The numbers from the Kentucky Housing Corporation and a city-commissioned study by EHI are staggering:
- To meet existing need, Lexington needs 22,000 new housing units – 14,000 rental and 8,000 single family – right now.
- By 2030, that number will exceed 30,000.
- Rental prices have skyrocketed 47 percent in 5 years. By 2028, the average rent is expected to reach $1,305 — a 56% rise over 11 years.
Meanwhile, we are only building about 600 new homes per year – one-third of what Lexington was building before the Great Recession.
If we’re going to make a meaningful difference on the affordability and availability of housing, then we must do things differently. We need to increase access to land and cut down on government bureaucracy.
Here are five steps that we urge local government to enact:
- Establish a housing goal for 2030 and create housing tracker to ensure accountability and a data-driven process.
- Conduct an annual review of vacant land and discuss what incentives or partnerships might be needed to create housing on that land.
- Explore opportunities for unused or underutilized publicly owned land to develop for affordable or workforce housing.
- Create a development liaison to help expedite the process. For example, it currently takes 523 days for approval on a major subdivision plan in Lexington vs. 45 days in our peer city of Greenville, S.C.
- Expedite infrastructure to the expansion area.
Please email council members and ask them to support these common-sense, balanced proposals. You can look up your council member here. Or you can email all council members at CouncilMembers-Email@lexingtonky.gov.