Blog By: Bailey Truitt
Kentucky has a long and nuanced history with horseracing–one of its most impactful heritage industries. The equine industry is so integral in Kentucky that Lexington, one of the state’s largest cities, is deemed the “Horse Capital of the World.”[i] Some of the best racehorses in the world were bred in Lexington, including American Pharoah and Secretariat.[ii] Kentucky has had racetracks since the late 1700s, around the same time as its founding,[iii] but Kentucky’s heritage industry does not stop there; it also includes the equine sales industry and equine veterinary care.[iv] Because this heritage industry is such an intrinsic part of Kentucky’s history and its future, protecting this heritage industry is an important goal for lawmakers and citizens all over Kentucky.
As Kentucky has grown over the last two hundred years, cities like Lexington have been fighting the overgrowth spilling into historical horse country. Kentucky has a housing problem that has existed since before COVID-19, but it has been exacerbated since then. Across Kentucky, there is “a shortage of rental homes affordable and available to extremely low-income households.”[v] According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there are -88,236 affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renters.[vi] The solutions to this problem include: finding new funding for housing, expanding multi-family zoning, and providing density bonuses.[vii] Even with these options, there is still a push to allow housing to spill into historical horse farms. Horse farms and equine centers are being sold and rezoned as residential as Kentucky’s housing crisis continues.[viii] This includes Castleton Lyons, a farm built in 1793 that is likely to be sold for housing to divide the land into sixteen different lots.[ix]
Rezoning efforts to include affordable housing are necessary to protect Kentuckians and promote growth, but the efforts are risking one of the major economic outputs for the state. Currently, creating affordable housing for Lexington citizens is coming at the cost of historical land and industry. With rezoning taking agricultural land use to residential land use, equine land use is at risk.[x] Kentucky defines agriculture land use to include for equine pastures, boarding, riding, training, and shows.[xi] Rezoning horse farms and pastures as residential properties will hurt Kentucky’s economy and cultural identity by diminishing the land that is essential to one of Kentucky’s legacy industries.
Currently, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Council (hereinafter “LFUCGC”) is attempting to expand the Urban Service Area (hereinafter “USA”)[xii], which is the designated area where “a municipality provides access to public services, such as water, sewer, and transit.[xiii] Typically, enforcing a USA helps reduce “urban sprawl and consequently increasing density by disincentivizing development outside of the USA.”[xiv] LFUCGC is attempting to address the housing crisis in Lexington through the USA and Council efforts to promote housing development. However, expanding the USA will increase the sprawl of the city of Lexington, thus negatively impacting the equine industry in the area, instead of reducing urban sprawl. Current pending litigation by Fayette Alliance and other petitioners, in Fayette Alliance v. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Counsel, is trying to prevent the sprawl by “advocating for the horse industry and sustainable growth.”[xv] Petitioners argue that the increase in the USA will decrease horse farms for sale and available land for horse farms.[xvi] Furthermore, the increase in the USA could swallow smaller horse farms and equine developments, which would prevent economic growth for the horse industry.[xvii]
Fights have been growing over horse farms, including Antebellum Farm and Crestwood Farm, all of which are near the Kentucky Horse Park.[xviii] Some farms have been saved, including a 144-acre farm on Tates Creek Road.[xix] This would have created an agricultural buffer zone, which would create a domino effect to begin rezoning more farms in the area to buffer zones and residential zones. This fight, while central to Lexington, is happening all over the state, including in Midway, Kentucky. In Midway, a rezoning vote could allow RV housing and parking to be built on Mitchell Farm.[xx] This would seriously impact the Thoroughbred farm owners surrounding the property because horses need quiet land.[xxi] Even if the horses are not driven from the land, the urban development surrounding the horses could negatively impact the success of the horses and the farms.
This problem, while extremely detrimental to Kentucky’s history and economic development, is not a local issue. Areas with thriving equine development are suffering all over the country. However, many areas have successfully fought back using the courts, local hearings, and public advocacy. In Florida, organizations have been fighting in hearings and threatening litigation over an expansion to allow air traffic and hangars near a rural area with many horse farms.[xxii] The advocacy of citizens in the area has protected the farms, as the “rezoning effort was withdrawn.”[xxiii] A similar situation has transpired in South Carolina. Citizens and local organizations banded together at a public hearing to prevent the Camden Training Center from becoming a housing development.[xxiv] These areas, like Kentucky, rely on and are known for their equine industry.[xxv]
More land is not the answer to the housing crisis in Lexington and Kentucky as a whole.[xxvi] Building housing outside the core of the city will only further urban sprawl and prevent people from having housing near work areas in Lexington.[xxvii] Urban sprawl negatively impacts job opportunities and creates crowded and cluttered roadways that are difficult to navigate and unable to support public transportation, which exacerbates the problem instead of creating solutions. There are ways Kentuckians and Lexingtonians can preserve their heritage industry: fight through public hearings, and if that fails, go to the courts. Areas around the country have been successfully fighting, and Kentucky can protect a billion-dollar industry and its history. Kentucky, and Lexington specifically, selling off historical lands and pushing away the equine industry is a lose-lose situation; Lexington loses out on its heritage industry and does not get any long-term solutions for housing in return. The equine industry in Kentucky is a necessary component to both the states’ economic security and cultural identity.
[i] Lexington’s Equine History, VisitLEX (July 10, 2020), https://www.visitlex.com/guides/post/lexingtons-equine-history/ [https://perma.cc/5EB5-KS2D].
[ii] Id.
[iii] Id.
[iv] Id.
[v] Kentucky State Data Overview, Nat’l Low Income Hous. Coal., https://nlihc.org/housing-needs-by-state/kentucky (last viewed Oct. 29, 2024) [https://perma.cc/D45W-8AZA].
[vi] Id.
[vii] Paul Olivia, Urban County Council to receive affordable housing needs update amid surging rents, The Lexington Times (Oct. 13, 2024), https://lexingtonky.news/2024/10/13/lexington-urban-county-council-to-receive-affordable-housing-needs-update-amid-rising-costs/ [https://perma.cc/2Q87-6QT3].
[viii] Beth Musgrave, Goodbye to 1,000 acre Castleton Lyon horse farm and hello new housing?, Lexington Herald Leader (June 14, 2024, 10:37 AM), https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article289222294.html [https://perma.cc/6KXU-YCN7].
[ix] Id.
[x] Kentucky Horse Council, Understanding Kentucky Equine Land Use, BloodHorse (July 16, 2011), https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/135276/understanding-kentucky-equine-land-use [https://perma.cc/TA3L-J2XU].
[xi] Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. §100.111 (West 2017).
[xii] Questionable Planning or Progress? Lawsuit challenges Lexington Council’s boundary decision, The Lexington Times (July 21, 2023), https://lexingtonky.news/2023/07/21/questionable-planning-or-progress-lawsuit-challenges-lexington-councils-boundary-decision/ [https://perma.cc/A993-F78C].
[xiii] Alec LeSher, Chapter 3.1 Development Patterns and Infill: Urban Service Areas, Sustainable Dev. Code, https://sustainablecitycode.org/brief/establish-urban-service-area-3/#:~:text=An%20Urban%20Service%20Area%20(USA,or%20other%20land%20use%20codes (last viewed Oct. 29, 2024) [https://perma.cc/K7SC-KK8C].
[xiv] Id.
[xv] Questionable Planning or Progress? Lawsuit challenges Lexington Council’s boundary decision, supra note xii.,
[xvi] Id.
[xvii] Id.
[xviii] Esther Marr, Property Rights, Preservation Clash in Central Kentucky, BloodHorse (Apr. 17, 2007), https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/160394/property-rights-preservation-clash-in-central-kentucky [https://perma.cc/NGA5-SQHL].
[xix] Beth Musgrave, Lexington rejects bid to subdivide large farm on Tates Creek Road. ‘We can do better’, Lexington Herald Leader (July 26, 2024, 5:30 AM), https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article289543448.html [https://perma.cc/6SBF-4C6A].
[xx] T. D. Thornton, In Kentucky’s Battle of Midway, Horse Farms Fight Massive RV Park Development, Thoroughbred Daily News (July 19, 2024, 3:30 PM), https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/in-kentuckys-battle-of-midway-horse-farms-fight-massive-rv-park-development/ [https://perma.cc/4NXD-UHBV].
[xxi] Id.
[xxii] Horse Farms Forever, Inc. Opposes Jumbolair Expansion, Horse Farms Forever (Jan. 23, 2024), https://www.horsefarmsforever.com/horse-farms-forever-inc-opposes-jumbolair-expansion/ [https://perma.cc/VR45-TC32].
[xxiii] Mark Phelps, Travolta, Ocala Equestrian Community Prevail in Jumbolair Expansion Protest, AVweb (Feb. 21, 2024), https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/travolta-ocala-equestrian-community-prevail-in-jumbolair-expansion-protest/ [https://perma.cc/X35T-B2LF].
[xxiv] Joey Mattei, Camden residents fight to save historic horse property from housing development, FOX57 (Mar. 19, 2024), https://wach.com/news/local/camden-residents-fight-to-save-historic-horse-property-from-housing-development [https://perma.cc/6VAM-4QXX].
[xxv] Id.
[xxvi] Affordable Housing in Fayette County: Facts and Myths, Fayette All. (May 23, 2023), https://fayettealliance.com/affordable-housing-land-management-lexington-kentucky/ [https://perma.cc/MG87-JYDG].
[xxvii] Id.