Week of November 8, 2021

Written By Richard Young

💡 Big topic this week: Who is running for Office in Lexington?

We're taking a step back from ARPA and Redistricting to take a look ahead one of the biggest topics on the horizon: the 2022 council elections.

In 2022, all of Lexington's elected representatives will be on the ballot, including Mayor, District Council, and Council at Large. With many rumors circulating about who is and isn't running, we thought we'd dive into the KREF (Kentucky Registry of Election Finance) data to see who has filed:

Here's what we found:

Mayor

  • Current Mayor Linda Gorton is the only candidate to have filed, with a campaign fund of $28,175.00.

District Council Races

  • District 1 - Rashaan Berry, a Lexington Police Department Sergeant, has filed with a campaign fund of $0; Terry Cunningham, a United Methodist Pastor, has filed with a campaign fund of $0.

  • District 3 - CM Hannah LeGris has filed for reelection with a campaign fund of $308.01; Kate Savage, Director of ArtsConnect has also filed with a campaign fund of $0.

  • District 5 - Current CM Liz Sheehan has filed with a campaign fund of $0; Ami Hillenmeyer, co-owner of ASH Airbnb LLC, has also filed with a campaign fund of $13,260.

  • District 9 - CM Whitney Baxter has filed to run for reelection with a campaign fund of $0.

  • District 10 - David Sevigny, Managing Partner at Tek Agency LLC and Chair of Commerce Lexington’s Business Owners Advisory Board has filed with a campaign fund of $0; Catherine Zamarron, Community Engagement Coordinator at Ampersand Sexual Violence Resource Center has filed with a campaign fund of $0.

  • District 11 - CM Jennifer Reynolds has filed to run for reelection with a campaign fund of $0.

  • District 12 - CM Kathy Plomin has filed to run for reelection with a campaign fund of $0.

Council At Large Races

  • Four candidates have filed to run At Large:

    • Adrian Wallace, President & CEO of the Bishop and Chase Foundation, with a campaign fund of $0.

    • Dan Wu, Chef and Entrepeneur, with a campaign fund of $10,100.00.*

    • James Brown, current District 1 Council Member, with a campaign fund of $0.

    • Richard Moloney, current Council At Large Member, has filed for reelection with a campaign fund of $0.

    *Dan Wu is a current CivicLex Programmatic Board Member. While we encourage all board members to be civically active, we require board members who elect to run for elected office in Lexington-Fayette County to agree to specific terms limiting their ability to impact our work. If they are successful in their run, they are dismissed from the board.

🏢 This week in City Hall: Housing Rehabilitation Program

Council will hear a presentation about LFUCG's Housing Rehabilitation Program during November 9th's General Government and Social Services Committee meeting.

The program, which began in 2017, provides low cost and deferred loans of up to $35,000 to help eligible homeowners to rehabilitate their home. The funds must first be used to correct code violations, with any remaining to address energy conservation and handicap accessibility repairs or improvements.

The program is federally funded with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). With these funds, the program has completed 91 rehabs since 2017. Currently, it has $1,254,046 available for direct assistance and 62 applications on its waitlist.

Read more about this program here!

🏃 Get Engaged: Redistricting Continues!

📐 Redistricting Workshop - Districts 5 & 8

Learn more about the ins and outs of Lexington's Redistricting process, with a special focus on Districts 5 & 8, at our Redistricting Workshop on Monday, November 8th at 6:00pm on Zoom. We'll talk about how these districts have changed over time and what they will look like moving forward.

Note: Every attendee at every redistricting workshop we host will be entered to win a $25 cash prize!!! 💸

Join the workshop using this zoom link.

🗞 Updates from last week: Neighborhood Design Changes, Collective Bargaining, and ARPA

Changes to Neighborhood Design

On Tuesday, November 2, the Planning and Public Safety Committee heard two presentations from the LFUCG planning department on Changes to Neighborhood Design and Expanded Zone Change Notification.

The proposed changes neighborhood design, via changes to Lexington's subdivision regulations, all passed through committee with substantial amendments.

  • The block length requirement - passed as 1000 ft. maximum (amended from the proposed 800 ft. maximum)

  • Street continuity - passed as "Street continuity between subdivisions shall be provided in all directions" (amended from "Street continuity between subdivisions shall be provided in all directions at 1⁄4 mile intervals"

  • Cul de sacs- Passed with a maximum length of 1000 ft. and no cut de sacs located off other cul de sacs (amended from a proposed maximum length of 500 ft.)

  • Public facility frontage - passed with the removal of the terms "open space" and "greenway", and the change from "publicly accessible facility" to "public facility"

    • The public facility change was made to make the requirements only apply to actual public properties like schools and parks, and not locations like HOA lots

  • There was also significant discussion about when these rule changes should go into effect. Normally, existing development plans are exempt from new changes for the first five years after they have been approved. If they still have not made significant progress in that time, they have to re-apply to the planning commission and are usually subject to any new rules that have been passed.

  • CM Worley proposed an amendment that would allow any existing development plan permanent exemption from these rules.

  • After discussion, this motion passed out of committee, to be discussed further in front of the full council. CMs Lamb, Kloiber, and Brown voted against this amendment, and Vice Mayor Steve Kay spoke in opposition to it, although he does not have a vote on the planning and public safety committee.

Expanded Notification

Planning staff also gave the presentation for expanded notification of zone changes to include renters, but there was not enough time left in the meeting to make any motions. Committee Chair James Brown stated that discussion on this presentation will continue at the next Planning and Public Safety Meeting, in January.

Collective Bargaining Passes

The Collective Bargaining Agreement has been approved. More info on the CBA on the CivicLex website.

ARPA Committees of the Whole

There were two COW meetings last week focused on ARPA funding. The first, on November 2nd, was a public comment session that lasted over two hours. Residents voiced support for proposals related to the Distillery District, Town Branch Park, trees, Town Branch stream restoration, funding for the arts, affordable housing, minority-owned businesses, and the Black and Williams Community Center. A representative from Lexington's Black Faith Leaders also urged Council to give priority to the proposals addressing communities most impacted by COVID - an important guideline for ARPA fund use.

Council's goal for the second meeting, on November 4th, was to select proposals from the existing list to move forward as a block to a first reading. The meeting didn't quite go as planned, as Council members had a lot of questions about almost every proposal and didn't make it through the list.

So far, they've voted to move these proposals forward:

  • Black and Williams Community Center Gym renovation (includes ADA improvements) $1,040,000

  • Sheriff's Department benefits $375k

  • CommerceLex Minority Business Expansion $991k

  • It Takes a Village $240k

  • Nonprofit Capital Projects $9M

They will continue this discussion on Thursday, December 2nd at 1:00 pm. As per VM Kay, they'll most likely need at least one other meeting after this to discuss all of the proposals.

🏢 This week in City Government

Monday, November 8

⚖️ Board of Adjustment Meeting
⏱ - 1:30pm on November 8
📍- Virtual
📺 - Watch on LexTV
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - View Agenda

——

Tuesday, November 9

⚖️ General Government and Social Service Committee Meeting
⏱ - 1:00pm on November 9
📍- Council Chambers (200 East Main Street)
📺 - Watch on LexTV
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - View Agenda

—

⚖️ Council Work Session
⏱ - 3:00pm on November 9
📍- Council Chambers (200 East Main Street)
📺 - Watch on Lex TV
🗣 - Give public comment in person
📖 - View Agenda

——

Wednesday, November 10

🌳 Tree Board Meeting
⏱ - 9:00am on November 10
📍- Government Center - 5th Floor Conference room
📺 - Watch on Lex TV
🗣 - No input option
📖 - No agenda available

—

⚖️ Commission on Veterans’ Affairs Meeting
⏱ - 11:30am on November 10
📍- Lexington Senior Center (195 Life Lane)
📺 - No viewing option
🗣 - Give public comment in person
📖 - No agenda available

———

Thursday, November 11

⚖️ Planning Commission Meeting- Subdivision Items
⏱ - 1:30pm on November 11
📍 - Virtual
📺 - Watch on Lex TV
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - No agenda available

———

Friday, November 12

⚖️ MIAAC Executive Committee Meeting
⏱ - 11:00am on November 12
📍 - Virtual
📺 - No viewing option available
🗣 - No input option available
📖 - No agenda available

—

🎶 Lyric Theatre Board Meeting
⏱ - noon on November 12
📍- Virtual
📺 - Google Meeting
🗣 - Give public comment in person
📖 - No agenda available

Richard Young
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