A letter from Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton to the committee advising the Planning Commission on expanding the city’s urban service boundary has raised the eyebrows of at least one city council member. 7th District Councilmember Preston Worley is a leading advocate of the push to expand the USB by up to 5-thousand acres.
“It's pretty easy to interpret that the mayor's letter is attempting to direct the advisory committee or influence the advisory committee to choose the least amount of acreage.”
That amount is 27-hundred acres. On June 1st, Worley’s motion to increase it by 5-thousand acres was amended to include the lower figure. Worley said the expansion will help slow down the increase in the cost of homes and rentals – and Gorton’s letter could undercut that effort.
“It's instead of saying we've directed expansion, now let's decide how to best do this expansion. What do we really need for our housing affordability? That's saying, ‘Well hold the line, even though we have to move it a little bit.’”
A Gorton spokeswoman said the mayor has a right to write the committee, just like anyone else, and her position hasn’t changed – using existing acreage inside the USB is the way to go.
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