Bluegrass, blacktop battle in Kentucky countryside.

The bluegrass region of Kentucky is known for its rolling hills and horse farms. The charm of the surrounding countryside and the beauty of the farms, some of which are nestled within the city, islands of serenity in an urban milieu, are Lexington’s main attractions.

There is growing concern here, though, that the city’s growth may be threatening the beauty that has fueled it. Clearly the growth, coupled with recent declines in the horse industry, is changing the face of much of the surrounding countryside.

“Lexington is an attractive place to live and people want to live and work here,” said Robert N. Clay, the owner of Three Chimneys Farm, home to Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. “But I think one of the reasons they want to live and work here is the surrounding area, and we have to preserve that.”

One rapidly changing area is the fast-growing southeast part of the city. A gantlet of new shopping malls and housing developments precedes horse farm territory, which is marked by gently rolling hills, narrow roads and the mesmerizing regularity of wooden fences.

The housing developments and apartment complexes have names such as Rolling Ridge, Saddlebrook and Old Farm. And, though some of them are landscaped in horse farm motifs, preservation-minded Lexingtonians lament the passing of the virgin fields that once stood in their stead.

Even more troubling to some of the preservationists are plans such as those of prominent breeders Anita and Preston Madden to build a million-square-foot shopping mall on a corner of their Hamburg Place Farm east of town. It would be the largest shopping mall in this part of Kentucky.

If all of this doesn’t stop, one angry letter writer to the Lexington Herald-Leader complained last month, the thoroughbred capital of the world soon will be known as the “blacktop capital.”

Ed Houlihan, director of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce, calls horse farming “Kentucky’s signature industry . . . it creates the atmosphere that makes other people and businesses want to relocate here.”

There are perhaps as many as 500 farms in Kentucky with equine interests, and 90% of them are within 16 miles of downtown Lexington, he said.

So pervasive is the industry’s influence that even Bluegrass Field, Lexington’s airport, is landscaped in a horse farm motif, surrounded by lush grass and a wooden fence.

Driving on the main route from the airport into the city, the first views are of bucolic hills of Bluegrass Farms, Calumet Farms and the peaceful beauty of the Keeneland Race Track.

But turn right out of the airport instead of left, and follow the new road, and the scene is parking lots, schools, shopping centers and apartment buildings.

That is because John Bunker Hunt, the Texan who was named Kentucky Breeder of the Year in 1988 and who is the owner of Bluegrass Farm, sold the right-of-way for the expansion of a major road through his property some years ago, opening the way for development.

Hunt’s financial problems, which perhaps caused him to sell, are well known. Financial pressures brought on by declines in the horse industry may also be causing other horse farmers to sell to developers.

“The horse industry has had happier days,” acknowledged Houlihan.

During the industry’s period of spiraling growth in the early 1980s, a large number people who had not been involved in the industry looked out at the bluegrass and saw green, Clay said. A few years later, when profits started to shrink, these same people were eager to bail out.

Under Fayette County’s existing comprehensive growth plan, three-fourths of the county is designated as a rural area. The remaining quarter, the so-called “urban service area” that roughly comprises the city of Lexington, is where most of the residential and commercial development is.

Mayor Scotty Baesler wants to protect the distinctive flavor of the area by having the city buy development rights to undeveloped land surrounding the city.

Specifics of the so-called “green space plan” are being developed by a committee of 42 people representing preservation groups, agriculture and developers. The committee is expected to present its plan detailing where land should be acquired and recommending funding formulas later this year.