The new rules, created to comply with House Bill 443, give developers clearer language on exactly what's required and allows satisfactory plans to move forward at the final stage without input from residents.
The goal of the legislation is to speed up the process, but the ripple effects of the changes have prompted questions across the board.
Council member Jennifer Reynolds spoke Tuesday about the public comment piece.
"What I don't want to happen is a development is taking place, and... the only way they find out is because they see it happening," she said during a committee meeting. "I think we have a responsibility, especially right now with the way that our process is changing... to let folks know what's happening and and allow them to say something."
Here more in our weekly CivicLex Chat segment.
On the flip side, developers, who originally lobbied for the new rules, say the standards Lexington is setting are too burdensome.
"What's controversial about it is that a lot of those regulations are very strict, much more strict than they've been in the past. So some of the development and business community is upset about that," CivicLex's Adrian Bryant said. "Pretty much everybody is upset about a proposal to remove public comment from most development plans."
Lexington Democratic Representative Chad Aull argued in a recent Herald-Leader op-ed that Lexington is alone in maintaining that the new rule implies elimination of public comment on final development plans. He noted the legislation passed unanimously in both the House and Senate and added that he would "never have co-sponsored a bill that removed the public's voice from the process."
The council opted to press pause on the process at their weekly work session.
State law requires the city to be in compliance by July.