LFUCG

OK, so maybe LFUCG doesn't sound so elegant. But the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government is an elegant solution to a variety of problems. It is a merged city-county government which means the entire county is treated as a single place for most purposes, including land use planning.

The merged city-county allows for the use of an Urban Service Boundary, which is what they call their urban containment boundary, as a way of drawing a crisp line between Lexington and the horse farms that wrap around it. If you look at the Comprehensive Plan map (PDF) you can't miss it. Inside the line, they endeavor to provide urban services like water and sewer, outside the boundary they use zoning and other tools to keep the rural areas rural.

Zoning isn't always enough. They are also using an active PDR program to work with farmers to ensure that Lexington has a permanent greenbelt wrapped most of the way around it.

I would encourage procastinating students to poke around the LFUCG websites a bit. They've posted plenty of informative materials.