The Fayette Alliance Featured In Keeneland Magazine

Balancing Act: Fayette Alliance Seeks to Preserve Promote

By Jacaalyn Carfagno, Fall 2011, Posted with permission from Keeneland Magazine

To understand The Fayette Alliance and its land-use advocacy mission, you need to understand a little bit about Lexington and Fayette County, Ky.

In 1958 Lexington became the first city in the nation to initiate an urban service boundary, a line limiting where city services would be provided.

In 1974 the governments of Fayette County and Lexington combined to become the first merged city and county in Kentucky, taking on the jaw-breaking name of Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, or LFUCG.

The union of the sleepy but pleasant small university city and the surrounding farmland often reflected the awkwardness of the name. With plenty of space for each, the urban and rural worlds rarely intersected. The farmland offered a nice Sunday afternoon drive for city dwellers; the city provided a convenient if crowded service center for those who lived outside the boundary… Download a copy of the full article