Week of November 15, 2021

Written By Richard Young

💡 Big topic this week: Redistricting goes to Council

Council will meet in the Government Center’s Council Chamber for a Special Committee of the Whole on November 18th at 4:00 pm to hear Redistrict Lexington’s district map recommendations.

After several months of painstaking working, the Redistrict Lexington Committee is finally ready to present their recommended map to Council.

  • While there won’t be a public comment opportunity at this meeting, Council will most likely propose changes based on what they’ve heard from their constituents.

  • Council plans to hear from residents about any changes they make on the 18th at a public comment session scheduled for December 2nd.

The Redistrict Lexington Committee, a group of Lexington residents chosen by Councilmembers, has met regularly since late August to create a new district map based on 2020 Census numbers.

  • The group’s decisions were shaped by 13 internal guidelines and additional external limitations set by city and state law.

  • The Committee worked toward a November 3rd deadline -- the opening day for candidate filing.

Initially, the Division of Planning and GIS proposed two options: an Iterative and a Compact plan. The Iterative plan made the fewest changes to the current Council District configuration and won out over the more radical Compact Plan.

Next, the Committee worked on two versions of the Iterative Plan: 1 and 2. Iterative 1 was based on current Census data, while Iterative 2 was based more on projected 2030 numbers. They leaned more toward Iterative 1 and presented a slightly modified version for public comment.

The Committee made adjustments to the proposed map based on resident’s reactions and are finally ready to present this recommended map to Council. While there won’t be a public comment opportunity at this meeting, Council will most likely propose changes based on what they’ve heard from their constituents. They plan to hear from residents about any changes they make on the 18th at a public comment session scheduled for December 2nd.

No matter what happens, Council will have to decide on a map soon. The window for 2020 candidate filing is November 3rd to January 7th and Council is scheduled to leave for Winter break on December 9th. If Council still doesn’t have a map by April 1, the Fayette County Court would be able to prescribe its own redistricting plan. This plan would go into effect for the first regular primary election for Council that occurs more than 180 days after redistricting is complete.

You can read more about the process and data at the City’s Redistricting Hub. If you have any concerns or suggestions about the proposed map, you can find your Council Representative here.

🏢 This week in City Hall: KU provides an update on tree clearing

When: Council Work Session  - Thursday, November 18 at 1:00pm

Wait... a Work Session on a Thursday? That's right! On Thursday, November 18 at 1pm, Council will hear an update from Kentucky Utilities on their plans for tree cutting throughout Lexington.

  • Those plans included clearing trees that are within the border zones of their electrical transmission towers and lines. The border zones include the areas 15 ft beside, under, and above the towers and wires.

KU presented to Council about their plans on October 19 - and residents showed up to that meeting en masse to protest the clearcutting. In that meeting, Council pressed Kentucky Utilities representatives to create a better, more individual plan for the city. 

  • Neither party reached a decision or agreement, but KU expressed that they would be willing to reconsider their plan and, while doing so, put the clearcutting work on hold.

No presentation is available, so it's impossible In this meeting, we're likely to hear an update from KU about their plans.

🏃 Get Engaged:

🗯 Fifth Redistricting Reading Club

Join CivicLex and our Redistricting Fellow Gabby Mason for our last Redistricting  Reading club of the year! For the fifth and final club, we will be reading “Mapmaking at the Grassroots: The Legal and Political Issues of Local Redistricting,” by Bruce E Cain. and David A. Hopkins. Please read the article before joining!

Hope to see you there. 😎

Join the reading club using this zoom link.

Don't forget: Council will hear the map recommendations from the Redistrict Lexington Committee on November 18th at 4:00 pm in the Government Center's Council Chamber. You can watch this meeting in person, or via Lex TV either live, or as a recording!

🗞 Updates from last week

Housing Rehabilitation Program
On November 9th, the General Government and Social Services Committee heard a presentation from the DIrector of Grants and Special Programs, Charlie Lanter, about LFUCG’s Housing Rehabilitation program.

The federally funded program provides loans and deferred loans up to $35,000 to help eligible homeowners to rehabilitate their home. Since 2017, 91 homes in Lexington have been included in the program. There is currently $1,254,046 available in funding for direct assistance and 62 applications on the waitlist.

While strongly supported by Council, several CM’s addressed significant limitations in the program related to supply and current housing demand:

  • Not enough contractors: Since this is a Federal program, each project needs to have at least three bids, but the city only has six contractors who regularly bid. The Committee discussed bundling projects together to make them more financially attractive to contractors.

  • Supply limitations: COVID has affected supply chains for goods, including homebuilding supplies. There’s not really anything LFUCG can do about this besides wait it out.

  • Post-repair appraisal cap: Once rehabilitated, the home cannot have an appraisal value over $187,000. Lexington, like much of the rest of the country, is experiencing a housing crunch, which is driving up prices on even modest homes. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to do any repairs that don’t push the home value over the limit. The Committee discussed potentially pairing this program with organizations like Habitat for Humanity and others to address housing and rehabilitation needs for lower income homeowners whose homes are rising in value.

Based on these concerns, Councilmembers decided to keep this in committee to explore options to make the program more efficient and accessible.

Who is Running for Office?
Just hours after the CivicLex Weekly went out, the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance updated their listings, which includes a new filing for Lexington's Mayoral race. Some other candidates have filed as well, so we've built a new page on our website to track them.

You can find our new candidate page here - we plan to update it on a weekly basis. New candidate filings are below.

Mayoral Race:

  • Current D6 Council Member David Kloiber

Council At Large:

  • Current CM at Large Chuck Ellinger

District CMs:

  • District 2 - Shayla Lynch, Executive Director of the Ampersand Sexual Violence Resource Center

🏢 This week in City Government

Monday, November 15

No City Meetings.

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Tuesday, November 16

No City Meetings.

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Wednesday, November 17

🌳 GreenSpace Commission
⏱ - 3:00pm on November 17
📍- VisitLex (215 W Main St. #150)
📺 - No viewing option available
🗣 - Give input in person
📖 - View Agenda

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🚜 - Rural Land Management Board meeting
⏱ - 3:00pm on November 17
📍- Online
📺 - No viewing option
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - No agenda available

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🏞 - Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Meeting
⏱ - 4:00pm on November 17
📍- Online
📺 - Zoom
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - TBA

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Thursday, November 18

⚖️ LFUCG Economic Development Grant – Workforce Funding Opportunities Webinar
⏱ - 11:00am on November 18
📍 - Virtual
📺 - Zoom//Registration required
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - No agenda available

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⚖️ Council Work Session
⏱ - 1:00pm on November 18
📍- Council Chambers (200 East Main Street)
📺 - Watch via LexTV
🗣 - Give public comment in person
📖 - View Agenda

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🗺 - Planning Commission Public Hearing – Zoning Items
⏱ - 1:30pm on November 18
📍- Council Chambers (200 East Main Street)
📺 - Watch via LexTV
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - No agenda available

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🐄 - Special Committee of the Whole (COW)
⏱ - 4:00pm on November 18
📍- Council Chambers (200 East Main Street)
📺 - Watch via LexTV
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - Special Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss redistricting

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⚖️ Ethics Commission Special Meeting
⏱ - 5:30pm on November 18
📍- Phoenix Building, 3rd floor conference room (101 E Vine St.)
📺 - No Viewing Option available
🗣 - No public input option available
📖 - No agenda available

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⚖️ Council Meeting
⏱ - 6:00pm on November 18
📍- Council Chambers (200 East Main Street)
📺 - Watch via LexTV
🗣 - Give public comment in person
📖 - Agenda TBA

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Friday, November 19

⚖️ Mayor’s International Affairs Advisory Commission Meeting
⏱ - 11:00am on November 19
📍 - Virtual
📺 - No viewing option available
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - No agenda available

Richard Young
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