LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Will the expansion of the urban service boundary create affordable housing? Not necessarily, but council members hope it will make housing more affordable in the city.
Confusing? Let us explain.
Lexington city council members voted Thursday to move forward with a controversial plan that would expand the city’s urban service boundary for the first time since 1996.
In short, the boundary is a ring around the city that keeps development on the inside and protects farms on the outside.
Under the plan, which passed 10-3, the boundary would expand between 2,700 and 5,000 acres.
Many of the city leaders who voted to move forward with the plan cited hopes for finding a solution to the current housing crisis in Lexington.
Rising rent and home prices are trends being seen across the nation.
In fact, in a 2021 Pew Research survey of more than 9,500 Americans, 49% said they found housing affordability a major issue in their local community.
Council members want more space and options, hoping that it will help with supply and demand.
Affordability vs. Affordable Housing
Lexington has been trying out solutions for affordable housing since at least 2014 with the Affordable Housing Fund was created.
Affordable housing is housing that's affordable to those with a housing income at or below the median. That number is determined by federal and local governments.
To date, the city of Lexington has funded the new construction and preservation of 3,082 affordable housing units.
952 are currently under construction.
Rick McQuady with the Office of Affordable Housing says over 90% are occupied and once a new development opens, the units lease immediately.
Housing affordability refers to the price people can afford to pay for housing in relation to their income and expenses.
As home sales have boomed, active housing listings have dropped and the median home sale price has surged, according to Pew Research.
So has the price and availability of rental units.
USB
The city’s planning staff would decide exactly how much would be expanded and where.
The process would take years before anything new is built and would still require individual zoning changes that have to be approved.
"To the council's credit, they also said the urban service boundary is not going to be a magic fix-all for housing prices. Realistically, it's going to be several years before anything is built in the expansion area, which is also why I think it will be hard to prove one way or the other because we don't know what external things are going to happen by the time housing is actually built over there," said Adrian Bryant with Civic Lex, a non-profit focused on civic education.
The area where the USB was expanded in 1996 to allow for more growth, still has many places that have yet to be developed.
Director of planning, Jim Duncan, says it just goes to show the length of time that development can take.
Duncan added, while the city has the power to zone areas as strictly residential, it doesn't have the authority to set the price or require an area to be "affordable."
"In a community like Lexington, Fayette County, where the land is expensive to begin with, it's a desired community so that puts pressure on prices," said Duncan. "I don't believe that anyone believes prices will drop because there are other inputs that go into the price of housing such as labor and building supplies so all of that factor in as well."
Duncan says there would be more land available.
It's important to know there is land available for development within the boundary right now.
"Whether or not you agree, I think with this issue it's easy to see where the other side is coming from," said Bryant.
