Lexington staff unveil draft preservation and growth-management program; public input planned May 22

Hal Bailey, manager of long-range planning, and deputy director Chris Taylor presented a draft framework of Lexington’s preservation and growth management program at the Committee of the Whole on May 8, describing a process to evaluate whether the city needs additional acreage for residential, commercial or industrial uses and how to handle expansion of the urban service area.

The program, Bailey said, would run on a staggered cycle separate from the five-year comprehensive-plan update: a growth-trends report (performed off-cycle) would use current data to project needs over a 20-year horizon and would be publicly vetted. "This data would form the basis of a growth trends report, which would be done off cycle 2 years following the statutory requirement of the comprehensive plan," Bailey said. If the report showed no additional acreage was needed, the process would pause until the next cycle.

If the analysis identified a need for land, the planning commission would craft…