Originally aired on July 2, 2021, this installment of the Division of Planning’s “Mornings with Planning” webinar series focuses on the topic of equity as it relates to urban planning. While planning policy cannot address all of the issues related to inequity in our society, we have started to address some, and can address others. On July 2, 2020 Mayor Gorton appointed 70 citizens to the Commission for Racial Justice & Equality whose purpose was to listen, discuss and create empowering solutions that dismantle systematic racism in Fayette County. That group released a report with many pointed recommendations for change throughout the City’s policies, including many that were aimed squarely at land use regulations and practices. Additionally, Imagine Lexington, our 2018 Comprehensive Plan specifically calls out equity as a consideration that must be ingrained in our future growth strategy, and includes many parallel recommendations with those of the Mayor’s commission. This panel will discuss the topics and recommendations of these two documents and what policy reform can mean going forward.

Our panelists:

-Lisa Higgins-Hord (Guest Moderator), Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement at University of Kentucky

-James Brown, 1st District Councilmember, Urban County Council, Lexington, KY

-Deqah Hussein-Wetzel, Architectual Historian, Podcaster

-Christine L. Stanley, Partner, Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. Law Firm

-Kristofer Nonn, Former Executive Director, North Limestone CDC