Lexington residents can have say on city policies — like short-term rentals — with new tool
The city of Lexington unveiled a new public input website Monday to help it better gauge public sentiment on key issues including short-term rentals and the city’s budget.
“Engage Lexington will make it easier for residents to take a look at city projects, weigh issues, provide feedback and ask questions,” said Mayor Linda Gorton during a Monday press conference.
The new website, engage.lexingtonky.gov, will collect comments, ideas, suggestions and survey responses that will be used by staff to inform the council of community input when developing programs, policies and legislation.
Feedback will be used with other types of public input, such as in-person comment, emails and neighborhood meetings, city officials said Monday.
The new website is one of several new initiatives the city has unveiled to increase public participation in city government. In February 2023, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council established a subcommittee aimed at increasing public input. Other changes include improving the sign-in system for in-person public comment.
Councilwoman Liz Sheehan said one of the issues the council wants to use Engage Lexington for is short-term rental regulations, which have been controversial for years. Local ordinances overseeing short-term rentals took effect in January. The Urban County Council is seeking input on those regulations now they have been in effect for several months, Sheehan said.
“They will assist our planned review of policies for our short-term rental policy in Lexington,” Sheehan said.
A council committee will likely lead a review of the short-term rental ordinances in May, city officials said. A specific date for that review, which may or may not include tweaks to the ordinance, has not been set.
The new regulations, which took years to pass, have already been criticized by some neighborhoods who say they do not go far enough to address saturation of short-term rentals in certain neighborhoods, including Kenwick and Mentelle Park.
“We want to enhance the input that we typically receive,” Sheehan said.
Councilman James Brown, chairman of the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee, said the public is also invited to weigh in on Gorton’s proposed $538.1 million budget, which was unveiled last week. Engage Lexington will allow the public to take surveys on the budget and rank budget priorities.
The council has until June 30 to make changes to Gorton’s budget proposal and has already begun its review.
