Mayor Jim Gray charted a deliberate course when deciding how to remove two Confederate monuments that stand in front of the historic downtown courthouse of Lexington, Kentucky.

Now, two days after announcing that he would formally seek approval from the city council and a state body to relocate the statues honoring Confederate soldiers , Gray hopes that process will help prevent the sort of rallies and violence that engulfed Charlottesville, Virginia , this weekend, where three people died and more than 30 were injured amid clashes between white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups and counterprotesters.

The white supremacist groups came to Charlottesville in part because the city had changed the name of a park that honored Confederate commander Robert E. Lee .

Weve been examining the question for almost two years, Gray told HuffPost on Monday. Some would say thats way too long. I would say that change is better accepted when its understood. Its not unexpected that youd have pushback and challenge and different points of view on this. Weve given it time for understanding, and th erefore, theres a better chance for acceptance of the path forward.

Lexington, like Charlottesville, is a genteel southern university town with a progressive tilt that sets it apart from the more conservative areas around it.

Unlike Virginia, Kentucky did not leave the Union during the Civil War, but it was a slave state that sent thousands of soldiers to fight for the South, and Confederate imagery is not an uncommon sight there.

Confederate monuments dot the states landscape, at least seven high schools still use Rebels as their mascot , and Kentucky is home to nearly 20 groups affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan or other white nationalist organizations, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center .

But so far, most responses to Grays announcement have been positive, he said, even if some local residents disagree with the plan.

The Lexington Police Department, meanwhile, is not aware of any potential organized protests or actions from white supremacist or similar groups, said Brenna Angel, a spokeswoman for the department.

Police are monitoring such groups online, and the department has begun to examine the way police handled the rallies and counter-protests in Charlottesville, Angel said.

She said the police have also been in contact with groups who support Grays effort, and plan to keep communicating with them throughout the process of moving the monuments in an effort to ensure that potential counter-demonstrations would remain peaceful.