# Council Work Session - January 14, 2025 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · January 14, 2025 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/6314 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/6314?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2025-01-14 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: March 28, 2026 - **Length**: 21,712 words - **Speakers**: Mayor > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council met on January 14, 2025, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber in Lexington, KY, with Mayor Gorton presiding. The meeting included 3 agenda items, covering public comment, rezoning and docket approvals, and budget amendments. Both the Requested Rezonings/Docket Approval and Budget Amendments items were approved during the session. Over the course of the meeting, the Council heard 3 public comments and conducted 5 votes. ## Attendance The following 14 members were present at the January 14, 2025 Council meeting: Wu, J. Brown, Ellinger II, Fogle, Lynch, LeGris, Sheehan, Gray, Worley, F. Brown, Baxter, Sevigny, Reynolds, and Plomin. - **Absent:** Monarrez - **Late arrivals:** None ## Votes and Decisions The January 14, 2025 Council meeting included five recorded motions and votes. - **Approval of the December 3, 2024 Council Meeting Docket (as amended):** Moved by Ellinger II, seconded by Wu. The motion passed unanimously. [timestamp: 0:00] - **Motion to place a Resolution approving the Economic Development Partnership on the December 3, 2024 docket under Resolutions – First Reading:** Moved by J. Brown, seconded by Gray. The motion passed unanimously. [timestamp: 0:00] - **Motion to amend the Zoning Ordinance relating to Short Term Rentals (STR), Sec. 3-13(g)(1):** Moved by Sevigny, seconded by Gray. The motion **failed** on a roll call vote of 4 ayes to 10 nays. - *Voting yes:* LeGris, Sheehan, Gray, Sevigny - *Voting no:* Wu, J. Brown, Ellinger II, Fogle, Lynch, Worley, F. Brown, Baxter, Reynolds, Plomin [timestamp: 0:00] - **Motion to amend the Zoning Ordinance relating to Short Term Rentals (STR), Sec. 3-13(l):** Moved by Sevigny, seconded by Gray. The motion passed unanimously. [timestamp: 0:00] - **Motion to set a public hearing for February 25th at 5:30 p.m. for ordinance number two:** Moved by Morton, seconded by Gray. The motion **passed** on a roll call vote of 9 ayes, 5 nays, and 1 abstention. - *Voting yes:* Wu, Ellinger II, Fogle, Lynch, LeGris, Sheehan, Gray, Sevigny, Reynolds - *Voting no:* J. Brown, Worley, F. Brown, Baxter, Plomin [timestamp: 1:06:08] ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council considered three financial items at the January 14, 2025 meeting, each involving sole source or contract modification authorizations: - **L0001-25** — The Council took up authorization for a sole source purchase agreement with **Design2Wellness** in the amount of **$95,997.05** for exercise equipment to be installed at the Dunbar Community Center. The sole source designation reflects that Design2Wellness was identified as the unique provider for this equipment purchase. - **L0002-25** — The Council considered authorization to establish **FARO Technologies Inc.** as a sole source vendor for annual maintenance services for the FARO 3D Crime Scene Scanner. The value of this maintenance agreement is **$2,240**. As the manufacturer of the specialized scanning equipment, FARO Technologies Inc. was designated as the sole qualified provider for ongoing maintenance support. - **L0003-25** — The Council reviewed authorization to execute **Contract Modification #1** with **HDR Engineering, Inc.** in the amount of **$85,020** related to the **Citation Boulevard Phase IIIA Project**. This modification adjusts the existing contract with HDR Engineering to account for additional scope or services associated with the project. Combined, the three financial actions represent a total of approximately **$183,257.05** in authorized expenditures across equipment procurement, maintenance services, and engineering contract modifications. ## Public Comment Three residents addressed the Council during the public comment period at the January 14, 2025 meeting, all raising concerns related to development and zoning matters. - **Michelle Hutchinson** [timestamp: 0:09:52], representing the Marlboro Radcliffe Neighborhood Association, spoke about the Transylvania Development Plan. She expressed concerns about the plan's potential negative impacts on current residents and formally requested that the Council hold a public hearing on the matter. - **Jean Widener** [timestamp: 0:18:25], a District 1 resident, also addressed the Transylvania development, focusing specifically on drainage issues associated with the proposed zoning change. She urged the Council to vote against the zoning change. - **Scott Sloan** [timestamp: 0:18:57] read a prepared statement on behalf of his mother, raising concerns about the effects the proposed development would have on traffic and infrastructure in the area. All three speakers shared opposition to the proposed development and zoning change, with concerns spanning neighborhood impact, drainage, traffic, and infrastructure. ## Appointments The Council took the following appointment action during the January 14, 2025 meeting: - **Elizabeth Withers** was appointed to the role of **Legislative Aide**. ## Contested Items Two items generated notable disagreement during the January 14, 2025 Council meeting. **Transylvania Development Plan** The Transylvania Development Plan drew community opposition, with residents raising concerns about the proposal's potential effects on traffic, infrastructure, and neighborhood character. The opposition was significant enough that a public hearing was requested, indicating that the matter was not resolved to the satisfaction of those present and would require further public input before moving forward. **Zoning Ordinance Amendments — Short Term Rentals** The Council was divided over proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance concerning Short Term Rentals. The split among council members was reflected in the voting outcomes: some motions related to the amendments passed while others failed, suggesting that no unified position was reached on the full scope of the proposed changes. The mixed results indicate ongoing disagreement about how short-term rental activity should be regulated under the zoning code. ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 09:52] During this portion of the meeting, members of the public were invited to address the Council on items appearing on the agenda. Comments focused on the Transylvania Development Plan and its potential impact on local neighborhoods. Three speakers addressed the Council on this topic: - **Michelle Hutchinson** - **Jean Widener** - **Scott Sloan** The public comments centered on concerns related to the Transylvania Development Plan and how it could affect surrounding neighborhoods. This item was informational in nature, with no vote or formal action taken as a result of the public comment period. ## Requested Rezonings/Docket Approval [timestamp: 0:00] The Council took up the matter of requested rezonings and docket approval, covering items from the December 3, 2024 Council Meeting. The discussion included consideration of resolutions and zoning ordinance amendments included in that docket. Key speakers during this agenda item were Ellinger II, Wu, and J. Brown. The structured record does not detail the specific arguments, concerns, or debate points raised by individual speakers beyond their participation in the discussion. The Council ultimately **approved** the docket from the December 3, 2024 Council Meeting, including its associated resolutions and zoning ordinance amendments. ## Budget Amendments [timestamp: 1:09:38] The Council took up a series of budget amendments, which included reallocations for community paramedicine and other projects. Key speakers on this item were Ellinger II and Gray. The amendments addressed various adjustments to the existing budget, with community paramedicine identified as one of the areas receiving reallocated funds. No additional detail on the specific dollar amounts, funding sources, or the full scope of other projects covered under the amendments is available from the meeting record. The Council approved the budget amendments. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the January 16, 2025, Council Meeting Docket, as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): remove Item No. 1, an ordinance amending the zoning ordinance to define and regulate electronic digital billboards in the B-3, B-4, I-1, I-2, and CN zones, from the January 16, 2025, Council Meeting Docket, and refer it to the General Government & Planning Committee - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place Item No. 2, zone map amendment PLN-MAR-24-00018 Transy Property Owners, LLC, at 475 & 495 Haggard Land and 450 Radcliffe Road, on the January 16, 2025, Council Meeting Docket, with a public hearing on February 25, 2025, at 6 p.m (as amended to start at 5:30 p.m.) - **Motion** — passed (0-0): amend the previous motion to start the public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on February 25, 2025 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the December 3, 2024 Work Session Summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): add a budget amendment to the list on pages 5 - 7 of the Work Session packet for Streets & Roads for salt in the amount of $500,000 to allow for additional salt deliveries for the remainder of the fiscal year. Funds are being reallocated from utilities within the general fund to cover the expense - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Budget Amendments, as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve New Business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Communications from the Mayor - Appointments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Communications from the Mayor- Donations - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Communications from the Mayor - Procurements - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Council Capital Projects --- ## Full transcript ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Welcome. I'd like to go ahead and call to order the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council Work Session. And today is January 14th, 2025. And the first thing I would like to do is to welcome our council members back to a new session. And we have five new council members. Council Member Tyler Morton, now I don't know where everybody is sitting so far, of the 1st District. And Council Member Emma Curtis of the 4th District. Council Member Joseph Hale over here of the 7th District. And Council Member Amy Beasley of the 8th District. And Council Member Hill Boone of the 12th District. So welcome aboard. Five new council members. It's going to be a good year. And I also wanted to take a minute, a couple minutes before public comment, if I might. I kind of ran this through the Vice Mayor. To talk a little bit about the storm that we have had. This was a very unusual storm. We had 7 inches of snow. Then we had ice. I'm not sure how much ice we had. Up to an inch perhaps. And then 3 more inches of snow. Very unusual. And we know that it has been difficult for people. It's hard to do the roads when it snows twice in one cycle. And our folks have been out there working. But I wanted to ask my Commissioner of Environmental Services and Public Works, Nancy Albright, to kind of give you an update about what we're doing now. Welcome. Good afternoon. Thank you. Hello everyone. And just to give you an idea of what we're doing now. We are still treating roads today as we've gotten concerns from all of your offices. And then we've also gotten some concerns directly from Fayette County Schools. They sent us a list of known bus routes back in the spring of 24 that we worked out and got into our GIS system and we started treating everything that was a bus route that wasn't a ranked road towards the end of last week and over the weekend. And we thought we had all of those in relatively good shape with maybe some potential gaps. We've gotten additional roads from Fayette County Schools yesterday and again this morning. So we are continuing to work with them on addressing those concerns as we receive them and are made aware of them. As well as the roads that you all have brought to our attention that need work. And we are going to try and get some folks to work late. And work again tomorrow to continue to clear these roads that we continue to realize. We realize it's still cold and a lot of the packed snow and ice has become a skating rink and we are continuing to work through those roads to the best of our staff's ability as we can. Hoping that the weather breaks. I want to also make sure everybody understands we also received almost 200 tree calls. So that takes a crew of 2 to 3 people to go remove each tree in a safe manner. So we had to suspend snow and ice operations for a few of our drivers to go clear the roads of the downed trees. So that also put a little hiccup in our snow and ice removal. But we are back on snow and ice duty and working until we hopefully are finished this time around. We're hoping for some above freezing weather. Yes ma'am. Which would help us a lot. It's very difficult to plow ice. Yes. The plows don't do much on ice. We have treated almost 200 miles of unranked roads so far since Thursday of last week. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes ma'am. Appreciate it. We'll continue our updates on our website. You all have probably seen that on the home page. There's a banner right on top of the home page that can give you updates. And I'm seeing Christy thinking about the swearing in at the senior center on Sunday and your facility was in great shape. Thank you very much. Alright. With that we have quite a number of folks signed up for public comment. So we will work through this. Now this is for issues on the agenda. We'll have a time at the end of the meeting for those who want to comment on things that are not on the agenda. So let us start right out. And the way this works is that I will call your name and you need to come to the podium and you'll need to repeat your name for the record as well as state your council district. And then unless you are giving time to someone else or you're receiving time, you'll have three minutes to speak. And so first up is, now let's see. Michelle Hutchinson where are you? Alright. Vivian Hodge where are you? Are you giving your time to Ms. Hutchinson? Okay. Daryl Higgins are you giving your time to Ms. Hutchinson? Okay. Very good. So Michelle Hutchinson you will have nine minutes and you'll be followed by Jeannie Widener. Alright. Come on. Ms. Hutchinson it's your turn. Welcome. Can you hear me? Great. So good afternoon Lexington City Council members. My name is Michelle Hutchinson and I am a part of District 1. I'm the president of the Marlboro Radcliffe Neighborhood Association. I have lived in the Marlboro Radcliffe Neighborhood Association for over 30 years. Some of y'all might not even be that old. I am requesting that we be granted a public hearing on the Transylvania Development Plan. We as residents of the neighborhood have many concerns for the development that will impact our current residents in a negative way. We are also aware of the need for housing in Lexington. However, why is everything looked upon that's less desirable located or relocated on the north side of town? For example, the Board of Education. The Housing Authority moved there. The Hope Center expansion. Even the Greyhound Bus Station. The Family Services, which is called the Department for Community Based Services, which we all know what that is. Even the Health Department. Just to name a few. Why? We want the R2 opposed. As a neighbor, we want houses just to look like our current houses. Some concerns we have are as following. Safety, and I know you all may not be able to address some of these concerns, but they are currently existing now. With new development look at Broadway, New Circle Road, and Hager Lane. What about the school's capacity? Public transportation? Lack of public service in action. What I mean by that is there's a shortage of policemen, firefighters, city workers, which are just currently today trying to get the ice up off of our neighborhood. There's also going to be an increase in crime in the park along with vandalism. Parking. The number of residents versus vehicle parking. Let's look at quality. The current proposed value is going to decrease our property value. Look at the environment. The concern for sewage and drainage is going to impact our current residents. Some of you may not know but in the 1996 and 1997 time frame, we had a flood in our neighborhood. FEMA was dispatched. I, as a representative, I stand here to tell you all, I had human feces coming up out of my drain and debris. Not to mention, why would we want an alley in our neighborhood? As a neighborhood, we have met with the developers. However, I feel like we were misled with our plans. Please allow me to present you with the timeline. We met January 22nd. We were introduced to Mr. Graham and AU Associates. They informed us that they had purchased the baseball field. We met again on March 25th. They expressed that they wanted to get the neighborhood input. We were informed that there's no development being decided. We met again on May 30th. We met at the public library. They still had a concern for wanting input from the neighborhood. Still no plans for development. No apartments and senior living were ever discussed. However, we were given examples of housing that was going to be developed there. We met again in June. This meeting was also, we were also told still no plans for development. We want the community, the neighborhood's input. On September 13th, there was a call meeting at Urban League by Mr. Holmes and Mr. Peoples. In attendance was Mike Moffitt, Councilwoman Fogle, and myself. They didn't want the capacity of our neighborhood to attend this meeting. They presented the proposed plan along with pizza and drinks. We stressed that we didn't want the three and four-story buildings. Only ask for single residents. We were given a copy of the plan for us to share with the neighborhood. On November 11th, we had a meeting with the developers, which this meeting was called by Mr. Ed Holmes, and the plan was presented. I feel like these meetings were just a formality to dot the i's and the t's. To say, yes, we met with the community. We know that there is a return on investment and it's going to be great, but what about us? What about our return on investment? As a neighborhood, we would like to see the zoning opposed. We would also like to request an independent study be done. Maybe from the city, because we were told the impact is only going to be three seconds. We have more of that now. We would like to see the people that purchase these out be able to purchase this property versus rent. Rental property. What about establishing ownership like we have? In conclusion, I hope that you all will remember the mayor's communication during the swearing in at the ceremony. Serve the people. Create an environment where everyone can succeed. Enable the community to trust the council members. I listened to the press today in our neighborhood. Is our neighborhood a part of making it safe? The safety concerns that were addressed in previous meetings today. Is our neighborhood included? Thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Jean Widener. Jean will be followed by Scott Sloan. My name is Jean Widener. I'm from District 1. I thank you for the opportunity to come today. My concern is with the drainage. Haggard Court currently has ice from water on it. In talking with the people that work there continuously, people at DLZ and people at Red Roof Inn, they said that road tends to be flooded almost all the time. It's difficult to get it cleared off. That's one of my concerns is the sewage stuff. I would ask that you would vote against the zoning change. Thank you. Thank you. Scott Sloan and Scott will be followed by Rolanda Woolfolk. Welcome. Scott Sloan, District 1. I'm a 2012 here to read a statement for my mom, District 1, Catherine Sloan. I've been a resident of the Marlboro Radcliffe neighborhood since 1969, four years after it was built. That was a far different era. The neighborhood was not designed to accommodate the development being proposed for Transylvania University's former baseball field on Haggard Lane without the residents of the neighborhood's residents are being ignored by the developers and each of you as this project continues to sail forward through committees without a look at the unintended consequences it will cause. I urge you to listen to the residents in this district and schedule a hearing on this development to examine these issues and come up with answers in advance. Otherwise, the people who live in the new housing are going to face a Every afternoon, a line of cars stretches along North Broadway well past multiple intersections trying to get onto I-75. As a result of that line and people blocking the intersection at Haggard Lane, the line of cars streams down Haggard Lane as well. The situation's gotten so bad that the state has commissioned a traffic study that should be completed and evaluated before adding another thousand people and their cars to the neighborhood. Density. The development plan calls for 179 apartments beyond the 55 single-family homes. That's a proposed 19 housing units per acre in a neighborhood that was originally designed and has the sewer infrastructure for just a little over 4 units per acre. It's a well-known fact in the neighborhood that we also have significant water issues in our basements. It's gotten so bad in parts of the neighborhood that the city had to buy homes and demolish them to attempt to address the issue which remains unsolved. Neighbors are asking each of you to oppose this zone change and hold a hearing on the project so my neighbors can help you better understand the many issues we have here and how this development will compound them if not addressed. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Rolanda Woolfolk and then I need to ask is Kendall Bales here? Kendall, are you intending to give your three minutes to Rachel Sloan? Okay. And what about James Bales? Are you here? Yes. Are you also? Okay. Very good. Alright. Welcome. Rolanda Woolfolk, 2nd District, Lexington Historical Black Neighborhood Association President. We're standing beside our Marlboro family and asking that the council postpone and seek and listen to our members who are known and understand the development that is supposed to be coming forward. We understand that affordable housing is important. We understand housing is important. We're not saying no to housing. We're just saying, hey, we got an issue that needs to be addressed. And we're asking for you to listen, hear us out, see what's going on, and go from there. Thank you very much. Next is Rachel Sloan and you will have nine minutes. After Rachel is finished, it will be time for Laurie Beaton. Welcome. Got a little graphic for you. Good afternoon. My name is Rachel Sloan, District 1. I would like to congratulate and welcome new council members, including my representative Tyler Morton. I'm a proud alumna of Northern, Winburn, Bryan Station, and UK, and a lifelong resident of Radcliffe-Marlboro, where I spent my summers swimming at the pool and riding my bike through the park. I am here to ask you to oppose the zone change and request a public hearing on the Trancy property owner's ball field development in my neighborhood, as there are issues that have not been properly addressed. Concerns about traffic congestion and pedestrian safety, aging infrastructure, and storm water runoff have been dismissed as existing or unrelated issues by developers, ignoring the fact that construction at the proposed density will directly impact and exacerbate these very problems raised at community engagement meetings. Sixteen residents reiterated these issues at the December 12th Planning Commission meeting after sitting through a 45-minute ad nauseum debate about windows, locked doors, stoops, and shrubbery with the Maxwell development, one single building on East Maxwell Street. Planning Commission members went so far to accuse the developers of a bait-and-switch on this project. And the results? The Maxwell, a project started before the pandemic, was continued to the next planning meeting. Meanwhile, 12.5 acres, the Transylvania baseball field development that neighbors learned of, not from those who purchased the land, but from local news outlets on January 10th of last year, was unanimously approved, citing the need for affordable housing in Lexington. Characterized as transformational at a planning committee meeting, this is simply micro-gentrification by a consortium of businesses being masked as a solution to Lexington's so-called affordable housing crisis. Our input has been disregarded in favor of an extractive economic venture. Of the 234 proposed units, only 55 will be owner-occupied homes and townhomes built by three non-profits. AU Associates and Winterwood Property Management are developing the remaining 179 units as apartments that will provide their companies a continuous revenue stream. To date, there's been no offers by developers to reinvest any of those profits into my neighborhood. The primary unaddressed issue is the inclusion of the multifamily dwellings in this development, and here's why. If the demand for affordable housing in Lexington is so high as developers and Planning Commission claim, then why, as of yesterday when I checked, does AU Associates Richwood Bend on Codell Drive have three-bedroom apartments available? Winterwood's 330 Newtown has one, two, and three-bedroom apartments available. Winterwood's Alcove at Russell on Russell Cave Road, less than one mile from the proposed transit development, has 18 unleased one, two, and three-bedroom apartments and an occupancy rate of less than 90%. If there is a housing crisis, why are there not months-long waiting lists for people for these units? How can the Planning Commission justify zoning land to build more apartments when Winterwood can't fill its complexes less than a mile away from the proposed development? Why not use this acreage exclusively for single family homes, as new apartments are under construction just up the road on Parris Pike and near Rogers Road? How many of those units will remain vacant? I would respectfully suggest a study to see where specifically in Lexington affordable apartment complexes need to be constructed, as the laws of supply and demand tell me it's not on the transit baseball field. The proposal also includes a four-story senior living facility. Note, in May of 2022, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the Ramada Inn on North Broadway, less than half a mile away from the proposed development, was to be converted into a senior living facility with 110 independent living units and 25 memory care units. Council members, perhaps some of you, approved a zone change and conditional use permit. Why has this project not moved forward? An existing single-story structure, formerly housing a hotel, is much more suited to aging in place than a four-story building requiring elevators. Instead, Northside residents are watching another property remain derelict while land is being bulldozed and raw materials manufactured for new construction. Despite assertions, developers are not designing in a context sensitive manner, as Radcliffe-Marlboro contains no apartment complexes. Proposed lot sizes are less than half the size of current lots, equating to a loss of nearly 5,000 square feet of green space per home. Furthermore, the scale, construction materials, and color schemes of the apartment renderings shown here in no way blend with existing homes. Traffic congestion and pedestrian safety is a primary concern, as neighborhood roads were built for the 1970s standards. Haggard Lane is routinely backed up nearly half the length of the road at peak commuter hours, as is North Broadway and the Interstate on-ramp. A recurring issue throughout the neighborhood is speeding and a lack of enforcement by traffic safety officers. Because Radcliffe is a collector road, traffic calming devices such as speed tables are not allowed. Long-term plans call for the connection of Citation Boulevard to Radcliffe Road near Northside Public Library, which will inevitably become a thruway from Newtown Pike to North Broadway. The increase in stormwater runoff caused by hardscaping the athletic fields is a grave concern, as the Urban Service Report's storm sewer section reads that, quote, despite not being in a FEMA special flood hazard area, the Division of Engineering has stated that there are known flooding issues on Haggard Lane. End quote. The attorney for the developers acknowledged that stormwater concerns by the Division of Engineering are most likely due to the age of infrastructure. A large percentage of homeowners battle groundwater intrusion in basements and crawl spaces after moderate to heavy rainfall, even after the city was sued by the EPA and residents made modifications required by the consent decree. What repercussions will property owners have if these problems worsen because of this development? When questioned, the project engineer ensured residents that runoff would be minimal and flow away from the development north toward Elkhorn Creek. For reference, immediate north is the Unity Worship Center, Red Roof Inn, and DLZ Engineering properties on Haggard Court at the bottom of the hill. Further north is under the interstate into Mary Todd, where entire blocks of homes have been demolished as a means of flood control, and where despite this, problems continue to exist. Sanitary sewer treatment capacity at Town Branch is another issue. After heavy rainfall, sewer caps are becoming dislodged and raw waste is spilling out into yards on Russell Cave Road. As local citizens, we are entitled, by law, to be part of the government process and have input on how our city is developed and how neighborhoods are transformed. We were asked to be a voice in this process, a voice that developers and the Planning Commission have ignored. So this is your chance. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members, we elected you to be our voice. We need this zone change opposed and to be granted a public hearing. Mayor Gordon, you intervened on behalf of Lansdowne residents over tree removal in 2021. Shouldn't Radcliffe Mall Borough neighbors be afforded the same courtesy when we stand to lose 13 acres of green space in exchange for several hundred additional cars commuting daily, impervious surfaces shedding thousands of gallons of contaminated stormwater runoff? That signals your nine minutes is finished. Thank you very much. Now I need to ask, is Lisa Allison here? Are you giving your three minutes to Lori Beaton? Okay. Lori, you'll have six minutes. Welcome. Okay. My name is Lori Beaton. I have lived on Linwall Road for 23 years. I am requesting a public hearing to oppose our zone change. I use our neighborhood all the time. I have a daughter in school. I've had children in school. I am in and out of the neighborhood constantly. The part of Linwall I live on is very close to Broadway. I'm in that first couple like that first block. The traffic congestion that is part of Broadway and Haggard and the interstate is something I truly don't feel can be fixed. It's something that's always been there. I know over the past 23 years I've called at least two times because I think the lights are on the wrong timing. Just because of the congestion and the backup of it. I don't think it can be fixed because of the schools. Everybody from Russell Cave and Radcliffe of Broadway, all of our schools are north towards Bryan Station Road. Our schools are Northern, Mary Todd, Deep Springs, Bryan Station High School and Bryan Station Middle School if your kids are in Spanish Immersion. The traffic goes that direction. They talk about open and citation. I think that's going to honestly make it worse because Newtown Pike is a mess. I don't think it will take our traffic that way. I think we can still continue to come our way because of the schools. Because everybody centers around their children. I look out my back window. I can see Haggard intersection from my back window and there are sometimes three buses lined up for multiple cycles. I realize that there's going to have to be houses and more houses built and we're not going to get to keep that green space. I really doubt we will ever get to do that. To make it the most maximum capacity that we could possibly fit there by I feel law is just crazy to me. People walk down Broadway constantly. So when I go to pull out of my street you have to watch not to hit people walking and the more traffic we have the more safety concerns there's going to be for that because people are going to take chances. When you're sitting at, a lot of times at Linwall I don't turn left. I mean it has to be a very slow part of the day to go left. So I go down to the light at Haggard and to go left at Haggard to turn onto Broadway you can't. So people turn that right hand lane to go around the cars there. It's basically you're trying to turn left in the right hand lane that you should be turning right in. But people are taking that chance to go around all the traffic of that left lane to get on the interstate to go the other way to be able to go towards Paris. They're not going to be able to ever really control that as a congested area because you have people coming from Paris to go to work back and forth daily. You have the schools. Just as an example, Bryan Station High School gets out at 3.15. So by the time I'm coming home from picking my daughter up from school it's about 3.30. So when I come out of Winston or Easton onto Old Paris Pike I try to never turn right because the intersection of Old Paris Pike and North Broadway is backed all the way up past Lackley which is almost the entire distance that I'm coming out on Winston or Easton. So I always try to go left. That way I go left I can turn right at the light there at New Circle Road, turn right onto Broadway. So my daughter and me sometimes we play a game like let's look ahead I wish I had pictures on my phone I've taken them but I didn't know how to give them to y'all. We constantly play a game and this is at 3.30 in the afternoon. This isn't even at 5 o'clock traffic or 6 o'clock traffic. We play a game of oh do we need to turn down Dover? Do we need to turn down South Ridge or North Ridge to get to Lenoir? Because it makes no sense for me to sit in that line to turn on Lenoir but I'm waiting for the light cycle down at Haggard to turn three and four times. It goes all the way to Dover sometimes. I have a picture on my phone right now of the sign of Dover and I'm like okay we should do it because the brake lights are all the way down at me. And Dover would be passing already a whole other entrance into our neighborhood. It just feels like a very it's already congestion there but just to think of adding that many more people seems really really hard to me. It's going to affect our way of life and just our already struggle to what we are doing. I mean not to mention I don't want to change our neighborhood. That's why I bought a house in our neighborhood because it was a residential neighborhood. There were no big buildings. There were no apartment buildings three and four stories. Yes that will change the look of our neighborhood and the feel of our neighborhood and just I don't know. It does mean a lot to us. It means a lot to us. It means a lot to our neighborhood and thank you for listening to me. I appreciate you all. Thank you. Our final speaker is Timothy Mitchell. Welcome. Actually good afternoon. Good afternoon council and representatives. I come here today just to speak on the neighborhood. Excuse me I'm so sorry. You may not have heard earlier. Will you state your name and your council district for the record. Yes ma'am. Timothy Mitchell. First district. Timothy Mitchell. First district. Ma'am I actually own 284 Radcliffe. My mother and father bought 1797 Brewer in 1980. As you can tell by the speakers here our neighborhood has become very diverse. I think at the time I think we were the only two African American families in that neighborhood when we came to the neighborhood. So as you've heard some of the speakers speak today they're truly concerned about the neighborhood. The new development will be in my mother's backyard right there in Trent on the softball field behind 1797. We've had several incidents where the cars and the trucks who get actually caught up on Radcliffe turning left down the back of Haggard Lane destroy the fencing and some of them have actually driven up into my mother's yard. The last time we had council meeting we spoke on traffic and you can tell most of my neighbors have spoke on traffic. We're looking at 468 cars that's going to be added if you put two cars in every driveway once they put this development up. So that's a big consideration. You're also going to have to look at the cars that's going to park on the curb on Radcliffe once this housing development goes up. Those fire department trucks will not be able to get through there without actually either having to work their way around Russell Cave trying to get to service some of the people there. You have to look at also some of our family members who are older. They're going to need that service. In the duplex next to mine a young lady actually died in a fire as a result of a fire in her duplex and it was hard for those firemen to get in there when they tried to come to service her. So I still recommend that we look at a public hearing and also look at this plan again. When you walk that baseball field there's currently about 40 parking spaces. You're talking about a senior living development complex of 96 units that will require at least two parking spaces. Also those apartments are going to require parking spaces as well as the homes. We heard last time that the homes had not been designed yet. So how can you bring to us a plan and the houses have not been designed? We didn't mind having new development. We were asking that the development be similar in the aesthetics of the homes that are currently there and the spaces. Build brick homes. The majority of our homes are brick homes on a decent sized lot. The last time we heard from council they said well the days of brick homes are gone. They are not. They make bricks every day. So the biggest thing that we need is a further time to get a better idea of how this is going to work. God bless us all. Thank you very much. That concludes our first session of public comment and I appreciate all of you who spoke today. Next on our agenda is requested rezoning and docket approval. So I'll ask for a motion to approve. All right. Councilmember Ellinger and councilmember Reynolds moved and seconded. And if you have comments please log in councilmembers. Councilmember Baxter. Thank you mayor. Item number one under ordinances first reading is an ordinance amending the zoning ordinance to define and regulate electronic digital billboards in the B3, B4, I1, I2 and C end zones. I move to remove this item from the docket and place it in the general government and planning committee. So moved. Councilmember Ellinger seconds. Are there any comments about the motion to remove and put in general gov? Yes ma'am. All right. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Thank you mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Morton. Thank you chair. I move to place item number two on the docket zone map amendment PLN MAR24-18 transit property owners LLC at 475 and 495 Haggart Lane and 450 Radcliffe Road with a public hearing on February 25th at 6 p.m. So moved. All right. Councilmember Gray seconded. Are there any questions? Vice mayor Wu. Thank you mayor. Can I get a little bit of clarification from either Tracy Wade or Tracy Jones please? When this item was before the planning commission, what was planning staff's recommendation on this? It was a recommendation of approval. Of approval. Yes. And can you remind us what the planning commission's vote was? Yes. The planning commission on December 12th voted to recommend to the council approval a vote of ten to zero. Ten to zero. Okay. Thank you for that. I'm going to oppose the motion for the hearing and I want to explain my vote. We spoke earlier today in the general government and planning about urban growth and rural preservation and I continue to be an advocate for infill and redevelopment. I think everybody in this room, regardless of how you feel about this specific item, we agree that housing is a real crisis in this city and that we need to build it. So my vote is not about this district or this neighborhood or even this specific development. And to go a little bit deeper, because we are the potential body to hear a zone change, we're actually not supposed to be involved in the initial zone change that goes before planning commission because we want to be fairly neutral and go into a potential zone change hearing. So for me it's not about the details of this development. If this situation were reversed and so let's take this situation and let's say planning staff recommended disapproval of this development and planning commission voted ten to zero to disapprove this development and the developer came to us and said we would like to have a hearing and get a second shot at this. My vote would also be no. Our planning staff and planning commission in this case have both recommended approval and not just approval but unanimous approval on the zone change. I for one do not want to expend more time, tax dollars or honestly hope for community members by this council to have a second hearing on the same matter. So I will be voting no. Thank you Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else want to comment on the motion? Council Member James Brown. Thank you Mayor and thank you Council Member Morton for the motion and thank you to my neighbors for being here today and speaking to this issue and continuing to be engaged. I'm not supportive of the motion as well and partly because I've sat through a lot of zone changes. This process is challenging to say the least. We're told not to get engaged as council representatives. Me as someone who lives in the neighborhood and is your neighbor is not allowed to get involved with the zone change on the front end. What I can do and what most of us do is we encourage the developers to reach out to the neighborhood and get their input on the process. This development has done that, has reached out to the neighborhood, has come up with a development plan from my understanding from reading the report that addresses some housing needs in Lexington. My concern is and the reason that I'm not supportive of another hearing is because I've seen this play out over and over again where we're limited on the decisions that we can make during the zone change. The Planning Commission is as well. So if we hear it again and we agree with the decision of the Planning Commission, the neighbors leave the zone change feeling unheard twice. And I think there's opportunity there's still another opportunity to engage in this zone change in this development. And it's when the development plan comes back and has to go to the Planning Commission. A lot of the concerns that I read through the report are issues that we are responsible to deal with as the flooding issues, the water drainage issues and I'm not saying that we're going to address them, but I think we can have a meeting to identify what those challenges are in regards to the drainage issues, to the traffic and work with the neighborhood, work with the development or the developer to try to address those. So if this doesn't go forward, I'm committed to working with the 1st District Council Office, Council Member Morton, our planning staff. We can ask and engage with the developer who has met with the neighborhood numerous times and I think we can convince them to get involved in several divisions of the departments in our city. One being our Division of Water Quality, our Traffic Engineering Department and try to address some of these issues on a city level and ask the developer and the Planning Commission to change the development plan or approve a development plan that addresses some of the issues that the neighbors are concerned about. I think that has a better potential of having an outcome that the neighbors may be more satisfied with as opposed to sitting through another zone change. and on our limited scope and authority because we just have the ability to approve or disapprove the zone change. We can't, we, I don't think we can change the zoning. So I'm just going to ask, and Mayor, this is just to kind of justify or to see if I'm thinking about this right, ask the Director of Planning. A public forum, kind of as I described it, in my mind, I foresee it being something that could fairly, that could be pretty productive and hopefully address some of the issues that the neighborhood has brought forward. Can you elaborate and maybe share your thoughts on how that could work and how you could potentially help facilitate a meeting like that? Council Member Brown, I appreciate the opportunity to address that and I concur that this is what you have described with the applicants involved, with the appropriate city staff and with the neighborhoods all speaking together in an exchange, in a conversation, would allow the neighborhood to communicate clearly what the concerns are. And then as you said, we can divide those into two sides, ones that are existing conditions that can be addressed in other ways, ones that may be exacerbated by the development and perhaps the applicant can respond to those in a way that would address those. I believe this would involve many disciplines from the city, certainly the applicant, and we would, I believe we'd be very happy to participate in that. And I appreciate that answer. And to be honest, folks, this is a new idea. This is something that we haven't done since I've been on this council. But I think as we continue to see zone changes come before us and the challenges that we face with those zone changes, we have to do something different. And I think this may be an opportunity to do something different. And I'm committed to trying it and I'm committed to working with the First District Council Office to get it done. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Who else wanted to speak to the motion? Council Member Lynch and then Council Member Ellinger and then Council Member Gray. The folks, this is for discussion of the docket, not the motion. But so Council Member Lynch, then Council Member Ellinger, then Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Habitat for Humanity is a partner in this project, one of the developers in this project. And I serve on the Board of Habitat for Humanity. And I wanted to seek guidance on the law department if I could even vote on this motion. And based on the guidance they provided me, I'm going to choose to recuse from this voting on this motion because I serve on the Board of Habitat for Humanity. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. I'm always in support of when the neighbors say they want to come hearing because I think they're the ones going to be most effective. So I do support putting us for hearing. I do want to make an amendment, though, because we have a work session at 3 o'clock. Our normal work session is done by 4 or 4.30. That means we have to wait around until 6 o'clock to start. And we have staff that are sitting here waiting. So to be more judicious, I would make a motion that we start at 5.30. I think that gets neighbors an opportunity to be here. Plus, the staff doesn't have to wait around for another hour and a half after our meetings to start. So I make a motion that we start the hearing at 5.30. So moved. Thank you. And will you restate the date since this is a motion? February 25th at 5.30. All right. And Council Member Morton seconded that. All right. So we have a new amended amendment on the floor. Council Member Gray, did you want to speak to the amendment which is changing the time? Okay. Does anyone wish to speak to the amendment? All right. All those in favor of changing the time to 6 o'clock? 6 to 5.30. 6 to 5.30. Excuse me. On February the 25th? Correct. Please say aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. So now the motion on the floor is to set a public hearing on February 25th at 5.30. Now, Council Member Gray, did you want to speak to the motion? Thank you. I second it. And I'm in favor of the people having the opportunity to be heard. Whenever, I believe that whenever we, the people ask, we should give them the opportunity. And so, and as someone that is a North Sider through and through all my entire life who played in Marlboro Park and has, and actually the 6th District is the location of the gas stations up front. That's still 6th District. And the church to the right, that's 6th District. So it's very important for me to give you an opportunity to be heard at any cost, at all costs, whatever the time it takes. That's why we're here, is to make the best decision on your behalf and be your voice. And I take that very seriously. So thank you, Council Member Morton, for calling for the hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Savigny, did you wish to speak to the motion? Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank you all for being here. And I'm supportive of this. Typically, when things go one direction, we don't hear them. But I've also, I've seen instances when we reverse course. So I do believe that the neighbors need a real forum that can be decisive. And sometimes the decision doesn't go your way. But at least you get a chance. So I think that's important. And I wanted to mention that your representative, Tyler Morton, he has worked hard to try to get this to happen. So if it happens, it's because he worked hard. If it doesn't, it doesn't mean that people don't agree. It just got other, it's the way things work sometimes. So thank you. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to the motion? Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. I'm not going to support this motion either. And I want to explain why. A common misconception about zone change hearings is that we have say in the development plan, when in fact, we do not. We are approving whether or not the zone change is appropriate. So the zone is being proposed as, I want to make sure I get it right, to an R2, an R3, and an R4 from everything that it is zoned currently. The planning commission and our staff all agreed that those are the appropriate zones for that piece of vacant property inside the urban services boundary. And our planning commission agreed unanimously as well. So I have taken a stance in the past that a unanimous decision one way or the other from the planning commission, that I will agree with that. If there had been one dissenting vote, I would maybe reconsider. But in this case, I won't be supporting it. And it's not because I don't believe that your concerns aren't valid. I'm happy to work with the council members as well on making sure that your public forum happens and that your concerns are heard. However, hearing your concerns are not things that we can address in a zone change hearing. They are things that can be addressed in the final development plan hearing. So I would encourage you to stay involved in whatever that looks like going forward. But at this time, I will not be supporting a hearing. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to the motion? All right. Okay. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Not all the council members, since we have some new ones, participated in one of the council public hearings we had for a zone change, where actually the planning commission disapproved unanimously. And in the interim, we actually put it on for a public hearing. In the interim, they were able to work out with the neighbors and came back. And when they asked everybody in the audience if they were for it, they all stood up because everybody approved it. So we approved it unanimously. So I think this gives us an opportunity now in the hearing that they can work together and try to come up with something that maybe can work with everybody. But when we have this many people that show up, that obviously is going to be affected. I think it's to the neighbors' best interest and for the city's best interest that we have this public hearing so we get everybody's input because it obviously is very impactful on your all's day-to-day life. So I support it and I hope my council members will support this public hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Hale, did you want to speak to the motion? Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor. As one that grew up on the north side of town, and as a person on the council, we were elected by the people. And when the people show up in this type of capacity to want to be heard, I think it's only right that we give them that platform to be heard. So I'm going to stand with Councilman Morton in this motion. Thank you very much. Anyone else? All right. All right. Council Member Brown. He wants to go last. Council Member Brown. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And I appreciate the comments from my council members. I just wanted to be clear that if we have a public hearing, I will be here and we'll listen and we'll make a decision accordingly. Part of the point that I was making is we're limited in the scope of changes that we can make. And that's what I think the misconception is and a lot of the disappointment that happens. And Director, can you just speak to some of our limitations in regards to a zone change? I've seen some emails where they've asked us to down zone some of the zoning requests. And that's not something that we have the purview of doing. Director Duncan deferred to me. Did he defer to you? Yeah. I just wanted to be clear that there are certain things that we've been asked to do that we just won't have the authority to do in a zone change. And if you want to speak to it, that'd be helpful. Sure. As Council Member Baxter mentioned, development plans are an exhibit in a hearing, but they're not approved by the council. Those go back to the Planning Commission. So that is not something that you can specifically change. In addition, conditional zoning restrictions are limited to density limitations and I believe landscaping and buffer requirements. So they're pretty limited as well. And then the thing that you just mentioned, I lost. Down zoning. Down zoning. Thank you. So the council or the Planning Commission are only allowed to react to the application that is in front of them. They cannot select a different zone or ask the applicant to change their application at the hearing to a different zone. Okay. Yeah. And so that's what really concerns me about the whole thing. And I think there's an opportunity to do it a different way and in a more productive way. And that's why I even suggested it. But like I said, I don't want to. And I've shared with some people my concerns about even phrasing it this way because I didn't want it to sound like we were trying to silence anybody's voice, not do our jobs and not show up to hear the concerns of the neighbors. But this process is not the most friendliest, understandable process. And I think there's another way to do it. But I'm committed either way. If we don't hold a public hearing and we do it and go the public forum route, I think we can bring more folks to the table and get a more productive outcome. But if we do have a public hearing, I will be here with bells on doing my job. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Any other speakers before we go to Council Member Morton? Council Member Curtis. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to take a second and explain my vote. I'm going to be supporting this motion today. It is due to the sheer number of folks who have organized behind this, though I want to express that I share concern with many of my colleagues over here about the process of what a zone change does, how we navigate that bureaucracy. And I hope that we can continue to have those discussions going forward. And whatever the outcome of this is, I'm fully committed to seeing this project through and trying to do right by the members of the community. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Council Member Morton. Just for clarification, Director Duncan, can you answer this? Does the Planning Commission have to listen to CMs or the public when it comes to the development plan phase? Or is it their discretion? The Council does not have authority over the development plan. Is that what you were asking, Council Member? No, I'm asking Council Members' input at that meeting. Yes. Do they have to listen to those Council Members? Well, the Council Members can make input, yes. Does the Planning Commission have to listen? Is it their authority? Yes, they'll listen to any comment that's made at a public hearing, yes. But they don't have to, if a Council Member says, we want you to do this, this, and that, they don't have to do that. Well, they're still listening to him, but they don't have to do what the Speaker said, yes. And then, can you speak to HB443 and how that may limit that strategy in the future? Yes. So, as Manager Wade said earlier in the Planning Committee, House Bill 443 will change the way development plans are reviewed. Now, zoning development plans, which is the plan we're talking about here, we're still trying to sort out how those may be treated because the Planning Commission or the Council may make conditions related to the zone change that could be reflected on the development plan. So, those still could be worked out. But a straight development plan, a final development plan after a zone change is approved, those will all be ministerial and will not be reviewed by the Planning Commission in the future. Correct. Which would mean that they wouldn't need, essentially, a public hearing for that. That's right. All right. Thank you. So, I'd just like to give a brief statement. So, I see a lot of First District constituents in the building. I want to say thank you for coming. This organizes, this shows democracy, and without you doing this, no telling how this would have went. But with that being said, I am the First District Council Member to represent you and your interests, and I will always do that. I want to put on the record, I support affordable housing. I am not against affordable housing. I am aware that we have a housing shortage and that this is a challenge that must be addressed by Innovative Solutions. Likewise, I believe this project can be beneficial to the City of Lexington, but first we must make sure it's beneficial to the First District constituents. There's existing neighborhoods that are impacted. So, when it comes to development, I believe strongly we must grow responsibly, equitably, and we must consider community voices, especially impacted communities. And I believe it is necessary for a public hearing due to public transparency, but also due to existing challenges within the neighborhood. Those challenges can include traffic safety. There are some, and this is just me knowing the area, you know, I grew up in Greenacre, so right across the street, but also during this last year, I've knocked almost every door in Marlboro, and I've heard concerns, so I know the concerns, the existing concerns. And with that being said, traffic safety. There are upcoming things that will automatically affect traffic safety and traffic maneuvers within Marlboro, whether it be the apartment building going on North Broadway, whether it be the traffic that's always backed up to Paris on North Broadway during peak hours, whether it be those three connections which are needed, especially Windburn Connection that is going to come from Newtown Pike all the way over to our side of town. These are legitimate challenges and will impact that neighborhood. And then also flooding. We've heard about flooding, but as mentioned before, flooding is not just something that happens now. It's happened in the past, and it's been neglected and been barely addressed. So, that is a challenge as well. So, to bring it home, I firmly believe in public transparency, and I feel that in any way possible, we need to include residents in the full process afforded to the community. The very process of zone changes provide for both the planning commission and the council to hear from the residents so that growth and community development is responsible but also equitable. And with that being said, according to theme F goal one of the goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan, we should pursue all venues of communication and assure that the community involvement includes a diversity of people so that they have a greater voice in the decision making process. This is the basis of my request, and I would like, I would hope to get your support, and for those who support me, thank you. And yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll call it, and let me call the vote. Thank you. It is time for, there's no one else who wishes to speak, so the motion on the floor is to set a public hearing for February 25th at 5.30 p.m. for ordinance number two. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? No. Okay. Let's go ahead and do an electronic vote, and we have one recusal. Council Member Lynch. All right. We have the yeas win, nine to, excuse me, was it five? Nine to five. And so there will be a public hearing on February 25th at 5.30 in this very chamber. All right. We're still on docket approval. Are there any other items for the docket? No? All right. All those in favor of approving the docket as amended, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next, we have December 3rd, 2024, council work session motions. Thank you. Council Member Baxter moved. Council Member Sheehan seconded. Do you have any corrections, additions, anything about the motions from December 3rd? All those in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. I'm sorry. Council Member Ellinger suggested if you don't want to stay for the rest of the meeting, which you're not required to, we'll give you a second to leave if you want to. If you need to talk with someone, please go out in the lobby. Thank you. So we can continue. Thank you all for being here. All right. Let's see. Now, we were going to go to budget amendments, but I believe Council Member Brown had a walk-on to the docket. If you would like to do that now. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to add a budget amendment to the list of pages 5 through 7 of the work session packet for streets and roads for salt in the amount of $500,000 in the amount of $500,000 to allow for additional salt deliveries for the remainder of the fiscal year. Funds are being reallocated from utilities within the general fund to cover this expense. So moved. Second. Council Member Reynolds seconded. Are there any questions? Salt for the roads. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? Thank you. That passes. All right. Now, we are talking about budget amendments. Could I have a motion to approve? Motion approved. Is there? Council Member Baxter seconds. These are on pages 5 through 7. And if you have a question about a budget amendment, please log in. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. On page 5, it's general entry 152410, the Division of Fleets and Facilities and Fleet Management, the $1.25 million. Second from the bottom. Yes. We have received an email about the paramedicine. Is that this one here that where they're going to be moving from where they're on New Circle Road over to, I think, Cisco or? Yes, sir. Council Member. If it benefits the council, I'll give a brief summary of all the activities. The good news is that one of our capital projects downtown, the police headquarters HVAC project, that project is underway and should soon be completed. We have a pretty good surplus with that project to the tune of $1.4 million, of which we're going to take one. We're requesting the council to reallocate $1.25 million to support various projects, including community paramedicine. I'm going to quickly itemize what that $1.2 million represents. $500,000 will go to the fire training site development project that the council supported with your fund balance reallocation of $3.5 million. $200,000 is going to go to the police west roll call envelope project that we have underway. That $200,000 will solidify what we need on contingency and give us a contingency of about $300,000. Another very important project is our fleet maintenance garage, which has been very busy here lately supporting our public safety and public work response. We're going to replace the overhead doors at the fleet maintenance garage. That's $300,000. There's 32 doors in all and coupled with our recent improvement on our ventilation projects on both sides of the garage, this will be a really good investment. And then last but not least, we have budgeted $250,000 to support community paramedicine, fire paramedicine's relocation to the hands annex. We are very hopeful it will not require that full amount, but by setting up the budget allows us to go quickly into bidding later this month, get that project started. Our team is working really closely with partners in government, in our facilities, and I think James Bush and our energy program is helping with that. So the good news is that we have a surplus that allows us to tackle and address other capital needs with existing dollars that we have. Thank you, Commissioner. That's helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner Ford. Councilmember Morton. Thank you, Chair. Chief Weathers or any staff that can address item B and item V? On budget amendment. Excuse me. My apologies. It's okay. While we're at it, do you have a budget amendment question? Okay. All right. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Ford, could I ask a follow-up question to that same item that Councilmember Ellinger was talking about? Do you happen to have the square footage of the hands building where paramedicine is moving? I guess I was a little concerned being familiar with that building that it wasn't very spacious either. Do you feel like it's large enough? Yes, we do. And Councilmember, thank you for bringing that up because that allows us to explain why we have the opportunity for the hands annex building to be available. The Family Care Center proper, and we've been working, as Chief Wells' email mentioned, it's been a very collaborative effort across our administration, public safety, social services, my office, of course, CAO Hamilton has been guiding us as well, is that if you recall in the Family Care Center proper, we recently ended the lease with UK Health Care. And they occupied a wing of the Family Care Center. And that provided Commissioner Allen Bryant and her team the opportunity to consider centralizing some of her staff, of which the hands program is going to now leave the annex and move into the Family Care Center proper in the former clinic space. We've just completed that renovation. They should be moving in here pretty soon. And so that allowed us to have that hands annex, which is about 2,300 square feet, which will be sufficient, we believe, for the paramedicine program, which Chief Wells has explained is mobile. They're not in their office all the time, but it gives them the space accommodation that they need as they're out and about in the community. More importantly, two things very quickly, Councilmember, is that we have been fully engaged with paramedicine. They've had an opportunity to go to the site several times. And it was Chief Wells' team that decided, yes, indeed, this would serve our needs. More importantly for the Council and for the government is it allows us to have a facility with no additional debt service, no additional lease payments. It's just making the best of a resource that we have. But we think it would be, and we're going to work our very best to renovate it to a stage that's not overboard, but allows them to have the space and workstation that they need and deserve. Thank you so much for that detailed description. I think it's wonderful and great on your all's part that you were able to find a resource that we already had to house them. I'm very excited about that. And so congratulations to all of you for coming up with that. I just wanted to make sure it was enough space. And yeah, I'm grateful for this new endeavor. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Thank you. Any other questions about budget amendments? All right. All those in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Council members, the next item is for your information only. And that brings us to new business. And I'll entertain a motion to approve. Move to approve. Second. All right. Council Member Baxter, seconded by Council Member Reynolds. And please sign in if you have questions. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Mayor. I'm on item J. It's the PDR program for smaller locations. Welcome, Commissioner Horne. Thank you. Thank you for being here. I just, for the public's information and just for clarification, could you explain how property within the urban service boundary would be treated and outside the urban service boundary would be treated? Who would be eligible and who wouldn't be eligible? Under the small farm conservation program, they would have to be outside the urban service boundary, at least 10 acres and under 20 acres, and engaged in agricultural activity. Thank you. And then in an instance where we end up processing and purchasing a development right on a small farm, are we looking at, if it's a working farm, do they have revenue requirement? Because I know on the larger farms, the max, I think your max that you can make is $700,000 or something like that. You mean income? Yeah, income wise. No, there's no, we're not looking at the income level of the owner. But that's true as well for the PDR program. When you're thinking about the income levels, you're thinking about the grant matches for those conservation easements. If someone makes over a certain amount, they don't qualify for a grant match. But the PDR program itself doesn't have an income requirement. Okay. And then how typically would we go about looking at whether, because I believe in there there's restrictions, like you actually have to be producing something on your farm. How typically would we do that for these 10 acres and these 10 acre lots? It really wouldn't be any different than the large farms. And currently the agricultural activity is defined under chapter 26 for the PDR program. That same definition applies for the short, small farm conservation program. Okay. And did they just get points for that? There is a point scale like for the original program. It's modified slightly by the Rural Land Management Board based on the size of the farms and whatnot, but it is largely the same point scoring system. And in general, why did we, why do we want to extend this to these smaller farms? My primary purpose is hopeful of bringing more equity and diversity to the PDR program. Now there's the secondary part of that is you are acquiring conservation easements on small farm land. And as you know, across the United States, there's been a great loss and continues to be a great loss of small farm properties. So the other part of that is preserving small farm land. Thank you very much. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Ford, I have a question about item Z, just a clarification. I know last budget cycle we spoke about fleet management software, and I was just curious if this is kind of what we talked about because we were trying to do it in-house, and I just want to see if we actually are moving forward with purchasing a software program. Yes, indeed, Council Member. This is, in fact, the improvement that we discussed during the previous budget. This allows us to go from a server, which is outdated and doesn't fit our needs anymore, to a cloud-based service. I'll speak on behalf of our Deputy Director Wanda King, the Jump Sheet, our director, in thanking CIO Liz Rogers and her team and being a support to us in bringing this opportunity to pass. So yes, indeed, this has been long studied. We're glad we're here now. Okay, I'm glad that Ms. Wanda is so happy. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Morton. Thank you. It's the right time, right? Yes, it is the right time. Chief is already up. Great, great. While you're on the way, I'll just ask the question, and this is just for public transparency. What is the purpose of item B? What is the purpose of the data collection system slash mapping tool, and how will it be used within the department? Good morning, Mayor, Council. I'm Daniel Burnett. I'm the commander over West Sector. I'm speaking on behalf of the Police Department. Of course, Chief's with me. First and foremost, Council Member Morton, I really appreciate you sending those questions in advance. That allowed us to prepare and provide you with information that would be beneficial and save everybody time. So we appreciate you doing that. First and foremost, I'll say this is a technology we already have. We've had it for years. It's used to scan crime scenes and other types of investigations such as collision reconstruction, things like that. It's combined with other data sources to complete those investigations as well as prosecutions. So this is for service of the software to ensure that it's certified, operating properly on an annual basis, and the alternative is buying a new piece of equipment that's tens of thousands of dollars. So this is a routine renewal for us. Thank you. And then for item V, does LPD have plans regarding how these grants will be, funds will be used? And if so, can you give a just a quick synopsis of what those plans are? We do, and I can get into as much detail on that line item if you want. But the synopsis is this is a annual grant that we apply for to use purchase for equipment. And for a range of purposes, it can include law enforcement related programs, prevention education programs, also planning evaluation and technology improvement programs, sort of a range of things. Once the grant's awarded, we determine what items we can purchase with those awards. And we provided a detailed list of what specific equipment we wanted to purchase this year. I can dig into that as much as this would be beneficial as you would like. You're fine. Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Let's see. Director Burton. Thank you. Can you just give just a history of the connection in Windburn, let's talk a little about the importance of it, and then kind of go into the time frame where we're looking at an estimate, please? And that's item C. So the connection, there's two different connections. There's phase 3A, which is connecting Citation to Windburn, and that's what this, what's on the docket today, item C. There's the additional connection with Citation to Russell Cave. So we got funding in 2017 for that design, and it proceeded through the design and the right-of-way process for the last several years. The design itself is fairly easy and straightforward. The speed bump in there, pun intended, is the right-of-way phase, and we've had an extraordinarily challenging right-of-way phase on the Windburn-Citation connection because we have every agency you can possibly imagine, all the way up to the Department of Interior, Fayette County Public Schools, as well as local property owners that we're dealing with here. We're getting to, I don't want to jinx myself here, I think we're getting to the 11th hour and almost solve a lot of the private property owner resolutions. We still have Fayette County Public Schools and Department of Interior, but we're working with Commissioner Ford and Parks on that as well to resolve that. But the project as a whole is about connectivity. It's what a lot of our project's about. Windburn now is a one-way-in and one-way-out community, and this will change that. Appreciate it, thank you. And just one follow-up, and then we're looking at possibly what, 2026 estimate possible with fingers crossed to get started? Knock on all the wood I can possibly knock on. I will give the caveat that when I got here I took over the Polo Club project, which took seven years to get through the right-of-way process. So I always give that an example of what can go wrong. Appreciate you, thank you, thank you. And just to speak on that topic, yeah, Windburn, like I said, is a one-way-in, one-way-out. Where I come from, my community, we call it a graveyard. So it is a need for, there is a need for investment into that, and we must get that done as soon as possible. And we'll stay, keep that in front of mind. So thank you, Director Burton, and I'll stop at him. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. I want to just follow up with Jay, with Commissioner Horne. I just want to make sure I understand. So this only takes from 10 to 20 acre farms, is that the? Technically it's 10 to 20 acres. The regular PDR program will pick up at 20 above. Okay, so I just wanted to make sure I got that clarification. Thank you. And then on number R, Commissioner Albright. If you could, we have the two pads. We wanted to expand the one to make it bigger. And here we had the contract you signed on November 5th that said they were going to be done by December 20th. Did they get it done? They are almost done. They're making the final cleanup changes and punch list items on the dome and the pad. The weather kind of caught them after Thanksgiving a little short. So they are about 98 percent done, I'd say. This is to kind of rearrange the change order. We allocated money to the wrong budget line. No, but I just saw also in here they had a contract say we'll have it done because we were going to extend it from December 4th through the 20th. And I just want to make sure. They're substantially complete. They're working on punch list items. Thank you. And then the last one I want to, number E, I see Christy Stanbaugh and Commissioner Allen Bryant on it. I don't know which, who, what's going to speak on that. It looks like Christy. Could you, for the new council members, and just to give a little update about this program, just a short synopsis if you would, please. Sure. So this was an item in the fund balance that Council Member Lynch and Council Member Liz Sheehan brought forward. A Caring Place Village is a non-profit and this funding is allowing them to engage with an entity to do a feasibility study to decide what a village hub might look like in our community. And so this funding is for them to get the infrastructure, to get the business plan, if you will, put into place so that a village which can support the entirety of the city and could grow and other neighborhoods might also become villages. Villages are models that help people to age in place. They provide in-home services. They provide transportation assistance. They provide handyman kind of thing. It's really about neighbors helping neighbors. And so this is a formalized way for neighbors to help neighbors. And they're progressing very nicely. They're meeting with the University of Kentucky, they did two days ago, to work with a couple of their group. What's the timeline? We have made an agreement with them that within two years they would have expended the entirety of this money that they would be sending my office a report three times a year. But I'm pretty engaged with Roxanne and her people and so I get reports regularly. Thank you and thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to invite someone maybe from police for item T. I wanted to give you an opportunity to explain how the Behavioral Health and Wellness Coordinator has served you and how they're helpful to the department. Yes, thank you very much. So that position started a couple of years ago as a grant funded position with wild success. So we've all recognized that wellness in our ranks, mental health is an extremely important component of that. So this position provides services free of charge to our sworn civilian personnel as well as their families. Just to give you a sense for the scope of it, this one person over the last year did 617 total sessions, 99 family sessions, 401 sworn, 81 civilian, 21 retired, and 15 recruits. In addition, this person assists with in-service training, developing quarterly wellness sessions in conjunction with our training section, and a number of other services. So we've seen the benefit across our ranks. It's part of a national trend in recognizing this is something we need to be doing, and so we wish to make it permanent. Thank you very much. I think we can all agree that mental health is super important, especially for what you all deal with every day. So thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Morton, since you've spoken once, I'm going to go to Council Member Gray and come back to you. Thank you. Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question regarding letter R. I'm not sure if I missed it because I walked out. I'm not sure if anyone's asked this. Okay, good. We shall see. So in regards to the salt dome, what's the plan for this? How will we increase the acreage for this right here? The acreage for this? Excuse me, I'm reading my legislation. Capacity, maybe? Capacity, yeah. Oh, capacity. Okay. It actually almost triples the amount of salt that we will have under roof at Old Frankfort Pike. At that campus, we have 1,800 capacity, 1,800 ton capacity before this dome, and we will have 4,500 after this dome. And a lot of our trucks start at Old Frankfort Pike, so it's important to have that campus ready to go because it's closer to fleet management in case we have truck issues. So we do run a lot of our first shift out of the Old Frankfort Pike facility. And question, it aligns with this. Do we have an issue with the amount, do we have enough salt for our city? We do still have enough salt on hand for the next event or two, depending on how things go, and we are continuing to receive deliveries. And how many years until this, for this, do we know the time frame for how long this will take to complete? To take the dome? Yes, yes ma'am. It is on punch list type items now. It's almost finished. Okay. So we had to have the contractor come back in and fix a couple things, and there's a delay with getting the door on the front of it. It was on back order, unfortunately. But otherwise, it will be done in the next few weeks. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Morton. Is your mic on? Thank you. Item S, just for public transparency. Can you please shed light on the rationale and why this change is needed? Absolutely. So for the evidence technician position, we had posted that for over a year, never were able to secure a qualified candidate, kind of a specialized skill set. We recognized that we could fill that position with a sworn officer detective, which we did. And we've recognized that we really have a great need over in the real-time intelligence center. We're trying to expand the hours of that program for the support for officers and investigations. And so we saw an opportunity to abolish that evidence position, reallocate that to the RTIC, and save money in the process. So kind of two birds, one stone was the goal. Thank you. Yes, sir. And then item D, there'll be... So I come from the social science fields, and I always love when there's something addressing social determinants of health. And we know education is that big social determinants of health. So this is... I love this item. Can you just speak to who has access... And these are just for public transparency as well. For the public preschool. Who has access, yes, yes, ma'am, to these services? And can anyone take part in these programs or does it... Yes, the preschool program is open to all children who live in Fayette County. Normally, children are assigned by their district, but we have a unique situation because we are... There are 30 preschools in the city. We are one of three that is not based in an elementary school. So what makes us unique is that we can service the community, but we can also service those children that are housed at Family Care Center. The preschool program is open to ages three and four if you have a disability, and ages four if you meet the income requirements. Thank you. May I interrupt? I'm sorry. I don't know if all the new council members in particular know you, Sheila. I'm so sorry. Sheila Horton-Holt. And I'm the Director for Family Services. Yes. And then just a follow-up question. How do we plan to communicate this to the general public? This is communicated to the general public. It's on our website. It's also on the Fayette County Public School website. And we are a filter for Harrison Elementary School. So their... I'm sorry, not their public. Their resource center also refers to us. Yeah, yeah. And if there's any way I can help spread the word, I would love to. So if you have any information, send it to me, and I'll put the word out there. Thank you so much. And then lastly, item, let's see, item F. Same difference. You know, I've seen this item, and I love it, especially knowing that after the COVID, we've seen a high increase in domestic violence, altercations, and murders. So I know that this is something that we must be keeping in front of mind and emphasizing. So can you just speak, what is the time frame of this, and when should we expect to see it, the campaign? So this is an ongoing campaign that the city has funded. And the purpose of it is to really speak to the public about how they can help prevent domestic and sexual violence. We know that we can't rely on our systems alone. So far, the campaign has focused largely on adults. This phase of the campaign is focusing on children that experience domestic violence. And so we're talking to community adults about how they can support children. We're working on the videos, the vignettes right now for the content, but it won't be made public until after school begins in September. And you have a marketing plan and all that? We do. As part of the money that was set aside for this project, we took a chunk and put it aside for someone to help us push out that material. She submitted a beautiful plan, which I'm happy to share with you, but it's mostly social media marketing and then some television appearances. Great, great. And same difference, please send me that and I would love to market it as well and spread the word. I appreciate your enthusiasm. Thank you. And for all of the new council members, this is Stephanie Thixton. I think probably for a few meetings, we'll ask our speakers at the podium to introduce themselves and tell what they do. Okay, does anyone... else have a question about new business? All right all those in favor of approval say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right thank you that passes. Next I'd like a motion to approve communications from the mayor appointments. Councilmember Baxter, Councilmember Sheehan, any questions? All right all those in favor say aye. I'm sorry I didn't see you. Mayor regarding your, did we talk about your appointments? Is that part of your? This is the. No no we're not there yet. Not there yet. Any other questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. Next the communications are the donations. I'll entertain a motion to approve. Vice Mayor Wu, second by Councilmember Baxter. Are there questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. And the final communications from the mayor is procurements. Could I have a motion? Councilmember Baxter, second by Vice Mayor Wu. Are there any questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. This brings us to continuing business presentations and I'd like a motion to approve the council capital projects. Councilmember Savigny moved, Councilmember LaGree seconded. Are there questions? All right all those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right that motion passes. And Councilmember Sheehan is going to give the General Gov and Planning Committee report. I have the report out for the October 15th 2024 General Government and Planning Committee meeting. The meeting was called to order at 101 p.m. and the September 10th 2024 committee summary was approved unanimously without any additions or corrections. Chris Taylor updated us on the urban growth master plan which was presented to the Planning Commission at its September 19th 2024 meeting. Upon approval by the Commission the plan will return to the full council. No action was taken on this item. The committee then revisited the discussion on rural short-term rentals which was reported out at work session on October 15th 2024. Mandy Higgins presented the Lexington History Museum's annual update. Memberships, partnerships, and opportunities with the museum continue to grow. Its strategic plan for the fiscal year 26 through 28 will be approved at the beginning of 2025. No action was taken on this item. Commissioner Lanter updated us on landlord and tenant advisory groups. Since 2023 the informal groups have met quarterly to give input to the ongoing work of housing advocacy and community development. Councilmember Lynch will keep this item in committee for annual updates. No action was taken on this item. The meeting adjourned at 203 p.m. That concludes our report. Thank you mayor. Thank you very much. Does anyone have a question for Councilmember Sheehan on her report? All right thank you very much. It's time for council reports. Please log in if you have one. Councilmember Baxter. Thank you mayor and first of all first of all I would like to welcome all of my new colleagues to the horseshoe. Look forward to working with you. Second of all I would like to introduce Elizabeth Withers as my new legislative aide. She's in the back waving so I'm looking forward to having her on board as well. Commissioner Albright. Thank you ma'am. You spoke earlier and gave us a little bit of an update about our snow routes and and all of that so I'm gonna come at you from a mom of two Fayette County public school students and I've had a lot of questions obviously as well. Now you said that Fayette County had provided bus routes early on but in the last 24-ish hours they've provided us with a few more lists of roadway. Okay so that's very helpful for the public to understand that maybe we didn't have the full scope of what was expected of us at the very beginning of our snow removal process. You said we have to we did 200 extra miles of unranked road correct? I'm just yes ma'am fact-checking myself here. Do you know what percentage of our this is I did not ask I did not tell you this question up front. Do you know what percentage of our roads are not considered a ranked road at all? I saw a calculation that looked like our ranked roads were about 50-ish percent. I would say about half yeah. Okay so for the public to understand our ranking how do we how do we rank our roads? Oh look there's director okay Rob says it's about one-third is unranked and when you look at our how our ranking system on the snow plan we we generally do them by traffic and demand and connectivity. Okay so the highest traffic roads that provide the most connectivity especially to our critical stops such as hospitals, fire, police those are the items that we try hardest to get reopened first and where we spend the most time and then we work from there and the rank three and four roads are generally the ones that are the main roads in and out or connect to a main road excuse me in a subdivision so those are the the main roads in the subdivisions at least or a rank three or four. Okay so I would venture to say I live on a court so I understand that I'm probably never going to get plowed and that's fine but if there is a road does not connect otherwise it's probably not going to be a ranked road is what I'm hearing you say. Yes ma'am. Okay perfect another concern that I have heard over the past week or so is in regards to our plow tracker the device you know the website that we can use to track the our plow trucks I could always see like where a truck was at that moment but it didn't have like where they'd been right is that a function of that particular website or is it something that we can look at adding in the future? I think it's something we can look at adding as we go back through the snow plow tracker. I think it would be really helpful especially for council members to be able to use it as a reference so that we know like where we are if we have hit rank two roads if we've hit wherever we are in the process I think it would be really helpful to look at that going forward. Now with all that being said I know we have had a I have like 50 emails right now to respond to but we've had a lot of concerns and a lot of really unhappy individuals but I want to say and director I want to say this to you too I know that your team has worked their earrings off over the last 10 ish days and I am so thankful for each and every one of the individuals that has dedicated a 12-hour shift around the clock for the last 10 days and know that we would not be where we are right now without that dedication. It doesn't mean that we can't always improve going forward but I want all of the crews to know that the sacrifice from their families and their sleep schedules and all the things is greatly appreciated and I'm sure that we can look at at improvements moving forward but I do appreciate everyone that has put so much time into this storm. Thank you mayor. Thank you councilmember Lynch. Thank you mayor and I would just like to reiterate what councilmember Baxter just said I am very appreciative of all of our city staff divisions including our contractors that have helped us throughout this winter and ice storm we really appreciate all your work and efforts. I would just like to take a moment to wish my sororities of Delta Sigma Theta sorority incorporated a happy Founders Day. Yesterday was our National Founders Day. We are 112 years old and so for 112 years we have celebrated sisterhood scholarship and service and social action and social justice and so I would like to wish all of my sororities especially the ones that are working here in city government a special happy Founders Day upon yesterday. Sororities may we continue to always move forward with fortitude as we continue to engage our sisterhood our communities and elevate our impact. Thank you so much. Thank you councilmember Liguri. Thank you mayor and I want to say first welcome everybody all of our new council members we're really glad to be working with you and we're looking forward to a productive term together. Second thank you to Streets and Roads and to everybody working in conjunction with Streets and Roads and Environmental Quality and Public Works to plow and salt. As my colleagues have noted it's not easy and it's hard to make everybody happy and you're working really hard and we get that and I have a really nice email I just got from a constituent I'm gonna share it with you so you can read it and know some people are happy. So third I want to say a big thank you to Director Steele from Code Enforcement. Time and again with multiple strange projects and requests from my office he's gone above and beyond for our constituents and for us and recently we had a really heartening exchange and I wanted to express my gratitude for dedicated public servants like him and like his team so I just want to say your intentionality and your hard work does not go unnoticed in our community so thank you. And then finally you all saw as you're reading your packets item Q and I want to say I'm really thrilled to announce the recipients of the second round of the Lex Grow Trees grants. Now Councilmember Lynch and Councilmember James Brown serve on our tree canopy ad hoc committee and I really appreciate their work and all of the committee members works as work as we got us to this point of council approval which is pending. We're awarding $392,985 to six organizations to support tree planting, tree maintenance, and education projects across Lexington and just for a little bit of background because I know we have some new folks here, council allocated 1.5 million dollars in 2022 to address concerns about our city's tree canopy and these funds were placed in the Division of Environmental Services and that helped to create our tree canopy ad hoc committee which I co-chair. So we've been able to provide input to the Division of Environmental Services about how the fund should be allocated and our goals are to increase Lexington's tree canopy, to inspire community involvement, to celebrate the benefits of trees, and to ensure equitable access to trees and green spaces for all. And many of you all have districts that are going to be positively impacted by these projects so just know that we give our big congratulations to the Andover Neighborhood Association, District 7, Beaver Creek Hydrology, District 2, Crawford Middle School PTSA, District 6, Healy Green Homeowners Association, District 11, Trees Lexington in Districts 2 and Districts 1, and the UK Arboretum in the third district. And we had many many many strong applications and this is our second round of grants and we're really encouraged by the passion and investment of our organizations and our residents across Fayette County with their applications. Also know, as I'm wrapping up, that we're going to share a formal press release so if you want to push this information out, if you have organizations in your district who are doing projects, we'll make sure to share this out with you so that you can put it forward in your newsletters or social media. Thank you Mayor, that's it. Thank you very much. Council, I am going to turn the chair over to Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Next up is Councilmember Borden. Thank you, Chair. First, I just want to give a little speech, just coming into my first time being here as a council member. So first and foremost, I want to thank God I would not be here without the man above. I would also like to thank former Councilmember Fogle and Councilmember James Brown, also Commissioner Ford, used to be the former council member of the first district, for setting the foundation of their dedication. It really inspires me. Likewise, I always say that Councilmember Fogle and Councilmember James Brown had two different leadership styles. Councilmember Fogle was known for being very passionate and serving the least of these and then Councilmember James Brown known for getting the job done and building relationships and I say I fall directly in the middle. So it was a pleasure to learn from both of those folks and they've really got me to where I am now. Mayor Gordon, well, she's gone, but fellow council members, I want to thank you for your leadership and I look forward to serving with each and all of you to better Lexington and create a positive change for Lexington. To the incredible employees, the staff of Lexington, those behind the scenes that don't get credit, those in front of the scenes that do get credit, we cannot do this without you. You are the glue and the mold to our city and making sure that everything is done. So I want to let you know that you do not go unnoticed. Your work is very appreciative and I have your back anytime I can. To my family, I have my mom in the front row, my sister, my twin sister right next to her and my brother, Chance, you know, and a lot that's not here. I mean, most of them weren't that dang swearing in, right? But either way, you know, they are my backbone. They are the reason why and without them, I wouldn't even be here. So I give major gratitude to my family, church family, family, friends, mentors and anyone that has pushed me to here and most importantly to the first district constituents. Thank you for your voices, for your resilience, passion and your passion. It inspires me to get my very best every day. I don't take this position lightly at all and I'm deeply honored and humbled by the trust you have placed in me to serve our district but also the city as a whole. So I just want to speak a little bit about just, you know, how I really got here. Honestly, as a child, my family instilled many values within me leading to my calling which I say is service. My grandmother, Mary Ann, and I actually have a picture right here, she was the first African American to graduate from UK 75 years ago in 1950 and that wasn't too easy as you can imagine but she embodied humbleness, she embodied fearlessness, she embodied taking on hard tasks and then also she followed the golden rule. On the other end, my grandfather, Robert Morton, he was a businessman, a World War II veteran, activist but also he was the firm of action officer here at LFUCG in 1978. As a firm of action officer, he was tasked with managing the Equal Employment Opportunity Program, ensuring that all people, regardless of their race, creed, origin or gender, are given the equal opportunity to secure a job within the urban county government if they're qualified. He embodied equality, he embodied accountability, he embodied transparency and working hard. These traits, humbleness, fearlessness, willingness to take on a hard task, following the golden rule, equality, accountability, transparency, and working hard have been passed down to me and they are the cornerstone of my approach as a leader for Lexington. So as your leader to the First District constituents, I will follow three principles and you've heard them for the last year and maybe this is one last time I say it. Being accessible, being attentive, available, responsive to you, sharing information and resources. I strongly believe that our community should be informed and they should be able to give input so when we make important decisions, we can say that we listen to them. And then lastly, addressing all of our challenges head on through innovative solutions. So to sum it up, First District, I made two promises. The first promise was that day one, I was going to start the work and as you can see, I think that that has happened. And then the second promise was that I'm going to uplift, support and defend all of our neighborhoods and that's exactly what I'll do. So thank you for electing me to be in this position. I look forward to serving the First District but also the full city of Lexington. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Beasley. Thank you, Chair. I would like to take this opportunity just to thank all of the commissioners and departments who have shown me around their facilities, met with us, we've met with Corrections, the Police Department, the Fire Department. We've been out to the Salt Barn, out to Streets and Roads. I'd like to say thank you to Streets and Roads for all the work that they have done out there. We couldn't have got here today without y'all. And then all of the council members who have shown me around City Hall, who have, sorry, I have a cold, that's why I sound like this, who have shown me around City Hall and welcomed me and sang happy birthday to me on yesterday. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I want to echo my colleague's comments but to the new council members, I want to say that I am super excited to work with each of you and I know that you all care a lot about this community. Being an elected official is something that very few people have the opportunity to be. And so it's a rare, really privileged position that we have to serve the residents of Lexington. And so I know that each of you take that very seriously and I'm excited for the things that we can accomplish together in the ways that you're going to serve Lexington. So welcome and here we go. We're starting our session today. I too want to say how grateful I am for Streets and Roads, for public safety. I know all of you all have been working a crazy amount of hours and overtime. And also to waste management and everyone in fleet services. I'm sure I've forgotten a division or two. It takes a lot of different folks to be able to respond to the type of storm that we had. And a lot of a lot of people, you know, are concerned maybe about some of the ways in which we respond. But we have to remember that this is Kentucky. I've lived here since I was six years old and we don't know if we're going to get a huge winter storm every year, if we're going to get zero major winter storms, if we're going to get two, if we're going to get an ice storm. It's very unpredictable and we try to prepare for everything but we can't always prepare for everything in the way that we would like or respond in the way some other communities do who get more winter weather regularly. So I'm just very appreciative of all of our divisions. And I did want to ask the commissioner a follow-up question to what Councilmember Baxter said. So most of the constituents that are contacting me are contacting me about roads that are unranked, that they don't realize are not on our snow plan. Can you explain, do those roads, after we clear all the ranked roads, do we go on to the unranked roads or do those generally not get touched? Well to follow up on some of your great comments before the question, this is an extraordinary event. So normally we would not continue to treat or plow unranked roads because normally we would be looking at a two to four inch type of event of snow and generally by the time we would get there the snow may already actually be going away. So we plan primarily for a normal snow event to just focus on those ranked roads. The unranked roads become a higher priority during those bigger snow events. And I would want to make sure to point out that a half inch of ice or so that we got also really complicated how much the plow can really get off the roads after a couple of days. So unfortunately we are going to continue to work on those unranked roads. That is a little unusual. We will still look for roads that are connected to other roads. So courts, Councilmember Baxter may not ever get to appreciate that. But normally we would focus on just the ranked roads. Thank you for that explanation. I just wanted to let my constituents know that all of us are following up and we hope to have more interaction to be able to maybe improve our systems moving forward. And once again I appreciate all your work. So thank you very much. Really quickly I just wanted to mention the Celebrate MLK Together event that will be on Monday January 15th on MLK Day. There will be a Freedom March starting at 1 p.m. with a lineup in front of Central Bank Center. And then a commemorative program inside at 2 p.m. These are wonderful events and I just wanted to make sure that they're out there. I know we're going to bring them up again so that people don't forget. But I hope to see folks there on Monday. Thank you very much. Thank you Vice Mayor. Thank you Councilmember Gray. Thank you Vice Mayor. First of all I would like to say thank you to all of our employees who have been out there in the cold and at least doing their best to plow the roads and to collect the trash for us. It's a hard job and I know you go unthanked often and you see what's said about you on social media about you not doing your job. But we see you and we're thankful for you. Next. But first photo. As you all know, my colleagues know and many people hopefully in the City of Lexington know that I placed into committee some time ago code enforcement. Well Councilmember Lynch and I, we've been diligently doing the work. We've had several town halls, at least six. And guess what, we're going to have one more. I told everyone during our previous town halls that we would have a last one after we've done all the work. And we've done the work. We've been very diligent. We have been painstakingly going through the ordinances and working with the Division of Code Enforcement. And we have a town hall that we have planned. A town hall meeting coming up next month on Wednesday, February 5th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Frederick Douglass High School in the cafeteria area. We'll be updating everyone about the improvements made to code enforcement and we look forward to seeing you. And we will finally give, we will give the committee, I believe it's the Social Services and Public Safety Committee that I placed it in. We will be giving the committee an update of everything we've done in February. I believe it's February 25th. And next photo. So as we know, we've been dealing with a little bit of snow. And as all things, I love getting feedback from the residents that I'm blessed to represent. I would like everyone in the 6th District to please provide feedback of how this Lexington-Fayette-Urban County government can improve its response to severe winter weather. You can find the online survey on the 6th District Facebook page and it will also be in our newsletter. The survey will remain open until January 31st at 1159 p.m. I look forward to getting all of the input. The more, I need as many of you to provide input so that I can give this information to our Division of Streets and Roads, yes I said it correctly, and to the Commissioner Albright. I thank you all for having me here for another term. It is always a blessing to be here and to be your voice. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Curtis. Thank you, Vice Mayor. First off, I would just like to echo the sentiments of my colleagues and thank all of the folks who have been out there busting their butts to keep our roads clean, get folks where they need to go on time, and make sure that everybody gets where they need to go safely. But I also want to take a second and thank, I think I speak on behalf of all of the newbies here, all of the Council staff who've worked really hard to accommodate orientation for new members amidst the weather emergency. That was not an easy task and y'all rose to the occasion and I want you to know that we see you and we appreciate you. And this includes the ceremonial swearing-in that we had this past weekend, which was a wonderful event and an opportunity to be together with our new colleagues and folks from the community. I did learn at the uh swearing-in ceremony that we did have a birthday on Council recently and so I want to wish a hearty happy belated birthday to 8th District Council Member Amy Beasley. I think we all are glad to be here with you and we are so glad that you've celebrated another trip around the sun. I also want to thank Vice Mayor Wu for setting up and organizing our Council retreat this past yesterday. Oh my gosh, days start to blend together, huh? It was a wonderful opportunity to get to learn a little bit more about all the folks that I'm going to be working with throughout the next two years. I also want to take this opportunity to let folks in the 4th District know that as we're coming into office, this being our first day of session, we're going to be setting up office social media pages and our offices newsletter. There's going to be more information about that forthcoming. I'm really excited to get started on that. I want to take a second to acknowledge my legislative aide, Sarah Ritter, who comes to us from Visit Lex. She's a lifelong Lexingtonian. She's worked in local government for quite some time now and I think she's going to be a wonderful asset to our office, our district, and to our Council. So that being said, with all of these conversations about ceremony and getting started, most of what my time has been focused on, like everyone around this horseshoe, has been responding to calls, emails, messages about winter weather response and I want to take a second to encourage all of the folks who have reached out to me or any of the other Council members about our streets and roads and our winter weather emergency preparedness and response to engage with this Council beyond the immediate moment in which we're struggling with certain issues like that. This is something that gets discussed with pretty consistent regularity around this horseshoe and having those perspectives when we're not fresh in the moment where our driveway is still frozen and we're mad as hell about it. It helps us to have a more concrete conversation about the tangible changes we can make to these plans to address concerns that we might have. So I really want to encourage folks to stay engaged beyond this moment. I would also just like to thank all of the returning Council members who have been so kind and so generous. I've had the chance, I believe, to meet one-on-one with every single one of you and it's been a real joy to get to learn from your perspectives, your experiences thus far on Council and it's really heartened my faith in this governing body's ability to, as I've heard Council Member Baxter say several times, disagree without being disagreeable. I think you saw that today already and I think it's one of the things that makes our local government so special here in Lexington. So right now as we're experiencing so much divisive rhetoric and so much of an unwillingness to work together in good faith, I'm excited that we have this opportunity over the next couple of years to work together and provide counter evidence and show that there is, in fact, a better way. So thank you so much. Thank you. Apologies, colleagues, for skipping some of you. I was looking at the wrong part of the screen. Next up is Council Member Sheehan. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Commissioner Albright, I'm going to ask you to come up but while you're coming up, I do want to go ahead. As Chair of the General Government and Planning Committee, I would like to place an item into our committee for Lexington's Preservation and Growth Management Program and the sponsor for that is going to be Vice Mayor Wu. We don't need a vote, but thank you for your support. Commissioner, I just have a question about the following up about the winter weather that we've had as well. Some of us have asked for potentially sort of an after-action review or report out about what was done over the last, it's been almost two weeks now, for how shifts were changed, how people were pulled to help the shift make-ups. I know a lot of folks were working 12-hour shifts and they were going 24 hours a day. How the snow plan might have been modified, what treatments were already being done and planned for, all of those kinds of things for us to be able to hear what happened during this time, but then also for public information to share what the response was, to clear up some of maybe the misunderstanding, but then also answer some of the questions that we're getting. Another piece of that I think could be how we communicated with Fayette County Public Schools, like what that communication looks like and then how that may or may not change in the future if it needs to change. And then I know we're talking about this as an extraordinary event and that the temperatures have been so low, but I think all of our storms, our rainstorms, our wind storms and everything have been pretty intense lately and seem to be coming more frequently. So I think we should have some discussion about how do we handle this in the future and that could be a part of this presentation about some thoughts that you may already have, but then also maybe a part of the discussions for planning for our future snow plan. I know that's reviewed annually and will come to our Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee, but thinking about, you know, there are other municipalities that are able to deal with the sustained weather and whether we should take steps to invest in, you know, other methodologies. I know, for example, the beet heat we use, we've been talking about how at the low, low temperatures it's not as effective, you know, so are there other things that we might need to consider in the future to be able to handle these types of things? I know it's been very hard on everybody, but I also extend my thanks to all of our streets and roads crews, the water quality crews that were pulled over for snow clearing, our first responders, our waste management. There were so many people who have been involved in the snow response, so my sincere thanks goes out to everyone who has been involved with that. Yes, ma'am. And I think what we were asking for was to have this presentation to an upcoming work session to the full council. Okay. Do you have an idea of when that would be yet? I think we would work with the vice mayor's office to schedule that. Yeah, we're looking at next week's work session. I thought I heard, but I wanted to just make sure. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes. And if I can, just for a moment, one of the, almost the definition textbook of behind the scenes fleet management, most of our crew could not have done what we did without their help every day. Like I've said to many people, hydraulics and cold weather don't mix very well, and they kept us going all week long. So very much appreciate them. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Boone. Thank you, Chair. Along with my colleagues, I'd like to thank all the city employees who have worked tirelessly during the recent snow and ice events. To all members of the Department of Environmental Quality and Public Works, Streets and Roads, Waste Management, Water Quality, Fleet Services, and Parks and Rec, thank you for all you're doing to keep Lexington moving. I'd also like to extend my appreciation to the Lexington Fire Department, Lexington Police Department, and Lexington Emergency Management for keeping our community safe during this challenging time. Many of our roadways in the 12th District maintained by both the city and state can be particularly difficult to navigate. I'd like to thank all constituents who have contacted my office and expressed concerns and brought particular issues to my attention. I appreciate your understanding and patience during these challenging conditions. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Vice Mayor. It could be Nancy or Rob Allen. Maybe Rob Allen might. He hasn't had any love in, so whichever one of you wants to come join, but he probably knows these answers pretty well. So, well, thank you, Director Allen. While you're coming up, quick one is how many miles of the unranked roads have we kind of dealt with so far, do you feel? We know for sure 200 linear miles, and some of those roads, the extra school buses, could be two passes. And then we also worked on waste routes that were not part of ranked roads, and we were figuring around 400 linear miles on there, so probably roughly around 900 extra miles. Okay. And if you think our snow plan is around 1240, that's pretty extraordinary. Yeah, I would agree with you. And I do want to thank you for all that you guys are doing. I've got a few questions that just are coming to me, so about how many vehicles in our fleet actually are out there doing this work? If they're all up and running, about 40. About 40? Yeah, but you got to understand that they run 24-7, multiple days a week. For example, last Wednesday, we had four trucks go down in the overnight, and fleet services got, I'm sorry, we had five trucks go down, and they got four of them back up and running within eight hours. That's great. Yeah. That's fantastic. Thank you. We did have some neighbors saying things like, oh, those guys are just sitting over there in this parking lot. My guess is we have required breaks for driving, and you might want to just inform us so that we can inform our neighbors. Sure. And there were some questions about the snowplow tracker. Not every truck shows up on that snowplow tracker, and we're trying to get that corrected. Also, it's on a delay of about 15 minutes, and it's really hard to determine context from that. But same thing in the yard. You don't know if that truck is being repaired, if it's a reserve vehicle. Got it. And how many contract vehicles are used? We used five contractors, multiple shifts. Five contractors, multiple shifts, and are they individual vehicles? Yes. They're actually the larger trucks, so we can use our smaller vehicles in the neighborhoods. I was going to say, a question people had asked, between water quality and streets and roads, there are 108 people that work over both shifts. Great. I just want to recommend, because we're coming up to the mayor's budget hearings, so there's probably never a better time than after an event to make sure that we're aware of maybe some different ways to do different things in these serious events. So I would encourage you guys, after this presentation, to be as creative as you can, because you probably will fall on very receptive ears. Sure. So I appreciate all your guys' work. Thank you. And I just wanted to tag on to everybody else. This is a fun and great council to work with. They are hard working, which is the new folks are. They're doing great work, and I'm very excited to work with you all. You're a good group. You all have different characteristics, and it's kind of fun learning. It's learning the things that make different people tick and how you can work together to kind of all do something good for the community. So I'm looking forward to working with you more. And to the returning council members, they're making me tired already. So I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Hale. Thank you, Vice Mayor. First, I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because without Him, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be anywhere. And I just want to just take that time out to give Him glory. And I want to thank all my fellow council members. I want to thank you all for the warm welcome into city council and for just reaching out to us even on the very night of election and setting those meetings and reaching out to us. That was very, that hit me in the heart. So thank you all. And just thank you all just for your help. And I definitely look forward to serving with you all and serving this great city that we all live in. I want to thank my family. I want to thank my campaign team that worked and walked endless miles during this whole time. I want to thank my legislative aid. And I want to thank the council staff. I think the people that are in the background usually don't get those accolades. But I want to thank you all for helping us, especially Shante. I know I'm getting on your nerves, and I'm going to continue to do so. But thank you for just for welcoming each one of us in, making sure everything gets flowing and gets going. We got a lot of hiccups, but we're getting it. We're getting it together. And I want to thank all my constituents for affording us the opportunity to be able to serve. And I look forward to serving District 7. Thank you. Thank you. The only thing I can add to all the welcomes for the new council members, and honestly, you all don't even feel that new to me anymore. I feel like I've been talking to you all for about two months now. But we had a great time at the retreat that I facilitated yesterday. And it's always great to get to know folks a little bit deeper, kind of figure out working styles and attitudes, backgrounds, kind of where you come from, because it really does inform how we can work together. And hopefully that you've seen with this council that we really do work together, despite of and sometimes because of our differences. So I think it's very encouraging, and I'm very excited to work with all of you all. I wanted to report out a task force that I formed this morning. We had a press conference announcing it. It is called the Street Safety Task Force, and that's street with three E's. And it stands for shared travel requires engineering, education, and enforcement of traffic. I didn't come up with this snappy acronym, but you know we love our acronyms here in government. So this task force includes members of the community, many members of our city staff and employees, as well as six council members. It is chaired by Council Member Sheehan and Council Member Savigny. Also includes myself, Council Member Curtis, Council Member Baxter, and Council Member Legree. We are focused on these three areas of engineering, education, and enforcement because our constituents have told us that street safety, traffic safety, car related incidents, injuries, and even deaths are a big concern for our community. So we are looking for all the different ways that we can tackle this issue from all kinds of different angles, and I'm very optimistic and excited to work with this group towards that shared goal. So that's what I have. Next up is Council Member Morton again. My apologies. I just forgot the most important folk to give a shout out to, and that's my staff. I did a little different. I have two part-time staff members. One is Adina Tatum, and then the second is Sarah Brown, and I won't be able to do this without them, so I wanted to give a shout out to them. But then also just for the public and for staff members, if there's a need to reach my office, you don't know who to pinpoint, you can just email district1 at lexingtonky.gov, and then they will get the email and figure out how to go about it. And that's for staff, but also for the community. And for the community, you can reach Adina and Sarah at 859-280-8254 or district1 at lexingtonky.gov. So I just want to give them a shout out because I can't do it without them. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Allenger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Either Commissioner Albright or Mr. Allen, I've got a question. I had a voicemail from an anonymous city employee who said that they have a CDL license and no one contacted me. Are we having an issue with not enough trucks, or do we have not enough drivers, or is that not an issue? Because they said there's seven or eight probably that have CDL license that could, in these kinds of times, help out if we contacted them. And do we do that? Well, let me just, I think we would want to make sure they can do it all season. So that's when we would tend to schedule people more than just kind of random in the moment. That's hard to do because driving a snow plow is a lot different than driving a regular truck. So we would want to make sure they've been trained on it. We do generally put out a call in the fall, but if there's somebody who'd like to jump in, we can talk. Well, and that's what I didn't know if we had an issue with we had enough trucks, just not enough drivers, we didn't have enough trucks, we have plenty of drivers, or if we needed drivers, do we send that email out to somebody that we could help have on an emergency basis like this when we need, when we're working people 12-hour shifts and we run out of employees that we could pick up some actually off the JV team and pick them up? Well, I appreciate the offer, and I definitely think we ought to talk to them. Again, it's hard to make sure everybody's been trained on how to operate the equipment if they're only going to do it once a year. That's kind of tricky. We tend to kind of divvy up the city at the beginning of the season, and not that we don't need to readjust throughout. That'll be one of the things we'll have to talk about this week. Well, I was getting ready to say, when we bring it up, if we could look at that going forward, possibly, so we could have them on the bench if we need to pull them up to help out during very extreme kind. And I think this is, Council Member Reynolds said, this is not our normal winter that we got hit. So we've been dealing with stuff that we don't do on a normal basis, but we also, we've received a lot of emails and calls about trying to get some of the roads done. If we could do anything we could do to expedite that process, I think everybody would be happier. Sure, and this was an existing employee? I'm sorry? Yes. Okay. If you want to send them my way, I'd be happy to talk. Well, like I said, they were anonymous. They just said, this is a, I'm just sending you a voicemail, didn't want to give my name, didn't want to get in trouble, but I just wanted to let you know that there are seven or eight of us out here probably could help. And I guess send out an email if we have a list of who has CDLs that say, a general email saying we, in the future, maybe we can have you be able to come on board and help out in these kind of emergencies. We have actually looked at people who are getting CDL pay from the city in the past as one of the resources to try to get people from parks and rec, or we've had them from code enforcement in the past. And I know we've used environmental services, pump stations. So we've, we have looked for people now that this is someone who does it as a second job and we don't know about them. I think they work here in another department that just haven't been contacted to do it. So just something to look forward to look in the future, maybe to be able to have, like I said, somebody come off the bench to help out on these kind of emergent situations, but have them prepared ahead of time that we could use them. Okay, well, we'll put that on our list of things to think about. I just want to pass it on. Yeah. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor. All right. Thank you. Next up is public comment for items not on the agenda. We don't have anyone signed up. So that takes us to the end of our agenda. We stand adjourned. Thank you all.