Kyle Whalen, President, Home Builders Association of Kentucky
This is a very exciting time for our community and Lexington’s future!
Lexington is growing! We are a place where today people want to come to live — to bring jobs, to raise a family and invest in our community.
We are also an affordable community in which to live. Housing affordability for the majority of our citizens has not been a problem in the past. However, recently we have seen signs of concern to which we need to pay close attention.
The housing market today is tight. We have about two months or inventory of homes on the market for sale. Occupancy rates for rental housing are as high as we have seen them in decades.
As one would expect, home prices and rents are going up. We are seeing signs of eroding affordability across the board and more pressure on affordable housing.
Balance is needed to relieve pressures and to reach equilibrium in our market.
Population projections indicate that we will continue to have a steady growth for the next 10 years resulting in the need for nearly 23,000 net new housing units in our community. The housing market demand study was pretty clear on what we will look like as a community in 10 years and clear regarding what the market will demand in terms of housing choices, as well.
When one compares these projections to the proposed Goals and Objectives, things do not quite match up.
Today we have about 5,000 vacant acres of land inside the Urban Service Boundary (USB). We have heard from those actively involved in recruiting new jobs to Lexington throughout this process that of that 5,000 acres, they have less than 100 acres that they can show to companies looking to bring jobs to Lexington. We have also heard of local companies wishing to expand their growing businesses but cannot find the land available to do so.
Our industry has taken a comprehensive look at the vacant land identified for housing, and more than half of that acreage is not available to the market today.
We talk about infill and intensifying development inside the USB, but our community — our neighbors — demonstrate at just about every zone change that they are not ready to accept infill. It seems to be a great idea — everyone says we need it — until it shows up in your back yard.
The BIA supports infill and redevelopment. There is a segment of the market that desires “infill” and urban housing and yes, there is a need for more of this in Lexington. Likewise, there are places for some job growth suitable for infill and redevelopment areas. But the missed opportunities for new jobs that have gone to other communities tells us, and home buyers show us, that the majority of the housing demand and job growth is not and cannot be met by infill and redevelopment alone.
We are in a position that so many communities wish they were in today. Our community is growing and our economy is strong, but our land supply is not adequate to meet our needs.
To put things in perspective, the last expansion was in 1996. At that time (20 years ago), there were an estimated 11,000 acres inside the USB and 5,600 acres were added. Today we have less than 5,000 acres vacant and significantly less than that available to the market.
Population projections, consumer demands within the market and our desperate need to provide more jobs in our community tells us clearly that we need more available land in order to strike a balance and meet the needs of our community today.
We urge you to follow through on the ideas and experiments outlined in the goals and objectives.
We also implore you to act now to address the immediate needs we have for job creation and to meet the market demands for housing our citizens, to keep our market affordable and to ease the pressures on affordable housing.
We all want a city that we can all afford to live in.
Kyle Whalen
President, Home Builders Association of Kentucky
The Fayette Alliance shares its argument for preserving Lexington's existing Urban Service Boundary here.
To learn more about the Home Builders Association of Kentucky, visit hbak.com.