Candidate Questionnaire, Dan Wu

Dan Wu (incumbent)

Housing

Studies show Lexington needs about 22,500 new housing units across all types to fill the housing gap in our city, but 75% of the needed units are at or below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).

What strategies and locations do you believe Lexington should prioritize for housing growth in order to address these needs?

• Answer:

We need to increase our affordable housing trust fund, streamline approval processes, create a development liaison to improve communication & collaboration, adjust our zoning practices, and put a greater emphasis and incentives towards infill development.

Expansion

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council recently adopted the Preservation and Growth Management Program, which created a data-driven method for considering future expansions of the Urban Service Boundary (USB).

What factors do you believe are most important to consider if an expansion of the Urban Service Boundary was proposed to the Council during your term?

• Answer:

The size of the expansion, the location, and then subsequent master planning to consider HOW we create the new expansion area (more mixed use, density, affordability, etc).

Agricultural Preservation

Agricultural industries, and the farmland that supports them, have an economic impact of $2.6 billion every year on Lexington-Fayette County’s economy and support more than 16,000 jobs across all twelve council districts.

What policies do you support that promote Lexington’s iconic and productive farmland and protect it from irresponsible future development?

• Answer:

With LPGMP we will rely on data & need to drive our growth, instead of subjective & arbitrary decisions made due to political pressures.

Transit

Land use policy and public transit are closely linked. How do you think Lexington can prioritize transit oriented development moving forward and what strategies do you support to improve our city’s public transit system?

• Answer:

I would love to implement more transit oriented design & development by creating more by-right zoning that allows for denser and more diverse housing types along transit corridors. Not all of our residents can or choose to drive so creating more options for everyone, no matter their mode of transportation is an equity issue. I also supported the Urban Growth Management ZOTA in 2024 that included innovative solutions like the creation of the corridor node zone.

Downtown Area Master Plan

LFUCG recently adopted a new Downtown Area Master Plan. As the community works to increase the vibrancy of our downtown while also creating new housing opportunities, which implementation items from the Plan would you like to see prioritized and why?

• Answer:

In 2024, I had the opportunity to attend my first Grow Smart Academy keynote address. Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City, talked about how two way streets downtown can positively impact the safety of all and the feel for downtown. I previously had this item in committee and decided that it was best to wait for the DAMP to be completed before attempting a stand alone two way street study. I am supportive of moving forward with a study that looks into the feasibility of two way streets downtown. Coupled with more housing development in our downtown core, we could also create a thriving retail sector. I plan to lead a council group next year to make sure the recommendations in the DAMP are followed through, focusing on infill redevelopment, antidisplacement, and implementation.

Data Centers

Lexington currently has a moratorium on data centers until October 31, 2026. How do you think Lexington should address the growing demand for data centers?

• Answer:

By the time this is published, we may have already tackled this issue with regulations and/or an extension of the moratorium (at our special meeting on Oct 6th). I oppose the creation of large scale data centers in Lexington. We simply don’t have the land, water, or power infrastructure to support such developments. Our residents have also come out in force with concerns about noise, light, negative environmental & community impacts, water usage, and potentially rising utility costs, and I share those concerns. The rapid growth of AI is also cause for scrutiny and oversight as it impacts jobs, energy, and the way we live our daily lives.

Renewable Energy

What policies would you support to increase urban renewable energy development, like commercial and industrial rooftop solar, in Lexington-Fayette County’s built environment?

• Answer: 

I would like to increase funding for our Solarize Lexington program to help residents affordably install rooftop solar on their homes. I want to see more rooftop solar in our community but it will take buy-in from both our residents and businesses, urban and rural. I believe we should approach the renewable energy conversation with a “YES AND” attitude, bringing all options to the table to tackle our urgent climate change and need for energy resiliency. The climate crisis is real and it’s here. Innovation and bold solutions are not optional, they are necessary if we want to leave a better world for our children.

Student Housing

As enrollment at the University of Kentucky expands, Lexington neighborhoods are feeling the pressure of increased demand for student housing. What growth strategies would you support to balance the need for student housing with the concerns of longtime residents?

• Answer:

Student-focused housing is not a standalone issue and students are also part of our community. All types of housing – affordable, workforce, student, senior, market rate, etc, are all interconnected and impact all our residents. We need ALL types of homes, we need lots of them, and we need it now. Affordability is chiefly a supply issue. The more homes we have in Fayette County, the more affordable they will be. The City of Lexington has no control over how UK uses its land and UK seems to have no interest in creating enough housing to keep up with growing enrollment when they can externalize the problem to us. The residents of Lexington need to apply pressure to our university leaders to work in partnership with us to solve our shared housing shortage. I have heard the neighborhood voices that prioritize preservation over growth and their concerns about traffic, safety, parking, aesthetics, etc and I understand how hard it must be to have your way of life disrupted and challenged by the rapid pace of change. But if we’re to have any say in how this change happens, we have to work together in good faith to balance character & preservation with our need to create more homes.

Urban Service Boundary

Lexington’s historic and productive agricultural lands feel more pressure each year for development of all kinds. Why do you think it is important to protect our Rural Service Area, and what policies do you support (in addition to the PDR program, vital for conservation) or would you like to see implemented to continue safeguarding it?

• Answer:

I very much value the rural-urban balance of Lexington, and my record shows it. In 2023, when expansion was on the table, I advocated for no expansion before creating a process but was outvoted. Once the 2023 expansion was set in motion, I worked hard on the Urban Growth Management Advisory Committee and successfully kept the expansion to the smallest acreage possible. In 2025, working in partnership with Fayette Alliance and other key stakeholders, I led the way to develop and pass (unanimously through council) Lexington’s Preservation & Growth Management Program (LPGMP) – a game-changing new approach to how we address land use in Fayette County. Instead of arbitrarily and sporadically modifying our Urban Service Area (USA), LPGMP uses data to assess when, where, how, and IF we need to increase our USA, all while placing a greater emphasis on infill redevelopment. LPGMP codified and strengthened the concept of the USA. We all know that if we don’t want to grow OUT into our agricultural lands, we must grow UP and create more housing types and housing choices within our urban core. Our urban-rural balance is what makes Lexington unique among cities and that balance takes carefully crafted policies and strong leadership to maintain.