Lexington Mayor Gorton won’t sign legislation to expand growth boundary. What it means

Mayor Linda Gorton will not sign key legislation that calls for adding up to 5,000 acres to the city’s growth boundary.

Gorton’s failure to sign a resolution approving the 2045 Comprehensive Plan Goals and Objectives is largely symbolic. It is not a veto.

The 2045 Comprehensive Plan, which includes a directive for the Urban County Planning Commission to identify between 2,700 and 5,000 acres to be added to the city’s growth boundary, will still take effect.

In a June 22 letter to Lexington council members, Gorton said she felt the city should follow previous studies before adding land to the boundary. The city has not opened its growth boundary since 1996.

“I understand our boundary will change; however a data-driven expansion, based on the recommendations presented by the Sustainable Growth Task Force, as well as some of the underlying mechanisms of the Goal 4 Group, is imperative to knowing exactly when and how much to grow,” Gorton said.

The Sustainable Growth Task Force oversaw the creation of a matrix that would determine when the city needed more land for business or housing. The Goal 4 Work Group identified more than 27,000 acres for potential development and preserved more than 93,000 agricultural acres.

The Goal 4 Work Group also recommended a process for determining when land can be added to the growth boundary.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council first voted June 1 to expand the growth boundary. Those who advocated for a boundary expansion argued too many people were being priced out of housing in Kentucky’s second-largest city.

However, the council’s first draft of the plan did not have a mechanism for affordable housing to be built in the expansion area. Gorton urged the council to fix it before its final June 15 vote.

The council amended the goals and objectives June 13 after Gorton’s plea. Those changes included encouraging the planning commission to emphasize all types of housing, including affordable housing, in an expansion area master plan. That master plan must be completed by Dec. 1, 2024.

The council ultimately voted 13 to 2 to approve the amended 2045 Comprehensive Plan. The two council members who voted against were Hannah LeGris and Kathy Plomin.

Both said more planning needed to be done before deciding whether and where to expand the boundary, among other concerns.

Gorton said she watched hours of council debate on the comprehensive plan.

“It was obvious you cared very much about the importance of this effort to the future of our community, and you acted deliberately to address some of Lexington’s greatest concerns,” Gorton said. “In the end, the vast majority of you voted to support the revised (goals and objectives).”

Gorton said careful planning and the urban service boundary has served Fayette County well for decades.

“Lexington’s decades-old Urban Service Boundary has served us well, preventing expensive sprawl and supporting intentional, planned development,” Gorton wrote.

Gorton is believed to the first mayor in recent decades to not sign the resolution approving the comprehensive plan.