The Macarena was the ubiquitous dance trend, Nintendo 64 was released, and Independence Day topped the box office. It was 1996, the last time Lexington's urban service boundary added new land.
The two camps that have emerged since have been making similar arguments now for decades — with pro-growth advocates arguing infill and redevelopment isn’t sufficient to keep up with the city’s needs and others stressing the importance of preserving Lexington’s signature urban-rural balance.
But Thursday, council members worried aloud that the status quo just isn’t sustainable.
"People are getting displaced in this community at various levels. It ain't just marginalized communities. It ain't just Black or brown people. It's folks that just don't have the means or the opportunity to live here," Councilman James Brown said. "If we can use every tool that we have to create opportunities for people to live and work in Lexington, I think we should. And then I also think we have the same responsibility to protect what makes Lexington great, and I think we can do that as well."
Council member Hannah LeGris, one of a trio of dissenting votes, expressed reservations that the expansion would have the intended effect on the city’s much-discussed affordable housing problem or ease Lexington’s housing costs.
Councilman David Sevigny said he would have preferred the city stick with a proposed process outlining the exact conditions determining when and how the boundary might expand.
"I couldn't support it because I really wanted to use the process that I do think the Goal 4 workgroup intended us to use, but I think we made... the goals and objectives better by making the changes that we made," he said.
The 10-3 vote comes on the heels of a rekindled debate that saw increasing pressure on the city leaders to create more room for the city to grow, with supporters of expansion arguing neighborhoods are hostile to new developments and too many people are being priced out of existing housing. Yet others pointed to new units that have sprung up in recent years.
The service boundary expansion is part of the broader update to the Comprehensive Plan. A final vote on that is expected this month.
