2010 Growth Questionnaire
1. What is your vision for Lexington-Fayette County?
A community that recognizes the uniqueness of our local assets and embraces opportunities to leave Lexington a greater place for our children to live and work.
2. As a Councilmember, you will adopt the “Goals and Objectives” of the Comprehensive Plan—which governs land-use in Fayette County. Do you support an expansion of Urban Service Boundary during the next Comprehensive Plan Process?
The Urban Service Boundary has served us well by promoting infill and redevelopment, while also allowing the City to manage long-term investments in infrastructure and of municipal services. If any expansion is approved, it should be limited and explicitly justified to all of our citizens.
3. As a Councilmember, what will you do to ensure that the land bank authority is properly established? What should be the criteria for awarding parcels for infill-redevelopment projects and/or real estate deals?
I will support responsible agreements between the Urban County Government, Fayette County Board of Education and Kentucky State Government that allow Lexington to strategically advance neighborhood growth and economic development in a way that respects taxpayers and private property investments.
4. Will you support continuing funding of at least $2 million, annually, for the PDR program?
I have been proud to support our city’s investments in the PDR program during my Council career, and I will continue to work toward collaborative investments between LFUCG and the federal government. I would have difficulty supporting the same investment level if the matching agreement was not in place or if it required basic services to be cut.
5. As a Councilmember, how will you address Lexington’s affordable housing needs?
If an Affordable Housing Trust Fund is going to serve as an effective, long-term mechanism for meeting housing needs, the program needs to find funding beyond LFUCG dollars. Lexington must find new ways to support private community efforts of organizations like Habitat for Humanity along with enabling the Lexington Housing Authority to maximize federal assistance.
6. As a Councilmember, would you change the LFUCG Divisions of Planning, Building Inspection, & Code Enforcement? If so, how?
The variety of responsibilities and functions of these Divisions means Council has to constantly reevaluate policies and service delivery to businesses and the public. We can do a better job communicating ordinance requirements to citizens and improve our prioritization of complaints and service requests through our 311 LexCall system. Specifically, divisions can become more accountable and transparent by documenting their current workloads and communicating that information to the public. This gives citizens a better understanding of how their specific request is being prioritized and it gives decision makers a clearer look at the employee costs associated with a particular issue.
7. As a Councilmember, how will you handle CentrePointe and similar development projects moving forward? How will you implement the Downtown Master Plan and its recommendations?
The Downtown Design Guideline, the Form Based Codes Taskforce and ongoing implementation of the Downtown Masterplan gives the Council and interested citizens more opportunity then ever before to influence specific redevelopment in the heart of our city. I will work toward practical approaches to guideline selection and advocate that competing stakeholders be given a fair opportunity to participate in the discussion.
8. As a Councilmember, how do you propose addressing—in the long term—the student housing issues in Lexington’s established neighborhoods? How should LFUCG incentivize infill in the Urban Service Boundary, while protecting the character of established neighborhoods?
I think Council will have a better understanding of long term options for student housing issues after recent agreements have a chance to take effect. As has been the case with past improvements, any viable solutions will have to be a compromise between neighborhood leaders, property owners, students and the University of Kentucky. Tax Increment Financing remains an essential tool to enable private development to produce public goods, but as councilmembers, I believe we can do a lot to encourage infill by maintaining infrastructure within the Urban Service Area and facilitating partnerships between businesses and citizens in our neighborhoods.
9. Fayette County agri-business and agri-tourism generate over $3 billion for the regional economy each year. As a Councilmember, how will you promote these signature industries?
By continuing to incorporate our horse industry into tourism and business attraction efforts, supporting the Purchase of Development Rights program and keeping our taxes low.
