Week of July 11, 2022

Written By Guest User

🔎 - Big Topic: CAIR Celebration

Help CivicLex celebrate the end of our 13-month Civic Artist in Residence Program! During the July Gallery Hop, we'll have games, food, music, improv, quilts, and more!

  • Featuring the work and final project of comedian Debra Faulk, fiber artist Hannah Allen, and filmmaker turned Board Game designer Tony Gilmore.

  • Celebrate with us this week on Friday, July 15, from 5-8 pm in the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center.

Get your tickets here!

🔎 - This week in City Hall: Goal 4 Workgroup

This workgroup originates from the Lexington 2018 Comprehensive Plan and specifically targets the issue of sustainable growth in our city.

  • Goal 4 of the 2018 Comprehensive plan calls for a new process for determining long-term land-use decisions involving the Urban Service Boundary & Rural Activity Centers.

If this is a topic you're interested in, join this meeting on Tuesday, July 12 at 10 am in the 5th-floor conference room of City Hall at 200 E Main St.

🏃 - Get Engaged

Budget Workshop #2

Join us for an interactive workshop on the city budget on July 13 at 6pm! The workshop will show you how the city budget process works, tell you what's new in this year's budget, illustrate the difficulty of crafting a budget, and more!

If you want to learn more about the LFUCG Budget before attending the workshop, click here to look at our Budget Resource page.

Sign up here.

KY Tenants Town Hall

"Are you worried about the cost of housing? Have you ever struggled to make rent or had to deal with a difficult landlord? Do you think the city of Lexington should do something about the housing crisis?"

Join your neighbors and KY Tenants to discuss the problems Lexington residents are facing and what solutions we want to see at the Town Hall on the Housing Crisis! Lyric Theatre, 6-8pm, Friday, July 22, 300 E Third St, Lexington, KY 40508.

Dinner is provided. Contact Kentucky Tenants on social media or at kentuckytenants@gmail.com and sign up here.

🗞 - Updates from Last Week: North Limestone Road Diet, KU’s Revised Tree-Cutting Policy, and Corrections.

North Limestone Road Diet

The Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee heard the North Limestone Road Diet presentation by traffic engineer Grace Foley last week.

Many committee members were pleased to see this item proposed; however, they did have some questions. Here are Foley's answers:

  • This project is step one for implementing future road diets.

  • The bike lane ends at Seventh Street.

  • Bike lane separation bollards could impede emergency vehicles from getting past traffic and city services like trash collection.

  • Switching the parking lane with the bicycle lane would also impede emergency vehicles and city services due to North Limestone not being wide enough.

The anticipated cost of this project is $45 to $50k. LFUCG engineers would use any remaining funds from the Alexandria-Pasadena-Malibu Corridor improvement and pedestrian improvement funds. The Committee made no decisions on this item.

KU Revised Tree Cutting Policy

A KU representative presented revisions to KU's tree-cutting policy in last week's Council Work Session. KU has had its tree cutting on hold since December 2021, far surpassing the 30-day moratorium.

Mayor Linda Gorton created this agreement with LFUCG'S Departments of Law and Environmental Services and Public Works and other staff members in LFUCG.

Here are the changes to KU's policy:

  • Apply a "wire down analysis" to measure the maximum movement of wires on KU poles. Due to this analysis, vegetation under the wires is allowed if it is 15ft or shorter; vegetation may be any height if it is not encroaching the wire area.

  • KU will begin to focus primarily on trimming trees instead of removing them when they encroach on the wire area. KU's representative said this policy would save 50% of trees that KU would have removed.

  • KU will continue collaborating with public officials and private property owners regarding replanting trees. From now on, KU will increase tree compensation for revegetation by 20%; KU will now offer $300 per tree for up to $1800 per property.

  • For properties needing trees as a barrier to the road, KU will assist with funding shrubs or privacy fencing replacement. Property owners in this situation will not have the same $1800 limit.

  • KU will give property owners four weeks' notice and 4-8 weeks' notice to elected officials and HOAs. It will notify those in the neighborhood areas where KU will be working through mailing. KU will also soon develop a map on their website to show Fayette County when and where they'll be working and how that area's vegetation will change.

  • KU completed an environmental study, in which LFUCG Officials, residents, and a consultant reviewed and provided input.

Corrections

  • Our Road Diet packet summary last week said that Commissioner Laura Foley was presenting this project. Her actual title and name are LFUCG traffic engineer Grace Foley.

  • In that same packet summary, we said that D8 CM Fred Brown assisted the administration with this project and presentation. CM Fred Brown was only named because he is the chair of the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee, and no other council member referred this item to Committee. D1 CM James Brown has worked extensively on the Road Diet project.

  • The board of Appeals will not discuss the soccer stadium, which would be adjacent to the youth soccer facility**, on Monday, July 11**. We'll let you know when this discussion will happen as soon as we see it on the agenda.

  • In the Conditional Use Permit and its alterations we reported, the changed statement in Condition 14 is "substantially similar uses."

🏢 - This Week in City Government

Monday, July 11

Board of Adjustments Meeting
⏱ - 1:30 pm on July 22
📍 - 2nd-floor Council Chamber, Government Center — 200 East Main St.
📺 - LexTV
🗣 - No public input

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Tuesday, July 12

Goal 4 Workgroup
⏱ - 10:00 am on July 12
📍 - 5th-floor Conference Room, Government Center — 200 East Main St.
🗣 - No public input

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Wednesday, July 13

No Meetings - Council is on break until August 16.

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Thursday, July 14

Planning Commission SubDivision Items
⏱ - 1:30 pm on July 14
📍 - 2nd-floor Council Chamber, Government Center — 200 East Main St.
📺 - LexTV
🗣 - No public input.

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Friday, July 15

No Meetings - Council is on break until August 16.

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