everyone. We will be just talking about another update of the Lexington's Preservation and Growth Management Program that we are currently working with the Council members on. This again is a item that was put into the General Government Committee and Planning Committee by Vice Mayor Wu and is really being headed up by Vice Mayor Wu and the GGP Chair Council Member Sheehan for this. So just to give you an idea of where we're at along our timeline, this is a fairly long process. We are going to be going through this in a fairly detailed way but today is really a focus on an initial framework that we pose to the Council General Government and Planning Committee just to gauge their perspective of things and try to move that forward. I'm really here to make sure that you are part of this process and are continually being updated throughout. So you know about some of our educational events that have occurred in the past. On March 16th and 19th we went out and had several meetings with the public at public libraries just to provide a little bit of context about the urban service area, how it came about, what has happened, changed in the meantime. We've also been updating you at your work sessions as we go along just highlighting the fact that this is meant to be more collaborative and you'll see how much of a role the Planning Commission will have in this process as we go along. Just as an update, whenever there is an update to the GGP we will be following it up with an update to you all so that you know where we're at in the process, can hear about things. There is a public outreach meeting next week, May 22nd. This is being held at the Senior Center. We would love to see you there, provide your comment. There will also be some surveys online for that. So just giving you the heads up, this is a presentation that we gave on May 6th to the GGP. We're sliding that arrow down a little bit for you all for today's presentation. And it is really meant to show a general framework that is meant to essentially formulate a process for urban and discussions of urban growth within our community, whether that is policy change, regulatory change, or a potential alteration of the urban service area. You can see on here we have really two decision-making groups. We have the planning commission, our orange boxes. And I got to use this. Our orange boxes here with the background and then our deeper orange boxes. Those deeper orange boxes represent a decision that you will be making. And then the council in green down here. There are also two other non-decision-making bodies that we're putting into this framework. The planning staff in gray or black. And then a subcommittee that would be developed by the planning commission and moved forward. So I'm going to walk you through this process step-by-step just so that you know right now where we're going with this general framework. This would start with a off-cycle five-year growth trend report. So off-cycle. Right now we do our comprehensive plans on a five-year statutory cycle. This would be moved two years after that comprehensive plan so that we get a little bit of distance from the comprehensive plan, allowing that comp plan to really breathe for all the other elements that are made up in that comp plan. But then starting with the development of a five-year growth trends report, looking at the amount of land that is available, needed to support our residential and employment. Employment, we're really focusing in on commercial and industrial land within our community, make sure that we have jobs-producing land and the housing that can support those jobs-producing land. That projection for land or needed land would be on a 20-year time frame. So if we have enough within that 20-year time frame, based off of the data that would be generated within this report, there would be no need identified. We would be good with the land that we have to support the needs of our community. We would report out to the Planning Commission, but there would be no process to go further. So essentially, we have that report. There's no found need at all. It basically comes to you all and goes no further. If there is a need that is identified within the current urban service area, there would be a report out to you. You would formulate some recommendations that would be made to the Urban County Council, and then that would be forwarded on to them. Those recommendations could come in the form of three different possibilities. Policy change, regulatory change, and then a potential alteration of the urban service area. So it's important to know that those don't have to be distinct recommendations. They could be a blend. How would we meet that need with some sort of policy change from the Council, funding mechanisms, things like that, or a regulatory change with our zoning? How if we changed our zoning, could we meet that need? And then finally, what kind of acreage would the Planning Commission maybe recommend for an alteration of the urban service area? All of that would be packaged and moved along to the second review, which would be the Urban County Council review. They would accept the proposals that you have put forward, and then they would review it. The Planning Commission would make those three recommendations, but the Council actually has four opportunities. They could say, they look at any recommended need, they say, well, this doesn't meet the threshold of doing something, so there would be absolutely no change. Or they can make a blend of recommendations, or one of the three recommendations, policy, regulatory change, or alteration of the urban service area. If it is a policy or legislative change, that would just follow through our normal procedure that we have already in ordinance. The Council would go ahead, they would modify budgets, do things like that. If it was a regulatory change, it would be a modification of code of ordinances or the zoning ordinance to allow for that need to be met. If there was a recommendation for certain acreage of land, that would be for a modification of the urban service area. That alteration would then follow a full and complete process after that point, and I'll go through that full and complete process in a second. But I do want to highlight a second aspect of this. So, we have this one area over here that indicates special need identified. Currently, there are opportunities for individuals to come into our community for an economic development type need that would potentially alter our current urban service area. We are trying to ensure that if any recommendation or if any modification of the urban service area were to come in for a special need, a transformative economic project for our community, and the Urban County Council found that they agreed with it with a super majority of the Council, they would be able to go ahead and review and push for that needed acreage to alter our urban service area, allowing for it to be part of the community. I will highlight the fact that this is still something that someone can do today with a zone change in our community. If someone came in, they are allowed to ask for an application for a zone change within Lexington to meet a certain need. It would go through you all, and then it would go through the Council. This would actually put a formulized process, though, in place outside of the zone change that would allow for these things to occur, but would still require the Urban County Council to review. Yes, ma'am. No, since this is a special need and an economic development need, because the Planning Commission would be operating under a perspective of data-oriented perspectives, the data wouldn't support this. If this was in between the five-year cycles or if there was an identified specific need for this within the urban service area, it might not pencil out. So this gives an alternative method. We find this to be really important because this alternative method could still be applied for and could break the process or undervalue the process in the future if we didn't have some sort of mechanism for it to occur. Yes, sir. So, Hal, thank you. This would include properties outside of the present urban service boundary if somebody said, I have 100 acres over here. So it's, I mean, and it's on the books already that you can't do that. Yeah. I mean, that's by, is it kind of a de facto annexation process that you're trying to... So I don't want to get it confused with annexation because there are a lot of legal frameworks associated with that and with annexation, you're talking about a county city in which there are two different governments. It could be thought of that in a way, but that's all alterations of our urban service area. What we just passed with our urban growth management master plan, that is the same kind of thing of what we just did. This would just put into a process that would formulate it and then allow, as you'll see in the next couple of steps, the planning commission to look into ways that we can modify it so that it conforms with our comprehensive plan going forward. Okay. So this just kind of fills in the process of what is already on the books. And if that property being outside of whatever the present urban service boundary is, is the urban service boundary then by default expanded to that boundary? What we're putting into this process would be a actual process to get to that point. Any recommendation that would be done by the council would be much like we just did. And I want to stress much of this is putting what we currently do into an official process so that people like Chris, myself, Eve, SB don't have to go through all of the documentation from the past and try to reformulate a new solution for another time. I think Mr. Penn had his hand up first. I don't want... I'm sorry sir, could you put your microphone on? Would cost of community service be part of the process? So those are things that we're still trying to fill out in this. So we are still on the general framework on this and one of the things that we'll have to get into is in the growth trends report, how are we looking at some of the impacts outside there? I presume this came about because of the process that was followed somewhat recently to expand the urban service area, which was met with some concerns about there being a lack of metrics for the why and where and why that land was annexed. So is this program, has it been thought up completely by Lexington? Have you followed other communities? Tell me the history of how it developed a little bit, if you wouldn't mind. Yes, absolutely. So we've been looking at many other communities that utilize something like this. There are numerous communities on the east coast and the west coast that we can pull from, some smaller communities, but the state of Oregon actually has some of the most robust kind of process review and that's largely because it is a state run program. They have a lot of really great information that we're pulling out of, but we also want to ensure that any framework that we create is still representative of what we have been doing as a community in the past. So as you'll hear with some of the later discussion points, these are some things that you all are already doing, have done in the past year. So it's not abnormal. We're just trying to codify a lot of that when we get into the details of the growth trends report or some of the other aspects that would lead to an ordinance. That will be some of the non-traditional things, the things that you haven't seen. So we want to make sure that we get buy-in on this first and then we get buy-in on the next level and continue iterating that process. Welcome. Yes. Conceptually, I'd say this is a lot like the Goal 4 work group recommendations, except when we get to the decision point, we've got three options here instead of just one. Am I understanding this correctly? There are elements of Goal 4 and sustainable growth that are weaved into this. I mean, sustainable growth, all of that information, the data that they were calling for was really put into some of what we were formulating here. A lot of the information that came from Goal 4 was helpful in formulating this, but it also led to us having a lot of conversations with law and making sure that we were taking out those parts that they weren't comfortable with us moving forward. I think this is incredibly beneficial to put a process in place for something like this to occur. We recently are coming through a period that would be considered a special need. From 2019 till 2024, that's a five-year period where we've seen trends change significantly because of unforeseen circumstances. I don't think we need to... This process, I would recommend that we embrace it and not only view it as a potential for expanding the urban service. I see that that may be a secondary consequence, but I can see this special need identification being used. For example, the state is trying to recruit businesses. Lexington decides they would like business in our community. They have read through an RFP of a potential company coming in. Whatever those company's requirements are may not line up with our current zoning, but we could consider that a special need identification and maybe modify the current zoning to meet the requirements or provide a justification for a zone change to relocate that business into our community. This provides us a lot of flexibility. I don't think we should have an attitude of this is dangerous because it could lead to expansion. I think we'll see a lot more of how we can modify our existing zoning to meet these needs without the need to expand. Yes, sir. Well, taking an aspect of that, can you just elaborate a little bit on how zoning integrates with this process? Because right now basically everything is zoned, right? So if they're not going through a zoning and they get sort of special permission to add it to the urban service area, the logic still says that that's zoned AR, for example, and then do they then come back with a new with a zone change? How does zoning integrate with this with this proposal? Yes, so if we wanted to do a regulatory change that could allow for greater density within our community, this gets into some of the future calculations. But right now we have a lot of restricted zoning classifications that call for large lots within our community. If we wanted to look at some of our residential lots or some of our other commercial lots that would increase residential density, that would be an opportunity. We would also want to look at some of our opportunities with the land uses that we have in certain zones. When it comes to a policy recommendation or some of the other things that we could look at, we can look at updating master plans, our EAMP, our expansionary master plan from 1996. That actually at the time was calling for fairly dense development. But if we look at it now, that development is at a 0 to 3 dwelling unit per acre kind of development. So it's very, very, very not dense. I think I may have worded my question wrong. We have an applicant that wants to do a campus type facility and they come in and they pick something that's outside the urban service area and they say, we want to put our global headquarters here and employ this many thousands of people and we're going to develop this whole campus. Currently, that's probably zoned AR. Yes. And this process does not go through the planning commission. Correct. So is there then, so how, does this create a new path for rezoning or does this create basically a follow-up path that they then have to follow up with a zone change request? The follow-up with a zone change request. And if I can continue through with my presentation, I think that would be a good way to get to some of your questions. So if a specific need of acreage were to be found, and again, if we were talking about just policies or regulations, those have already been taken care of with our current processes. If we found the need for new acreage or an alteration of our urban service boundary, this would then first go back to the planning commission. Now the planning commission is back in the role of talking about land use changes, modification of our urban service area. The first thing that the planning commission would want to do is a review of our current vacant land. There's been a significant amount of conversation over the past years, really since 1996, of the land that is not being utilized in our urban service area. The planning commission would set up a committee or a subcommittee to review all the vacant land that's really along our peripheries. We don't want to donut hole our community, but along our peripheries and talk about whether or not that area should be removed from our urban service boundary if it is not going to develop, or having a conversation with the developer or the owner of that land to say, why haven't you developed in that area? And this really does tie into a lot of what Sean is also working on, and you'll hear about a little bit more, but how are we preferencing certain projects to grow our community in a smart and efficient way? The planning commission would then get a public hearing if there was a recommendation to remove any land. This gives a opportunity for those landowners to come in, have a conversation about, we don't want to develop, we don't really need to be inside the urban service boundary, or the urban service area, or it would allow for the planning commission to at least have a conversation with them and say, what's your holdup? And the planning commission does not need to remove anyone, but it gives us that opportunity to have that check-in, again, because there's been so much conversation about, why aren't we developing the 7,000 acres of land that's identified that's vacant? So once, if the planning commission were to remove land from our urban service area, we would still need to meet that need. So that number of acreage would be added back to the total that was referenced to the planning commission by the urban county council. And really, that is a way for us to say, look, let's review where is a place that will develop in the near future and support our community and get the needs that we need to have. Once that review is made and the total acreage is identified, it would go to the planning commission again. You would open a 60-day window in which proposals would be able to come in within a guideline or a location requirement. And you would review or have the subcommittee first review and then go to the planning commission, much like we just recently did, review those proposals so that we can find out if people are interested in developing their land in the near term, if they meet a lot of those guardrails or location requirements that are to be developed in the near future. So we would want to have that work through. And ultimately, the planning commission would then identify the location of the land for master planning, forward it on to the planning staff to say, go ahead, master plan these areas. We'd go through the master planning process, which you all know very well. And then at the end, we would adopt that master plan, and that would lead to the alteration of the urban service area. That would end the process for this five-year review. If there was an alteration proposed, we would do another comprehensive plan. And then two years later, we would do another five-year report. And the idea is, no matter what, we are getting updated information on our data, making sure that we have everything out and about. So just at its current framework, we're looking at if we actually did alter our urban service area, it would be about a two-year process start to finish, the vast majority of that being a master plan. We would also, if there was no need identified, we would just be looking at a shorter time span, growth trend report in front of the planning commission for your review, and then we'd be waiting five more years. So just to follow up on some of the things that I've tried to highlight throughout this presentation is this is really just codifying the things that we have done in the past, while also allowing our other elements of the comprehensive plan to breathe. We all know that the thing that we talk about every five years with our statutory requirements of our comp plans, the main thing isn't transportation. It isn't in the environment. It isn't equity. It isn't all those other things. It's growth, and then it's those things. So this would allow us to have a clear data-driven and transparent process. It would also establish the Lexington Data Research Center as a way for us to publish that information so that everybody knows the metrics that we're talking about, have the data in front of them, and move that forward. It also provides a review by the planning commission and the Urban County Council and supported by two non-decision-making bodies. Just to give you an update on some of where we are in the process right now, since we just gave that presentation to GGP and now to you all, we will be having that meeting next week at the Senior Center on May 22nd from 4 till 7. We will then be doing another update in July to the Urban County Council with the GGP, and then we will also then follow that up with your July work session. We'll be here in front of you having a similar type conversation. September 9th, we should have another draft of this ready to go with another public forum in September on September 16th. The things that I have kind of moved past, just because we're trying to get this framework set up first, is that we don't know exactly all of the metrics that we'll need for the five-year growth report. Those are the things that we're working through, and we're trying to collaborate with different groups from outside the government to get us some of that data and information. We need to figure out how exactly we're going to determine the need for Lexington. There are different ways of doing this in all of the different communities that establish urban service areas and processes like this. We just need to make sure that it's right for us and that it's clear, transparent, and people can move forward. And then, what is the makeup of our PC subcommittee? I know that Mr. Forrester had to deal with that with our most recent UGMP, and we need to probably formulate something that's by ordinance so that it is not something that's done ad hoc. And then, specific location criteria that are associated with where we're going to go in the future. So, hopefully that got into a little bit more of the process. After master planning, that's when the zone change would come into play if we were to alter the urban service area. Any questions for me? Thank you, Hal. Sure, a couple. You were talking about a data report throughout this process and so forth. I think we've been talking about that coming out of the last comp plan that there's going to be data, and it was going to be reported out on a regular basis, and we know exactly what was going on and so forth. When will that occur? So, we have two sustainable growth reports that were developed. One in 2021 reporting out 2020, and one for 2022 that was reported out in 2023. I think we are in staff going through the metrics that was reported out in the sustainable growth report and adding more to that. Once we get a full scope of what the growth trends report is going to include, I'll report that to you all as well so that you'll have that information that would be outlined in any ordinance that is generated to create this process. When do you think that information will start coming out? We already have some of it on our Imagine Lexington Data Research Center. We've been trying to post new information as we've gone along. We're trying to build that site as we speak. Now, there's always growing pains whenever you're trying to do a new site like that, trying to introduce the public to a new resource. So, you're going to have to bear with us as we're creating that. But all of that information, we hope, will be available on that website, and the sustainable growth reports are available to everyone in the public. Okay, another question moving to the special needs. You also mentioned 7,000 acres of available land. I would think that would be the first place to look if there was a special need that came in. Wouldn't that be the logical place to look? That gets into a whole issue of private property rights and us trying to collaborate with individuals that may or may not want to sell their land to a certain group or develop it as a certain way. So, there's always going to be those conversations up front of, what can we fit right now within our community? I think everyone at this table hears the zone changes, things like that, that might occur. And our hope is that when anybody comes to our community and they say, we have this opportunity, we can find them in that space. But there's always been a process for someone to rezone outside of the urban service area. We're lucky enough that that has not gone through because we want to keep those things in line and efficient for our community. But this gives a higher bar for them to step over to try to make sure that that would allow for that flexibility for a really potentially important change to our community. Yes, sir. If I hear you right, you would entertain somebody like Overbrook if you're not going to develop your property. We're going to take you out of the urban service boundary. That is an opportunity that we are looking through with this process, specifically that follow-up. If we're going to say we have a lot of acreage and we're not using it, at least having a review whenever we say that of why isn't this developing? Where isn't this going? How do you get past the unlawful taking? That is where a public hearing is quite important. And we're working with law to ensure that any process that we develop is able to be defended in court. Thank you. Al, thank you so much. Where could one find information about all the vacant land? Is it on that Imagine Lexington site? Yes, it is. In the last month, we have updated our Imagine Lexington Data Research Center to include the vacant land, all the calculations of vacant land per zone, and then talking about acreage to parcel levels. So that is available. Pictures slash maps. We've got a great map of that. Great. Thank you. Yes, sir. One of the questions I had is will this process allow for the different definitions which we have not been able to resolve? For example, related to Commerce Lexington, their definition of available land is different than our definition of available land. How do we consolidate that or do we just accommodate that type of activity? So frankly, we have been defining vacant land very specifically for a very long time, for a couple of decades now. And I don't think that it would be appropriate for the government to change it to mend with either Commerce Lexington or Fade Alliance's definitions, largely because we are taking into account what you can do with your property at any given time. So there's a lot of land that individuals say, specifically downtown, we'll take a surface parking lot, they say, well, that's vacant. There's nothing there. And I would say, no, that actually has a principal primary use per the zoning ordinance that is allowed to be there. So I can't say as a planner that that is a vacant land or an underutilized parcel or anything like that because that is allowable by right to them. For Commerce Lexington, they also have a lot more information about private restrictions. We as a government should not be getting into the private restrictions on property. If I have a Kroger, I can't have a Publix on the same site or something like that. Both were allowable in the zone. I would say that Commerce Lexington would say that those are not the same kind of allowances that we would give. So we have a metric that has worked for our comprehensive plan, and we're trying to make sure that those metrics are worked into this process and are clear from the get go, making sure that everybody is able to do the same kind of calculations that we are rather than having different calculations based off the group that's promoting it. Let me clarify, I'm from Salt Flats, Kentucky, so it takes me a while to let this stuff absorb. But their issue has been on just a fundamental thing about what creates availability as it relates to acreage. Yes. And their position is they need a certain amount of acreage in order to attract industry in. We look at vacant land as anything sitting around, I suppose. And I think their perspective is a certain quantity of land based off of market constraints. And that does not, as anybody here would know, the market changes so quickly that we can't base a long-standing projection of 20 years for available acreage on something that is something near-term of acreage-wise or even, I would say, even mid-term as acreage-wise. We need to be looking at how this would work with our process and then how that would meet that need. One final question. Do we have to get, I mean, as a part of this going out outreach activity, does Commerce Lexington have to give their so-called vote of approval for what our definitions are? I would say that I, as a representative for the GGP on this one, I am staffed to council. As much as I believe in Commerce Lexington's mission of getting more jobs within our community, I'm serving the GGP. And if they are saying that these are the definitions, perspectives that we want to go with, that's the best way to go. I think if they make outreach and there's some kind of discussion, I think we're willing to work with people always, but I think that ultimately this comes down to whether or not the council is okay with it. I'm gonna vote for you for president. I don't know if that's a slight or not. You could take it both ways. So building on Mr. Wilson's question, and I've heard criticism of our comp plan is overly focused on housing. And I know we focused on housing because we have a crisis here and we did not spend as much time on economic development as we did on housing. If I'd spent more time looking at the database, I'd probably know the answer to this question. But when we look at that database, will we have continuing updated information about our economic development needs? Yes, that is something that we are looking to integrate from a couple of different websites and informational sources. Okay. And we'll also be looking, I hope, at we've got some big chunks of ED land that got designated previously that's never been developed and looking at why those haven't been developed. Yeah, and specifically for economic development. Yes, sir. So when we have an expansion, are we telling the people that are coming in, you've got so many years to develop this, are we going to take it away from you? I think that we are in the conversation of how we're going to work through any type of kind of proposal that's put forth or any type of timing. I think it will also play into whatever we're thinking about for the government helping development occur. And that gets into infrastructure financing and then bonding capabilities, things that are outside of the planning world. But if we want certain things to develop, we're probably going to need to work with developers in the world that we live in today. Well, my family sold Dennis Anderson 200 acres. He sat on it for 20 years and he sold it for money that you couldn't even imagine 20 years ago. So taking that away is going to be extremely tough thing to do. I think it is definitely going to be a process that we're going to be pushing for, though, because if we're saying there's a need, there's a need now for us to keep that going. I think that this is a kind of turning the focus away from expansion to maybe reworking our ED land. If we have special needs that are identified, we could look at some of the 850 acres that are ED and industrial and figure out how we can make those parcels more attractive for employment generating ventures. And I think that there was a point well made. And I think that's where we're going to see a lot more activity is when a company, when Lexington decides to make an initiative to recruit more businesses, those businesses have a requirement that's identified could lead to special needs that we can then work through our vacant and underutilized I2 and ED land to possibly work a project into that land rather than going after raw land. And we hope that our data research center will really be a way for people to say what is available out there and what kind of land is it. We have a lot of that right now with the urban service government or urban service government website in which it identifies the zoning of land, but we don't have a really highlighted place of where we consider it to be vacant so that people can make overtures to certain property owners. Yes, sir. So what I'm hearing when you're saying data driven process is I'm hearing data about housing needs and job needs. And what that sounds like is that we're just going to sliver our natural areas away as our needs for housing and job growth increase over time. And I'm wondering about the data of the sort of natural areas and I'm wondering about the data of the farmland that is needed to support urban areas. I'm locally oriented so thinking about what we can grow and produce for our city as an important aspect towards our sustainability goals. Thinking about growing and redeveloping in a way that actually supports transit and reduces the space that we use for parking lots and cars. And, you know, I guess sometimes I think the constraints of the the constraints of the urban service boundary have certainly helped shape the city as they are as it is. I think the constraints as the available land grew tighter over the 20 years since the 96 saw the development types and patterns changing to respond to that sort of tightening of the available land. And it's not necessarily a fear or thinking that every project that would happen in new land is a bad project. But it is a bit of a fear that it's a bit of an observation that the constraints as we have them now are starting to yield the results that we were looking for 30 years ago. And easing them might, you know, result in the natural areas and the farmland being slivered away with a slow collection of projects moving through this process. So I'll just say that while I have discussed the alteration of the urban service area and in most of this presentation because that is what covers the back half of this, I do want to stress that all of this still refers back to the comprehensive plan of infill and redevelopment policies, protection of our naturalized and support of our sustainable lands, things like that. The focus of this is if there is a need at some point in time, you have an option. Not it is directed or anything like that. It is just an option. Whereas I think we are still going to be looking for the policies, every comprehensive plan, no matter what. How do we create a better, more naturalized community and make sure that we're supporting those things? Well, I think if we're moving to a data-oriented approach, finding I think some maybe I would like to hear suggestions or some brainstorming about how these other goals of the comprehensive plan, whether they are transportation and environmental goals in particular, are part of that analysis. Because I think if you just use the data of housing needs and job needs, then you're kind of setting yourself up for a certain answer. And I think we could definitely look into some of those opportunities in this. So building on that, earlier you mentioned models that you've been looking at. I think particularly, did you say the Northwest? The state of Oregon has a great system that's set up there. So I was thinking in terms of Robin's question, is the modeling they're doing incorporating things like environmental sustainability, things that we could draw on to help build the kind of data? Not as much. They have a couple of different opportunities that we haven't kind of looked into as of yet. Largely some conversations of directions and location, preserving certain lands. And that's an element of this, is whenever we're talking about urban alterations, expansions, anything like that, we need to have a conversation of what is the appropriate land to do that? To be both environmentally sensitive, to save our prime soils, things like that, but also to look at land that is fiscally, socially, financially, what have you, responsible going into the future. Because that was the establishment of our urban service area. We did this for a fiscal responsibility for our community. Everything else was added on as we talked about into the future. Hal, thank you very much. I certainly agree with Commissioners Mickler and Worth. And you know, when I was looking at the title of the session, Lexington Preservation and Growth Management Program, I saw a lot of growth management here, but I didn't see any aspects necessarily of preservation other than USB as it currently stands. So I think it would be, I would like to see more in terms of, yes, this process is in place, but a little more about an awareness of if you did expand into an AR or a natural zone or a proximity, what, where are the rails on that that would protect those zones? And it's hard for us to get into that kind of process without having a framework to actually have those conversations. That's why this portion, having this flow allows us to have those deeper and nuanced conversations about where are we going, where are we not going? How are we going to do those types of things? But this is a preservation metric in itself, in the fact that we have a process to occur. And again, the data driven process to this, that data only allows for the opening of the door to have a conversation. So I want to stress that, that this is really a way for us to just go ahead and say, okay, now we have an identified need. Let's talk about that need. It does not, with some of our other things, there was a specific kind of push to say, once it's this, you have to do this. There's still a further conversation within our community on that. Yes, sir. When we were talking about data driven, you made reference to programs that are in place in Oregon. I would recommend that we look at other states such as South Carolina and Tennessee that are more similar to us demographically and economically and all of the things. I was going to start enumerating them. But if we could start looking at some of those models as well, I think that would be helpful because as we break our country out into five different regions, I think we're more similar to those that, like South Carolina and Tennessee rather than Oregon. Oregon's got great progressive policies in place, but I would recommend that we consider what's happening in South Carolina and Tennessee as well. We definitely look at that. And actually, to an extent, I agree with Mr. Nichol because Lexington is so unique in that for a county that's relatively not huge in an area, we are so reliant on both our urban and our rural communities economically, quality of life, everything related. Off the top of my head, I don't know much about agricultural production in Oregon. I'm sure it's robust. But how does a city like Lexington, which I really just don't think there's one like it in the United States other than us, how do we continue that balance or look at comparable, truly, truly comparable U.S. cities? And we will be looking at as many cities but also making it Lexington focused. I'll also say Oregon has way more resources because they're doing it from a state than we will ever have. Thank you, Hal. Thank you. Thank you for the update. I know you'll be back. All right, Sean Denny, infrastructure funding plan update. Good afternoon, Planning Commission members. I'm Sean Denny, and I work out of the Commissioner's Office for the Department of Planning and Preservation. And today, I'm here in my capacity as a project manager for the infrastructure funding plan. You may recall that was a recommendation with the master plan in 2024, the urban growth master plan. And today, I just want to give you an overview of where we are and where we're headed over the next few months. Let's see if I can use the slides. Great. Well, as you probably recall, at the end of 2024, you adopted the urban growth master plan. And as a component of that master plan, chapter eight set forth some infrastructure costs and estimates, as well as a fiscal impact analysis. But one of the recommendations that we all agreed that report pointed out was that there would be significant infrastructure costs and estimates for the city of Lexington. And so, we're going to look at that report pointed out was that there would be significant infrastructure needs in these areas, roadways, trails, intersections, stream crossings, bridges, emergency response, police and fire stations, neighborhood parks, potentially regional parks, sewer. Now, the list was extensive. In addition to that was the fiscal impact. What would be the impact on the city's revenue? What additional expenditures would we be bringing on? And so, we saw some initial estimates. But as we heard from the consultants, they recommended that while we had these initial estimates, we really needed to dive in deeper and we needed to develop an infrastructure funding plan. So, as you can see on the right there, this language is pulled from the plan. Going forward, LFUCG should undertake an infrastructure funding program to resolve which of the capital and operating or maintenance costs should be borne by developers and which should be supported by LFUCG. So, that's why I'm here and that's why we're doing this IFP process so that we can determine what are the costs, some timing and sequencing related to the capital infrastructure, as well as who should pay the cost. So, with that recommendation, as we knew this was coming, as the drafts of the UGMP were coming forward, an internal work group, a cross-department team from people all across government started to get together to determine what would we want to see in an IFP? What would the RFP that we issued want to include? And we came up with these three goals. Number one, determining timing and funding for new capital facilities was one of the top priorities. And next, another huge priority, identifying the funding mechanism. How do we pay for it? How do we or developers recoup the cost? What does that look like? And then finally, we want to make sure we implement this well. We all know what can happen if we don't get this part right, the implementation, and making sure that it's sustainable. It's something that's transferable between staff members over the years and that can last our community. This is a legacy project, the way I look at it. We're setting up a system that will hopefully fund infrastructure well for the next 50 to 100 years. So, a timeline. Where are we? Well, October 24, we asked council for money to fund an RFP, and they gave us that through their fund balance discussion. We issued that RFP in November of last year, and then a selection was made in January of 2025, Partners for Economic Solutions. I'll tell you a little bit more about them in a moment. And then last week, just to bring you all the way to literally today, Partners for Economic Solutions and their sub-consultant Gresham Smith were here for some on-site meetings, and I'll tell you more about that in just a moment. So, Partners for Economic Solutions, if that sounds familiar to you, that's because they were a sub-consultant on the Urban Growth Master Plan. They work with TSW. They provided the market analysis. So, Abby and Anita, you may remember them giving some presentations. They were here for those. They also developed the infrastructure cost estimates that you saw in Chapter 8 of the Master Plan, as well as the fiscal impact that you saw there as well. Gresham Smith on the project, they'll be working on the project list, going area by area and developing a list of infrastructure needs and a cost estimate from right of way through to construction, design through construction. And then we also have a legal and a funding sub-consultant. So, someone is an impact fee specialist. He's worked on developing systems of charges across the nation. He'll be on the team, as well as a lawyer who will tell us what can we do in the state of Kentucky because that may be one of the first things we need to know. So, this project is broken into three phases. Where are we going? Well, we're in Phase 1 currently. Project ID in each of the five areas and prioritization. Phase 2 will be a funding mechanism assessment. What can we do? What's legal? What would work for the LFUCG? And then finally, implementation, making sure that wherever we land, it is something that's sustainable and we have the tools and resources we need as a staff to make sure it functions well. A little bit more of a deep dive into each phase. Project, as I mentioned in Phase 1, project ID and prioritization. We're going to get just a list of projects. Those will come with a cost estimate, so we'll know roughly what it would cost to do each project. Number three, project evaluation and prioritization. This is really important to us. Gresham Smith is working on this. And one of our goals from this process is to walk away with a process for us as a staff to continually be monitoring and updating this list of capital projects. We need a matrix, a scoring rubric, some sort of a system to prioritize which project needs to go first, should go first, based on the constraints we have as a city. So, we're hoping in Phase 1, we're working, we're hoping, we're going to have out of this process a process that we as a city can use to continually update and prioritize which projects should go first, second, third, and beyond. And then going along with that would be the project phasing along with that. Phase 2, market analysis, which is already underway because Partners for Economic Solutions was with us in the Urban Growth Master Plan. They're going to start with that and update it based on current trends. They held a meeting with developers last week to hear from things on the ground, what are they seeing. So, they'll be refining that and we should have a draft of that pretty soon. They'll be identifying funding sources. So, we'll see a whole slew of funding sources and we'll look at the pros and cons of each of those. We'll talk to the different staff across government and determine which might work best for our needs. There will be regulatory review, as I mentioned. Financial modeling to see if we go this route, if we develop in this area or add this infrastructure, what does it do to staffing? How does it affect us from a personnel standpoint, from the maintenance standpoint? Making sure we understand the revenue and expenditure impact of each option on the table. Then strategic planning and a master plan. So, that's where we hope to get at the end of Phase 2. As you'll see on a timeline in just a moment, December, I'm sorry, January of 26 is when we hope to have this IFP master plan. Phase 3, this is a kind of an add-on, an optional thing that we've decided to bring Partners for Economic Solutions on for and that is where we get into whatever is decided in Phase 2 based on the funding options analysis, methodology report, how are the charges, what is the cost of infrastructure, how are they broken up, what is that schedule of charges and what is the fee, what is the implementation of whatever funding source is chosen, drafting ordinances that we need to be approved by council. And then what I'm excited about is a staff person with staffing resources. Just having the implementation tools, the handbook, the software, making sure that whoever is here to manage the infrastructure funding piece of it has everything they need and it's in a nice pretty box that can last for years and not something that would be hard for the next staff person to pick up and run on because this infrastructure will be here a lot longer than any of us will be. So, where are we going? Well, as I mentioned, Partners for Economic Solutions and Gresham were here last week. It was a very, very productive week of meetings. They met with Parks, Environmental Quality, Director Burton, Director Martin. So, we covered every base, I believe. The finance team, they met with lots of people to hear about priorities across government, current challenges, constraints that we have and then we also ended the week with a developer open house at the Pamela Downtown Arts Center. As I said, we expect the market update to come through soon as well as the initial project list. We expect that in the summer. You have this image on the right. You have that handout in front of you and that's a breakdown by phase of the different deliverables and timeline for the project and the goal, as I mentioned, is to have a master plan by January of 2026. So, that's my brief update but I'm happy to take any questions that you might have. Yes? Well, I heard you say development of costs and impact fees. When we were doing the expansion process, we sort of talked about the benefits. That other communities have that invested in some of the infrastructure from the public side, or had funds. To invest in the infrastructure, um. Where. Where is that in this. Planning process as far as, um, you know, 1 of the struggles that we've seen is that. When the cost is put entirely on the developer, then you get the sort of minimum requirements. They're going to develop it to meet the minimum requirements, but we're not necessarily seeing the type of infrastructure connectivity that we'd like to see in the city. We're sort of seeing the minimum and so we talked about creating funding mechanisms to to do that. And so I'm sort of curious where that is in this plan. You must have been a fly on the wall in the rooms last week because that was that was the core of the discussion determining. You know, when the city does it, we have to up front the cost and that's a financial piece that we have to weigh the risk. Do we have the capacity, the bonding capacity, whatever that might look like? So that's that's where the finance team has to get involved. But there were discussions about if developers were to build the infrastructure, whatever it might be in the dedication process, having to meet the requirements. So our consultants are very aware that we have a standard that all the infrastructure will have to meet, whether we pay it up front or the developers, they will have to meet the standards that we put forward. So I would say we are working on that as a high priority for the project. But what it looks like and how it's implemented is still a it's still in discussions with our internal teams and with the consultants. Does that answer your question? No, that just tells me that we're going to get more of the minimum standards. I don't think that our goal is to get the highest of the standards that we put forth in our training, our manuals as adopted and again, to to build everything complete streets will follow this fall. We hope to see with that manually a guideline that anyone who builds infrastructure or streets, trails or any infrastructure would have to meet those those standards. So they would be the minimum standards they would have to meet. I'm hoping you see that there's a, that there's a difference between meeting the standards in the guidelines. And meeting the goals of. The comprehensive plan in a bigger picture, does that make sense? It does and I can assure you that our staff is very mindful of that and very, very passionate about making sure that we get the best out of every project that we have, but doing it in a way financially that that works. That works for the city, Sean, as a follow up to the last question. We were told before we expanded that the developers would pay the cost of expansion. Yes. Is that still the project or we're going back to the. Credits and all that that is absolutely the goal of the project. And again, we will, we will get a list of projects and the next couple of weeks to look through. Would there be any point where the city might consider sharing a burden? But the answer is no, we've said we set forth very clearly the developers will pay for the cost. And while we do have to consider our areas where say, there's sewer that that is upgraded, but it upgrades existing capacity. Sure. And in those situations, if it meets consent decree or something like that, we would have, because it's consent decree requirement, we would have some responsibility, but in a new urban growth areas and in any development that served by new infrastructure. We, our goal and the priority of this project is that the developers would bear the cost. 1, follow up to that is, is that when are we, when are we supposed to have our consent decree finished? We've got an extension. I believe 2030, 2030, 2030. Thank you. Yes, sir. When we're talking about infrastructure investment. We have seen, um. Lexington. Or Faye county partner with Madison county. For a potential business park. Which is a public public. Relationship is there room for us to consider public private. Partnerships as we address some of our infrastructure needs moving forward. Absolutely, I think that will be 1 of the options on the table that the consultants have already mentioned what it looks like. I don't know. It's probably case by case and depends. But what we have said clearly from the beginning is no option off the table. Let's see it all. We can discuss it internally here from decision makers and go from there, but it is definitely something that's on the table. I think that's great, because as we saw the urban growth management plan, there was only 1 line that was talking about funding of the infrastructure. And I believe the line read something like consider. All creative options, right? So I think it's important for us to consider a public private model that may drive employment by encouraging businesses to come. And be a part of our community. Sure. Thank you for pointing that out. Are there any other questions? Thank you. Yes. I mean, just a comment because 1 of the amendments I made when we. Past it was to remove the line about it, not increasing taxes and the comment is that. The tying onto what you said infrastructure is here for the long run. And we can make people built to the minimum standards. But I would like to see. An option through this study. From the consultant where it says. Yes, if the city does raise revenue and the city does invest, this is the type of. Development that it could that this land could support, which might, in fact, in the long run. Be more productive. More dense or more economically viable than the type of development that the developer can afford to do without that type of intensive infrastructure investment from the public sector. So, in the long run. Raising revenue and building infrastructure, I think would benefit the city and I do think that that would be a public cost, but we would all benefit from a better city. Thank you. All right, thank you. Mr. 1 thing just to add what. Robin was saying as far as minimum standards, if you look at least down road today with all that's been built out there. I really think it would have been better served if it had been built 1st, and probably cost wise would have been beneficial to do it on the front end and still trying to do it on the back end after all the development already takes place. Right? I think that's where he's coming from. Absolutely. And that's where I think the phasing recommendation is going to be really helpful and critical and then determining how do we do that? Who up front that cost? I mean, these are all again, we're so early in this week. Last week, they came in to listen to everyone and get get key values, but we're just starting to hit the road. So these are all very helpful comments that and I think it's confirming in a sense, because it feels like we're on the right track. These are the discussions we're having as a staff. And it definitely goes without saying, but the exaction fee thing was just a debacle. My goal was not to say that word today. So I'm glad you said it. That's right. That's true. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I have Bailey. We have downtown master area plan. All right, so I am not Boyd Seway, but you will be seeing more of him on this going forward. Part of starting up a master plan is also dealing with agreeing to allow someone to go on vacation months before we have this presentation. So this is just an update on our downtown area master plan. We have gone ahead and chosen a consultant for this. So the RFP was put out on February 13th of this past year. We received nine applications, and I will say, as part of the team that reviewed them, we received nine very good applications. But when it came down to it, we had a very good choice in MK SK. They were very knowledgeable about the area. They had done several projects in the area, had some very good comparable kind of data analysis and development of plans like this. So we're very pleased to be bringing them on. This is associated with a comprehensive plan and was allocated five hundred thousand dollars. It came in just a little under that that contract or that amount that was allocated by council. And this is something that we will be moving along and updating you throughout the process. Just to give you an idea of the current timeline, and this is a very broad timeline because we've had one very short conversation with MK SK as of yet. We will have a more fleshed out timeline as we go along. But the RFP was issued in February. We had the proposals. We've now done our award and we have had a brief meeting on that will really push this forward, starting everything up and making sure that we as a community are going to have the type of public input and involvement on something like this that we really find to be important. Just to give you an idea on the project timeline and key milestones throughout this, there will be a startup and coordination that is being done between staff, the consultant and the sub consultants to really flesh out a lot of the information that was in their RFP and make sure that we are trying to get all of the things out of this project that we need as a community. We will be looking at a land use assessment that will probably be done between June and September, a housing and market study analysis, August to December, public engagement, which will be throughout this process, really starting on July 4th. So we are looking at July 4th as being our first public engagement event on this because we know many people are going to be in our downtown area. You're going to get a lot of people from a lot of the community that are going to come down to this space, be interacting with it, and we want to have that opportunity to hear from people involved in some of this will be an advisory committee, stakeholder interviews, community meetings, and then, of course, online engagement. Some of the things that our community has really pushed for, but we are also looking for more creative opportunities with this group to really identify other members of our community, because this space, the downtown and the downtown area in general is going to be so important to kind of discuss and also say I am very much looking forward to the end result in which we get to a point in which we're discussing what is our downtown area. Do we have some defined limits so that we can start planning for our future and building off of the really the private side that has led to a lot of new development and the public infrastructure that we have put into place like our town branch commons. Ultimately, there will be a final draft that will be February, March of next year. There's a little bit of wiggle room there, but not too much. We are going to be going out, working with stakeholders and advisory groups. We'll be engaging with our council members. There are five council districts that were in that initial area of review and then really pushing for that good public engagement. So this is a plan that we, as a community from the residential and commercial sides can really agree with to build a better downtown for well out into the future. Yes, of course, this is really information for me. I don't really understand the downtown development authority. That's an entity that's separate from planning. Planning, so we actually do not have a DDA or a downtown development authority as it was approximately 10 years ago. I will say that former mayor gray had has lamented in public about. Breaking down the lines that we had between our downtown development authority and the downtown Lexington partnership, which is currently that's the entity now. Yes, and they are really focused on essentially creating spaces in our downtown, making sure it's clean, making sure that there are different things going on, but it is not a development authority in which they are trying to bring people actively bring people into the community as new development occurs. Are they going to be integrated into this planning process? We definitely are going to be working with them as a stakeholder in this process throughout. Yes, ma'am. Could you go back 2 slides? I believe. Yes, 1 more than sorry. No, you're good. Am I reading correctly for it says June 5th of this year is the deliverables are due the deliverables that he is looking at for this year is really how are they going to do their outreach? How are they going to work with the community? Because we want to have an idea of that starting in June so that we can hit the ground running is giving them 6 days to begin and then get to the project. The project we're working with them already and that was the good thing. The council went ahead and did a 2nd reading on this contract. So, they're under contract now we're moving forward. That was going to be our tight deadline, but we're moving faster than that. Got it. And do you foresee the group meeting with the planning commission separately or do we just work ourselves into other meetings? You will be having reports from directly and you will be having reports from staff directly. So, being the project manager on this, you'll be hearing from him routinely just like you're going to be hearing from Eve for the blue sky small area plan. Yes, sir. Is the University of Kentucky going to be involved in this? Absolutely. They sure need to be. Yes, sir. University of Kentucky. Transylvania is also a big part of this and then making sure that all of our business enterprises stakeholders and the neighborhoods are involved. It'd make it a lot easier for everybody if we could talk to each other. Yeah, absolutely. And I will say that Boyd did a very good job laying the groundwork for some of those conversations to occur. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Duncan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for being here in full attendance today for these good updates and please feel free to follow up with any questions about any of these things or comments or suggestions. We're happy to continue the conversation even after the meeting. Want to remind you all that we have a planning commission zoning hearing next Thursday, one thirty back in the government center. And then we have a second work session this month, our fifth Thursday on May, the twenty nine at one thirty back in this space. Where, based on the request from some of you that we will be bringing in our affordable housing team to talk to give you an update on the affordable housing situation in Lexington right now, funding projects and that sort of thing. Look forward to seeing you all at those meetings. Will that be taped or live? It will be live, but it will also be broadcast and recorded. I'm glad to hear we're doing that and I'm anxious to hear what we're going to do with that because it kind of, I just have to believe that our comp plan was built on housing. Affordable housing, some places where, you know, it's kind of interesting to hear about special projects and new things coming in where we're going to hire a bunch of people, where they're going to live. So my question is, is that if we're going to do an implementation of this comp plan, we've got to discuss about how we're going to not only do affordable housing, but do workforce housing. And the sooner we start talking about that, before we get to another comp plan, that's an implementation that we need to at least have a plan for. So that's my two cents worth on that. Thank you, sir. All right. Mr. Duncan, thank you. Thank you, staff. This meeting is adjourned. Can we get an update on the ZOTA in terms of what council has done? Mr. Duncan. Yes. So the, the House Bill 443 ZOTA was presented to the council over two different meetings last week. Well, actually, three different meetings last week, we presented to the general government planning committee and we were the primary, I guess we were the only speaker for that two hour meeting. And then that meeting bled into the council work session, which immediately followed that. And we were there for another two or three hours, it seemed like. And then they got, so that was a presentation and a discussion about what they might want to do with that. And then this week at the council work session on Tuesday, they actually came with amendments to the, to the ZOTA. And I will tell you what, although we're still trying to collect the specifics of what the council did, we were, we were, of course, there for all of that and to try to help give guidance. But the council ultimately made very few changes. They made some minor adjustments to some of the numbers, but they left most everything in place that the planning commission forwarded to them. They did separate all of the section related to drive-thrus. So they decided they wanted to continue this to discuss that in their general government planning committee. So they pulled those out. So the standards for drive-thrus will remain as they are right now. The new standards will be, will be considered subsequently, maybe not until next winter because the committee is already full. But nevertheless, they'll come back with those. And then the planning committee, the council, I believe, took to heart your all's concern about public engagement. And so they really put in two elements to ensure that people have information about development plans. One of them is the requirement to post a sign with a QR code so that applicants, so that anyone can see going to the website to find out more information about upcoming plans. And then they also asked that we report to you, to the planning commission, all of the plans that were approved by the technical review committee. So every month there will be a list, sort of like the call of bonds. There'll be a list of plans that the technical review committee reviewed and approved. Of course, you all will continue to see, we'll see the ones that have waivers, but they will have that. And then the council also asked that we highlight a space on the agenda for anyone to come and express their thoughts about a plan, knowing that the planning commission cannot take any action on what they did because the plans will already be approved. But nevertheless, the planning commission can start collecting the thoughts of the community and perhaps have that inform future policy. And those were the words of the council members when they were putting that in place. So a sign posted in advance of the technical review committee, inviting people to go to a website and find out more about the plan, and then an invitation to come to the planning commission and express any concerns they have without you all taking any action. In addition, a different council member proposed that, or proposing it's on the, on the works right now to send mail notice to, similar to what we do for a zone change, to property owners and occupants. We just send mail notice to property owners, so property owners and occupants, in order for them to know that a development plan is in the works and then how they can get more information about that. Again, that doesn't change anything about your role in that. It just gives more information to people so that they will know these are happening. The council made those recommended amendments. And then, of course, they couldn't take action at the work session. But their intention is, based on the way they docketed this, to come back on the evening of May 29th, and then consider that formally. Probably either accept those amendments that they made, and then perhaps give first reading to the ordinance that night, so that this does have the opportunity to be in place before July the 1st. Question about related, not just about that. I've been asked two or three times since we forwarded that to them. What is place builder's role going forward? Well, that remains the same. That's the reference for the zone change. So, everyone who's applying for a zone change, which is still the discretionary process that comes to you all at a public hearing, will have to address place builder as part of their application. So, they'll have to meet with the neighborhood? No, that's not a requirement. That's just a strong recommendation. But we used to have a requirement. No, we've never had a requirement for the applicant to meet with the neighborhood. Why do we have people report on doing the place builder? Because it's a strong recommendation. So, Mr. Bailey, you just had a strong recommendation. Is that what you're saying? I mean, that's the way it is. There's no requirement to do that. Well, I've been asked that question. I don't know how to answer it. It's not a requirement. The council has chosen. They've been presented the option, but they have chosen not to require the applicant to meet with the neighborhood in advance. You've educated me. I need it. Thank you. So, I watched much of that last session, and I'm wondering, are you all anticipating a lot more neighborhood folks getting involved with you earlier in the process once they're aware that development is occurring in their proposed development in their area? It's hard to know. I mean, there's not much early in there. You know, those applications, those letters of notice are going to go out, and two weeks, three weeks later, there's going to be a technical review committee. So, there's not a lot of time in there. But we're certainly offering for anyone to contact us if they have any questions or concerns. So, related to that, do you have, have you considered something that would be a set of criteria for people who want to come to meet with you about if they want to have a conversation with you? These are the kinds of things that your concerns have to address when you come to us. So, if we're talking about traffic, you know, I'm thinking back to the neighborhood over there along McCubbing. They got out and did their own videos and their own traffic studies and essentially provided counterweight to what the city's traffic study had done. Are you, are you thinking about anything that might say if you want to have an impact here, this is a preparation you might need to think about before you get here? Likely the answer, the simple answer is no, because you and the council had decided what those standards are. And so that's, and that's the whole point of House Bill 443 is to create a standard. And so no, we're not going to be coaching people on how to tell us what they think is wrong because nobody likes traffic. Nobody likes an apartment building next to them. So we're going to get those same types of things all around. We've done the NIMBY. We we've got, we've got tons of work to do about that still. And so that, that, that work is ongoing, but as far as coaching people on to how to tell us what, what they think is wrong. Let me rephrase that. I'm less thinking of coaching and more thinking of what constitutes compliance with this ordinance rather than having to read all of that, all of what's in there. How do you know that? I don't know how to articulate this in a way that it's not coaching, but so that people are prepared that you're going to be, I think we would, we would certainly encourage people to come to the, and participate either by watching it or come to this room. For the technical review committee. That way, all of those kinds of technical details are discussed. And then perhaps the citizens can understand better why that an issue is or is not a problem according to the technical experts of the government. They have an opportunity to speak at that meeting. No. You may, you may, you may have answered my question, but I'm just thinking, so I attended both the meetings last week, but I wasn't able to attend the one this week. And it seemed that at some point people begin referring to the every Friday, every Friday meetings that staff have with the development community. I don't know if that's an accurate statement or not, but I wonder if there might be something where planning staff could set aside a half hour every month or an hour every month, similar to what developers get so that you could be seen to be offering something. And it's up to the public to come to the meeting that I think people would feel better if they had a, a set aside time that wasn't just coming to the planning commission's work session. I think they need to feel like they have as much importance in the city as those who want to develop something. So that's my And just to clarify, the developer meeting was set up during the urban growth master plan process because we were making a whole new set of rules and a whole new areas of land for development. And we knew that they were the ones that were going to have to comply with the regulations. So we set up a once a month meeting with that. And those meetings, we found them to be purposeful and we're continuing them as we go through the infrastructure funding program, or infrastructure planning plan process as well. But that's just explaining it wasn't every Friday and why we set that up. I think your point is well taken. I think that's something to consider. Yes. Thank you. Jim, do you see a correction in the legislature next year on what ministerial is? I, I don't know how unless they decide to make a death, their own definition of ministerial. I mean, the wording of the bill doesn't allow you just to take out one word and make it all of a sudden a public engagement process again, because if it's an objective standard, then there's, there's no, there's nothing for the anybody to do about that except comply. So if they're complying with the objective standards, there's still no reason to have a meeting, a hearing and have you all opine on that. If anything,  Penn, I see more coming out of the legislature that addresses perhaps what some of the things that the council has done in the way of public notice for this. Well, I don't want to argue with you because I don't know, but when the sponsors tell us that was not their intent. And if we don't provide some pressure for the neighborhoods, something's going to happen. It's just a question of what, and I don't like when the legislature is going to do the fix because it never fixes it. It just makes it worse. They've been doing a lot of fixing over the past few years. They certainly have. And I just don't think you can shut it down and make people like it. Okay. Mr. Duncan. Oh, we got enough. I'm not trying to hit that. So make sure I'm looking at faces. No, you're fine. The meeting is adjourned. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Okay. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. Oh no. Oh no. Yeah. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. She's not an ambulance dude. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. You play with words, you play with love You can twist it around, baby that ain't enough Cause girl, I'm going down If you're letting me in, or letting me go Don't lie, when you're hurting inside Cause you can't escape my private eyes They're watching you, and they see your every move, baby Private eyes, they're watching you Private eyes, they're watching you Watching you, watching you, watching you I know why you tried to put up a front for me I'm a spy, but on your side you see Slip on into any disguise I'll still know you looking through my private eyes They're watching you, and they see your every move, baby Private eyes, they're watching you Private eyes, they're watching you Private eyes, they're watching you They see your every move They see your private eyes They're watching you Private eyes, they're watching you Private eyes, they're watching you Every move They see your private eyes They're watching you Your private eyes They're watching you Private eyes, they're watching you They watch your every move, girl Every move Oh, I see you, oh, I see you Private, private, private eyes, girl Your private eyes, they're watching you Watching you Oh, I got you Hand me down When she was just a kid Her clothes were hand-me-down Hand me down They always laughed at her When she came into town Called her Ragdoll Little Ragdoll Such a pretty face Should be dressed in lace Ooh, ooh, ooh Sad Ragdoll I'd change her sad rags into glad rags if I could If I could My folks won't let me Cause they say that she's no good She's a Ragdoll Such a Ragdoll Though I love her so I can't let her go Ooh, ooh, ooh Oh, Ragdoll I love you just the way you are Oh, Ragdoll Ooh, ooh, ooh Oh, Ragdoll I was raised off of Route 3 Out past where the blacktop ends We'd walk to church on Sunday morning Race barefoot back to Johnson's Fence That's where I first saw Mary On that roadside picking blackberries That summer I turned a corner in my soul Down that render road It's where I drank my first beer It's where I found Jesus Where I wrecked my first car I tore it all to pieces I learned the path to heaven Is full of sinners and believers Learned that happiness on earth Ain't just for high achievers I've heard, I've come to know There's life at both ends Of that red dirt road Her daddy didn't like me much If I shackled up GTO I'd sneak out in the middle of the night Throw rocks at her bedroom window We'd turn out the headlights Drive by the moonlight Talk about what the future might hold Down that red dirt road It's where I drank my first beer It's where I found Jesus Where I wrecked my first car I tore it all to pieces I learned the path to heaven Is full of sinners and believers Learned that happiness on earth Ain't just for high achievers I've heard, I've come to know There's life at both ends Of that red dirt road I went out into the world And I came back in I lost Mary Oh, I got her back again And driving home tonight Feels like I found a long lost friend And I came back in I lost Mary Oh, I got her back again And driving home tonight Feels like I found a long lost friend I lost Mary Oh, I got her back again And driving home tonight Oh, I got her back again And driving home tonight Hi, I'm Councilmember Amy Beasley from the 8th District and today we're here with Chief Wells from the Fire Department and we're talking about our Safe Haven baby box So tell me about the baby box, Chief So the baby box is a really neat community partnership, community collaboration A local group raised the funds to actually purchase the baby box and then we, working with the LFUCG were able to secure the remaining funds to get it installed and utilize this alarm system which alarms and lets the crews in the station know but even more special and even cooler is there's always a chance that these crews and with this busy station it happens a lot, are out so it also notifies dispatch so that they can dispatch the closest crew to come and check on an infant who may have been placed in this box anytime that exterior door is opened So I open the thing and I put my how old baby Yeah, a newborn baby is sort of the intended audience for this and that's who we would expect to find in there but yes, somebody would open the box place a newborn in the box that would trigger an alarm both inside the station so that the crews can immediately check on the infant if they're here if not, the closest crew will get dispatched to come and check on this newborn who is in the box It then locks from the outside so that there's no chance of somebody following behind and trying to grab the child or the infant and our crews are able to immediately render care It's climate controlled so that regardless of how hot or how cold it is outside that there's good temperature and plenty of opportunities for fresh air to come in from this side Okay, so we put the baby in here and our heroes, I mean our firefighters have made it here Yeah Now what? Now, so we actually had to write an internal protocol The child is going to be transported to, I believe, UK and then there will be a lot of collaboration with the hospital with the social workers at the hospital to make sure that the child is taken care of but this was meant as a completely anonymous way for a parent to surrender a child so that there's no interface with the parent They can do this completely anonymously and ultimately the goal of this is to prevent abandonment in an area or a place that might not be safe So we know, a parent knows that they have surrendered their child in a situation that is not only completely anonymous but completely safe So there's no cameras outside facing this box? Absolutely not, no cameras at all and actually that is one of the requirements that Safe Haven which is the company that produces this box requires us to confirm that there are no cameras that are monitoring the outside of this box Do you know how much this costs? The box itself is about $14,000 They are built one at a time when the orders come in and then the ongoing cost is just the monitoring which is fairly nominal And so you said that LFUCG raised some more funds to put this in I guess for the install? Yes, there was costs associated with the installation and obviously there's a little bit of costs associated with the monitoring for the box, the electricity that keeps it climate controlled and all of that and so that is something that the LFUCG partners with and they provide the funds for that And so if I put my baby in here there is no chance that I'm going to be prosecuted for abandonment or anything else with this baby, right? That is 100% correct, yes. Because I've left it with the firefighters Yes, but in most cases we figure if a parent is surrendering a newborn it is an act of desperation and it's a life or death situation that this parent felt they had to surrender the child and we just want it surrendered in a safe environment I love it, I love the baby box It's a great thing So could we possibly get these in other stations? Okay, so it costs $14,000 for this box So say my group decides Oh, we're going to put a baby box at $16,000 Could we raise the money and then petition the council member to try and get that at that fire department? Maybe, so there are some requirements that come with this box You have to have an exterior facing wall that opens up into a climate controlled living space Some of our stations, and I'm not sure that $16,000 would be necessarily a good fit because it doesn't have a lot of exterior wall But one of the things that we did when we were presented with this opportunity was we cross referenced where we have the most maternity cases with which stations would be able to accommodate a box like this And this was our best location for the first one I think there are other stations in our community that will be good candidates for it But without looking at the specific requirements for installing the box I couldn't tell you exactly which ones those are So if an organization wants to raise money for one of these boxes the best thing for them to do is reach out to your office? Reach out to us, we'll probably put them in contact with community service bureau through the Lexington Fire Department who would assist in facilitating that process Have we had anybody drop their infant off in our box yet? We have not, now this thing is just a few months old and I don't think it's unlikely to say that we will at some point in time There's been a number of infants surrendered in Kentucky already but none in Lexington thus far in this box ♪ I'm gonna run to you Yeah, I'm gonna run to you Cause when the feelings ride I'm gonna stay all night I'm gonna run to you I'm gonna run to you Yeah, when the feelings ride I'm gonna stay all night Oh, when the feelings right now Oh, yeah, when the feelings ride now I'm gonna run to you Oh, oh, oh Yeah, I'm gonna run to you Yeah, yeah Oh, I'm gonna run to you, run to you Yeah, I'm gonna run to you Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh guitar solo Yeah, yeah scream I hate my life like there's no tomorrow And all I've got I had to steal At least I don't need to beg on my own Yes, I'm living at a face that kills Oh, yeah Running with the devil Oh, oh, oh Running with the devil I'll tell y'all about it I found the simple life, it's so simple When I jumped down on that road I got no love, no love you call real Ain't got nobody waiting at home scream Running with the devil I'm gonna tell you one time scream Running with the devil Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh You know what, I found the simple life It's so simple, no When I jumped down on that road Got no love, no love you call real Ain't got nobody waiting at home scream Running with the devil Oh, God, I'm running Running with the devil Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh Running with the devil Running with the devil Running with the devil Running with the devil acoustic guitar plays in bright rhythm acoustic guitar plays in bright rhythm Until you've been beside a man You don't know what he wants You don't know if he cries at night You don't know if you don't When nothing comes easy Old nightmares are real Until you've been beside a man You don't know how he feels Once inside a woman's heart A man must keep his head Heaven opens up the door Where angels fear to tread Some men go crazy Some men go slow Some men go just where they want Some men never go Oh, blame it on midnight Ooh, shame on the moon piano solo Everywhere it's all around Comfort in a crowd Strangers' faces all around Laughing right out loud Hey watch where you're going Hey watch where you're going Step light on old toes Until you've been beside a man You don't know who he knows Oh, blame it on midnight Ooh, shame on the moon Oh, blame it on midnight Ooh, shame on the moon Mm-hmm Blame it on midnight You've been blaming on midnight Shame, shame, shame Shame on the moon Blame it on midnight Shame on the moon piano solo guitar solo piano solo I'm shameless When it comes to loving you I'll do anything you want me to I'll do anything at all And I'm standing Ever all the world to see Oh, baby, that's what's left of me Don't have very far to fall You know now I'm not a man Who's ever been Insecure about the world I've been living in I don't break easy I have my pride But if you need to be satisfied I'm shameless Well, honey, I don't have a prayer Every time I see you standing there I go down upon my knees And I'm ashamed I swore I'd never compromise Oh, but you convinced me otherwise I'll do anything, baby You see, in all my life I've never found What I couldn't resist What I couldn't turn down I could walk away From anyone I ever knew But I can't walk away from you I have never let anything Have this much control over me I worked too hard To call my life my own And I've made myself a world And it's worth suffering me But it's your world now I can't reuse I've never had so much to lose Oh, I'm shameless Oh, oh, oh You know it should be easy For a man who's strong To say he's sorry Or admit when he's wrong I never lost anything I ever missed But I've never been In love like this It's out of my hands I'm shameless I don't have a problem now I don't want it anyhow So I gotta let it go I'm shameless Shameless as a man can be You can make a total fool of me I just wanted you to know I'm shameless Yeah, yeah I just wanted you to know I'm shameless Throw it down on my knees Shameless Yeah, I'm shameless While she lays sleeping I stay out late at night And play my songs And sometimes other nights Can be so long And it's good When I finally make it home And it's good When I finally make it home All alone While she lays dreaming I try to get undressed Without the light And quietly she says How was your night And I come to her and say It was all right And I hold her tight And she believes in me I'll never know Just what she sees in me I told her someday If she was my girl I could change the world With my little songs I was wrong But she has faith in me And so I go on trying Pray for me And who knows maybe On some special night If my song is right I will find a way Find a way While she lays waiting I stumble to the kitchen For a bite I see my old guitar at night Just waiting for me Like a secret friend And there's no end While she lays crying I fumble with a melody or two I'm torn between the things That I should do And she says To wait for us The night through God, her love is true And she believes in me I'll never know Just what she sees in me I told her someday If she was my girl I could change the world With my little songs I was wrong But she has faith in me And so I go on trying Pray for me And who knows maybe On some special night If my song is right I will find a way While she lays While she waits for me guitar solo There's trouble on the street tonight I can feel it in my bones I had a premonition That he should not go alone I knew the gun was loaded But I didn't think he'd kill Everything exploded And the blood began to spill So baby here's your ticket Put the suitcase in your hand Here's a little money now Do it just the way we planned You be cool for 20 hours And I'll pay your Twitter bill I'm sorry it went down like this That someone had to lose It's the nature of the business It's the smuggler's blues Smuggler's blues Sailors and the pilots Soldiers of the law The payoffs and the ripoffs And the things nobody saw No matter if it's heroin Cocaine or hash You've got to carry weapons Cause you always carry cash There's lots of shady characters Lots of dirty deals Every name's an alias In case somebody squeals It's the lure of easy money It's got a very strong appeal Perhaps you'd understand it better Standing in my shoes It's the ultimate enticement It's the smuggler's blues Smuggler's blues guitar solo You see it in the headlines You hear it every day You say they're gonna stop it But it doesn't go away They move it through Miami They sell it in L.A. They hide it up and tell you right I mean it's here to stay It's popping up in the governments In Columbia and Peru You ask any D.A. man He'll say there's nothing we can do But the office of the president Right down to me and you Me and you It's a losing proposition But one you can't refuse It's the politics of contraband It's the smuggler's blues Smuggler's blues guitar solo piano solo piano solo What goes up Must come down Spinning wheel Got to go round Talking about your troubles It's a crying sin Ride a painted pony Let the spinning wheel spin You got no money And you got no home Spinning wheel All alone Talking about your troubles And you never learn Ride a painted pony Let the spinning wheel turn Did you find the directing sign On the straight and narrow highway Would you mind a reflecting sign Just let it shine Within your mind And show you the colors That are real Someone is waiting Just for you Spinning wheel guitar solo On this edition of Lexington Now, a week celebrating public safety and part four of Mayor Gorton's budget address. music I'm Neal Noah and welcome to Lexington Now for the week of May 12th, 2025. Over the course of the past week, the city celebrated the contributions of the many departments that keep our city safe. We begin with police. We are here to celebrate National Police Week. The men and women of the Lexington Police Department along with those in our law enforcement partner agencies are vitally important to our community. Public safety is and always will be and always has been my top priority. All around progress in Lexington is only possible if we are first a safe community. Over half of Lexington's city budget is dedicated to public safety. In recent years, we've invested heavily in our people and in technology and resources that allow our police officers to solve crimes more quickly and enforce the law more efficiently. The job of a law enforcement officer is certainly not an easy one. You face enormous challenges every day as you work to protect our residents and respond in times of need. As we recognize you today, we must also remember those we have lost. They will never be forgotten. My message to all of our public safety officials is simple. It's a deep thank you. Thank you for serving our community and thank you for answering the call. Chief Weathers, we have the best of the best and I say it over and over again and I thank Chief Weathers for his awesome leadership. Now I have a proclamation to present. So I'd like to ask the Chief to join me at the podium. Whereas in 1962, President John F. Kennedy established National Police Week and designated May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day to honor those who have died in the line of duty. And whereas the men and women of the Lexington Police Department, along with members of Lexington's broader law enforcement community, uphold the highest standards of integrity, compassion and service. And whereas we recognize and appreciate the many members of our law enforcement community who make significant sacrifices and face daily challenges to keep our communities safe. Now, therefore, I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare May 11th through the 17th, 2025 National Police Week in Lexington and we recognize and salute the members of our criminal justice community. Lexington Police Department, Fayette County Sheriff's Office, Fayette County Public Schools Division of Law Enforcement, University of Kentucky Police Department, Transylvania University Police Department, Bluegrass Airport Department of Public Safety, Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney, our Fayette County Attorney, Angela Evans, who's with us today. There you are. Kentucky Horse Park Mounted Police, United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, our United States Marshal's Office, United States Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and our Veterans Administration Police. Thank you all so much. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, for the recognition. As you all can see, this is not the task of one agency, one person, one entity. It's a team. It's a collaboration. I know it might seem hard to believe, but all of us are friends up here. We interact on personal levels each and every day. I think that's what makes being part of the justice system in Lexington unique. Today we have currently 531 sworn officers, 21 safety officers, and 84 full-time civilian members and we have several full-time sworn retirees as well as some part-time retirees working for us. They work every day. They work hard. They're dedicated to this community. From May 2024 to April 2025, through April 2025, we responded to over 143,000 calls for service. That's a lot. For the people who work for the police department, I sincerely want to say thank you. What you do is greatly appreciated. You never waver. You never give a second thought about doing the job you're supposed to do and that's been trying for us. The police department, law enforcement, justice system has gone through some changes in the last few years to say the least, but the Lexington Police Department has held true to its core values. With the help of our partners, with the help of our public safety team, we will continue to develop and maintain community partnerships. We will continue to seek improving our efficiency, promoting employee satisfaction, providing the best possible customer service, and we will continuously keep developing our people for leadership roles. Without a doubt, the support of our mayor, Linda Gordon, and her staff, and the guidance and leadership of our commissioner, Ken Armstrong, has helped keep us focused on our one Lexington commitment of prevention, intervention, enforcement, and reentry. We are fortunate to have elected leadership, our city council members that are approachable, accessible, and listen. That's unique for cities as well. All of our law enforcement and justice partners, thank you. This has to be a team effort, and we have to continue for it to be a team effort. When we talk about one Lexington, everybody wants to talk about programming, but we're not talking about programming. We're talking about being one Lexington committed to the safety, committed to the future, and committed to the improvement of our community. Thank you all. The fire department was lauded for its service, which is second to none. We are here to recognize International Firefighters Week. This is a big deal. Our firefighters are an integral part of our public safety team. Each day, these individuals put themselves on the front lines to keep our city safe and out of harm's way. Lexington's fire and emergency services has kept our citizens safe for over 150 years. We have one of the most well-trained departments in the whole United States, ranked in the highest class with only 119 fire departments nationwide. And then when you narrow it down to all three of the highest ratings, I think you're in the top seven, if I recall. That's very good. Thank you for your hard work on that. And in our time of need, these folks work with courage, compassion, and loyalty. And I want to say right at this moment, right now we have a superb public safety team throughout every single division of public safety. It is the best it can be. Now, when a natural disaster occurs, whether it's a flood, a tornado, a windstorm, whatever you might imagine, our firefighters are among the first to react and to get to work. They protect our neighbors all the way from the western end of Kentucky to the eastern end of Kentucky. Each and every day, our firefighters and first responders put their lives on the line to save people. We thank them for their commitment to our community. And I just want to say, Chief Wells, you know you have a very strong team. Yes, we thank you for all that you do. And now, at this time, it's my pleasure and honor to offer a proclamation for International Firefighters Week. And then I'll ask the chief to say a few words. So, chief, will you join me at the podium? Thank you. Whereas we recognize and honor the selfless, heroic service provided by the men and women of the Lexington Fire Department, and whereas firefighters follow a long line of tradition and honor that inspires them to help their colleagues, neighbors, strangers alike, and whereas our firefighters protect our residents with courage, compassion, and loyalty each and every day, and whereas International Firefighters Day is observed each year to honor firefighters who have died in the line of duty while serving their communities, and whereas we thank our firefighters for their bravery and many contributions to our community. Now, therefore, I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare May the 4th through the 10th, 2025 International Firefighters Week in Lexington. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. Appreciate you. Yes. Shall we get a picture together? Yes. Thank you. And then at the end, we'll get a picture. Yes. Sounds good. Okay. Please come to the podium. Thank you so much, Mayor. That means a great deal to us. So it's always an absolute privilege to be able to stand before you and represent the over 600 dedicated professionals who work tirelessly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to provide the highest level of safety to our community. Last year, your Lexington Fire Department responded to over 70,000 calls for service. That's nearly 200 times a day that our brave firefighters answer the call. I believe that at this point, it's pretty well known that your fire department is a world-class organization providing world-class service, whether responding to a fire, providing pre-hospital emergency care, installing over 7,000 smoke alarms last year, teaching hundreds of our residents hands-only CPR, inspecting thousands of buildings for safety, or completing over 155,000 hours of training, we are here for you. And while I'm incredibly proud of that, and you should be too, what often makes me the proudest are the moments that most will never see, the moments where our firefighters take the time to show a child the big red truck, the moments where we lend a helping hand to the older individual who is trying to age in place with dignity, or any of the thousands of other moments that all come together to make your LFD one of the greatest departments in the world. We are so very grateful for the support of Mayor Gordon, Commissioner Armstrong, our council, all of our LFUCG leadership, and our public safety partners, so many of whom are here today. Without you all, and the incredible support of this community, we could not do what we do. It's a privilege to be able to serve this community, and we are grateful for that honor. Thank you very much. After this, we hear about the Department of Corrections. Hello everyone, Mayor Linda Gordon here. It's May, and our 250th anniversary celebration is springing ahead. Lexington is a city where everyone is accepted and embraced. Our residents come from all over the world. We're celebrating the uniqueness that enriches our community with a diversity festival. We're also celebrating the 200th anniversary of the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette, the hero of the American Revolution, to Lexington. Our county was named for him. Join us this May to learn more about the place you call home. Visit 250lex.com for more information. Welcome back to Lexington Now. The Department of Corrections may be slightly lesser known, but it is a crucial piece of the public safety puzzle. As many of you know, this is National Correctional Officers and Employees Week, and we are here today to express our appreciation to our invaluable corrections team. Our corrections officers are trained and equipped law enforcement professionals dedicated to maintaining secure correctional facilities and ensuring the safety of our community. Chief Scott Colvin has helped move our corrections facility forward in a big way. It is now respected as one of the top corrections facilities in the whole United States. So Chief, first I want to thank you for your leadership. Just yesterday, we together unveiled our newest piece of public art located near the entrance to the Fayette County Detention Center. The Birth of Hope is dedicated to the men and women of the detention center and illustrates the spirit of staff members who work hard to protect and serve our community at the facility. The job of a corrections officer is definitely not an easy one. I know that you face complex challenges every single day of the year, and I deeply appreciate the sacrifices each of you make and the dedication it takes to do your job. Now at this time, it is my pleasure to present a proclamation declaring this week National Correctional Officers and Employees Week in Lexington, and I'd like to ask Chief Colvin if you'll join me at the podium. Whereas corrections officers and staff members perform challenging, demanding jobs, and whereas our corrections officers and employees are critical to the safety of our community, protecting the public 24 hours a day, every single day of the year, and maintaining order in the detention center, and whereas these employees are change makers, supporting rehabilitation efforts that help people become productive, skilled, and engaged community members, and whereas correctional employees serve our community with courage, dedication, and professionalism, Now therefore, I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare May 4-10, 2025, National Correctional Officers and Employees Week in Lexington. Thank you for all you do. Congratulations. Let's get a little photo first. He's over there. And then we'll do a big one. Thank you. Would you like to say a few words? Okay. Sure. Well, thank you, Mayor. I can't take all the credit, of course. No one gets there alone. I'm fortunate to have a very talented and dedicated team and officer force at the division that helps us reach all the goals that we're trying to attain, so thank you, Mayor Gordon. On behalf of the men and women of the Division of Community Corrections, I want to say that we are humbled and appreciative of this recognition, and we thank you for your powerful and positive leadership style and presence among us, encouraging us. Mayor, your inspiration and leadership style challenges all of us to be better public servants, better citizens, and try to be better people. Thank you. I likewise would like to take this opportunity to, on behalf of our team, to acknowledge with great respect and gratitude our outstanding City Council members. On many occasions, all of you all have made the effort to meet and understand the experiences, challenges, and triumphs of our young officer force. It is remarkable that both the Mayor and the City Council members can find time between her commitments and their full-time positions, council duties, constituent services, and other government interests to be with our jail officers on occasions such as New Year's Eve, to share a meal with the officers in the middle of the night on late watch, and to be with their families on graduation day. All of you all make such an effort, and we thank you for it, and we're grateful for it. We see Public Safety Commissioner Ken Armstrong at the facility often. He's well regarded by the staff, but I would like to thank the Commissioner for his interactive approach and the way he keeps all of the public safety agencies aligned, connected, respectful of each other's responsibilities, and with the interest that we all can meet our operational goals and our mission. Our brother and sister public safety officers, not only does the division admire and respect you, we want you to know that we too are one team, one mission, and if corrections can help in any way, we're there for you and for our city. National Corrections Officer Week holds deep significance for us. County jail officers stand on the front lines of the criminal justice system, managing an ever-changing environment and ever-changing populations, individuals awaiting trial, newly sentencing, people experiencing the worst nights of their life. They serve not only as protectors, but as de-escalators, mentors, and at times a calm voice in chaos. Each shift brings these officers challenges, but also opportunities to make a real difference in someone's life, even if just for a moment. The officers of the division perform their duties with pride, professionalism, and purpose. They love their city and are willing to sacrifice for it. We thank you. E911 is the department that makes sure all the other public safety entities can get to where they are needed most. They were celebrated with a proclamation of their office. This week is National Telecommunications Week and we are excited to celebrate our E911 professionals because we have some of the best. I asked with all these folks, who's running the shop? They said there are plenty of people there. Our division of Enhanced 911 is a critical service in Lexington-Fayette County. Our telecommunicators respond to emergencies, providing callers with valuable resources, and often being the first to react in a time of crisis. The safety of our residents, police officers, and firefighters can depend upon the quality and accuracy of the information obtained by our E911 telecommunicators. I enjoy every chance I get to visit you all out at E911. This team is hard at work. They respond to emergencies in real time with professionalism, dignity, and respect, no matter who is calling. And so, Director Patton, you have a wonderful team and I know they respect you. And you're a wonderful leader. And so, at this time, I'd like to present you with this proclamation and I'll read it. Whereas when an emergency occurs, the prompt response of police officers, firefighters, and paramedics is critical to the protection of life and preservation of property in our community, and whereas public safety telecommunicators are often the first and most critical source of contact our residents have with emergency services, and whereas in emergencies, accurate information is essential to the safety of the public and of our police officers and firefighters, and whereas day and night, our public safety dispatchers respond to emergencies providing callers with a sense of calm in high-stress situations, and whereas the members of Lexington's 911 team are heroes who help save lives, stop criminals, and keep our community safe, now, therefore, I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare April 13th through the 19th, 2025, Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Lexington. Thank you for all you do. We have a great staff in Lexington. We are very fortunate. We have a resilient team. The past few years, we have had some challenges and we have overcame, and I couldn't do it. It's not about me. It's not about the management team. It's about the people that are actually doing the job, and I thank you all for your support. I thank this leadership of Fayette County for their support, and just keep hanging in there with us because we're not going to let you down. We'll be there to answer the call. That's great. Thank you very much. Mayor Gorton gave the City's annual budget address recently. We are bringing you highlights leading up to the adoption of the budget. This week, we're featuring Part 4. Our technology team works to achieve efficiencies by eliminating duplicative products, automating manual processes, and making better use of the things we already own, like underutilized services in our GIS system and Microsoft software bundles. So this year, we're investing in the exploration of opportunities for leveraging artificial intelligence. Emerging AI is on the verge of doing incredible things to improve the operations of government. We will lay the groundwork for adoption now. We recognize that our reliance on technology as it increases, so does the likelihood of cyber attacks. Safeguarding the data that our residents share with us and protecting our online city services, which they depend on, requires constant vigilance to ensure that we have the ability to prevent and respond to cyber threats. We are adding an information security engineer in the Department of Information Technology. Our city has a powerful arsenal of cyber security tools, but none provides a stronger defense than our team of skilled professionals. Technology and renewable energy are part of a study we're doing to determine whether we can install a solar farm on our Haley Pike landfill. In this budget, I have funded the second phase of this study at a cost of $250,000. If the study finds that the Haley Pike site can accommodate a solar farm, we can install it without taking prime farmland out of production, a win for both renewable energy and a win for farmland preservation. Other steps we will take to protect the environment include a $500,000 program to improve our recycling program and $150,000 to continue our work to improve our tree canopy. Every year, our biggest environmental protection expenditures are the improvements we make to our sanitary sewers. This year, we are estimating those sewer improvements to cost $28.2 million, including some building renovation. We have several important projects planned for roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks as we work to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists through our wide-ranging Complete Streets Initiative. Altogether in this budget, we have included about $19.2 million and dedicated two staffers to complete street safety improvements. Some of those are a million dollars to improve sidewalk connectivity, another proposal from our council members, $400,000 for our sidewalk assistance program to help homeowners keep their sidewalks in good condition, adding four traffic lights, including both new and signal rebuilds at a cost of $500,000, installing a raised pedestrian crosswalk, kind of like a speed table, across Short Street near Market. This $125,000 improvement was recommended not only by council members, but through my Mayor's Downtown Safety Work Group. $400,000 to stripe lanes, $1 million for ADA sidewalk ramps, $75,000 to match federal funds for the next phases of two paved paths for cyclists, pedestrians that will run between Beside Alumni Drive between Tate's Creek and New Circle, and one beside Harrodsburg Road between Overlake and Man o' War. $150,000 to address street safety concerns in the neighborhoods, and $14 million for paving. Well-maintained pavement is a fundamental requirement for safe roads. Other road projects include work we're doing in conjunction with Fayette County Public Schools. We will be adding turn lanes, bike lanes, and sidewalks at the corner of Mason-Headley and Versailles Road to accommodate a new girls STEM academy, which is planned there. This overall project is budgeted for $1.2 million, including design work for corridor improvements. We will also widen Waller Avenue at Limestone to accommodate the new cancer center that the University of Kentucky is building there to improve safety. City Hall is busy as ever, and we have live coverage you need on LexTV and streaming online. And remember, you can also find the most up-to-date information on non-televised city business at LexingtonKY.gov. Here's this week's meeting coverage. That's all for now, but as always, you can keep up with us on social media, check out the latest traffic updates on X at LexRex, or catch our live traffic cams on LexingtonKY.gov. For all of us at LexTV, I'm Neil Noah, and that's it for now. Thanks for watching. Hey, it's Bajana Co. with another episode of Your Lex PD. We are in Season 2, Episode 2. We're going to be talking with the Victims Advocacy Program that's under the Special Victims Section here at the Lexington Police Department. Yeah, and it's such a great program. A lot of times when we talk about law enforcement, you think about solving crimes, you think about officers responding to crimes, but sometimes we forget about the fact that there are victims, there are victims' families out there that have to navigate their way through the system after the fact, and we don't want to forget about them. We want to take care of them, and so this month, we're going to spend some time talking with them, see what kind of programs and resources are out there. So let's go talk to the Victims Advocate Program. All right. Hi, we are here with Ms. Letitia Hagerman and Ms. Cornetta Harris. And they are with the Victims Advocate Program with the Special Victims Section. Thank you all for joining us. So law enforcement, many times when we think of that, we think of solving the crimes, responding to the crimes, the detectives solving the crimes, but we don't think about the victims, and we don't think about the victims' families. So obviously, that's very important and something that the Lexington Police Department is extremely committed to work with and help these folks. So give us some examples of ways that this program helps those victims and families. So a lot of what we do, what we're talking about here is the follow-up, okay? So if you have had to have police to your home or someone has had to call police to your home, we already know that you have survived a traumatic event. And it's very natural and normal to wonder, what do I do now? What happens next? What can I do to keep myself safe? What are my rights? And so that's where we come in, and we will reach out and contact by phone primarily, but also in person too as well, any survivors of an intimate partner violence, interpersonal violence, or any violent crime as well, and just let them know what the next steps are in prosecution. We can register them with Vine to be notified if their offender is released from custody, let them know when their next court date is. All victims, thanks to Marcy's law, have the right to be notified in a timely manner of court proceedings, as well as attend those court proceedings. So we call and let people know what their rights are as a survivor of a violent crime in Lexington. And you hear people talk about Marcy's law more now, obviously, so that's really one of the major components of that is the notification process. It is. Marcy's law made victims' rights in Kentucky a constitutional law. And so victims and survivors have the right to be heard in court proceedings involving their offenders. We work with every unit, every section of the police department, but if you are a survivor of an intimate partner violence crime, or we're talking about a crime against a child, you are also going to get assigned a detective who is highly trained, trauma-informed, victim-centered, and is also going to follow up with you as well. So all of our detectives in our unit are also very well trained. They're like advocates as well. So it is very much a team effort between us and the detectives to make sure that anybody who has survived a violent crime in Fayette County, especially when we're talking about domestic violence or interpersonal violence, is going to be very well taken care of. So it's more than just the justice of getting the crime through the court system. It's about helping those victims all the way along. Very much so. And in a lot of cases, the investigation is still ongoing. If the patrol officer could not make an arrest due to various reasons at the scene, there's going to be a detective that's going to follow up and take those next steps and go above and beyond for that victim. And every single one of our detectives in the special victim section does that. And I've heard you say before that Lexington, and I think I've heard you say it too, that Lexington is very resource rich as far, and that's really what you all do is kind of put people in touch with those resources. And what are some of those resources? So we are extremely fortunate in Fayette County to be partnered with a lot of our outside agencies. A lot of what we do is referral based. So our job is to make sure that victims and survivors get connected to resources to get help and get the next steps. We're very fortunate to have Stephanie Feakston in our domestic and sexual violence prevention coalition board. We are a member there and she provides us with resources for survivors of domestic violence to help them with their next steps like providing them with security equipment and things that they might need to feel safer in their home. We're also very fortunate to be partnered with Divine Karama and One Lexington. And so he helps us provide access to programs and counseling and support for families who have survived an incident in Fayette County involving gun violence. So it's a huge program what he's doing there. We work very closely with the other advocates at the county attorney's office as well as the commonwealth so that the survivor has a streamline from the arrest to prosecution. And so hopefully the process for them is a little easier given what they have survived. Okay. Now does your program refer the victims to these or can they reach out and call them or does it have to? It's a little bit of both. It's a little bit of both. We communicate weekly with the county attorney's office. It's basically just communication to let them know what we've done with the victim just so that you know because a lot of times victims they may tell us one thing but then tell them another thing so it's just a way of communicating to see kind of just where we're going with that person. Kind of keep everybody in the loop. Exactly. So how would someone get in contact with you all? With the passing of Marcy's Law, try with there being the four of us, we try to assign an advocate to as many case reports every single day as we possibly can. So ideally if you're a victim of a violent crime in Fayette County you shouldn't have to do anything. We will reach out to you. But if you need us, if you have a follow-up question, if there's anything we can do to help you, you can call 258-3700 and ask to speak to one of us. So it's more than just resources, right? And I've heard you all talk about this before and the Lexington Police Department obviously very committed to this that sometimes people just need to when they're a victim or a victim's family, sometimes they just need to ask questions. They need to have answers. But I've heard you say before that sometimes they just need someone there for them. Yes, that's a very good point. Sometimes we're not going to make a referral. Sometimes we're not going to provide certain things. Sometimes what anybody might need after surviving a tragic situation is just somebody to talk to. And that seems like a small thing but it's incredibly valuable. It's incredibly valuable to have somebody to talk to. You've just survived a violent crime and you just want to talk it out with somebody. And we do that day in and day out, every day. We sometimes have communication with survivors. We no longer are working their case but they still call and check in. A lot of times too and like Tisha was saying just to kind of feed off of her is that it may not be a referral place because there's a lot of times that victims will also come into like the lobby and want to speak to us and it's just a matter of just like you said just listening and just hearing them out and it may not be an actual referral that we get. So a lot of times we get individuals from just that may not be a referral to us and we just they'll call us from downstairs and say hey so-and-so is here. Can you speak to this person? Provide them with victim services and we make ourselves available for that as well. Awesome. Well we thank you all for joining us today and I've learned a lot more about the Victims Advocate Program. Yes, thank you. Yes, no problem. Yes, you are very welcome. Hello, we are here with Miss Robin Anderson and Marisol Contreras. Thank you for joining us. So you all also work with the Victims Advocates Program. Yes, ma'am. And one of the things you do is what's referred to as the SOS Program. Is that right? Can you tell us a little bit about that? SOS stands for Surviving Onward Sessions and it is for families and friends of that have lost someone due to homicide. We meet the first Tuesday of every month at the Dunbar Community Center. We start with some food, a little fellowship, and then typically we have a speaker every week in which we bring in from all different community agencies such as One Lexington. We have a prosecutor come from the Commonwealth Attorney's Office. We bring in our Robbery Homicide Unit, Bluegrass Care Navigators, and many more. And also some of our grassroot type of services such as SWAG which is Tanya Lindsey who works with homicide families as well after losing her son. And it's just a way for families to come together and learn a little bit more about what our community has to offer and then find support with each other. Now I know you had mentioned that these are I guess victims of homicide deaths. What about overdose deaths? Now we pretty much you know work up every case as much as we can. And one of the new areas that we are working with is overdoses in which the person does not survive. And we will reach out to the family and just offer our condolences and let them know of any support that our community has and offer those services to them. Awesome. So Ms. Contreras, can you tell us about your background? Yes, like you said, my name is Marisol Contreras. I came to the department in 2022. That was the goal of the department when they opened a position for bilingual advocates. You know it's a matter of trying to help the community to make them feel safer and to make them feel comfortable coming through with reports. When I talk to the victims I always like to explain the process or what's going to be happening next. You know, I let them know if another person is going to be trying to reach out what their role is and why they're reaching out. Sometimes you know the barrier of the language makes a big difference in the impact. It can be intimidating for the person. So that's the reason why we try to provide the services in their language. So both reporting and also following up. That's very important to have that. Absolutely. So when we were talking to Leticia and Cornetta, we were talking about you know the resources. So I know being on patrol we're familiar with some resources. Greenhouse 17 and the NEST. Can you all tell us a little bit more about that? Well when it comes, yeah, I'll give a little bit from when it comes again for the Hispanic community. We try to network with those agencies. Some of those agencies have also made efforts to have a bilingual person. So by different workshops and meetings that we attend with those agencies we try to network. So let's say that I have a Hispanic person that only speaks Spanish. You know I'll let them know we have these resources that are provided through a different agency but you can reach out to this person. She also speaks Spanish. You talk to them and they should be able to help you with this, this. And if you have to reach out to another agency, this is what their services are. So that they have clarification on those resources. Ms. Contreras, is there a message in Spanish that you would like to say? Sure, yes. Everybody here at the police department appreciates you as well. So thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, thanks. So Baja, it was really nice talking to the Victims Advocacy Program. I did not know that there was that many resources for the victims and their families. So what are we going to be talking about next month? All right, episode three of season two. We're going to be talking about something that's kind of near and dear to my heart. It's a program that I actually started 25 years ago and just recently turned it over to some other officers that were part of that program in their youth. It's our Explorer Post 357 for ages 14 to 21, giving them an insight and training into law enforcement. So I'm excited about that and going back a little bit and talking with some of the officers now that were part of that program when they were as young as 14 years old. So that's coming up next month. So join us next episode on Yearlex PD. Radio We built this city on rock and roll It's just another Sunday in a tired old street Police have got the tote pole But we just lost the beat Who counts the money? Underneath the bar Let's wreck it all into our guitars Don't tell us you need us But we're the superfoods Looking for America Crawling through your schools Don't you remember? Don't you remember? Marconi plays the bamba Listen to the radio Don't you remember? We built this city We built this city on rock and roll We built this city We built this city We built this city on rock and roll We built this city We built this city on rock and roll We built this city We built this city on rock and roll We built this city We built this city We built this city We built this city We built this city We built this city Sometimes in love you're sure getting lost And working eight long Hours, you're only a picture in my mind But when we're finally alone In each other's arms Our love is found And only lovers know What goes on when the sun goes down What goes on What goes on when the sun goes down Pillow talk in love Tangle sheets and cotton gowns What goes on What goes on when the sun goes down Makes the everyday life of two people in love go round Every morning with love renewed We face another day Screen doors banging The boss complaining And bills to pay But through it all We wear love's smile From the happiness we found And only lovers know What goes on when the sun goes down What goes on What goes on when the sun goes down Pillow talk in love Tangle sheets and cotton gowns What goes on What goes on when the sun goes down Makes the everyday life of two people in love go round What goes on What goes on when the sun goes down Pillow talk in love Tangle sheets and cotton gowns What goes on What goes on when the sun goes down Makes the everyday life of two people in love go round Makes the everyday life of two people in love go round Where the sidewalk ends and the road begins We said goodbye On a cold dark night I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock Some people leave and never come back Some stay in touch Some lose track Your mind kept saying Come on let's go You started learning what you don't need to know Where the sidewalk ends and the road begins I'll wait for you In the cold dark night You might come back You had to go Where the sidewalk ends I'll never know I'm from the future I'm from the past I guess I'll stay here as long as I can last The whistle's still blowing But the train is gone Ain't nobody who's gonna take me from my home Where the sidewalk ends and the road begins We said goodbye On a cold dark night I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock Where the sidewalk ends And the road begins We said goodbye On a cold dark night I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not On a cold dark night I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock You left the lock I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock I'm not afraid to go You bet I'm not Where the sidewalk ends You left the lock I'm not afraid to go You left the lock I'm not afraid to go You left the lock I'm not afraid to go I won't run I won't... ... ... ... ... Hello Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap ... Let's go up ... ... Give me two steps ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Tap it out ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Just march it ... Take it wide ... Bring it in ... Take it out wide ... Little squat Warm up those legs Oh yeah ... Getting you going Oh! ... ... ... Now we're going to roll those hips Roll Yep ... Now think about a marble in your belly button Other way Roll Yeah buddy ... ... Step it up ... Give me a little bounce ... ... ... ... ... Big deep breath up Oh yes ... ... You got two more Inhale Reach it out Oh yes ... Give me step touch ... ... ... ... ... Oh yes Four Three Two Tap it out ... ... ... Take it up ... ... ... Give me a great bounce Step behind Step touch ... ... ... ... ... ... Woo! ... There's a little shuffle Two and two ... ... ... ... ... ... Step up ... Salsa back Tap back And back ... Now remember Your hips May not move that much But that's okay Step it back ... You wanna add that little kick You can ... ... Tap it side to side Here's where you start ... ... If you want to add The hips you go ... ... ... ... Now right foot forward Left foot back ... ... ... Change it Right foot up ... ... ... ... Shuffle two ... ... ... ... Let's move it up ... And back ... Up ... ... Big breath Oh! Salsa back ... ... ... ... Take it side to side ... ... ... ... Roll it back ... ... ... ... ... ... ... You got this son Switch it up ... ... ... ... ... ... Two more ... ... Shuffle up ... And back ... ... ... ... ... Watch my feet Two taps Tap side ... Two taps ... Tap side ... Two taps Right Left Tap right ... Tap ... Speed it up Speed it up Two, two, tap ... ... ... ... ... Tap, tap, side ... ... ... ... ... ... Salsa back ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Tap it Side ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Nice shot Back it up ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... March ... ... March the center ... ... ... ... Pop it Step one right One left ... ... Think of it One, two, three, four, five, six ... We speed that up Check out that hold ... Reach it up right Again March it ... ... ... ... ... Pop it ... March it wide ... ... ... ... Pop it Back to that sixth step ... ... One, two, three One, two, three ... ... Cross it right Cross it left Adding on ... Reach it ... March it Yep ... ... ... ... Pop it ... March it wide ... ... ... ... Pop it Little march ... My favorite part of the song Drop the side ... Speed it up ... Other side ... Speed it up Remember that booty roll Let's go Other way ... March it Pop it ... March it ... ... ... Pop it ... March it wide