By Patricia Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Boone County Planning and Zoning Director Kevin Costello came to the Fiscal Court caucus meeting this week because he knew there was some consternation recently about the choices the planning commission has made on certain cases. He also said that they are starting to compose a new Comprehensive Plan, since the last one was compiled in 2019, and he noted that there have been many changes since then.
He reiterated that the plan has a map and text and you had to look at both, and take it all in context. Then he concentrated on the recent case of the zone change at the Frogtown Connector Road which was approved so that the developer could build a four story hotel instead of a three-story hotel.
“We all know that that interchange has been there a long while,” Costello said. “It catered to interstate travelers, and hotels have always been there. The community grew around it. At Triple Crown, there was supposed to be a big hotel like a Griffin Gate. There was supposed to be a bed and breakfast next to the clubhouse, and they were expecting tournaments there. They never built them.”
He continued, saying that the commissioners were correct, of course, that they don’t want continued catering to the interstate traffic, and they want local services down there, there’s no doubt about it. That’s why, he said, they originally approved it to be neighborhood services, and he hopes that they do get some good smaller scale retail that fits the needs of the people who live down there.
“We know it’s a sensitive area down there,” he said. “We have the zoning in place for small retail. We will bring it up to date and take note of what the people want down there.”
Commissioner Chet Hand listened intently, and then spoke, saying that he didn’t have his notes with him, but he knew what he thought the problem was.
“You said, what do the people want down there,” Hand stated. “Theoretically, the residents already told you what they want. In pages 141 and 142 of that document, it specifies that the entire area should have neighborhood convenience commercial, and new uses should be oriented to the residents rather than the highway traveler. So the residents already said that.”
He pointed out that the two hotels that are there were put in since 2019, and now they are looking at a third, larger hotel.
“I have a problem with the planning commission unanimously deciding they could go against the comp plan,” he stated, noting that the commission has 15 people. “Because in my opinion, and I would even go to court about this, the Planning commission does not have the authority to go outside the scope of the comp plan. That is the parameters under which they are supposed to operate. So if they did this, not once, not twice, not three times but four times they went and contradicted the comp plan, then I have to question, well, do they even know what goals and objectives they are supposed to be evaluating these projects against? Have they even read the plan?”
He wondered aloud if the people who have been on the commission 10, 15, even 20 years are thinking about projects in regards to the 2016 plan or earlier, or if they know they should be judging the projects against the 2019 plan.
“First off, I don’t like unanimous decisions from them on a body of 15 on an item that directly contradicts the plan, but secondly, if they are not evaluating against the parameters that are established for them, then they need to go,” Hand stated. I mean, seriously, we need to have a conversation about every person on that planning commission being removed and new people being put on there. We delegated the responsibility to them in that MOU back in the day, but we have the final say, and it puts us in a difficult position if we’re sitting here having to evaluate things that shouldn’t have been approved in the first place.”
Costello said some people would say that it does meet the code, and he said there are some things that meet the criteria in the general area. He also pointed out that there used to be two hotels there a long time ago, so technically the newer hotels just replaced those.
“I mean, I’m sure we could argue back and forth on this, but I think your point, and what’s important, is that, especially with the new plan, the board, and the staff, needs to really pay attention more, in terms of what it says and what it doesn’t say in the plan,” Costello admitted.
“A reminder. It’s not just what the land use map says, it’s what goes with the land use plan, and how it fits in the community.”
Hand acknowledged that the comprehensive plan is a very large document, with all the goals and objectives, and the elements.
“At the end of the day, I thought that that one hotel, next to the truck stop, is not in a bad place for it,” he said. “My problem is, it is in direct contradiction of the plan,. Now, we set the original goals and objectives, so theoretically we have the authority to deviate from it. But I am arguing that the planning commission doesn’t have the authority to do that. They don’t have the authority to decide today ‘we’re not going to listen to these goals and objectives of the plan, we’re going to do our own thing’.”
He said with the fact that there are 168 goals in the plan, any project is going to be meeting one goal, but in conflict with another, so the planning and zoning people have to figure out which one is more important, and what is the intent of the document.
“If the intent of the document was to be permissive, we would allow anyone to do anything anywhere, and there would be no plan,” Hand explained. “But we don’t. We say we want to restrict it to certain things and certain corridors, so the document itself is intrinsically restrictive. So if it meets a goal and it contradicts a goal, heavier weight has to be given to the one it is in conflict with, because it is an intrinsically restrictive document, that’s the intent of it. So the main point of the whole thing is, why I am so upset that the planning commission made that decision, is that I don’t believe they have the authority to deviate from that. That’s why I wanted to send a letter saying ‘don’t do that again’.”
He said he thinks the planning commission needs to be told that.
In particular, Hand explained, in the Richwood area, which is kind of a mixing line, where the county said they want denser development to the north of it, and less dense development to the south of it.
“It’s going to get a whole lot more specific in property and development evaluation in that area,” Hand concluded.
Costello nodded and agreed.
This was one of many meetings on the comprehensive plan, so it is to be seen how the planning commission adheres to the old plan and the new plan.