"As Lexington's Planning Commission mulls the possible expansion of Fayette County's urban services boundary during this year's Comprehensive Plan review, a new alliance has added its voice in recent months to the ground-stirring debate.
Fayette Alliance, which was incorporated in May, has launched a heavy educational and lobbying effort aimed at convincing citizens and government officials to protect the county's rural farmlands. The organization hopes to hold the line on any urban services area expansion at this point, primarily to protect Lexington's agricultural interests, which have a $2 billion local economic impact and help attract an additional $1 billion in tourism dollars every year, said Fayette Alliance executive director Knox Van Nagell.
"It's very difficult for farming to remain a viable business when you're losing your factory floor," said van Nagell, whose own family ties to farming in Fayette County date back more than 100 years. "We're really undermining our agricultural industries that provide a lot of economic security to Lexington and to Fayette County, and we're also undermining what culturally makes us unlike any other place in the world."
It's an argument that appears to resonate with a majority of Lexingtonians, according to a poll commissioned by Fayette Alliance and conducted by the Matrix Group, which concluded that 74 percent of Fayette County residents are opposed to an expansion of the urban services boundary. In an August 31 meeting, the Planning Commission also came to a preliminary decision to leave the urban services boundary as it stands in most parts of the city, while still leaving areas along Winchester and Richmond roads open for debate this summer.
Funded through private donations, Fayette Alliance includes primarily farmers, conservation groups and agricultural interests among its membership. However, the group has also drawn support from others in the community who have their own reasons for holding the line on expansion — namely concerns about infrastructure and an interest in promoting infill development.
"We really are interested in trying to level the playing field compared to suburban development," said Robert Trujillo, director of development for South Hill Group, who recently joined the Alliance's board. South Hill Group has headed up downtown projects such as City Court and South Hill Crossing, in addition to the CenterCourt project currently underway on South Upper Street.
Trujillo sees his involvement in the Fayette Alliance as an opportunity to bring the public and elected officials up to speed on the costs and challenges of infill development.
"I think the main strength is that they are educating the public and the city on very important issues," Trujillo said. "They have some political clout and I think that they will be heard, and will help us develop infill projects."
Debbie Long, also a Fayette Alliance board member, has watched the level of interest in downtown ebb and flow over the 25 years since she opened Dudley's restaurant, and she has seen the effects it can have on her business's bottom line.
"We opened in 1981, and in the early to mid '80s, there was a great influx into our downtown, and you could see businesses flourish," said Long, who owns Buddy's Bar and Grill in addition to Dudley's. "And then it slowed down in downtown, and we saw the effect of that, too."
From a business perspective, Long said that Fayette Alliance's emphasis on looking inward for new development not only helps to preserve Lexington's rural landscape and build a more concentrated customer base, but it also improves access to the local labor pool.
"We feel that farming and development are really the flip sides of the same coin," van Nagell said. "If you have a vibrant urban core, you too will have a healthy rural landscape, and vice versa."
While Fayette Alliance clearly has opposed any proposed expansion of the urban services area at this time, the group also has plans to promote what it views as appropriate growth for Fayette County, van Nagell said.
One idea being considered by the Alliance is the creation of an urban land management plan similar to the county's current program for the purchase of development rights. If pursued, van Nagell would like to see the program established parallel to the existing PDR initiative, with the goal of examining underdeveloped property within the urban service boundary and setting up goals and objectives to better use those properties.
Van Nagell said she could also envision the effort seeking potential state and federal matching funds as an added incentive for developers willing to make a bid for sanctioned redevelopment projects.
Another idea under consideration by the group is an adequate facilities ordinance to ensure that the city's infrastructure is prepared for growth.
"We have serious storm water and sanitary sewer problems, problems that the EPA has taken notice of," van Nagell said.
"Our government, despite earnest efforts, does not have the resources to adequately support, infrastructurally, new development on the periphery."
"It's a big concern," said Emma Tibbs, an Alliance board member and former president of the Fayette County Neighborhood Council. "We're not doing anything to speak of to address the storm water, water quality, and to some extent, sanitary sewer problems in the community, and they spill over into the agricultural community. Eventually all of this stuff finds its way into those streams."
Tibbs said the Neighborhood Council voted unanimously to align itself with the Fayette Alliance in its mission shortly after the organization was formed this year.
"I always thought that they were the best kept secret in town," Tibbs said of Fayette County's agricultural contingent. "When I'm down (at city hall) advocating for neighborhoods, we just don't see the equine and the ag people very often, or at least we haven't in the past. And they are a huge part of the economic landscape of Fayette County."
As part of its mission, the Alliance plans to compile information on the voting records and positions of Lexington's mayoral candidates as well as its at-large and district council candidates. The organization will be conducting forums with mayoral and at-large candidates, in addition to a District 12 forum already conducted in conjunction with Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Fayette County Farm Bureau. Fayette Alliance has also considered forming a political action committee to support and endorse candidates, but the group has not made a decision to pursue that at this time.
"We feel that really we can be just as effective through our educational pursuits as if we had a political action committee endorsing," van Nagell said.
In addition to being engaged in the Comprehensive Plan process, the organization has also been building up its grassroots efforts and developing its Web site, www.fayettealliance.org, as an informational resource on the Alliance's mission.
After the finalization of the Comprehensive Plan review this fall, the group intends to continue attending meetings and monitoring the growth and planning process throughout the county. But for van Nagell, the current planning debate marks a crucial time in Fayette County's development.
"We feel like it's now or never," van Nagell said. "We can really seize the moment and revolutionize the way we think about growth at this juncture."