2024: The Year of Yes for Fayette Alliance

2024 was a year of change for Lexington-Fayette County:

• newly-elected local officials,
• new city-wide zoning changes,
• new proposals for renewable energy initiatives,
• new ballot referendums,
• and yes, new land incorporated into our historic Urban Services Boundary.

While somewhat daunting, we believe change, if embraced and executed properly and backed by data and research, can be great for our city heading into 2025. 

We have been glad to support and say yes to important policy changes this year while continuing to advocate for data-driven land use processes promoting responsible development patterns that enhance both our urban and rural areas.

We are looking forward to saying YES to smart growth in 2025 and beyond.  Please see below for a full list of policies we were excited to support throughout the last year.

Housing, Infill, and Redevelopment

We said yes to more housing and development inside the USB. In order to facilitate these initiatives, we commissioned research studies to answer three important questions:

• How much land has the potential to be developed inside the USB?
• What types of housing do we need to build to accommodate growth for the next 20 years?
• How many diverse housing units could we build in those existing areas?  

To present our findings to the community, we compiled the data into a one-page infographic, and held a free public event titled “Mapped: Analyzing Land & Housing Trends in Lexington.”

• Dig deeper: View the infographic and presentations from these two new research initiatives below.

“Lexington-Fayette County Housing Growth Analysis“

“Land Use and Analysis for Lexington-Fayette County“

Urban Growth Management ZOTA

We said yes to adopting the Urban Growth Management ZOTA, the largest and most significant city-wide zoning change in Lexington’s nearly 250 year history.

• Details: The UGM ZOTA aims to connect people to places, to jobs, and to each other through compact and thoughtfully designed development.
• This means: More diverse housing types, allowing for appropriate neighborhood businesses, creating more walkable, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, allowing residential housing and commercial development to coexist, and densifying major transportation corridors.
• Watch: View our public comment on this ZOTA below.

Solar Energy Systems

We said yes to responsible solar energy initiatives in Lexington-Fayette County. 

When privately owned industrial solar company Silicon Ranch requested a countywide zoning amendment to build an 800-acre solar farm on prime agricultural land, we said no.

• However: We said yes to supporting innovative solar solutions in both urban and industrial areas.
• Additionally: We researched solar initiatives that other cities had implemented to provide our city leaders with ideas on how we, as a community, could responsibly support clean energy initiatives moving forward.

Please visit the Solar Spotlight section of our industrial solar webpage to learn more about responsible and innovative urban solar initiatives.

• Watch: This video  below highlighting a local solar initiative by Hallway Feeds. 

Parks

2024 was an election year for Lexington-Fayette County. And this year, new legislation appeared on the ballot for residents to vote on. 

We supported and endorsed the Vote Yes for Parks! ballot referendum. 

• Details: This measure, which passed in November, will improve the infrastructure of our parks by slightly raising the property taxes of residents.
• By the numbers: On average, property owners will pay an additional $52 a year to provide approximately $8 million in extra funding to maintain and improve upon Lexington’s parks systems.

We supported the Vote Yes for Parks! Initiative because we believe investing in and improving our parks strengthens our community, expands opportunity, promotes equitable development, and enhances the quality of life for every member of our community.

We’re looking forward to seeing infrastructure improvements within our parks come to fruition in 2025.

YIMBYism

In 2024, Fayette Alliance said yes to YIMBYism, which is an acronym for Yes In My Backyard.

Our organization knows that to truly grow our city while preserving our productive and irreplaceable farmland, the Lexington community needs to say yes to more infill and redevelopment projects inside the Urban Services Boundary. 

Fayette Alliance is committed to:

• educating our neighbors about the importance of diverse housing types and infrastructure investments in our existing neighborhoods, 
• debunking myths around negative impacts of new housing on traffic and property values,
• and using the land we already have to support development near existing services and jobs. 

We look forward to continuing to educate and advocate for policies that enable and incentivize infill and redevelopment projects, and also working with fellow community members to support these projects coming to fruition in 2025 and beyond. 

Election Education

We said yes to an informed local election by helping voters make informed voting choices on important issues. 

• Details: We asked candidates in all 12 Urban County Council races where they stood on issues related to responsible and sustainable growth and development.
• Then: We publicly published all responses on our Candidate Questionnaire webpage.

Our questionnaire covered a range of topics including affordable housing, the Comprehensive Plan, infill and redevelopment, economic development, agriculture, transportation, and more. 

Fayette Alliance does not endorse candidates or get politically involved in elections, but we do work to provide data-driven resources for candidates and voters alike. If you want to see where current and newly elected Councilmembers stand on issues related to smart growth, click the button below.

Reflecting on 2024

As we look back on the year, we want to celebrate the ways we said YES to smart growth in Lexington-Fayette County.

• We said yes to infill and redevelopment, affordable housing and more diverse housing types, the new Urban Growth Management ZOTA, and responsible solar solutions. Heck, we even said yes to raising taxes — for the benefit of improved maintenance and infrastructure throughout our parks system.
• We said no to large scale industrial solar projects being developed on prime agricultural land, and we continued to raise important legal questions about the way in which our community makes decisions about current and future expansions of the Urban Services Boundary.

View Our 2024 Candidate Questionnaire

At our core, Fayette Alliance is a YES organization. We know the question is not if we grow, it’s how. We are urbanists, farmers, cyclists, outdoor enthusiasts, neighbors, advocates, community leaders, transplants, lifelong locals, and Lexingtonians from various walks of life who say “yes” to policies that grow our city and promote our farms. 

As we head into 2025, we are excited to identify new ways to say yes to efforts that promote smart growth across Lexington-Fayette County.

As always, thank you for your unwavering support.

Help Us Continue To Say Yes

As we look to 2025, your support fuels our ability to keep saying YES to smart growth in Lexington-Fayette County. Together, we can strengthen advocacy, broaden educational outreach, and deepen research — all while preserving the farmland that defines our region and fostering the thoughtful growth of our city.

Your end-of-year gift to Fayette Alliance is a chance to double your impact. Thanks to a generous friend of Fayette Alliance, every dollar you give before December 31st will be matched, up to $25,000. Here’s how your support can make a difference:

• $100 – $500 can power a community outreach event on land-use issues and smart growth policies.
• $500 – $1,000 can sponsor an educational program or public forum, connecting citizens with decision-makers and local experts.
• $1,000 – $5,000+ can fund critical research that informs our advocacy and policy recommendations.

Every contribution, big or small, helps us say YES to a future where Lexington-Fayette County grows smarter, more sustainably, and more equitably. Will you join us by making your End-of-Year gift today?