Week of May 17th, 2021
🔦 Highlights
📺 - Watch this: Environmental Quality & Public Works (EQPW) Committee
Watch this if you are concerned about anything relating to climate change, single-use plastics, composting, and the urban tree canopy
🏃 - Do this: Sign up for the Public Hearing on Imagine Nicholasville Road
Do this if you have ever had the thought "I wish Nicholasville Road was different.."
🗞 - Read this: Statistics show 'alarming disparity' on race, marijuana charges in Lexington, KY
Data acquired by the Lexington Herald-Leader shows enormous disparities in arrests and charges for Black Lexingtonians.
" 46 percent [of Lexingtonians] arrested for marijuana possession over a five-year time frame were Black. And nearly 61 percent of all people charged with felony marijuana trafficking from 2015 to 2019 in Fayette County were Black. Yet, Fayette County’s Black population is only 14.6 percent of the total population."
💡 This week in City Government
Due to COVID-19 and the State of Emergency declared by Governor Andy Beshear, all public meetings are taking place digitally. Most meetings take place over Zoom. For the most accurate links, please see the individual event's calendar page on the City's website.
Watch City Meetings:
LexTV & City Zoom Channel
Monday, May 17
🎻 - Picnic with the Pops Commission Meeting
📺 - 4:30pm on May 17 via Zoom
Tuesday, May 18
♻️ - Environmental Quality & Public Works Committee
📺 - 1:00pm on May 18 via LexTV
📖 - Read the Agenda
Highlights:
CM LeGris is bringing forward a proposal for a pilot program for a city-supported home composting program to reduce organic waste going to the landfill.
The Environmental Commission is presenting about a plan to reduce Lexington's impacts on climate change and to reduce single-use plastics.
Specifically, they're requesting LFUCG "appoint, hire, or designate a staff member to update and implement the Empower Lexington Plan"
and. "Endorse the Environmental Commission’s initiatives on Climate Change and Plastics Pollution"
CM McCurn is bringing forward an update on the City' Street Tree program and Urban Canopy work.
🏢 - Council Work Session
📺 - 3:00pm on May 18 via LexTV
📖 - Read the Agenda
Highlights:
The first sighting of the City's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) relief funds! The city will receive $121,178,058.00 in relief funds. The plan for allocating and distributing these funds is unclear.
A presentation from LexTran about their FY2022 Budget and Activities.
The presentation will include an overview of their $32M budget.
A summary of what LexTran did in 2021, including the ~$20M they received in federal relief.
A look ahead at 2021 and 2022 at LexTran's future plans, which include a rehab of the Transit Center, adding new bus shelters, and more.
A presentation by the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention about homelessness in Lexington.
The presentation will include details about OHPI's plan to eliminate homelessness in Lexington by 2025.
The homelessness count has been reduced from over 1,500 to less than 600 since 2014.
Wednesday, May 19
🏛 - Courthouse Area Design Review Board
📺 - 2:00pm on May 19 via Zoom
📖 - Read the Agenda
🎨 - Urban County Arts Review Board
📺 - 3:00pm on May 19 via LexTV
🌾 - Greenspace Commission
📺 - 3:00pm on May 19 via Zoom (no link available)
Thursday, May 20
🛣 - Corridors Commission Meeting
📺 - 12:00pm on May 20 via LexTV
🚧 - Imagine Nicholasville Road Public Hearing
📺 - 1:30pm on May 20 via Zoom
Lexington has a new plan for Nicholasville Road, one of the most frequently complained about streets in the city. Read the draft document here. The recommendations include:
Innovative intersection improvements.
Consideration of Bus Rapid Transit.
Possible future redevelopment of large parking lots and underutilized shopping centers.
Dedicated bike and pedestrian facilities.
Can't make the Public Hearing? Email imagine@lexingtonky.gov and comments will be passed along to the Planning Commission.
Friday, May 21
⛑ - Emergency Medical Advisory Board Meeting
8:30am on May 21 via Zoom
💃 - MIAAC Meeting
📺 - 11:00am on May 14 - no public viewing option available
MIAAC stands for the Mayor's International Affairs Advisory Commission.
🏃 Get engaged
💰 - CivicLex Budget Workshops
The Mayor's Proposed Budget is out! Join CivicLex and let us guide you through the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) - FY 22 Budget. In these workshops, we'll talk about how the budget gets made, what's new in this year's budget, and reflect on how the budget matches up with our values and priorities as residents.
📺 - Join in the fun at these times:
✋ - Public Comment Survey
In case you didn't know, we just released a survey in partnership with the City of Lexington to examine and reimagine the public comment/input process. We'd love to hear from you about your experience interacting with City Government, and how you think it could be better.
Interested? Fill out the survey here before May 31.
🚘 - Imagine Nicholasville Road Public Hearing
Lexington has a new plan for Nicholasville Road, one of the most frequently complained about streets in the city. Read the draft document here. The recommendations include:
Innovative intersection improvements.
Consideration of Bus Rapid Transit.
Possible future redevelopment of large parking lots and underutilized shopping centers.
Dedicated bike and pedestrian facilities.
There will be a public hearing via Zoom for this proposal on May 20, 2021, at 1:30 p.m. Can't make the Public Hearing? Email imagine@lexingtonky.gov and comments will be passed along to the Planning Commission.🅿️ - Community Parking Survey
The Division of Planning has put out a call for community members to help gather data to evaluate the current parking situation in our city. Learn more and take the Parking Survey here.
🗞 Did you miss it?
From our friends at the Lexington Herald-Leader: