Lexington’s Growth Vision and Housing
It is exciting to recognize that Lexingtonian’s vision for Lexington involves neighborhoods full of diversity of people, activities and spaces. Imagine Lexington is the comprehensive development plan that will be directing decisions of planning and development in Lexington for the next 20 years. The city of Lexington is required by statue to have a strategic development plan. Comprehensive plans are required to regulate land use, influence land use decisions, develop policy and ordinance changes, as well as community facility development. Lexington began working on a new Comprehensive plan in 2017. It was accepted by the Council in 2019. This new plan has many shifts and changes from previous plans which are exciting as they align with Gleanings vision.
One of the first exciting changes is the focus on developing neighborhoods of mixed use. A neighborhood of mixed use means having within a variety of housing options, commercial/retail spaces, and employment spaces within the neighborhood. Much of previous development involved a Euclidean pattern which resulted in subdivisions of single family homes isolated from commercial areas or employment areas. It also involves having single family separated from multiple family residences. This type of pattern also results in gated communities that separate based on income. According to Lexington’s new plan a successful neighborhood is defined as having diversity - with housing types, housing affordability, land use, transportation, and recreational opportunity. This is the kind of neighborhood that Gleanings visioned to help our clients find a greater equitability of resources. One of the goals in Imagine Lexington plan involves ensuring an expanding of housing choices. This crisis of affordable housing is acknowledged within the plan.
A second exciting change involves recognizing the need for walkable spaces and pedestrian friendly streets. The new plan identified need to change how Lexington prioritizes transportation – designing the city to require a car limits access to resources. The plan places pedestrian need, mass transit and bikes on the same level of need as automobiles. This can be seen today in the areas around North Limestone, Georgetown Street, the downtown north end. The focus on people first neighborhoods requiring wider sidewalks and designated bike lanes will be part of any new development around the Lexington landscape as well as any retrofitting of established neighborhoods.
A third exciting component to this new plan involves changes in zoning and planning codes and ordinances to allow for greater easy to develop or repurpose areas in Lexington. The plan maintains the basic boundaries for urban area. So, most expected new growth must use the land already within the boundaries. The city recognized that in-fill is both most effective and environmentally friendly method to allow increased growth and prosperity. The plan has within its design a tool to assist both developers and planning commission to increase inclusion and create a greater sense of community. This tool is called Placebuilder. According to the plan “ The Placebuilder is a compilation of the urban planning best practices found in the policies throughout Imagine Lexington. It sorts these best practices into development criteria that are applicable to proposed developments seeking a zone change.”(Pg, https://www.imaginelexington.com/placebuilder)
There is so much going on within this vision for Lexington. With this new focus, it is a perfect time for a ministry such as Gleanings Housing to grow. If you desire more information about Imagine Lexington, the comprehensive plan please use the link below.
https://www.imaginelexington.com/imagine
Gleanings Housing Pages no. 2, March 2021