Lexington, KY - The Fayette Alliance today called on the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council to “hold the line” on expanding the city’s Urban Services Area and Rural Activity Centers.
The Council votes on Thursday on whether to adopt Goals and Objectives for the 2012 Comprehensive Plan adopted by the city Planning Commission last September. (Click here to read in full.)
In a letter to Vice Mayor Linda Gorton and Council members, Fayette Alliance Executive Director Knox van Nagell said, “As they stand now, the Goals & Objectives specify no expansion of the Urban Service Boundary or Rural Activity Centers into more farmland for development. This measure will preserve our precious Bluegrass landscape in Fayette County, while also encouraging innovative development on roughly 12,000 acres of under-used, vacant, and blighted land inside our current city limits.”
In a position statement released today, the Alliance, “a coalition of citizens dedicated to achieving sustainable growth in Lexington-Fayette County through land use advocacy, education, and promotion,” argues that Lexington-Fayette should be balanced, responsible and sustainable in its approach to growth and development.
The statement cites the costly EPA mandated cleanup of the city’s existing sewer systems, arguing against “biting off more than we can chew” by expanding the Urban Service Area and increasing the demand for storm and sanitary sewage capacity.
Originally projected at approximately $300 million, the cost of bringing the city into compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act is now officially estimated to exceed $500 million— “which does not account for an expansion of the Urban Services Area or Rural Activity Centers,” the statement notes.
Plenty of raw land that could be developed for economic growth exists within the Urban Services Area, the statement said, citing data provided by a 2009 LFUCG Housing Market Study, 2009 as well as the city’s Division of Planning, 2012.
“Overall, we have roughly 12,000 acres of vacant or underutilized land inside the Urban Services Area, which include:
50 million square feet of commercial space
100 million square feet of industrial/research space
1500 acres of VACANT employment sector land
429 acres of VACANT manufacturing land
UK Coldstream Park: 335 acres of land, 112,000+ square feet of office space.
Moreover, we have over 8,000 acres of economic development land in the ‘BEAM’ region between Lexington and Louisville,” a reference to the the Bluegrass Economic Advancement Movement launched jointly by Lexington Mayors Jim Gray and Greg Fischer.
The Alliance statement concludes, “Expanding the Urban Services Area and Rural Activity Centers at this time, defies reason. Such language in the
Goals and Objectives opens up the entire rural area for development, driving market forces away from needed investment inside the city. Under this scenario, we all lose. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
To read the Fayette Alliance position statement in full, click here.