Rural Service Area Urban Service Area

Rural Land Management 200 square miles are included in the Rural Service Area. In 1999, the first Rural Service Area Land Management Plan was adopted as an element of the 1996 Comprehensive Plan. The groundbreaking document was the first extensive effort dedicated to the planning and management of land uses in the Rural Service Area.12

Many specific aspects and elements contribute to the importance of the Rural Service Area, including the agricultural economy, tourism, long-term preservation, sustainability, the rural landscape, and cultural heritage. The Rural Service area also includes major employment centers like the Bluegrass Airport, Keeneland, Bluegrass Stockyards, and the Kentucky Horse Park.

Compact Growth

Kentucky Urban Areas Snapshot

Note the developed urban area patterns across KY. Urban Area11

Purchase of Development Rights

Roughly ¼ of the Rural Service Area is protected by the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program, Kentucky’s first Agricultural Conservation Easement program facilitated by a local government. Through PDR the city purchases farm owners’ development rights (their right to ever develop the farm commercially), thereby preserving it as farmland forever.

The program protects farmland for food security and conservation of environmentally sensitive lands. Eventually the city hopes to conserve 50,000 acres, or almost 40% of the Rural Service Area. These protections have largely contributed to the city’s identity and its relatively fiscally responsible development patterns.13