At the Tuesday, September 7 General Government and Planning (GGP) Committee meeting, Long Range Planning Manager Hal Baillie will present the second draft of the Lexington Preservation and Growth Management Program (LPGMP). Once adopted, the LPGMP will establish a new process for how Council and the Planning Commission decide whether to expand the Urban Service Area (USA).
Historically, changes to the USA have been made simultaneously with the drafting of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, but there has never been a clear process guiding those decisions.
🙋♀️ What is the Urban Service Area?
The Urban Service Area (USA) is the part of Fayette County where almost all new building development occurs. Land inside the USA is eligible for city services like water and sewer, while land outside remains rural, natural, or agricultural. The boundary is set by city ordinance and historically reviewed during comprehensive planning.
The LPGMP aims to be a data-informed framework for growth decisions. It projects population, housing, and job growth over the next 20 years, while tracking how much land inside the USA is already developed.
Here is the proposed process that the second LPGMP lays out:
Step One: Growth Trend Report
The Planning Commission will receive a Growth Trend Report estimating Lexington’s residential growth needs for the next 20 years, including potential new acreage in the USA.
The report will focus only on housing demand (not commercial or industrial needs).
The Planning Commission will then recommend how to meet those needs, either through policy changes within the existing USA, adding new acreage, or both.
Even if no policy or USA changes are recommended, Council will still receive a report and review the data.
📈 How will the Growth Trend Report calculate how much land is needed for new housing?
The LPGMP second draft includes a three step formula for how needed residential acreage is calculated.
Step One: New Projected Population
Lexington's projected population in 20-years population will be subtracted by the current population to get the new population.
Or, projected 20-year population – current population = new population.
All population numbers will exclude people in group-living situations like official college dorms, senior nursing homes, and homeless shelters.
Step Two: New Housing Units
Lexington's projected new population will be divided by the current average household size to determine how many new housing units are needed in the next 20 years.
Or, new population ÷ average household size = number of new housing units needed.
Step Three: Acreage Need
The number of new housing units needed will be divided by the average housing density in Lexington over the past five years (calculated as housing-units per acre) to determine how many additional acres of land are needed for housing in Lexington.
Or, new housing units ÷ average housing density (past 5 years) = acres of land needed.
Step Two: Council Action
Council could accept, reject, or amend the Planning Commission’s recommendation.
Policy changes that don't require USA changes – like reforming Lexington’s zoning regulations – will follow the standard legislative process.
Council can decide that there is a need for additional acreage, even if the Planning Commission did not.
Council must consider policy changes for addressing the need within the existing USA before they can consider changes to the USA.
If Council decides to explore changing the USA, they will set a minimum amount of acreage to address the need.
There is a default maximum of acreage that can be added: the amount of acreage needed to address a 30-year need, as calculated by the Growth Trend Report formula.
Step Three: Reviewing Vacant Land in the USA
Before moving on to determine what areas to add to the USA, a 9-member Subcommittee (3 appointed each by the Planning Commission, Council, and Mayor) will review vacant land inside the USA.
The Subcommittee will review vacant land and recommend whether or not to remove the land from the USA. If they do, a public hearing would be held to hear community input on any proposed removal.
🌳 What counts as "vacant land"?
The Growth Trend Report will include a map of any vacant properties inside the existing USA. "Vacant land" is defined as:
Agricultural land inside the USA
Urban-zoned land with no active principal or conditional use.
No one lives on the property if it has a building permit.
This means that some land that some residents and organizations argue is "vacant" or "underused" - such as surface parking lots and sports fields - would not be counted in the Report as vacant, so long as those uses are allowed in the zone.
The Growth Report would not calculate greenways, common areas for subdivsions, or agriculturally zoned land with a use like a school or church as vacant land. Vacant acreage calculated by the LPGMP would also not include any unbuildable areas like floodplains or other hazardous spots.
The Planning Commission will vote to approve or reject the Subcommittee's recommendations.
The amount of acres removed from the USA, if any, will be added to the specified number of acres that the Planning Commission and/or Council originally voted to pursue.
Imagine that in steps 1 and 2 of this process, the Planning Commission and Council agreed to add 4,000 acres to the USA.
Then in step 3, the Planning Commission voted to remove 1,000 acres from the current USA.
After the vote to remove acreage, Planning Commission and Council would then proceed to add 5,000 to the USA to adjust for the removal of 1,000 acres.
After deciding whether or not to remove acreage from the existing USA, Planning Commission will open a 60-day window to hear proposals for what land should be added to the USA.
Step Four: Expansion Proposals
After deciding whether or not to remove acreage from the existing USA, Planning Commission will open a 60-day window to hear proposals from property owners who want to have their land added to the USA.
Eligible land must be adjacent to the USA and able to connect to stormwater/sewer.
The same Subcommittee that reviewed vacant land will evaluate expansion proposals and make recommendations to the full Planning Commission on what areas to add.
The recommendations will be prioritized based on the Subcommittee's preference for each application.
The Planning Commission will then vote on these recommendations.
Step Five: Master Planning
Once expansion areas are determined, Council will allocate money for Master Plans to be created for the new expansion areas.
Once the Master Plan is complete, the Planning Commission would vote to approve it as an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan.
Special Economic Development Need proposals
The LPGMP also allows proposals from property owners at any time to be added to the USA – but only for economic development projects, not residential developments.
Proposals must include a development plan, data showing a unique employment benefit, and proof of infrastructure access.
Proposals can be no larger than 250 acres.
It would be up to the Mayor to the Council to decide what proposals will be brought up for discussion and action by Council.
A minimum of 10 Councilmembers must vote to initiate a zone change to move forward with any proposal.
After a 10-member vote of approval from Council, the Planning Commission will have 90 days to review the proposal as a zone change request.
The process will be similar to most zone changes where the Planning Commission votes to approve or reject the proposal, and then the Council will have a final say on whether or not the request is approved.
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Watch the meeting: The General Government and Planning Committee will meet on September 9th at 1:30pm in Council Chambers. You can attend in-person or watch live on LexTV.
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How can you get involved? You can share you thoughts on the second draft of the LPGMP at the public forum on September 16th at 6pm in Council Chambers!
