Lexington OKs state-mandated overhaul of zoning ordinances but makes key changes
The Lexington council on Thursday approved a state-mandated overhaul of zoning ordinances to speed up approval for certain types of developments.
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted 14-2 Thursday to approve the massive overhaul.
Council members Emma Curtis and Denise Gray voted against the ordinance.
House Bill 443, passed this year by the Kentucky General Assembly, orders local governments to overhaul zoning ordinances to make standards more objective and allow for more administrative review rather than public meetings.
The city’s original proposal removed public comment for final development plans, because neighbors’ comments were deemed subjective. But neighborhoods and others pushed back, arguing that removing public comment could be detrimental.
It’s often neighbors who know important details that developers and planning staff do not, such as what areas flood, and the location of sink holes, they argued.
The Lexington council ultimately decided to add a provision allowing for public comment after a development plan is approved. That way, neighbors could still alert the planning commission if there were potential problems. It also added a provision that would require neighbors near a property to be notified when a development plan is filed.
A development plan is filed when a developer does not need a zone change but is proposing a new development. For example, if land is already zoned for single-family homes and a developer wants to put 20 homes on the property, the developer files a development plan.
The new rules do not apply to development plans that are accompanied by zoning changes, which are typically the most contentious. A zone change alters the use of the land — from residential to business or from a business to an industrial use.
Lexington planners have previously said Lexington is one of the few cities that allows public comment at the final development plan stage.
Still, developers had multiple concerns about the new standards, saying the objective standards could slow development rather than speed it up.
The council also ultimately decided to remove an entire section of the ordinance concerning drive-thrus, which has been a particularly thorny issue with the planning commission in recent years. Some drive-thru coffee shops have been turned down because of concerns about how those drive-thrus were designed and the effects on traffic.
The council has placed the zoning rules regarding drive-thrus into a council committee and will consider those changes at a later date.
This story was originally published June 13, 2025 at 8:08 AM.
