so so do so so so so so so welcome it is three o'clock so i'd like to go ahead and call to order the lexington fayette urban county council work session today's january 20th 2026 and the first item on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda and we do have some folks signed up and so just to remind everyone the way this works is when i call your name if you'll please come to the podium here and you'll need to restate your name for the record and you'll need to state your council district and the other thing that has kicked in that i don't usually mention but because this is a campaign year you may not campaign or mention campaigns from the podium council rules so first and if you'll please queue up first is rhonda wolfork second is britney rothmeyer and third is brayden stamper if you'll please come forward or be ready to do so rhonda wolfork welcome rhonda wolfork second district hi mayor council fay county neighborhood council has sent a letter on our recommendations um we ask planning staff to uh should collect data to greater extension to propose um from gentrification with this proposal for urban growth we also ask that council look back into bringing re-establishing the infield redevelopment uh committee also to the board commissions because our infield is not receiving adequate communication let alone is not being able to express itself on these development plans that have been brought forth um we also want you to look at um how you can define um underutilized land parcels um there's no clearness in it it can mean different things to different people there's no direct um clear clear statement on what it is and what it consists of because one it can be a parcel from a lot a parking lot that can be vacant and underutilized and it can be detrimental to the neighborhood um we also would like for you to um taking special consideration to expanding the necessary regarding environmental sinkhole factors grounds um water infestation flooding and caves and wetlands and composition and conditions and capacity to sewer systems and things because some of our land that you fill in land infield to the to you all is just open well we know the history of it the communities in infield knows the history of it and why it shouldn't be built on those things need to be looked at and heard when people are speaking because we are the neighborhood who knows what's going on in our neighborhood we are the experts to that um and that's all i have to say thank you thank you very much next is britney rothmeyer followed by braden stamper welcome thank you mayor and i will try to keep this as brief as possible but i did someone did lend a couple of their minutes to me on my sign up sheet okay so i do not know anything about that you have to sign up to speak in order to give time yes yes so did you sign up to speak are you for no ethan wallace so okay i'm so sorry you're not on the electronic list so you do have time real quickly if this one oh hang on hang on we're looking at all the digital okay yeah it didn't okay all right so it didn't transfer over but we found you so are you ethan wallace and did you agree to give britney your three minutes all right so you'll have six minutes thank you thank you mayor apologies for the confusion there chuck ellinger just said you're down to five already i know you are we gotta have a little humor up here so you'll have six minutes thank you so much uh britney rothmeyer on behalf of fate alliance first i just want to say thank you uh to the entire planning staff and department especially chris taylor for their work on the preservation and growth management program and the communication and the ins and outs of this draft that they have worked with us you know at our request over the course of the past year the transparency and communication by which this process has been worked on i think will really lend itself to its success and i want to say another special thank you to vice mayor woo and council member sheehan for spearheading this effort and all the communication and transparency on your behalf as well so thank you fatal lines will be excitingly be celebrating 20 years of work this year for smart sustainable and equitable growth through advocacy education and research and since the very beginning of our organization in 2006 we have advocated for policies which guide growth with responsible policy driven by data and research and which balance growth with the promotion of the farmland that supports our economy and our identity and how we grow has always been the most important advocacy that fate alliance does the preservation and growth management program represents a data driven approach to growth and we applaud the efforts that have made it the strong version that you all will hear about today overall fate alliance believes this process will help guide data-driven decision making about our future growth needs while also balancing those needs with our rural area and prioritizing using existing land inside the urban service boundary research is clear that growing out is not financially responsible doesn't lower housing costs or produce the housing that we need in the places we need it and doesn't improve our quality of life as lexingtonians so i do want to outline a few recommendations that we think will continue to make this draft of the preservation and growth management program even stronger and set us up for success in the future and we ask you all to consider the following before final approval of the new ordinance so first section one of the proposed ordinance is just about the formula to evaluate how much land is needed to meet our future growth needs and in that formula only vacant land is considered as part of the solution the reality is that redevelopment of existing land used for more housing unit units will continue to occur and that we should continue to prioritize places for this to happen as well as measure and acknowledge that redevelopment will be part of the solution to creating more housing units just as vacant land will as such we recommend that a percentage be determined based on recent data to clearly target how much housing could be created through redevelopment of existing areas for example we can make a target for 20 percent of our future housing needs to be met through redevelopment of existing land reducing the amount of vacant land required to meet those needs next in section four of the ordinance each governmental body has the opportunity to set to appoint a set number of people to serve on the subcommittee that will ultimately review proposals for expansion this committee is going to play a vital role in evaluating future growth and appropriate time should be allocated for the group to be chosen in addition identifying key interests and stakeholders who should be involved will also reduce skepticism increase transparency and trust in the process and put the people at the table who should be at the table at the table as a result we recommend that stakeholders should be identified and interest groups should be identified in that decision making process including representatives from the bluegrass realtors the home builders commerce lexington fade alliance farm bureau the third bread community historic preservation land conservation neighborhood council a usda soil scientist and potentially others next section five of the proposed ordinance concerns criteria to evaluate the inclusion of additional land inside the urban service boundary if it's determined to be necessary and the locational criteria are so vital to a good process and we support thoroughly the criteria that are outlined in section five now in addition we believe that a key component is missing that we hope to see added as this draft moves forward and that is an analysis of the cost of community services economists are clear that residential development does not pay for itself well this is a cost that a city might have to face regardless what we as taxpayers are entitled to know is how much it's going to cost for certain types of growth patterns and where we're going to grow and how much that specifically is going to cost so we recommend including criteria for analysis of cost of community services alongside future expansion proposals to ensure that our community is making the most financially sound decision that we can about future growth ignoring this element of growth is simply kicking the can down the road and we've already seen the cost of doing that with our consent decree lastly in section 7 of the ordinance on economic development we understand that this is reasonably separated from the need for housing but what is vital is that this provision doesn't disregard the intent of the urban service boundary and make it subject to small tweaks and changes anytime that someone has a proposal for economic development it's vital that the protections and the criteria that are outlined at this time are continuing to be included in the draft to continue to have those guardrails as we make decisions about growth in the future we sincerely appreciate your consideration and all the work that has gone into this process so far this process will only be as strong as the careful details that are included within it we shouldn't go into this thinking that we can change this process as we go and while we might be able to precedent is being set with it right now as we make these decisions so we hope that our community will and and you all as decision makers will make the process as strong as it possibly can be now fate alliance will continue to support data-driven responsible financially efficient growth decisions and we appreciate all of your work on this effort all right thank you next is braden stamper welcome hello my name is braden stamper i'm from district three and i had read i was talking about the i will be talking about the preservation urban growth management program i read through the document and one thing i thought would be beneficial would be to add parcels which uses primarily vehicle parking to the equation to factor in how many acres are needed i feel like that would be a beneficial way to factor in land that could be easily redeveloped and used for housing and have that be part of the equation other than that i think the data-driven method of finding how much land we would need to eventually expand is a great idea and i hope it will be voted on thank you all right thank you that completes our public comment for now and uh next up council we have a docket to approve thank you councilmember baxter second by councilmember curtis if you have issues please log in vice mayor woo thank you mayor i have two items to add to the docket i move to place pln mar 25 000 19 anderson midtown apartments llc and ordinance changing the zone from a planned neighborhood residential r3 zone to a medium density residential r4 zone for 0.585 net 0.793 gross acres for property at 401 woodland avenue on the docket without a public hearing so moved is there a second councilmember sheehan seconds any discussion councilmember morton how does that a procedural question um was there any community input tied to this zone change or any pushback or anything like that i'm sorry councilmember would you repeat the question i was wondering if there was any negative community input or was there a request for a public hearing there was not no there and there was no opposition at the planning commission thank you all right any other questions all right all those in favor say aye aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes thank you i have one more i move to place on the docket for the january 22nd 2026 council meeting a resolution expressing support for the work of civic lex and organizing a lexington civic assembly for the purpose of examining the urban county government charter affirming the intent of lexington fayette urban county council to collaborate with civic lex and the lexington civic assembly on public engagement efforts to elicit diverse and inclusive perspectives regarding the same and committing to receive and to consider recommendations from the lexington civic assembly relating to the urban county government charter upon a presentation made to the council general government and planning committee so moved second by councilmember reynolds any questions councilmember brown thank you thank you mayor and vice mayor i should have asked you this earlier is there any reason why you're making this motion now bringing this resolution forward at this time and not at the time that they're ready to present results to us to us yeah councilmember brown this is essentially just an affirmation of support for the process and a commitment from the council to very seriously consider whatever recommendations they bring us so kind of before they even come to any potential recommendations to us it's just an affirmation of support all right thank you are there any other questions all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes is there any other issue for the docket all right all those in favor of the docket as amended please say aye is uh-oh mayor there is one more zone change that needs to be addressed okay who has that does okay well we didn't do the nays yet so i think i'll look to our law commissioner and say we can go ahead right since we didn't finish the vote okay now who has the other motion councilmembers lynch um second all right is there any discussion or questions or comments councilmember morton i just have the same question was there any opposition um from the community tied to this no sir there was no opposition okay and any other questions all right all those in favor say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes now let's go back the docket as amended all those in favor say aye anyone opposed all right that motion passes now since we are within our 30 minutes for people to sign up for public comment for issues on the agenda we have had one more person sign up and um that is susan pollack are you here would you like to make public comment if you will please restate your name and say your council district for the record and you'll have three minutes um yes ma'am my name is susan pollack and um i was a little late um so i was down the street so i hope this is the right thing that i'm speaking about but it was on the docket for today was the um the plan and i had sent some communications to some council people but the urban services boundary plan yes it's yes you may go ahead i just wanted to say that it was my understanding that that was going to be considered today and that there has been a great deal of work done to make a process so that as we consider whether to expand the urban council district and i'm also from the third district actually excuse me um we have no council person at present but um i understand that there's been a lot of work to make a program that would make the next considerations in the future of that plan uh more strategic and and determined not just willy-nilly if you will that they will rely on on data and things but i guess i wanted you to please consider two or three things that are still not actually in the current plan and one of those that is that the current plan addresses housing expansion but doesn't really address business expansion is my understanding and business expansion is is a significant piece of that witness the new um hamburg that's going in and as a person who values lexington in many parts the city and the outdoor part and the countryside part that people rely on who contribute to our economy also i was i think it's really um imperative that if you can we include the determination in the future of whether we really need more land outside of the city for business because right now there's a huge amount of real estate for business in the city that's not being utilized and so where it's possible it might be at that time we next consider it that we could find that land within here we may not have to expand for business as well as housing so it was first of all to see if we could not include in that plan not only a review of the housing needs but also of the business needs secondly right now if you build housing in an expanded area you have to pay for some of the infrastructure but it's my understanding that the city is still paying for more than the developers are we're paying about $1.69 for every dollar that the city gets so it seems to me that we could consider looking at other cities because there are other cities where if you build a new place a new subdivision you have to provide a school you have to provide a supermarket you have to provide bus routes you have to provide sidewalks you have to provide something and the fact that we are not yet at a point where we are asking people to provide for the full cost of what it is to expand oh sorry do you want to finish your sentence okay that um well i i thank you i thank you for having me speak and i sent it in writing to some people but thank you all right thank you okay now that brings us to the january 13th 2026 council work session motions could i have a motion so moved vice mayor woo second by council member curtis are there any questions or corrections to it additions all those in favor say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes could i please have a motion to approve the budget amendments council member curtis i'm sorry who seconded council member council member higgins hoard are there any questions about budget amendments all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes council you have uh for your information only budget adjustments and that brings us to new business i'll entertain a motion council member savigny second by council member hellinger please log in if you have questions about new business all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes the first communications from the mayor is appointments vice mayor woo moves council member hayles seconds are there any questions about appointments all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes uh next communications there are no communications about donations and the next communications from the mayor is procurements if i could have all right i heard council member sheehan and then a second from council member curtis any questions about procurements all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes this brings us to continuing business and presentations first i'd like a motion to approve the council capital projects second council member curtis second by council member reynolds are there any questions all right all those in favor please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes uh next we have our general gov and planning committee report and i'll turn it over to council member sheehan thank you mayor the december 2nd 2025 general government and planning committee was called to order at 1 p.m next motions to approve the september 9th 2025 committee summary and the september 16th 2025 special committee summary were made both passed unanimously pdr director um beth overman provided the annual report for the purchase of development rights program which has now protected 33,333 acres of farm farmland throughout through permanent conservation easements a major milestone was the program certification as a certified entity by the usda natural resources conservation service this designation streamlines the easement approval process by reducing federal oversight overman then reviewed the new small farm program which launched in january 2025 and focuses on protecting actively farmed parcels between 10 and 19.99 acres in its first application cycle 37 applications were submitted and 14 of those met eligibility requirements all eligible properties count toward the city's 50,000 acre conservation goal disqualifying factors for the program have included zoning issues inactive land use and difficulty obtaining mortgage subordination from lenders unfamiliar with conservation easements however ineligible applications remain in the queue and may be reconsidered as those factors are resolved the next application round is expected in spring or early summer 2026 next hal bailey long range planning manager presented the most recent draft of the proposed preservation and growth management program a data-driven framework to guide future growth while preserving agricultural land designed to reduce recurring debates over the urban service area expansion the program formalizes existing planning practices into a transparent database process developed through extensive public and stakeholder engagement the program includes a recurring growth trends report every five years to assess the development needs infill opportunities and neighborhood stability key changes clarify the planning commission's role strengthen preservation criteria streamline vacant land review and allow for zoning changes on ready to develop sites the ordinance eliminates the need to identify specific companies for economic development land and establishes a 250 acre cap on such sites council discussion focused on how infill potential is evaluated incentives for redevelopment and ensuring flexibility in assessing economic impact the ordinance is set to be adopted into the comprehensive plan by august 1st 2026 a motion by vice mayor wu to approve the draft ordinance of the preservation and growth management program as presented at the committee meeting to move to the full council passed without dissent on behalf i thought that was a lot on behalf of the committee and pursuant to its actions at the december 2nd meeting i moved to place on the docket for first reading at the january 22nd 2026 council meeting an ordinance for the preservation and growth management program as approved at the december 2nd 2025 general government and planning committee meeting thank you vice mayor wu seconds that are there any questions all right vice mayor wu thank you mayor i move to amend the draft ordinance relating to the preservation and urban growth management by amending section 1 3d of the ordinance relating to vacant land review to clarify that non-agricultural zone parcels are included in vacant land calculations by inserting the word or in subsection i1a and inserting the word and in subsection i1b so moved thank you councilmember curtis seconded is there discussion about this amendment councilmember ellinger thank you mayor that's mayor um what what does this do by adding the ands and the ors in here so right now as written before this amendment um the requirements for vacant land i can actually share this let me see if i have two of these put on the screen yeah this was uh emailed out to everybody this afternoon earlier this afternoon but right now the requirements to be to count as vacant land it must meet three criteria and what we've done is basically separate out the first criteria which is the property is zoned agricultural or has an ongoing agricultural principal land use this is where the word or goes and then for b and c there is no principal land use or conditional land use located in any urbanized zoning category and there is not a certificate of occupancy for the subject property that has a current building permit so it's basically it it qualifies as vacant land if it either has fulfills criteria a or it fulfills criteria b and c together because they're categorically different we're going to look at it here on the screen also councilmember ellinger right thanks yeah i just wanted the public to know what what we're going to be passing here so it's that section if you kind of let's see the top of the page if we can it's that first section section one do you want to do you want to go through one more time that changes the changes does that does that make sense councilmember ellinger okay yeah i just want the public to know okay and this is the changed ordinance this is yeah it's got two very small little red lines uh the word or at the end of section i1a and the word and at the end of section i1b okay you're welcome are there other questions about this motion councilmember thank you mayor can i just ask planning if they see any issue with this going forward no issue this is something that we worked with the vice mayor on okay thank you okay thank you thank you any other questions about the motion okay councilmember sheehan are you signed up to speak to the motion no okay okay all right then all those in favor of the amendment please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes um now is there anything did you want to speak then to the yes i have an amendment motion oh okay go right ahead um based on community feedback i've worked with planning staff to come up with an amendment um to section four so you can i did email this out to council members prior to the meeting um and the motion is going to be to add the language at the bottom here and i will read this out um for the public so it says um the appointing bodies should seek this is about the subcommittee um for the vacant land review just to clarify um the appointing bodies should seek to balance the professional expertise of the subcommittee members across the following areas agriculture and farmland economic development environmental services pertaining to soil water and ecology housing and real estate infrastructure utilities and construction or other relevant expertise so i move to add this um to section four item two um this would be point e all right all right vice mayor wu seconds now is there discussion about this amendment any discussion all right all those in favor of the amendment please say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes is there anything else to the major big council member savigny did you want to speak about the main motion thank you mayor i just have a few points of clarification that i just would like our planning staff to say publicly some so it's every folks are aware um in section one number three there's some section d ii the annual review um so there looks like there'll be an annual review of vacant parcels um that takes place after you do that initial review and then it kind of i think it keeps going and will that be published someplace so that um the public knows where it is and might provide some sort of feedback either through this this body or or other manners yes sir that number is currently published on imagine lexington.com backslash arc or the analytic research center this will be the area in which we will be publishing ongoing data so that the community can see what's going on from time to time great thank you and then um i did get some feedback as well from um section two item number two um that is in regard to um when we're looking if we're looking at expansion there's a sentence in there to ensure fiscal and environmentally sustainable growth the location of conserved agriculture properties ie pdr properties or um or the like will not will not be eligible for development should be carefully considered and avoided in any discussion about the future expansion of the urban service area tell me um what that means in practice and and i'm particularly concerned if there's a is there a pdr parcel and there's a neighboring parcel that's not a pdr process parcel is there a scoring mechanism that that would eliminate that um parcel for some reason there is not a scoring mechanism set up in this program as it is right now it is meant to call out the potential impacts on neighboring properties specifically looking at the potential for if an urban service area comes up a buts pdr property we might be able to look at other things to ensure that we're having proper buffering making sure that we have some uh deference that is being given to it but that would not preclude any property from being included except for those that are in the pdr program thank you very much that's all i had mayor thank you thank you for all your work are there other questions council member baxter thank you mayor um i just wanted to give planning the opportunity to address miss pollack's concern about how we are looking at economic development and business potential in the community in this plan much like we did with our most recent urban growth master plan commercial is an essential part to creating a full neighborhood or community so whereas the the impetus for us to expand our urban service area this past time around was primarily focused on housing and residential opportunities we included a significant amount of opportunity for commercial to occur in those areas this is just general best practice within planning so that we can have walkable communities that have amenities and the resources that people need within proximity to their homes so that would be included in the master planning process thank you and then my final question is um once this passes can you remind me the timeline like when the clock would start on the first review i guess yes so we would adopt our uh next comprehensive plan which is on a five-year statutory time frame and then the year following that we would be providing the growth trends report and that's meaning that the long-range planning would be sitting down working on that growth trends report between the year of the comprehensive plan being adopted and then that year time span we're not going to start it a year later we'll present it that year later okay thank you thank you mayor thank you are there other questions all right i'd like to turn the chair over to vice mayor wu as i have a question sure mayor which was uh got me to thinking about council member savigny's question given that the pdr goal is mass it's not scattershot if you have a property that is surrounded by pdr and there is a potential there would that be looked at differently and if so how it would be looked at differently because we also have the requirements to look at provision of services to those locations and we would be looking at how that might occur it'd be probably pretty difficult for us to get urbanized services in an efficient manner to a property that's surrounded by pdr properties i also know that the pdr program would probably be looking to acquire that property as well to try to bring it in and try to include it into that program but all of this would have to be looked at by the subcommittee and the planning commission with their final action in determining where the location of an urban service area expansion would go but there's nothing in the ordinance that would prevent that being used no there isn't and that's largely because the purchase of development rights program the property that has entered into agreement with that program has said i am giving up my purchase development rights or my development rights in the future other properties have not so it would be somewhat problematic for us to look at a property that's not in that program and say you are covered by that program but it would be very important for us to look at the whole of the situation when reviewing potential areas of expansion uh in saying what is the best way to make sure that we're getting transportation infrastructure there storm and sanitary sewer to those locations and in a lot of cases that would not be a efficient use of our government time or money and what would be your process for turning that down so the review that is why we're having this set up through a subcommittee process and then a planning commission review process the subcommittee would look at all programs or all properties that would be wanting to be brought into the program evaluating them based off the characteristics that are written out in that section and then providing a recommendation to the planning commission the planning commission would then review those findings and make a final determination of what areas would be best for master planning going on into the future okay thank you for uh detailing that for me thank you thank you vice mayor woo i'm gonna have the chair back all right thank you now are there any other questions about the motion on the floor as amended all right all those in favor of approving it as amended please say aye aye anyone opposed all right that motion passes council member sheehan our meeting adjourned at 2 p.m and that concludes my report all right thank you does any council member have a question about council member sheehan's report all right thank you again that brings us to council reports council member reynolds thank you mayor uh first i just wanted to say uh what a pleasure it was yesterday to participate in mlk celebration events in lexington it's something that i've really enjoyed doing um every year that i've been on council and look forward to doing in the future the education foundation alpha beta lambda chapter did a wonderful job with the unity breakfast yesterday and then the mlk um holiday committee uh also did a fantastic job with the march it's cold every year uh and then with the um the ceremony afterwards and bringing uh reverend crawford in and i just wanted to shout out to council member uh james brown for all his work i know that he's a co-chair of that committee and they just do such a fantastic job every year i feel like i'm in like the best um church service that i could possibly be in and i wish that i could do it um every week so i just want to thank them for working on that and um as i think it was the 53rd year of having that celebration we have one of the um i guess oldest uh mlk celebrations in the country here in lexington and i think that's pretty special so i wanted to thank everyone for working on that and then as um several of you know the division of community corrections co-sponsors the veterans va 5k run each year and they did so this past november and the race benefits the va hospital and the lexington fisher house and this past year community corrections was able to raise eighty thousand dollars and in the last year three years they've assisted in raising over two hundred and twenty four thousand dollars for veteran services so i just really wanted to highlight this and give a shout out because the division organizers which are the color guard the master of ceremonies and significant staff all participate in the run itself and it's a division-wide effort but a special thanks to chief colvin captain chuck burton and sergeant sarah smith for their efforts and steadfast commitment to supporting lexington's veterans community so thank you very much thank you councilmember lynch thank you mayor i have three announcements for my district two neighbors the first being the laptops for learning program is happening this week at the black and williams neighborhood center there will be four sessions available to the community to come first session being on wednesday january 21st tomorrow from 1 to 4 p.m and these learning sessions are required in order to receive your free laptop so please register registration is required so please call and register for the learning sessions even on wednesday from 1 to 4 or 5 30 to 8 30 p.m or thursday 10 to 1 or 2 p.m to 5 p.m it's a great opportunity to bridge that technology divide that we have in our community so if you're interested please register for the the learning sessions and then you'll be able to walk away with your laptop which is awesome awesome also happening at the black williams neighborhood center is teen talk every month this occurs and it's free and open to all teens to come and attend this month i'll be having a speaker that will be speaking specifically about the medical pathway field the next session is on monday january 26th from 5 30 p.m to 7 30 p.m at the black williams neighborhood center and dinner is served to all teens that attend and then lastly at the neighborhood center on sunday february 1st resilience in the red line will be shown to the community it will be free for the community the film will start at 3 15 registration is required so please call the black williams neighborhood center to register and please do attend it's a fabulous documentary thank you mayor thank you councilmember brown thank you mayor and uh thank you council members for mentioning the mlk holiday celebration i just want to take a opportunity to thank the members of the holiday planning committee for their continued work and effort year year year in and year out uh planning that event seven eight months out from from the date is uh this is quite a feat and and most of the folks on the committee are volunteers so i just want to thank my co-chair dr price at uk uh sharon murphy in my office and tiffany maston that you all know that do a lot of work with that program and then uh program chair emeritus uh chester grundy for for all he does and the rest of the committee um i'd also like to thank um our police department they provide um security and staffing and and services for the march i just want to thank them for them being available and being of service to our community uh year year after year also the staff at lcc and the alphas for their cooperation and then i'd also like to thank the mayor and my colleagues for showing up every year and participating it it means a lot to us and other folks in the community other leaders in the community and other community members for showing up every year one of the roles i have on the committee is to um is to work with the speaker and make sure that the speaker is being taken care of and this year the speaker um really was shocked and impressed with how welcoming and how engaging our community was as we were walking over to the to the event um he he was saying that i'm surprised that folks are stopping and speaking as cold as it is he said but that just shows you the spirit of uh this community and how everybody feels it shows out for this event and uh when i had him back in the room kind of getting him ready before he went on which some of them do they just kind of wait till their opportunity to go out and speak a song came on and he said i guess i'm being called to join the people and he got up and just ran out and sat on the front row so i just wanted to thank everybody that was involved with making this happen year in and year out i know i get a lot of credit for it but it's the team that helps and works with me to put this together so thank you thank you mayor thank you councilmember boone thank you mayor i have an item that i'm going to place in committee the intention of this item is to explore policies that encourage efficient land use the utilization of vacant and underdeveloped land and redevelopment opportunities to get us closer to reaching our housing goals by maximizing the use of land inside the current urban service area we can add to and diversify our housing inventory increase affordability and relieve pressure on the urban service boundary i support the majority of the lexington preservation and growth management program and its role in guiding future growth while preserving our rural area however we are still a few years away from its first data-driven process beginning in the meantime i believe we can work to craft better policies and engage with community members and stakeholders to set us up for success down the line it is to is the purpose is to complement the future work of the lpgmp second and and did you councilmember ellinger second did you want to put that in general government planning yeah move to place okay ggp planning committee efficient zoning and land use policies great thank you okay and councilmember ellinger second is there any discussion councilmember reynolds thank you councilmember could you explain how this is different from what we just voted on and other items that are already in committee um so there's there's currently not a active info and redevelopment kind of program in committee so this is more or less looking at these redevelopment opportunities and info projects that are getting held up more or less and how we can kind of boost them along the way to let them happen okay thank you thank you any other questions all right all those in favor please say aye aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes thank you um councilmember morton thank you i think i have a couple photos but to get started so um we had the pleasure of hosting our great crockford middle schools for the third time this year for the youth and government day this was our third time hosting the students from crockford middle school for youth and government day and once again they did not disappoint their questions were thoughtful insightful and reflective of real curiosity about local government and how it works um so it's always encouraging to see young people so engaged and confident and using their voices and i'm grateful to the students and educators who continue to invest in civic learning i just want to give a shout out and a thank you to councilmember beasley and councilmember higgins hoard for their support um and assistance and organizing that youth and government day and then also councilmember um curtis for attending and then moving on we had um i want to thank perfect impact perfect imperfection excuse me i'm sorry for inviting our office to tour their facilities and learn more about their work it was a powerful uh to see the intentionality that they approach um with recovery um and it's always it was a good a great tour and they're doing some great work at perfect imperfections um so thank you to perfect imperfections and lastly um and that's i think perfect imperfection a little bit tour but then lastly the mlk day celebration so mlk day was deeply impactful even the cold marching downtown alongside so many neighbors was was a powerful reminder of what it means to show up for one another dr king's legacy calls us not to just remember his words but to live them especially when they're uncomfortable and when they demand courage um over the past week we're reminded that um dr king's laid out um the vision that dr martin the king laid out for us is not finished when we act um excuse me when there's acts rooted in hate um in our community specifically like racist bigoted kkk flyers littered throughout our community we must respond um with words of courage and action not silence um and not fear or division our response must be unity accountability and renewed commitment to dignity justice for every person who calls the city home we do not give power to hate by repeating it we take power from it by standing together by protecting our neighbors and by continuing the work of building a community grounded in respect equity and belonging mlk day is not a single moment on the calendar it's a charge to act every day and i remain committed to that work and ensuring that our community our city is moving forward not backwards together so thank you thank you are there any other comments under council reports all right that brings us to public comment for issues not on the agenda and we have no one signed up so that brings us to a motion to adjourn councilmember curtis second by councilmember horde all those in favor say aye we are adjourned thank you all for attending