Get Involved: Goals and Objectives of The 2045 Comprehensive Plan:
Read Our 2045 Goals & Objectives Position Statement
Overview:
During a public hearing on February 16, smart growth advocates and civically engaged citizens spoke to the planning commission at City Hall — specifically endorsing Fayette Alliance’s recommendations related to Theme E, Goals 3 and 4.
Since that public hearing, the Goals & Objectives of Lexington’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan were revised to reflect community members’ input and have officially been adopted by the Planning Commission and will now move on for Council consideration.
The advocacy efforts of Fayette Alliance and engaged citizens ultimately made a huge difference in the adoption of the Goals and Objectives, but our work isn’t done yet. Now, our advocacy efforts must be directed towards ensuring Lexington’s Council members know that the Lexington community supports the current draft, and that to ensure responsible growth, it is key they adopt Theme E of the Goals and Objectives in its entirety.
Theme E of the Goals and Objectives:
Read the full draft here. Below, we’ve highlighted theme E because it involves the most controversial aspects of growth, including the Urban Services Boundary.
Theme E – Maintaining a Balance between Planning for Urban Uses and Safeguarding Rural Land
Goal 1: Uphold the Urban Service Area concept.
Objectives:
a. Continue to monitor the absorption of vacant and underutilized land within the Urban Service Area.
b. Ensure all types of development are environmentally, economically, equitably, and socially sustainable to accommodate the future growth needs of all residents while safeguarding rural land.
c. Emphasize redevelopment of underutilized corridors.
d. Maximize development on vacant land within the Urban Service Area and promote redevelopment of underutilized land in a manner that enhances existing urban form and/or historic features.
e. Pursue strategies to activate large undeveloped landholdings within the Urban Service Area.
Goal 2: Support the agricultural economy, horse farms, general agricultural farms, local food production, ag-tech, and the rural character of the Rural Service Area.
Objectives:
a. Protect and enhance the natural, cultural, historic, and environmental resources of Lexington-Fayette County’s Rural Service Area and Bluegrass farmland to help promote the general agricultural brand and ensure Lexington-Fayette County remains the Horse Capital of the World.
b. Support the Purchase of Development Rights and private sector farmland conservation programs to protect, preserve, and enhance our signature agricultural industries, historic structures, cultural landscapes, natural environments, and community welfare.
Goal 3: Maintain the current boundaries of the Urban Service Area and Rural Activity Centers, and create no new Rural Activity Centers. Future decisions concerning the boundaries of the Urban Service Area and Rural Activity Centers, as well as the creation of new Rural Activity Centers, will be determined by the implementation of the process created pursuant to Goal 4.
Goal 4: Protect Lexington’s invaluable rural resources and inform long‐range planning by building on the work of the Sustainable Growth Task Force and the Goal 4 Workgroup to create a data‐driven process for determining long‐term land use decisions involving the boundaries of the Urban Service Area and Rural Activity Centers.
- Ensure this process preserves the Urban Service Area concept, even if the boundary of the Urban Service Area is altered.
- Create a process that is informed by robust public and stakeholder engagement and is built upon a thorough research‐based foundation.
- Make certain this new process informs long‐range planning for infrastructure, community facilities, and economic development while protecting Lexington’s invaluable rural resources and continuing to focus on infill, redevelopment, and land use efficiency as the continued primary objectives.
- Ensure outcomes of this process are fiscally sustainable, equitable, environmentally focused, multimodal, agriculturally supportive, and economically forward.
- Adopt the process as an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan.
How You Can Help:
If you agree with the Goals and Objectives, please write to your Council member letting them know you support the Planning Commission’s revised draft of the Goals and Objectives and believe that Theme E should be adopted in its entirety. Below, we have included the contact information for all Council members, as well as a suggested email template that you can use when writing.
Email Template:
We recommend emailing your councilmember and the Councilmembers-At-Large, who represent the entire community. This way, your voice is heard at every level of local government.
Subject: Support and Recommendations for 2045 G&O Draft
Copy:
Dear Councilmember,
My name is _________, and I live at (address).
The 2045 Draft G&O lay out a vision that is innovative, responsible, sustainable, and achievable, and we applaud the Planning Staff’s and Planning Commission’s efforts. Incorporating equity directly into our growth and development plans is crucial and necessary, directing development inside the current USB is fiscally and environmentally responsible, and a focus on innovative transportation, walkability, and infrastructure investments is key to meeting our community’s needs.
The Draft also makes recommendations to build on work done since the 2018 Plan to create a new process for making long-term land-use decisions involving the USB. A strategic and objective way to evaluate the USB can serve our community, but only if the development of that process, and the process itself, includes robust public engagement, identifies diverse and representative stakeholders, and includes widely agreed upon objective data points.
To ensure Lexington-Fayette County continues to grow in a sustainable way, and that a responsible, research-driven, and objective process for future growth is created with community engagement and buy-in, please vote to adopt the 2045 Goals & Objectives draft as recommended by the Planning Commission.
Thank you for your consideration.
Disclaimer: Our email template is suggested copy. You are encouraged to use our copy as a guide while writing to your council member in your own voice.