppable, in my opinion, regional growth. This is no longer just Lexington Fayette County. I'm going to call it the Bluegrass Metropolitan Area. It's a city of 750,000, and it's growing. And it may have unstoppable growth to overcome your infill and the demand for affordable housing. But I want to quote something I wrote. It seems disingenuous for builders and developers to insist that Lexington's Planning Commission alone expand its urban boundaries in rulemaking to accommodate anticipated regional population growth and affordable housing needs. Now, I want to move on to an idea which I think can work regionally to save these. I'm not sure it can be done with the urban service area, but I know that there's areas, if you're, you know, as a military forward observer, I know regionally if you look at the land, there is areas that can be used for growth, and it's not the urban service area. What we're interested in is connectivity. And I'm going to insist that all your planners know that we can't do this with just Fayette County and the city of Lexington. Anyone who wants to know this has to work regionally on a long-term basis. And perhaps you're going to think that government restructuring can't happen. I talk to these regional executives, bedroom communities. They believe, just like you do, that these things can happen. They honestly will work together with us. But we have to start. And that's what I'm asking you to do. Send a message. Send a message that we need a regional plan before we chop up our urban service area, which is already chopped up. Thank you. Thank you. The next series, I thank Mr. Citron. and then I'm having some challenges with this last name. It's Ms. Phyllis. Is it Hasbroach? And again, I may have. It's H-A-S-B-R-O-U-C-K. Okay. And I apologize to you if I messed over the name. Phyllis Hasbrook, I live on Hart Court, came in to Lexington in 1962, have been a supporter of preservation in all faces, and appreciate the way that we've been, the community is organized and protecting itself. and I believe that the Planning and Commission has done the right thing in recommending that we not expand. And I'm sorry, I signed up on something I didn't know it was to speak. Oh. Oh. Well, ma'am, you did well. You stayed within your time frame and you stated your position. I mean, what more could you ask for? or if there's anyone else that signed up and didn't mean to speak, you can pull your name if you'd like to. Mr. Brad Cornell, Mr. Stephen Howard, and while they're making their way, Mr. Johnson, and if you'd make your way, and then there's Miss Mary Campbell, Miss Esther, and I forgot to say, Phelps you all would make your way okay we did the same thing we signed two different sheets so you'll be able to mark us both off if that's okay I'm Amanda Matthews this is my husband Brad Connell so if it's all right we'll try to stay within three minutes for both of us because we know brevity can be a beautiful thing thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to speak again my name is Amanda Matthews we own a small horse farm up on Russell Cave Road. We also are the owners of Prometheus, which is a specialized design and build firm also located here in Lexington in Fayette County. So we understand how difficult your job is. We understand the needs of a family. We understand the needs from a business owner perspective. However, our request is not to expand the urban service area until every effort has been made to accommodate future growth both for families and businesses through all means possible including adaptive reuse and or gentrification of underutilized properties within the metro area. It is very important to us to preserve the agricultural and farmland and and also to preserve our very universal moniker of horse capital of the world. It's something we travel all over the world with our company, and that is a recognized moniker of Lexington, Kentucky, something that is very respected. So we would ask that you give the same courtesy and respect to the farmland and agricultural and horse farms as what we think it deserves. There you go. And I would just like to add briefly to that. I've lived in Lexington for 19 years. I came up here for graduate school at the University of Kentucky. And the 27 years before that, I lived in Atlanta, Georgia. And I think Atlanta is probably considered the poster child for how you can really mess up urban planning and development. I would hate to see the same sprawl happen in Lexington that I experienced in my youth and early adult life in Atlanta. I think that I know there's a lot of great arguments for spreading out amongst developers. I know it's less expensive. I know that it's easier. But I don't think the citizens who aren't developing land should pay the extra cost of not doing infill and growing up instead of out. Thank you. Thank you. This is Stephen Howard. Oh, okay. Should we just negotiate 200 acres per every parking spot? Is that a way to jump in? You're working at it. You're doing well already. My name's Stephen Howard. I'm the president of the Building Industry Association of Central Kentucky. I've been, my professional career has revolved around real estate for the past 30 years. I'm a horse farm owner and I currently serve on the economic development committee for LFUCG and have been involved in many civic organizations throughout my career. Just to share with you that today, but most importantly, I feel like I'm that person in Lexington that decided a long time ago I was going to make this place my home. I remember talking to my aunt when I was young and thought, man, Lexington is a great place to live, and I'm going to live there one day. So I'm the guy that is from Meade County and came to Lexington, went to the university, and stayed here. I stayed here for opportunity, and I still love it the same way I loved it when I was five years old and I knew this was a place I wanted to grow up. My message today concerning the urban service boundary, we use this word expansion like it's a negative word as far as anti-growthers that don't want to see the urban service boundary expand. I like to use the word as opportunity. As someone that gets to drive through our beautiful horse farms every day and come into work a lot of time downtown, I see there are opportunities to expand where we aren't destroying something in the process of growth. Currently, I represent many different clients, one particularly that is, particularly wants to do some infill and redevelopment here in town. There's some major struggles for infill and redevelopment, primarily land costs or lack of incentives that some other communities may have. We have our own challenges here in Lexington of creating an atmosphere that wants people, people that want to be here, of creating the same opportunities that other towns have. And we're competing with those other towns. I'm here to tell you today that I'm a firm believer in infill and redevelopment. I'm also here to tell you there's opportunities to expand the urban service boundary. so I appreciate the effort that everyone's putting in to look at this but if I remember correctly when the urban service boundary was first established in 1954 I may have my ear wrong but I know that I have a piece of property that was inside the urban service boundary at 1954 that it was used as a tool for growth and now we've waited all this time where we're finally up against where the decision is really, really hard. What do we do next? And there's impassioned pleas on both sides of the argument. I feel like we're behind the ball on creating a vision for our town and showing what the next steps can be. Just want to share with you today that I'm in support of expansion of the urban service boundary. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Johnson. And then we have Mr. Grant and Esther Halps. and then miss mary campbell mr allen barclay would you please line up and todd johnson thank you mr chair and members of the planning commission and i too want to say that i believe you deserve parking spaces for your arduous work here and if that'll buy me 30 seconds i hope i don't need then that'll be great if you stop right there you in good shape oh is that right okay well i'm pleased to be here representing the building industry association a group that's been in this town for more than 65 years, helping build it and make it a better place for everybody to live and love. There's a lot of ideas and opinions and emotions that fly around this topic of the comprehensive plan, particularly what we're talking about mainly here today's expansion or the need of expansion of the urban service boundary. What often gets lost in those conversations and emotions are the facts and the fears and consequences of making the wrong decisions through the process. I'm going to veer from my prepared marks just a little bit because there's already been a lot of things said about the housing market demand study and how important those findings are and how clear that those findings are in terms of what types of housing is going to be needed by our citizens when those 23,000 housing units are occupied by 2025. We've already begun to see in our market even before the study was done the evolving changes in single-family residential homes, the senior housing that's being built, multifamily townhouses, and things like that. Looking at the housing market demand study and the facts about the market, what consumers are wanting and their preferences, it seems, it doesn't appear that the Division of Planning's recommendation to not expand are in accordance with those market facts, nor does it appear that that recommendation appropriately addresses the projected housing needs of our citizens in the future. Perhaps one of the most clear and obvious indicators of this is the vacant land that we have available inside the urban service boundary. According to the Division of Planning in our last study in 2016, we have about 5,600 acres that are still vacant inside our urban service boundary. But we must understand that vacant land does not mean available land. They're not one and the same. We've taken a hard look at the land inside the urban service boundary that's been marked as vacant land, and easily we can come up to show that there's only about 1,800 acres out of that 5,600 that are available for any significant housing production. Looking at the staff's presentation as we opened up here today, the housing market demand study, the fact that they pointed out that we will need 15,000 single-family homes in the next few years by 2025, If we are still developing then, which we probably won't be at 3.5 an acre, if we're developing at 5 an acre then, that's still going to be twice as much land that we'll need for single family home production than we have available right now to the market. I can't stress to you enough, vacant land does not equal available land to the market. We have no indication from the market or the projections that our annual utilization of land will go down in the future. In fact, based upon housing preferences and the projections, it's likely to go up. Our current land and housing market situation has led us to a place today where we see rising home prices, rising rents, and we're beginning to see housing affordability in our community being impacted. Again, weighing the available land against the market data research projections indicates that our community will need additional land to meet the consumer demands and housing preferences in the future. As I close out for you today, I'd like to ask you to consider two questions. What if not expanding the urban service boundary is the wrong decision? Will our existing neighborhoods continue to feel the pressures of non-compatible development at their back door? Will land and home prices continue to increase to the point of where we are no longer an affordable place to live? And will price pressures for housing increasingly impact our most vulnerable citizens? But I'd also ask what if expanding the urban services boundary is the right decision? Will we see pressure begin to reduce on housing prices in the market as it reaches equilibrium? And can affordability be maintained? I think it will be. I appreciate your time today. I appreciate your effort on this. I know it is a long process, and you guys put a lot of time into it. So thank you all very much. Thank you. Ms. Mary Campbell. Good afternoon, I'm Mary Campbell, former president, current board member with the Historic South Hill Neighborhood Association. And we're here to support the planning staff's recommendation and the Fayette Alliance's proposal to maintain the current USB boundaries, or the current period. However, we would urge the council and staff to include additional language that ensures the protection of neighborhoods in Lexington, particularly the most vulnerable historic ones. submitting our suggested additions today and thank you for your consideration we can give them to the staff and anybody else who'd like to receive a copy of it thank you thank you Hello my name is Alan Bartley I live on South Mill Street today I'm a private citizen here I feel like everyone's telling their biases so I'm Kentucky and by birth, an academic economist by vocation, and an 18-year downtowner by choice. I'm here today because it hits me both personally and professionally as an economist and somebody living downtown here. But first of all, I'd like to thank you for all your time. As an economist, I'm trained to see both sides, and you've been given a lot of both sides today. One thing I would like to focus just a little bit more on is someone had said earlier that almost all the speakers have been talking about the urban service area but the proposed goals and objectives as the planning staff said once that decision that is very difficult for you to do I'm sure once that's decided then it's all the other things that actually will affect our quality of life. It's probably my training as an academic I went through as I had many of the online inputs that I could in the executive report. The planning staff says that they should keep the urban service boundary. I'm an economist, I like growth, but as a citizen and an economist, I also like smart growth. So if they say that the urban service boundary needs to be maintained, I'm not here to argue with that. but one thing that i noticed a lot in the comments especially in the executive report that talks about how many people commented on the livability and the quality of life a lot of the comments talked about the history of lexington we're spending a lot of money redoing the courthouse we spend a lot of time and effort talking about the history but within the planning staff report i saw very little about history so what i would suggest as well i know mary and lived down the street from her and the language she put forth i think is very good is that when the planning staff changes language under the theme e maintaining a balance uphold the service area concept changes language of encourage compact contiguous and mixed-use sustainable development to require intents i'm an economist so i know there's trade-offs if we're going to require intents i would ask that you consider language within the other sections about quality of life and housing that deals with history someone said earlier that once you get rid of farmland it's gone same thing about history once you get rid of those historic structures they're gone once people can no longer live there travel there enjoy them they are gone so i love being downtown i was a student here 30 years ago at transylvania i could not imagine in my wildest dreams that that downtown would look like what it looks not like now from 30 years ago. So I think it's great and I'm glad that people are living there and I know they need different housing structures and so on. But I would ask for you to consider the historic nature when you develop a lot of these themes and objectives to remember that if there's not something in here about at least thinking about historic structures, that people won't. And I suggest that you put in language or think about adding language so that we can think the history before we put other structures, commercial or residential, up against things. It's just as important to preserve the history. Thank you. Good luck. Is it Mr. MD Hammond? No, I'm sorry. Hi, I'm Mary Diane Hanna, 6398 Old Richmond Road, president of the Old Richmond Road Neighborhood Association. And at the end of this, I will tell you how to solve your parking permit problem. So our association, as you all are fully aware, strongly advocates for preservation and enhancing the rural area. We kind of run starting at Jacobson Park out at a spoke kind of radius to out 8th and Spoonsboro Road toward the river. all the roads that connect between there and Tates Creek Road in the rural area we consider to be in our area. It's a large area. It is an association that is somewhat impactful when we come down here, I think. And we have a very active and a large association, probably one of the most well-attended meetings that you will go to as a neighborhood association. Unless you have heard from individuals from our area, I put out several newsletters to people and asked them to comment on this. And if they were not in favor of preservation, to go ahead and put that. Or if they wanted to expand the urban service boundary. But no one wrote back to me, because I just checked a little bit ago even, saying that no, we're against what Overton Road is proposing. proposing and they have sent me accolades saying yes please speak for us and please know that we like that they are trying to save the urban service boundary. I like what Susan Speckert said from the Fate Alliance and I think Vice Mayor Steve Kay has put out information that I think is pertinent to not expanding the urban service boundary and I thank you for that. So if you join Central Christian Church which is about a block away from here you can get a little parking sticker and park there during meetings okay thank you well that's all right i'm taking all kinds of suggestions today and i appreciate that i'm very familiar with central christian church and it's a very nice church you have so i skipped one person miss barbara crutcher is it oh mr crutcher i'm sorry My name is Bob Crutcher. Appreciate everything y'all have done here. I've been in business here in Fayette County for 45 years and have property also, but the thoughts of no expansion is, to me, something that needs to be considered. a little more because there are some properties that are not fit for horse farms. Not every place can be a horse farm. We need to look at our sites that are, you know, I've actually been trying to get a zone change or brought into a service area for 19 years. and this is my fourth comprehensive plan. Obviously, I've not succeeded, but, you know, sureability's been an issue for the Blue Sky area, which they've resolved that by pumping it back to the West Hickman plant. So I feel like, like they say, there's room for adjustments that won't hurt anything, that won't impact any horse farms. And, you know, I think we all should appreciate the horse farms and love the green areas. But some places like my own, which is out there on Athens-Boonesboro Road, directly across from Blue Sky, I have about 35 acres I would like to have brought into the rural activity center boundary. And it's, you know, it's not going to impact anything. There's no one around for it to impact. It's surrounded by commercial uses, and I think I sure would appreciate any of your further thoughts on that before you make any decisions on no development other than the movement, no movement of the service boundaries. So I thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Letty Foster. And Ms. Amy Clark. Good afternoon. My name is Leslie Foster. I've been in Lexington. I've lived in this beautiful town for about a year now. We've retired from out of state, came here to live, and I have to admit, this is a beautiful town. One of the things I really enjoy here is the open space to the parks, the walkways, bicycle routes, things of that nature. As I say, we bought a house in southeastern Lexington about a year ago and moved in. and since that time they've built about eight new houses on the opposite side of the street from us, which is to be expected. What really distresses me is the limited space in between those houses, and so I'd like to speak this afternoon to a life safety issue. According to research, I've been able to find out that it seems that there's a five-foot distance requirement between outer walls and houses. Ladies and gentlemen, when I heard that, I instantly thought of places like San Francisco, where we had the mule kick over the bucket and caused a fire that burned down half the town. I think of the four or five houses that you had burned here in Lexington about a year, year and a half ago. This distance is not adequate, in my opinion, to prevent fires from spreading in neighborhoods. And I understand, you know, from a developer's standpoint, that the more houses you can get into a small area, the more profit and so forth. I'd like to urge the Planning Commission but it really is going to take each of you supporting an issue to try to get that distance between houses increased. Due to the financial benefits to different organizations and people, the pressure is to build them as close together, stacked together if necessary. I'd like to urge you to please support more distance between our houses so we don't end up with mass fires and hopefully you know when I'm around 20 years from now I don't see my neighborhood burning down so my second issue is is that I'd like to talk to is the flooding now where I'm at they they built our neighborhood and now they're building a larger neighborhood to the north of us as we go down Holloway Court there and my concern is that if we don't give adequate consideration and planning to floodwaters that all that is as you know as we we cover areas over with housing and and cement and streets things of that nature, it increases the amount of water flow. And if adequate planning is not given to those new houses and the new areas that are being built, we very well could face a situation of flooding not quite as bad, I'm sure, as Texas, but I wouldn't want to see our houses flooded. So please pay some attention to that in future planning. I won't address the urban service here since I haven't been here long enough to have an idea what that is, but I'll leave it to your good benefit, your expertise, and the people that have addressed that. Again, I thank you for the opportunity to speak this afternoon, and I request your attention on those two issues. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Clark. I'm Amy Clark and I live at 628 Castle Road, but I speak today on behalf of the Fayette County Neighborhood Council. Walt Gaffield, its president, is on his way home, but he's not here yet. I thought it would be helpful. You have a comprehensive letter from us. It's about as comprehensive as the plan itself. We appreciate how hard you're working, how carefully, how attentively on this plan, staff and commission together. We're working hard too in the neighborhoods. This is important. I said to Walt, well, are you going to draft me something? Because I'm used to speaking for myself. He said, don't worry about it, say what you need to. Just remember our core values, he says, good planning, good design, protect the environment and green space, and hold the line on the urban services boundary. Simple. And we see a lot of that in this plan and we thank you for it. I would add a corollary, support transit development and transportation planning that effectively lessens dependence on the private automobile, which is also at the center of much of this planning in the goals and objective. We support all these aims as articulated in the goals and objectives. I'm going to try to use this. Good. It's working. As articulated in the goals and objectives with one proviso, the plan has to work. That's a big proviso. It's not going to happen without adjustments and false starts. But we all know that a road to the future that's paved solely with good intentions is not going to take us where we want to go. If the policy has too broad a brush, we're going to have problems. So I'd like to zero in on the most problematic, I think, but also the most promising policy embraced in several of the goals and objectives. And that's the focus on corridors, targeting the urban development along corridors. And this is a map that the staff gave you of their research and general policy on that. Target the urban development along corridors. That development is characterized as intense. Put intense development along the corridors. And the corridors are deemed underutilized. The purpose of this corridor development is to meet our two key needs that come forward over and over again. One is housing for a growing population, but I would say especially affordable housing. And also to foster and secure major employment, and that means either high wage employment, that's major, or high number of jobs. We would ask that you switch out the word intense in these goals and objectives. If you think about it, your schedule of zones goes in order of intensity. So you've got business zones, retail zones, industrial zones that are not necessarily to be well placed on corridors and not necessarily meeting your cardinal goals of denser housing and major employment. Switch out the word intense for multi-story, which I think is what the staff is really aiming at and a good idea. Switch it out with compact. We do want compact design. We want to build up, not out. We want to pool our green space so it's usable. And mixed use so that you can walk to shopping and so forth. And at the same time set standards to limit lot coverage, impervious surface, and protect green and open space, particularly tree canopy, which is a high, high priority. At the same time, I'd ask you to switch out underutilized for blighted, decayed, or especially commercial blighted and decayed land. We think it's important that you use a map, that you return to a summary map as companion to the land use element of the plan so that you can target the best areas for this development. You'll notice that proponents and objectors use the same point to the same goal and objective to support or argue against a zone change. That's too broad a brush. And finally, I ask that you target neighborhood conservation. Preserve the housing that's already affordable and compact. And by compact, I mean the median, six houses per acre is a good target. And green and canopied housing, tree canopy. And develop a historic preservation plan. You've had some good and thoughtful remarks on if you're going to get very aggressive and target the center of the city. We have two vanishing and irreplaceable resources in our community. The bluegrass is surely one. The other is our historic resources, our historic fabric. It's also a vanishing resource. Am I out of time? Is that why the – You've been out of time for five minutes. I thank you for your patience. And if you have any – let me also say to everyone that if you have other thoughts and you want to pass them in to us either in email or whatever we're still receptive to hearing that kind of information that is all the people that signed up on our sheet is there anyone else here who would like to speak mr basler if you'd like to oh okay i give full deference here While that's passing around, I wanted to introduce myself, Nick Nicholson. I'm here on behalf of myself. I look quite like Jacob. It's a rarity, but I'm very happy to do that. I do want to stress that in some of the tough zone change hearings that you all have, the voices you've heard in this room typically do not show up. When it's a small neighborhood issue, you don't hear from the larger preservation groups. Sometimes it's perfectly understandable, it's a small neighborhood situation, you're talking about a density issue of two or three units, sometimes it's larger. Those add up and so I just stress I hope you all remember the voices you've heard today from the preservation groups the next time you're facing a very tough decision. What I handed out to you all is a summary of the vacant acreage figures. I'm skeptical of numbers whenever I see them. So when I see a 5,600 vacant acreage number without an explanation, it makes me wonder. I did a quick little dive with thanks to the Chris's who did an excellent job providing all the information and creating summaries for you all. And what I found was of that 5,600 acres, you're looking at just under 2,400 in the expansion area alone. Right now, with the way that the action program works, there's a reason why you are not seeing development in the expansion area. That program has to be fixed. Lexington is supposed to update the action chart every three months. We lasted in 2011. It's been six years. The chart is inaccurate. We can't accurately price land. why you do not see bustling development out in the expansion area even that 2,400 acres 865 of that is overbrook overbrook is not going to be developed anytime in the near future at least it appears to me inside lexington 575 acres of that is controlled by uk and 660 acres is under two acre tracks if you're looking to make a big impact on density two acre tracks is kind of where i drew the line for this kind of point that leads 3,500 acres 3,500 acres of vacant land under the imagine Lexington Bank 561 of that acreage already has a development plan sometime in the past year you all have approved a development plan for that property I would kind of discount that and say that's not vacant acreage anymore. What do you got? 3000 acres. 3000 acres of vacant land. That is a problem. The floor area ratio fix the parking fixes. We should do those. We should increase density on corridors. That's not enough. So what I'm trying to say very quickly is everyone in this room would agree we should grow appropriately. The fact that we are not looking actively at the how and where is a mistake. Every four years we talk about when. Now, later, let's talk about how and where we do that expansion. Thank you all. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, commission members, thank you. My name is Buddy Goodwin. Like Mr. Nicholson, I was gabbing too much to walk on the sign-up sheet, so I apologize. I am a general counsel of Ball Homes. I'm a Lexington resident. I've been general counsel of Ball Homes for two years. Prior to that, I lived out of town for a few, but before that, I was down at Stalkenon and did work in this area here and there. But primarily, I'm a transactional real estate lawyer, and now, along with that, a lot of other duties as general counsel of Ball Homes. but I've heard a lot of great comments and and I don't to the extent I had any prepared comments mr. height mr. Murphy Nick mr. Johnson they've they've covered them and they've covered all those I guess what I can do and say is tell you from experience some of the things that I'm seeing an experience experiencing and by extension ball homes the need for housing I think all those numbers and data should show that and and quite frankly I see it every day we see it in our sales we see it and where things are going we see it in housing prices we see it everywhere so I don't think that's a big dispute you can talk about the numbers and and dispute some of that but it's there and it's going to be there in the future because people want to live in this beautiful town and and right now there's there's times that they can't availability of land Nick just went through that pretty heavily that was one that really struck me seeing all these numbers and I think they've made some good distinctions about vacant land and available land and uh a land that is available and potentially available for development to satisfy all this single family multi-family and other types of of needs you're seeing here trust me it is my job to to find those things and acquire those things and and uh it is very slim picking if any in Fayette County we consistently find ourselves in fringe counties other towns and other states now and none of that is going to satisfy any housing need in Fayette County I was just at a homeowners meeting in Georgetown I don't know a couple weeks ago maybe a month ago 30 40 people there 15 or 20 of them were people at work here in Fayette County and believe me I I talked to them, and most of them were not telling me, oh, we just couldn't wait to live here. They started that search and went down that road because they couldn't find what they wanted here. So those are people that otherwise would like to be Fayette County citizens and raise their kids here, pay property taxes here, and drive into work here, and they're not. One quick comment on infill, and then I'll stop. I understand infill. I think it's a great concept, and I think it is certainly a necessary part of any solution to this challenge we have of providing housing. But, one, in order to have infill, you have to have land available to infill on that will suit all the different varieties of housings that you need. We don't have that. To the extent we do, and you go down that process, I can tell you I've lived for the past year under a pretty significant, but I think a significant infill project. And there are numbers and numbers of challenges there that arise between trying, you hear build up, build out, and density, and you go down that road and you're running the roadblock. So if these things and tenets are important, it's hard to get them through to the actual application, and it's certainly frustrating for developers and other people who try to do so and run into those row blocks. So there's challenges there as well. So I won't go any further. I know I'm out of time. But I certainly think, based on what I see and based on all these numbers, I mean, I think expansion's warranted, or I think at the very least, the comments you're hearing about as a community getting more focused on identifying how we're going to grow and where we're going to grow not just saying well we're just not where we are we're not I think those are super instructive comments because I do think there are areas where we can we can do some things with infill but we can also do some things with expansion that will keep and preserve the beauty of the bluegrass we all love thank you thank you all for your hard work staff as well thank you mr. Basler you want to speak Yeah, if you'd like to say something. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate your consideration and your tolerance for me during the last meetings. Thank you. What I want to talk about is one area, and that is the interchange exit 104. You've had other people here talking, and I happen to not own that property. But let me tell you about 1970-something, the rural activity center was established there of 20 acres. It hadn't been changed since. I look around at the other end of changes up and down I-75. Tell me how many of them are 20 acres. None. All of them are more. Now since that time, I've been in here 10 times. We've been doing this forever. But one time said no sewer. We've got a sewer running right through the property. A truck line right through the property. So what I'm trying to suggest to you on the corner of I-75 and Athens-Boomber on the Lexington side, I don't own that. I think somebody just spoke for it. That needs to be included either in the expansion of the rural activity center or expansion of the conference plan. Why? On one side, you have I-75. On the other side, you've got a grade school just now being built. so that property arrived between them that's changed since 1970 it's changed since 1980 it's changed since 1990. so what i'm saying that's a natural boundary you've got a school you've got i-75 and you've got agent boon barrel road now that's not my property used to be but not anymore now on the other side where mr crutcher spoke to i want somebody to go out there and tell me that we are infringing on horse farms it's not happening i happen to be the only farmer out there and i'm on back in the back but mr crutch has been sitting there and living on that land there's no reason what's look at his situation on one side of the 75 on the other side is a ball diamond at the city that collects and owns you know and on the other side is blue is a blue sky now don't try to count blue sky as an expansion to rural activity center it was there 20 years before the rural activity center ever established so don't you just adding it on it has nothing to do with real activity centers it's been there before real activity centers were so what i'm suggesting to you we need to look at that area to include in a comprehensive plan either as a b5p or just as a comprehensive plan on one side of that we've got 150 acres on one of those interchanges On that interchange, we just have 20. Now, so what I'm hoping you would do is consider two ways. Number one, let's do it now when you get ready to vote. These people always spoke to it. I'm not, I'm thinking to it, let's do it. If you can't do it now, let's follow Mr. Woodall's suggestion on one thing, but shorten it. He says we ought to look at the rural areas in a different plan. Did you say that the other day? and that meat i think it is but you want to do it five years from now lord we need to sink now we need that area has been neglected and beat on for a whole lot of reasons and some of which i won't mention to you but it does not deserve to sit there there's nothing nothing historical about it there's nothing beautiful about it i mean you come up the interstate what you see see bud's dirt mounds primarily but you see a motel service station another service agent service area but these this has been treated this has been treated poorly this needs to be included now you know i can't understand why the property that mr uh i was speaking about mr begley owns he's the one i'm talking about the boundary by school i-75 asian's booneborough road all i'm asking you is I don't think you make votes today is what y'all told me. So when you get ready to come back to talk, I would like to see and we'll bring the plan that you include that in the urban service boundary or you expand that rural activity center to include those areas. Now, if you feel that's too much of a precedent for everybody else in Fayette County, let's talk about a small area plan. But this is not, I'm telling you, it's not been fair to this interchange. And I give you a lot of reasons, some of which is probably I own, but not anymore. So I think Mr. Crutcher, Mr. Begley, and the other folks need that consideration. Thank you, and I hope to bring it back that you will vote on it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You've been very nice. Thank you. Appreciate your coming. Is there anyone else here that would like to speak that didn't sign up but would like to add? Yes, ma'am. my name is kelly weber and i'm the director at ashland terrace retirement home in chevy chase i'm also on the senior service commission um so i just want to tell you all staff thank you for all you're doing i cannot imagine being in your position or your position so thank you for all of your time um but i also um just in advance want to thank you for your consideration of of our seniors, which is going to be the largest growing population, not only in Lexington, in our state, but nationwide. And the affordability of housing for seniors in particular is a major, major problem, not just here, but nationwide. So I just thank you for your consideration, and I thank you for, I know I've talked to the Chris's multiple times, but for your willingness to include the Senior Service Commission and of us that work with seniors when you get further down in your writing of the plan so we appreciate it thank you thank you is there anyone else that would like to make a comment is there anyone else that would like to make a comment okay what i'd like to do if it's agreeable with the commission is take a few minutes break maybe like five minutes what we're going to do from here first of all we indicated that we're not taking a vote today our purpose today was simply one thing and that is to listen and the other reason why we didn't want to take a vote today is probably because it would do no good to listen and then just go and vote so what we wanted to do is have an opportunity to if we needed to as a part of our discussion tweak some things change some things make some word changes we can still do that we've still got time to do that so with that If you don't mind, I'll give my elderly members here on our panel an opportunity to. If we could, we'll take about a five-minute break, and then we'll be right back, and then we'll decide when we'll take a break. Thank you. And being with us, we're going to close the public portion of the hearing at this stage of the game. I think you've had an opportunity to give us your thoughts. Again, our primary purpose today was to listen to what the community had to say. We're not taking a vote today. but we will discuss if we could an opportunity when we can get together again and even possibly take a vote at that time but i have one question for all of my commission members as it relates to it and i this is just a spur of the moment kind of thought processes but since we were here to listen i like to just sort of go down the line and give each member an opportunity to tell us what they heard not what they think not what they feel but essentially what they heard here today and then after that there's any other discussion you want to have that's fine as well and then after that we need to determine when we will get together for a vote with the with the staff now you all have probably heard a lot of things and we've even had recommendations on word tweaking and you know things like that we've heard some other major interesting comments so hopefully you'll have an opportunity to do that but we would like to pull this process to an end and again for those of you who are here we thank you again so much for your presence and your participation this is an important part of the political process it's not easy we all knew that when we got in here but at the same time i've been really pleased with the public presentations today with that i'm going to open the floor for our commissioners and the questions i'm asking the commission members is what did you hear today again i don't know i understand how you may feel and what you may think but what did you hear today from the participants in this in this audience would like to start us off yes oh miss plumley thank you mr chair We all have two ears, but we hear differently. But what I heard today was pretty much the same chronic argument, a presentation, and it's almost a bipolar situation between the development community and those who want to have preservation, historical, ag community, horse community, and it remains still a question, how do we balance this? Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Penn. What I heard today can be wrapped up in three words, how, when, and flexible. everything I heard today would fit in one of those three categories this is my third comp plan and I believe that this one has the possibility to be the best one but it ought to take a leap of faith and the leap of faith is how when and how is it going to be flexible so I would hope that the lowest common denominator would be that we could discuss that and we I think when you do that you will come to a decision that would that would carry us forward we're not going to get everything we want you're not going to get everything you want there's a divide up here on our count on our commission and that's healthy that's not that's wrong with that so that's what i heard how when and flexible thank you okay miss monday uh like frank kind of heard the same thing how when and where um and the flexibility thing one thing that i heard that came out that bothers me a little bit because we've been looking at some of these outlying areas and maybe trying to figure out why they're not being utilized is that the exaction updates are not being done and that causes me a little bit of concern. So I did hear that. If that's not true, I hope somebody will correct that on the record. The other thing that bothers me a little bit is looking at all these corridors, and I brought this up in the infill committee meeting the other day, is the fact that there are people that have owned some of that property for a long, long time, maybe 30, 40 years. They can't afford to sell it and there's nowhere for them to do a 1031 exchange to make that a viable situation for them to swap property, not have to recoup capital gains and not have to recoup their depreciation. So, again, what I heard was, and I like the idea of doing some work along some of these main arteries, but I think we've got to get down in the trenches to be able to aid these situations for people to be able to do this in a way that it is not costly to those property owners. So I appreciate all the hard work the staff has done. I think they've done a tremendous job getting us to this point, and they've worked extremely hard and I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Forrest. Yes, Mr. Chair. I just first want to say thanks to staff for their hard work. I know I'm very new to this process, but it's a big learning curve and I'm learning a lot, so I just want to tell you, staff, thank you for the information and the passion that you put in this. Just from what I heard from most of the citizens that came up and spoke, Everybody's pretty passionate about Lexington, Lexington's growth in some form or fashion, whether it's for future housing, ED land, infield, and then also the flexibility seems to be very important. So I just hope that we can take a pragmatic approach to that and come up with a solution for everybody. That was my take on what I've heard today. Good, thank you. Mr. Berkley. I do want to thank everybody that came today and the staff as well. Flexibility was definitely a key point. The how and where, I think basically what that's saying is we need to be doing some planning. I heard a lot of talk about the need for land for economic development. and like you said the exaction fees I think are potentially a roadblock at this point to development. Mr. Dolan? I guess waiting and letting others go first a lot of a lot of what I I was going to say has been said. What did we hear? I've got a page and a half here, but I don't think we need to go through that. What we heard was need for housing, we need job, land. Everybody heard it. Ag economy is important. Tourism is important. Historical features are important. What Lexington gives as far as quality of life is important. The biggest takeaway I think would be, as some commission members have said, is the word flexibility. Looking forward and having some flexibility in the way we do things. And Frank and others are right. It's how and why or the devil's in the detail of it. You know, if this plan goes forward, what we've got is a lot of work ahead. So, you know, that's what I'm hearing as far as flexibility for the most part. Thank everyone for coming. Thanks to staff for their work. The only other thing I would ask is, you know, we heard from a lot of people today. I haven't heard anything as far as emails. Any emails come in as far as comments in lieu of coming? today we do have the emails and we've got those for you all to see okay thank you thank you sir well along those lines when will those be distributed to us is it going to be done by are you going to put them in a packet and give them to us how you gonna get us to us mr. chair we can have those scanned and available on on the G Drive, the Google Drive, for you all to access if you'd like. Okay. That way you'd have the weekend to review them or something like that. That would be good. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Cravens? Yeah, I was rather, I don't know, relieved, but I was rather pleased of the balance of the comments. It looks like it was pretty even for these goals and objectives and then against the expansion. And it was more civil than I – this is my third plan. And nobody accused developers of paving over anything. I thought that was good. The flexibility thing I'm for. I'm wondering where my grandkids are going to live. if they can live in Fayette County. I heard that. And I heard just people in general like Lexington. And I got the impression from the ones that were maybe against expansion that they weren't really that firm against it. I mean, I thought they might be open to some flexibility on that. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Ms. Bridges. I, too, would like to say thank you to the staff. This is not an easy process. It's long, and it's arduous, and we do appreciate the work that you put into it. What I heard today was pretty much divided equally. I kind of kept a little running account of it, and I think that's really interesting, but I think the bottom line is that everybody who spoke today loves Lexington and wants the best for Lexington, regardless of the side on which they spoke today. And I think that's something that we need to keep in mind and think about, because I don't think anyone in this room or any of those emails that they're going to send us are going to talk about what an awful place this is. And I think we should be very proud to be here, and I think we have to work very hard to get this right and to have the flexibility to provide for everyone, not just those who are already here, but those who may come in the future like grandchildren. So that's what I heard today. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Bell. Well, like Mr. Forster, I am new to this process as well. And I, too, have been very impressed with the staff and their dedication and their expertise and their time commitment and their passion. And I think the fact that 11,000 people spoke their mind prior to this demonstrates the interest that this community has and the love of Lexington. And that the staff has provided a means for them to be heard. I think today it continued that. And like my other constituents, I felt it was balanced. I thought it was fair. I think everybody looks at the present and is trying to anticipate the future. And that's a very, very healthy thing. So I look forward to learning more and walking down the path. Good. Everyone had a chance to? Well, I'll say, oh, yes, Mr. Paulson, our commissioner. Just a quick little update on exactions. It's come up twice. I just want to give you all an update. So just to let you know, we are working with Nick and others on an update of exactions. The exactions rate table has not been updated in a very long time. Craig Benz in my office, who's probably watching this, is the one who's leading the point on that. We are having an update meeting next week with Nick and a few others about exactions, and we hope to get it done as quick as possible. We have a lot of closeouts that we have to do. It takes a lot of work from a couple different divisions, and we are working with law and others. but we are hopeful that we will have it done. I'm not going to give you a timeline because that will freak Craig out, but we should have it done soonish. I also want to address this parking issue that seems to keep coming up. That's an interesting scientific... You can park for free in the Phoenix lot. Well, I've been told... Just like I do. Well, Mr. Commissioner, let me, at the risk of publicly displaying our concern with parking, I've been told that Town Branch is going to be coming through that area sooner more so than later. So in light of the fact that you're in the same situation that we're in, And I'm sure that you will testify to the fact that there ought to be some ample space provided or some means and mechanisms whereby we can continue our work. Otherwise, we'll have to force to be bringing cots here. We may just put a plaque up saying you used to park here. That's what I thought. You see, Mr. Commissioner, you've come with us such eloquence to assert that I, in terminological inexactitudes, have no validity. So as we preambulate to some bucolic edifice of erudition, we will take very much in consideration your comments, and we thank you for it and appreciate that. That's all for the record. well just as I say you all have expressed all my sentiments I don't really have anything new I think the key word for me was flexibility as well but in addition to what you said it seems to me I feel gratified by the fact that you all did listen well to what the constituents and our stakeholders were saying so with that I think we've got a little bit more work having said that we need to think in terms of when we can get together again and possibly have some additional discussion. And rather than actually closing this session, what we'll do is have a continuance, but the continuance would not be for public input. It would be just for the continuance of our discussion and deliberation. One of the things, Mr. Duncan, I was curious to know, what did you all hear? Mr. Chair, I would not want to presume to speak for all of the staff. Well, you should. You're the director. They have wonderful minds and hearts of their own, too, that have contributed mightily to this. And so I'm very grateful for that. And I also appreciate the expressions that you all and members of the audience said about the staff because they take this job very seriously and they have put a lot into this. And a lot of the new initiatives that have been proffered for you all have come from the staff. So very much appreciate that acknowledgement. But I do believe, and I'll agree with Mr. Cravens, he and I will be on the same page here. We heard respectful comments on both sides of this. Ms. Plumlee, indeed, were divided, but people were respectful. And I really do admire that because most public forums are not that way these days. and this one was, and even if it's a position that we do not agree with professionally, we certainly respect how it was presented. And so I believe that we have some notes that we've got from this that we can help guide you all through the discussion process in the coming days and come to a conclusion. We still may not all agree on that, but I believe that we'll be able to at least provide the guidance that you all need to move forward. Mr. Duncan, you speak very well off the cuff. appreciate it but again too i think all of us have said that and many of the people in the audience indicated by the way we had approximately i may have missed one or two 37 people to uh give testimony today and what have you but i think one of the things that consistently came out of that is that they appreciated the work that the staff had done so we thank you publicly for that work we're trying to build your strength for the stretch drive as my supervisor told me one time you're about 85 percent there but oh that other 15 percent it's going to be very difficult so with that let's talk about possibly getting together one thought was that we might be able to get together as a special call meeting and of course we have the ample time i've been assured to get the announcements out and what have you for maybe september what's next thursday's date September the 7th. I know we have the subdivision meeting in the morning. Then we have the zoning in the afternoon at 1.30. The staff had suggested that it may be a possibility of getting together since the council does not meet here around 3 o'clock. How does that look? Okay. Wow. No? 3.30? so what's the purpose is this a work session is it well one of the things we can do is well mr. I can talk with Tracy and we do have a much lighter agenda this time so we believe that we'll be finished in an hour and a half or so and that a three o'clock start time would be feasible however if you wanted to do later of course the staff will support that as well okay then we're doing it Now, to Mr. Berkley's point, what will we do? Well, first of all, we'll have a continuation of the discussion, but we'll be able to pick up on the points that were expressed here today to see if they have caused any changes in the draft that we may have. And then ultimately, depending upon what we feel and how we feel about everything else, we'll vote. Any questions? Okay, then 3 o'clock it will be. Any other business to come before this? Yes, we will need a motion. We'll right here because the council will be out, so we can meet right here. Yes, it will be televised. We'll be in this format, and we'll have the discussion about what we heard today and anything else you all want to talk about that would inform a final decision on the goals and objectives, which we would recommend that you all try to get to next Thursday. Okay. Since it will be a special meeting after you make the motion, it will be a special meeting for a continuation of this. So the only thing that you all will be discussing that day will be that, because at a special meeting you can only talk about what is on the agenda. Gotcha. Okay. We do need a motion. That's what we – yes, ma'am. Mr. Chair, I move for continuance of a special meeting on September 7th at 3 o'clock in this chamber. With the sole purpose of discussing the comprehensive plan. Okay. And the goals and objectives. Any second? Second. Got a second on that. Any other discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Oh, we can vote if you want to vote on the screen. I didn't know we had the machine up here. Just a minute. I might vote no for the heck of it. Okay. All right. Thank you all very, very much. Without objection, this meeting is adjourned. Or not adjourned. Continued. Until September the 7th at 3 o'clock. Thank you. Thank you. You know that?