2024 Public Statement
Fayette Alliance Continues to Stand With the People of Lexington, and We Always Will
Since our founding, Fayette Alliance has transparently sought data-driven solutions to Fayette County’s growth challenges that benefit every Lexingtonian. We have conducted surveys, commissioned studies and recommendations on infill and redevelopment, hosted community forums, and sought out national and local experts to inform our work to grow a thriving city responsibly, sustainably, and equitably, and to promote the farmland on which our identity and economy depend.
At every step, we have based our advocacy for responsible growth policies on the wishes of the people of Lexington-Fayette County and local and national research. Our board members have included founders and community leaders in urban planning, affordable housing, economic development, real estate, commercial and residential development, agriculture, neighborhoods, and equine industries. They have championed and led affordable housing developments, economic development projects, investments in major infrastructure, transformational quality of life initiatives, and farmland preservation, and used their knowledge to inform our advocacy, education, and research.
While growth issues can be controversial, our advocacy around them has been steadfast, professional, and responsible. To simplify these complicated issues and characterize them as horse farmers against change and growth is a disservice to the make-up and longstanding work of Fayette Alliance, its leaders, members, and to the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of the community. Further, it shows a lack of willingness to look beyond surface-level assumptions and false narratives and into the work done on the ground at city hall and the research behind it.
While expansion of the USB is a contentious issue, all of our positions on responsible growth have been thorough, transparent and consistent.
- To address the continued challenges of growth, we have provided detailed solutions, extensive policy recommendations on infill and redevelopment, housing market analyses, economic studies, and offered feedback on a process for growth decisions and the research needed to inform them, much of which was similar but had key differences to the work done by the Goal 4 Workgroup in 2022.
- To educate our community on these important issues and encourage broad and diverse dialogue, we have held our signature educational program, Citizens’ Planning Academy – now Grow Smart Academy – for the last 15 years. We have hosted national and local experts on subjects ranging from affordable housing to economic development, agriculture to transportation, redevelopment to sustainability.
- When local and national research showed that expanded suburban development did not reduce the cost of housing, we communicated that data to our decision-makers.
- When data from the city-wide community forum On The Table and a 2023 Matrix Group Resident Opinion Survey showed overwhelming support for the Urban Service Boundary and the preference to build new housing inside it, we advocated with Councilmembers against expansion.
When expansion was mandated and we believed the decision-making process was unlawful, we addressed that issue in the only venue we were able to: the courtroom. As more research came out to demonstrate to the community the realities of expansion – its cost and lack of requirements for affordable housing – we communicated those concerns to the public and expressed them in public forums.
Our positions on these issues have never wavered. They have been supported by research, public opinion, advocacy for best practices and policies that have proven to impact housing challenges, and included numerous proposals for local solutions. Unlike other purported advocacy groups around growth, the hundreds of community and financial supporters of our efforts have never been hidden. They have been available on our website, in our research papers, and in our annual reports. We have questioned decisions made on these issues because they matter deeply to Fayette Alliance, and most importantly, they matter to the people of Lexington-Fayette County.
Questioning major policy decisions, the way they are made, and the public reasoning behind them are not personal attacks, nor meant to be, on the elected officials who make them. Being able to challenge policy decisions, and requesting accountability on the priorities and statements made by elected officials on important topics, are vital parts of local government and what Lexington community members deserve.
Fayette Alliance will continue to stand for good policy, based on research and created through responsible and data-driven processes. We will never waiver from our commitments to growing a thriving city and promoting the farms that surround it. We will never stop fighting for a seat at the table to make policy on these issues. We ask our elected officials to remain open to listening to the data-driven positions of Fayette Alliance, the positions of our community members and commit to working together for a better Lexington for all. We commit to continuing to do so in good faith, as we always have, and always will.
Fayette Alliance Board of Directors:
Ann Bakhaus
James Bell
Elisa Bruce Cooley
Kip Cornett
Melody Flowers
Greg Goodman
Stan Harvey
Matt Hovekamp
Orrin Ingram
Mary Catherine Jones
Bill Justice
Sue Masson
Chauncey Morris
Tom Poskin
Don Robinson
Ken Silvestri
Anthony Wright