A Lexington housing advocacy nonprofit is calling on city councilmembers to fund a new city position it says could help cut bureaucratic delays slowing down housing development — and the timing is deliberate. Mayor Linda Gorton is set to deliver her proposed FY27 budget address Tuesday, April 14, and the group wants the Development Liaison position in it. Lexington For Everyone, a nonprofit formed in 2021 to advocate for land use reform and housing affordability, sent an email Sunday to its mailing list — including The Lexington Times — urging supporters to contact all 15 Urban County Councilmembers and ask them to back the position. The group provided a sample email template directed to [email protected]. “If we’re going to make a meaningful difference on the affordability and availability of housing, then we must do things differently,” said Ray Daniels, the group’s board chair. “We need to increase access to land and cut down on government bureaucracy.” What the Development Liaison would do The proposal is not new to city hall. In March, the LFUCG General Government and Planning Committee received a presentation on the potential position, which stemmed from recommendations in the city’s 2023 Development Process Study. That study found some development projects in Lexington take roughly twice as long to move through the local approval process compared to peer cities. The liaison would serve as a central point of contact within LFUCG to guide housing and development projects through planning and certification processes, working across departments to catch and resolve problems early. Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds led a working group to develop the role, which examined what peer cities like Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Madison, Wisconsin have done with similar coordinator positions. The stakes are significant. According to the Lane Report, major subdivision plan approvals currently take 523 days in Lexington — compared to 45 days in Greenville, South Carolina. That kind of delay drives up costs for developers, which get passed through to consumers in higher home prices and rents. It also makes financing affordable housing harder, since those projects often depend on tight funding deadlines. The housing shortage backdrop Lexington For Everyone has been sounding the alarm on Lexington’s housing shortage since its founding, and the numbers it cites have only grown more dire. When the group launched its “30by30” campaign in February, it cited analysis showing Lexington needs more than 30,000 new housing units by 2030 to meet demand — including 22,549 units needed immediately, split between 14,423 rental units and 8,126 single-family homes. Rents have climbed 47% in five years. The group says the city is currently building only about 600 new single-family homes per year — one-third of the pre-Great Recession pace. And for younger residents, the numbers are especially stark: only 34% of Lexington millennials and younger adults own a home, compared to 46% in Louisville. “For every thousand dollars a home price goes up, we’re pricing 286 people out of the market,” board member Carla Blanton told WKYT. “They can’t afford to become homeowners; they can’t realize that American dream.” Former councilmember Preston Worley, now a board member of Lexington For Everyone, called the situation dire. “Our community must take bold action today because the need continues to grow,” he said at the February campaign launch. Who is Lexington For Everyone? The group describes itself as advocating for “balanced, common-sense land use policies” — language that places it broadly in the pro-housing, or YIMBY (“Yes In My Backyard”), camp of housing advocacy. It was founded in late 2021 with ties to Commerce Lexington, Lexington’s chamber of commerce organization. Daniels, the board chair, is a former chair of Commerce Lexington, a franchise entrepreneur, and a former appointee to the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees. He now serves as special assistant to the president for strategic partnerships at Transylvania University. The group’s five-point platform calls on the city to set a formal housing goal and tracker, conduct annual vacant land reviews, explore publicly owned land for affordable housing development, appoint a development liaison, and expand housing supply broadly. The Development Liaison ask is the most immediately actionable item — and the one with an opening in the FY27 budget process. A mayoral race running through the same issues The call to action lands against an unmistakable political backdrop: one of Lexington For Everyone’s own board members is running for mayor on a housing platform. Raquel Carter, CEO and principal broker of Guide Realty, is challenging incumbent Mayor Linda Gorton in the May 19 primary — and her ties to the group are substantive, not ceremonial. As a Lexington For Everyone board member, Carter worked with the organization to successfully pressure the Urban County Council to expand the city’s urban service boundary in 2023 — the first such expansion in nearly 30 years, passed on a 10-3 vote. Gorton had openly opposed the boundary expansion. “The urban service boundary had forced our city into an ‘either-or’ mentality, pitting smart growth against beautiful farmland, inflating land costs and limiting housing options,” Carter said at her campaign launch. “The old establishment may have been okay with this, but I was not.” Carter entered the race with more than $100,000 raised as of December — more than any other LFUCG candidate at that point — drawing heavily from Lexington’s real estate and business communities. Gorton, seeking a third term, had not yet filed contributions for the cycle at that time. The primary is six weeks away. That dynamic gives the Lexington For Everyone call-to-action a layered quality: the group is simultaneously lobbying the current administration on a budget line item and providing political infrastructure — a housing shortage frame, a voter mobilization list, a policy platform — that directly aligns with its board member’s campaign. The group has not formally endorsed Carter. The budget window The timing of Sunday’s call to action is tied directly to the city’s budget calendar. Mayor Gorton will present her proposed FY27 budget at 3 p.m. Tuesday during a Council Work Session — the same day the Social Services and Public Safety Committee meets to hear an update on the city’s Affordable Housing Fund. The Council must adopt a final budget by June 15. Whether the liaison position makes it into the mayor’s proposed budget — or gets added by council later in the process — is an open question. Mayor Gorton’s office, when contacted about Lexington For Everyone’s 30by30 campaign in February, noted the city has already “streamlined the development approval process” and “made it easier and more attractive for developers to build workforce housing.” It did not address the liaison position specifically at that time. Residents who want to weigh in on the FY27 budget can also participate in a public input survey open through April 17, or attend the Mayor’s Budget Hearing on May 14 at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at 200 E. Main St. The post Lexington For Everyone turns up pressure on housing as FY27 budget season opens appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less