Candidate Questionnaire, Jon Larson

Jon Larson

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:

Unfortunately infill does not adequately answer our needs. My continuing involvement in many groups, advocating for increased housing opportunities, has indicated that a very high percentage of open areas within the Urban Service Area has been pre-empted by private investors & developers. It has been said we are currently short of 20,000 housing units. Of course, we could tear down many run-down & low income older areas and give in to “gentrification,” but that inevitably leads to some eventual destruction of traditional neighborhoods and poorer residents displaced with more wealthy occupants and likely increased homelessness [Several recent student apartments let us have made us aware of iconic neighborhood concerns such as what faced Prallyown.]Air B&B’s take away from housing stocks available to longer term residents.

So, for 19 years I have been in favor of concentrating new development (and zoning changes, if necessary) in the most logical area for expansion-toward Winchester, along the US60/I75 corridor [while preserving the traditional AfricanAmerican settlement at Utteringtown]. Businesses & developers should love this area because of its easy access to regional & interstate transportation [Note Bill Lear’s suggestion that we move our expansion limited Bluegrass airport to an interstate location].

Increased inventories of housing will inevitably reduce market prices for new owners & renters. Yes, regional ideas must be at the core of our future (50 year planning). [My Masters’ Thesis at George Washington University was about “regional” business.]
Along the way, there are many market based strategies to assist in easing our increasing housing crunch. Elderly developments, comprehensive housing/commercial developments, increased community loans, shared housing & commercial projects. Increased accommodations for our homeless persons, families & students is an our local imperative. But all will need a vast improvement in our mass transportation system.

When I was on the Greenspace Commission in the late 1990s, the city hired specialist, Charlie Siemon, for $250,000. His proposal suggested that future developers pay fairly large amounts to the city as impact/infill costs to pay for fire, police, roads, utilities & other infrastructure programs in their developments. I have since come to believe these funds could be applied to pay for lower income (and homelessness) assistance, but, it seems the city is currently in the process of totally removing these impact fees from imposing on developers [contributors to Council & Mayoral campaigns?].

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:

Again [see above my continuing emphasis on “Regional Planning.”]
The city of Lexington [and Fayette County which merged in 1974] has been extremely myopic and acting superior to the ideas & interests of the surrounding counties, since our then relatively novel “Urban Service” was formed in 1954.
At this moment in time, to continue to spend our efforts formulating zoning plans for only the boundaries of Fayette County seems foolhardy. To the extent possible, we should incorporate joint plans with our neighbors to preserve and protect valuable farmland and soils. [Note that the soil quality in the US60/I64 corridor discussed above seems to be of somewhat lesser soil quality, but that is for agronomists to calculate.]

What I have heard from city planners & others over the years is that local planning & zoning commissions in other counties are like little fiefdoms and would fight us every inch. My many years working with county judges, magistrates & commissioners [12 years on the MP- environmental & other federally funded projects in 15 surrounding counties-and other programs, such as the currently dormant Nicholasville Bypass/I75 Connector Road plan] puts a lie to that assumption. We are all together in a greater Lexington-the truckers used to call it “Metro City.” When our neighbors are lifted up, in general, so are we, and visa versa. Consider the fact that Fayette County did not have the usable open acreage for the Toyota plant, so they located both of Georgetown in Scott County, and that success continues to reverberate in our community.

I have given speeches in other nearby cities, advocating for “Charter” governments, an old law, which allows counties & cities to combine departments and county offices between and shared by several/many counties, perhaps regional jails.
If elected, I would love to devote my efforts to maintaining the hundreds/thousands of connections I have in counties outside Fayette and make new shared productive friendships.

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:

I have been emphasizing the reality that we have something really special here. Almost no one comes to see our [beautiful???] downtown. When out-of-town guests visit me, I cannot wait to show them the picturesque, iconic horse farms for which we are famous. As a sports team organizer and coach, I love parks, but our parks will take many, many years of development to compete with the larger planned [Olmstead] parks in Louisville and Washington, DC, maybe never. So let us joyfully appreciate what we have and work extremely hard to make sure this wonderful legacy continues.

Yes , we have just begun to realize the value of our Kentucky River Basin [again Fayette County is behind Jessamine & Franklin Counties in developing these treasures].

I wince with pain when every inch of our horse farm heritage is turned over to development-even though I understand that property owners have rights. This is why our Greenspace Commission & others worked so hard to begin our Purchase of Development program. Perhaps I have forgotten to mention that we ought to be more concerned as a city with our transient “backside” workers at Keeneland and other equine facilities. This will necessarily involve considerate dealings with all immigrants (especially those in families of the undocumented, whose breadwinners & their children must constantly fear deportations].

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:

Like a majority of Lexington citizens, I have little reliable access to public transportation. [I have tried: Waiting 45+ minutes in the rain, ice and snow with a young child, when I had car breakdowns.] And my discussions with downtown workers and university students leads me to the serious conclusions that our city’s transportation system is terribly inadequate and is getting worse.

One possible answer is to adopt regional land use policies together with other governments and officials in our metropolitan area. I believe there is only one way to save our rich equine heritage, and that is to restrict growth to a single corridor toward I64 going east [see my answer to Question #6 below]. We have thoroughfares which can be oriented with public transit features. And, despite what some believe, my dealings as your Judge Executive has proved to me that surrounding counties, their officials and regional organizations seem eager to work with us for mutual benefit. Intercounty transportation has worked in the past and can be utilized tomorrow.

Years ago, the MPO discussed a bus route to Jessamine County, which becomes a more likely goal, as that county develops the Brannon Crossing area. I recall a consultant advise the ADD that to make such route financially feasible would involve reorienting buses toward a different kind of Lextran customer-business commuters and mall shoppers. The consultant emphasized that we should have buses equipped with wi-fi and attractive, comfortable seating, and he was disgusted by our painted buses with law firm and other advertising, which denigrates their appearance and may give a suggestion that such buses are not safe and inviting.
Since our community did not make a serious pitch for federal rail and subway fundings which were available perhaps 5 years ago, perhaps we should think bigger in the future to see if we can qualify for such in the next round of funding. Of course, bonding might be available, with LFUCG’s credit not downgraded like FCPS.

Our recent Downtown Area Master Plan will need to be augmented by safe pedestrian crossings, bicycle lanes, as well as implementing new bus stops and street parking changes, if the influx of new UK student housing goes as planned.
It seems that Lextran has been negligent in planning since I observed poor, elderly and disabled bus riders standing, with no overhead cover, in cold & wet conditions outside, while many months were spent on renovating the downtown terminal. These unfortunates deserved better consideration in other categories of land use planning.

Smaller, more individualized public routes and vehicles have been promoted by Project Build, and these might reduce the frustrating clogging up of our primary roadways.

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: 

Since the Downtown Area Master Plan is not intended to rezone properties, the most laudable of the 7 goals of that Plan seems to be 1) providing more affordable housing [especially for downtown workers], 2) promoting walkable retail and 3) encouraging cultural vibrancy.

In Zone B-2B (and to a lesser degree Zone 2A) responsible landlords should be rewarded for maintaining loveable, attractive low rent apartments and rooms from which workers and creative souls could feel connected to business employers. As the 4,6 & 10 story student housing buildings are being constructed on the South Hill adjacent to the UK campus, and the victims of gentrifications are adding to our housing & homeless population, we should encourage those landlords who overcome the easy negligent maintenance of their properties, awaiting [primarily out-of-town] investors seeking to gobble up some of our beautiful and historic structures.
Out-of-sight garbage collection, flower & shrubbery plantings, clean air quality, buried utilities underground, gun violence prevention/apartment security, fresh repainting & other appealing exterior features, and maybe even anti-displacements could be promoted.

I have attended meetings of the downtown retail association, and what they are encouraging is an increase in ownership investment funds, security and walkability. For them, reconverting Main and Vine to two-way streets would be attracting downtown shoppers. Plans for a downtown grocery & pharmacy would make life more convenient for inner city dwellers. Parking availability, especially when & where free, can lure future shoppers.

So many features can be added to our downtown to make it more attractive & inviting: Unusual architecture, trees galore, public monuments, plazas, colorfulness, art, music, carriage rides, fountains and larger water features. Maybe a unique outdoor basketball tournament court, regular horse patrols and a high visibility public protest assembly area.

We have long ignored our local history in the heart of downtown [evicting our County History Museum from the Old Courthouse after if got $22M in historic tax money]. We do have our share of famous and interesting characters (e.g.Henry Faulkner, Belle Breezing, Sweet Evening Breeze, Gatewood Galbraith), and we have a Revolutionary and Civil War and other history comparable to folks in Bardstown, Richmond & Frankfort, who more elaborately present their stories. We have a dearth of downtown public monuments & sculptures. I once testified we should erect a monument to the “badass” abolitionist, Cassius Clay, and bring back the statue of US Vice President, John Breckinridge (on its pedestal).

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: 

Eventually we should decide on realistic guardrails governing Data Centers. Failure to adapt to this rapidly changing world may have serious consequences.

I hope, like the Mayor’s veto on Solar Panels, we will ban all/most Data Centers on agricultural lands, especially our equine
oriented lands.

With increased demand for AI, cloud service and crypto applications, our country is awash in proposals for new & increased energy production investments. Yet, at many of these community meetings I have attended on the subject, many of our citizens fear environmental and economic impacts, exhorting permanent bans. Loud noises, water & energy consumptions are problem. Then, there are economic concerns that ratepayers will be stuck with increased utility bills, that some data centers will get undeserved taxpayer funded incentives and discourage investments in clean energy initiatives. Ultimately data centers will be de-assembled, and their long-term effects on the environment will be revealed.

I expect Council to approve some regulations, with caveats: No large scale Centers like in process in Paducah; buffer zones & noise limits; recycling of water; perhaps wit some bonding, like required for strip mining. I expect there will be no tax incentives here, preventing unjust enrichment.

The best site locations for data centers are former junkyards, abandoned malls and large parking lots-not horse farms.

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:

As former chair of our Environmental Commission, I urge citizens to find their own renewal energy uses in their homes and businesses. Federal rooftop solar panel incentives have mostly ended, but other measures are available now: Recycling garbage, tree plantings, discontinued use of “ forever” plastics, mulching yard clippings and home thermometer levels kept low-as well as encouragements for electric/hybrid cars & trucks.

Personally, I am concerned about the increased vulnerability of our community to the effects of climate change, including future storms, toxic chemical spills, hurricanes, tornadoes and even earthquakes [Note that much of Fayette County is on the New Madrid fault, which some say is overdue for great structural failures]. Emergency planning should be continuously discussed at Council level, with infrastructure expenditures more important than payoffs to friends & contributors.

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:

The character of our beautiful, historic South Hill neighborhood, just north of UK, is being radically transformed into ugly 4,6 & 10 story boxey student housing structures, developed by non-Lexington residents. At the same time, the University has been untethered to the city in the “Town & Gown” Commission.

Almost no concern is given the displaced downtown workers whose low rent rooms and apartments are being demolished. I have seen no plans to determine an expected number of non-Lexington students UK may admit in the future, other than a guess of 40,000. One professor tells me that due to declining birth rates, there will be a “demographic cliff.” Maybe we are facing a future of high rise slums of little public use.

Today we are approaching a crisis of transportation and parking in this area There probably will not be a complete revolution of students into bicycling usage, and UK is becoming too vast for walkers. The few planned parking spaces in these student apartments will not be enough, and traffic blocking lanes of visitors & door dashers will occur. Student busing also creates its own traffic problems, and we will need a great deal of planning, which developers will not address. Those of us who drive the High and Maxwell corridors will be annoyed by the traffic & parking delays.

UK should be tasked with joining our city, not only in housing, transportation and parking problems. They need to join in emergency/environmental plans, and consider some reductions in registrations (perhaps emphasizing graduate, rather than undergraduate programs) when housing problems occur.

Even without UK’s cooperation, we must discuss plans for commercial (groceries, pharmaceuticals, etc.), affordable housing and protection of our historic heritage in this area.

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:

There will be no horse farms left here if we keep expanding our Urban Service Area in every direction. That sends a message to each equine business that we are going to eventually let developers take properties in all directions, and they should make plans to ultimately sell out everywhere to investors. There is one way out of this “popcorn development”-designate only one direction for future expansion and stick with it.

As I have been saying for 16 years, there is one obvious direction for all future development: along the US60/I64 corridor. There are few, if any horse farms in that direction, and presumably, the soils are not as deep/rich as in other areas. Commercial and industrial developments are already going that way (e.g. Baptist Hospital, Kroger) . Bill Lear once logically suggested that we move our non-international Bluegrass Airport near the interstates, so could have longer runways. Big industrial developments have gone elsewhere because we have not made such a commitment to an area with room to develop. Truckers and commuters are already stymied by our lack of access to interstates in south Lexington.

I suggest it would have a great ring to hear our city has a “horseshoe,” protecting us from future equine losses.
Along the way, we need to join with our regional partners in such plans. Some suggest strong opposition in other counties. I respond that the many county officials I have known as Judge Executive: members of the MPO, Bluegrass Area Administrative District, Bluegrass Tomorrow and supporting state officials have all seen the great advantages to working and planning cooperatively.

This will require long term investments in water & waste removal infrastructures, which may take 10 or more years to complete in this direction (discouraging developments in other directions where infrastructures are sooner or already available).
No one comes to Lexington to see our beautiful downtown; we bring our visitors to see our “Horse Country.” Let’s save it.