Lexington city council committee updated on 2,800-acre USB expansion plan

Originally published by WEKU.

A Lexington City Council committee got an update Tuesday on the plan to expand the city’s urban service boundary in five areas by a total of 28-hundred acres. General Government and Planning Committee members asked Planning Manager Chris Taylor several questions about public engagement with the plan. He agreed it was an important mission, but said it would be challenging.

“We are on a very accelerated timeline. And so each piece of public engagement for each phase, we’re probably going to have to evaluate it in the moment, see where the gaps are, and then try to do some addressing of those things along the way.”

Taylor said there’ll be more public meetings and a great deal of information sharing about the USB expansion plan, which the Planning Commission is set to vote on in November. Councilmember Liz Sheehan asked whether new developments’ would be built with sustainability in mind.

“The goal here is to start incorporating principles of sustainability into our long range and master planning documents. That is new for us. We have a new goal and objective related to carbon emissions.”

Taylor said that goal and objective is helping drive the entire discussion around growth and development patterns and new regulations.

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Originally published by WEKU.

Republished with permission.

https://www.weku.org/lexington-richmond/2024-02-13/lexington-city-council-committee-updated-on-2-800-acre-usb-expansion-plan