Candidate Questionnaire, Griffin VanMeter

By Fayette Alliance / October 8, 2026 / Education

Griffin VanMeter

Table of Contents

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:

As a candidate with affordable housing experience, I’ve seen firsthand the neighborhood and individual benefits of homeownership and stable rental housing. Lexington wants and needs progress on housing. Let’s think big, adopt successful methods from our peer cities, and deliver. According to local affordable housing providers, construction costs have risen dramatically and need has increased, while subsidies have remained flat and become more competitive. Pre-2020, the average subsidy per unit was around $15,000. Depending on the scale of the project, affordable housing providers now need to spend an average of $25,000 to $50,000 per unit to build. We must increase the subsidy to close this gap and spur production. I support increased funding for Lexington’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund and believe that Lexington should thoroughly investigate tools such as larger revolving loan models and other strategies that cities have used to make affordable housing developments more financially viable to build. We also need to better understand what is holding back the production of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), whether it is permitting, financing gaps, or cultural adoption. Solutions such as pre-approved ADU plans and subsidies, which have been successfully implemented in cities like Seattle and San Jose, can help while supporting important goals like aging in place. There are tremendous benefits in this gentle density approach.

I have been involved with Fayette Alliance since its founding over 20 years ago, as a longtime supporter and former board member from 2011 to 2017. I share Fayette Alliance’s view and actively practice the principle that Lexington should build up, not out. This means using the research and policy tools already in place to identify opportunities for thoughtful infill, including underutilized commercial corridors, transit-oriented development, ADUs, and surface parking lots as well as upzoning, our new B-6, Corridor Node, and parking reform. This type of infill is about creating housing supply while preserving our signature industry’s vital land.

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:

Every day, other neighborhood parents and I bike our kids to school in the Ashland Walk n Roll bike bus. My life happens downtown and in the neighborhoods around the Third District, in Woodland Park, and on UK’s campus, where I’m completing my master’s in Public Administration with a graduate certificate in Urban & Environmental Design. I can walk to the Disco Kroger on Euclid. My friends and everything I need are close by. I’m living the 15-minute city, and the quality of life it creates is real. I feel so connected to Lexington, and that’s why I’m running for council, because that connection to place is what every Lexington resident deserves.

Smart growth, planning, and good design can create that same connected experience in more neighborhoods across Lexington. The key factor in considering boundary expansion is whether we have fully utilized the land within the current boundary. We have not. The Preservation and Growth Management Program explicitly sets this standard: an expansion should be triggered only if Lexington is failing to meet growth needs due to a lack of available land. I support infill development. Sprawl costs more to build and maintain, all at the expense of our existing neighborhoods, and further compromises the quality of life a walkable 15-minute city can create.

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:

Lexington’s farmland generates $2.6 billion in annual economic activity, helps attract an additional $1.7 billion in visitor spending, and draws permanent residents from around the world. The stability of a vertically integrated signature industry anchored by a major land-grant university is a genuine competitive advantage for our region. In 2024, I co-led the Yes For Parks campaign to create a dedicated capital fund for our public parks, including rural parks. I support building a regional trail network that connects residents to this landscape daily, because people protect what they know and love. I support Horse Country. The PDR program has permanently preserved 304 farms and 33,332 acres, reaching 66% of its 50,000-acre goal. In doing so, PDR has helped protect 16,000 jobs in our community. The most powerful farmland protection policy we can enact is also the simplest: reduce market pressure on the rural landscape by concentrating growth through smart infill development on existing infrastructure.

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 took part in the Fayette Alliance and Living Streets Lexington Transit Academy this past year, which explored how land use and transit—especially housing and transit—depend on each other. As a primary bike commuter, a bike bus organizer, and a member of Lexington’s Safe Routes to School Coalition, I see the value of multimodal transportation and transit freedom firsthand. We can’t have quality housing development without quality transit, and both are tied to our city’s economic viability and livability. That’s why I support the principles behind the city’s own TOD guidance: more density and mixed uses along major corridors, connected by safe walking and biking routes to reliable transit. I’m encouraged that Lexington is advancing bus rapid transit on Nicholasville Road and has eliminated parking minimums to spur development that isn’t auto-focused. Investing in public transit is investing in transit freedom. To improve our transit system, we need to start with frequency: more buses coming more often, especially on our major routes. We also need to solve the last mile. Nearly every transit trip starts and ends with walking or a bike ride to the bus, yet Lexington has too many missing sidewalks, unshaded sidewalks, and unsheltered bus stops, and we should prioritize fixing them with equity in mind. I would prioritize that investment. Transit dollars deliver strong returns and help everyone, since fewer drivers on the road makes driving more efficient and safer too. We all need to remember that over 30% of our population doesn’t drive, which makes the majority of Lexington inaccessible to them.

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:

I’ve lived downtown or within a mile of it my whole adult life, and I want to see it thrive. Today, over 30% of our downtown is parking, and it’s largely a pass-through unless a special event is happening. I support the plan’s call for roughly 2,500 new housing units at a range of price points, because more people living downtown brings more services, more vitality, and a 24-hour economy. I’d prioritize identifying surface parking lots for housing, starting with the Mill and Short catalyst site, aligning zoning with residential feasibility, and using Industrial Revenue Bonds for workforce and affordable housing. To deliver all of this, my top priority is reforming a dedicated implementation entity to fill the gap left when the Downtown Development Authority ceased operation in 2020. That entity needs what the DDA lacked: a dedicated funding source, real authority, and a clear mandate. Implementation also has to be people-centered, not developer-centered. I’d prioritize launching a citywide affordable housing and anti-displacement strategy, so existing neighbors have a sense of belonging and can participate in and benefit from new investment. Downtown has to be accessible to everyone, which means wider, more accessible sidewalks, safer crossings, and traffic calming on High, Maxwell, North Limestone, Midland, and Jefferson. Town Branch Trail, Gatton Park, Phoenix Park, Charles Young Park, and the Met show what’s possible, with the Met 2 now in planning. We should build on them with better trail connections, a stronger campus-to-downtown link, and by keeping the YMCA downtown. I’m grateful for what tourism brings, and I want a local economy that doesn’t depend on tourism and events alone. I’d work with the Lexington Retailers Association and other downtown associations to put the plan’s small business recommendations into practice, including affordable space, technical assistance, and access to capital for independent merchants and diverse entrepreneurs.

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:

Lexington should extend the moratorium. I’m concerned about the current proposal to allow data centers of up to 25 megawatts, and it isn’t yet clear to me what advantages they would bring our community. Some communities are seeing new revenue from property taxes and taxes on the hardware itself, but that potential revenue has to be weighed carefully against the costs. Before we lift the moratorium, we should make sure any data center allowed here does no harm. That means mitigating every externality these facilities can produce, including energy demand, water use, noise, and impacts on nearby neighborhoods. Some best practices elsewhere include protecting ratepayers from grid costs, requiring public hearings rather than by-right approval, avoiding long-term tax breaks, and making community benefits binding.

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 support restoring federal incentives for solar projects. This past spring I was in Paris studying climate resilience policies. France requires larger new commercial buildings to cover 30% of their roofs with solar panels or vegetation, and I want to explore similar requirements here. I’d also incentivize solar on brownfields, parking lots, and schools, which have large footprints and high energy use. Energy use accounts for almost 70% of Lexington’s community-wide emissions, according to the city’s 2021 greenhouse gas inventory, so making our buildings more efficient and powering them with renewables is the best way to lower both our emissions and our energy demand. We can reduce emissions further by shifting to transportation that doesn’t rely on combustion engines and by increasing our tree canopy. Farmland is our best opportunity for the original form of solar energy: photosynthesis, which turns sunlight into the food we grow. It isn’t the place for industrial solar. We have better opportunities to bring renewable energy into the county than building on irreplaceable soils.

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:

UK is the largest employer in Fayette County, and the city and the university need each other. I see both sides of this. I live in a neighborhood that feels this tension, and as a UK Master of Public Administration student, I value being able to walk or bike to campus. The gold rush private student housing boom is adding density, but too often at the cost of displacement, affordable market-rate rentals, and historic properties that are impossible to replace. There needs to be mitigation. I’ve always lived in Lexington’s historic neighborhoods, and I’m glad they weren’t razed. Aylesford has borne the brunt of this pressure, and no single neighborhood should have to absorb all of the change. When new projects do come, neighbors should share in the benefits, as Pralltown did when it secured a $3 million commitment for a community benefit agreement. We also need to address unmanaged extractive student rentals that have deteriorated neighborhoods and placed a heavy burden on longtime residents. The biggest opportunity is UK’s own land. UK generally aims to house only about 25% of its students on campus, even as more students want to live there. I’d ask UK to raise that share so enrollment growth doesn’t keep landing on surrounding neighborhoods. The area around Kroger Field, along with Greg Page and Shawneetown, already covers about 160 acres served by transit and close to major job centers. UK could redevelop it into mixed-use housing of all types— not just for students, but for faculty, staff, and workforce households who want to live close to campus. Other universities show what a strong town-gown partnership can do. Duke has committed more than $22 million to affordable housing and homeownership in Durham, Harvard’s $20 million loan fund has helped create or preserve more than 7,000 affordable units, and Ohio State has rehabbed distressed homes near campus and offered employees no-interest loans to buy nearby. Lexington should work with UK on a shared housing strategy, so UK remains a place students want to attend, and staff want to live near, and existing residents can still afford to stay.

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:

Growing up between my dad’s farm on Briar Hill Road and my mom’s rural houses in Winchester and Sadieville, I developed a deep, personal understanding of what this landscape and its economy mean. My first job was weed-eating what seemed like never-ending fence rows and mucking horse stalls. In addition to operating a horse nursery, my dad was a practicing equine vet. I vividly remember going on rounds with him, traveling in an old Volvo station wagon weighted down by a wooden vet cabinet full of medical supplies. Being picked up after school generally meant going to the Keeneland barns first, or stopping at the equine labs on North Limestone and at UK’s Coldstream Campus. That world shaped how I see Lexington; protecting it is personal to me, and the data agrees it’s worth protecting. Lexington’s farmland generates $2.6 billion in annual economic activity, helps attract an additional $1.7 billion in visitor spending, and draws permanent residents from around the world. The stability of a vertically integrated signature industry anchored by a major land-grant university is a genuine competitive advantage for our region. In 2024, I co-led the Yes For Parks campaign to create a dedicated capital fund for our public parks, including rural parks. I support building a regional trail network that connects residents to this landscape daily, because people protect what they know and love. I support Horse Country. The PDR program has permanently preserved 304 farms and 33,332 acres, reaching 66% of its 50,000-acre goal. In doing so, PDR has helped protect 16,000 jobs in our community. The most powerful farmland protection policy we can enact is also the simplest: reduce market pressure on the rural landscape by concentrating growth through smart infill development on existing infrastructure.