Judge tosses lawsuit challenging whether Lexington could add 3,000 acres to growth boundary

A Fayette Circuit Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the city of Lexington’s efforts to expand the urban service boundary, which is the land within Lexington that can be developed.

The lawsuit challenged whether the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council had the right to order an expansion of the urban service boundary. But Fayette Circuit Judge Lucy VanMeter ruled Friday that the issue of the lawsuit wasn’t ripe for legal review because the Urban County Planning Commission hasn’t taken a final vote on including more space in the boundary.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit included the Fayette Alliance, a nonprofit that represents agricultural interests, as well as several rural landowners. VanMeter ruled they can’t claim their rights have been violated by the council’s June decision to expand the urban service boundary by between 2,700 and 5,000 acres.

“Moreover, the Urban Service Area has not been expanded and neither the zoning map nor the zoning ordinance text has been amended,” VanMeter wrote in her Friday ruling.

The Urban Growth Management Master Plan Committee, consisting of council members, planning commission members and other stakeholders, voted in September to recommend adding slightly more than 3,000 acres to the city’s growth boundary. The Urban County Planning Commission may vote on the committee’s recommendation in early November.

During a Thursday planning commission work session, several members of the commission raised questions about how the Urban Growth Management Master Plan Committee decided on the 3,000 acres.

The city has not added land to its urban service boundary, or what land can be developed, since 1996.

Tom Miller, a lawyer who represents those who sued to stop the expansion of the urban service boundary, said it’s likely the group will appeal.

“We believed we had made convincing arguments,” Miller said. The group is “obviously disappointed in the ruling.”

The city argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because the Fayette Alliance and other landowners could not prove they had been wronged by the council’s vote to expand the urban service boundary. Others who have pushed for expansion, including builders and other developer groups, had filed briefs backing up the city’s arguments that the lawsuit should be dismissed.