Housing and infrastructure spending were the central themes of the 2025 edition of the State of Northern Kentucky forum.
Every year, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce hosts the State of Northern Kentucky event, where the judges/executives from Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties discuss the accomplishments and challenges of their respective jurisdictions.
The three featured panelists were judges/executives Gary Moore of Boone County, Kris Knochelmann of Kenton County and Steve Pendery of Campbell County.
All three agreed that infrastructure development is critical to Northern Kentucky’s economic growth.
One of the most notable ongoing projects is improving KY-536, a state road that runs through central Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties and is a primary connector between them. Regional leaders view the road as a way to enhance access and industrial and residential growth.
“We all need to get behind 536 as a proposition and finish it out so it can serve as a shorter route for workers to travel to get here for jobs,” Pendery said.
As of now, KY-536 is still a work in progress. Some parts have already been completed, while others are still in various design and development stages. Each phase is different due to factors such as funding and environmental impact.
Knochelmann said that one of Kenton County’s top infrastructure priorities is developing a new interchange between Crittenden and Walton. Currently, Kenton County is pushing ahead on an initiative to increase the amount of development-ready sites in the southwestern portion of the county. This would allow any future industrial developments direct access to I-75.
To do this, a new interchange would need to be developed to give access to southwest Kenton County access to I-75. Knochelmann noted that the prospective interchange would not go further east than US 25, ensuring traffic would stay out of residential areas.
Knochelmann said there are no concrete plans to develop a new interchange as of now, but state and county leaders are exploring the possibility.
Moore touted Boone County’s creation of Kentucky’s first Transportation Improvement District, a special-purpose governmental entity created to coordinate and fund transportation-related projects within a specific geographic area. In essence, the TID would allow the county to pool public and private funding to finance infrastructure projects.
After Boone County passed its TID ordinance last February, Kenton and Campbell County followed suit, each creating their own districts.
Like Pendery, Knochelmann and Moore emphasized the regional importance of KY-536. Moore said the project could increase access to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport for the rural counties of Pendleton, Bracken, and Mason.
Regarding the housing shortage, on Jan. 14, the Northern Kentucky Area Development District published a report analyzing the current state of the region’s housing supply. The study follows up on the 2023 Northern Kentucky Housing Study, which found that the area needed over 6,500 new housing units—around 1,330 units per year—to keep pace with economic growth.
Our region, according to a housing strategies report released in 2025, lacks sufficient housing for young adults forming their first household; for essential workers like nurses, teachers and first responders; and for older adults. A teacher with a median annual income of $43,740, for example, can afford only 26% of the rental and 16% of the for-sale housing in the region, according to the report. For a restaurant server, only 1% of the region’s rental housing is affordable.
An older person relying on Social Security can also afford only 1% of rental housing in the region, according to the report.
The report, called Home for All: Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies, came to be thanks to more than 90 leaders and experts from across NKY who spent hours studying the region and its urgent housing challenge. Their goal was to close the housing gap across income levels and provide a place for everyone.
Click here to learn more about the shortage and how NKY leaders and community members are stepping in to find solutions.
Understanding NKY’s housing shortage
Northern Kentucky’s most significant area of need is ‘workforce housing’ for households earning between $15 and $25 per hour.
As such, leadership in Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties has publicly called for more investment in what they call ‘income-aligned housing’ across Northern Kentucky. Income-aligned housing is defined as affordable housing for people at different income levels. In recent years, regional leaders have opted to use the term instead of affordable housing, which has become stigmatized and polarizing.
The new study identifies new strategies to tackle the region’s housing shortage, including increasing community awareness, establishing a regional housing trust fund, setting aside publicly owned property for development, offering financial incentives to buyers and developers, expediting permitting and zoning processes, and increasing voucher incentives for landlords, among others.
Knochelmann said there is no one ‘silver bullet’ needed to solve the problem.
“I think understanding the facts so that we don’t paint this thing with such a broad brush as saying, ‘oh my gosh, this is horrific,’ but we’ve got opportunities to improve,” he said.
Pendery noted that it’s not only people living in poverty struggling to find housing but also working-age adults.
“It’s nurses and firemen and policemen and a whole group of working-age people that are trying to get their start in life, and there’s no place but a four or five-bedroom, $500,000 house,” he said.
